Business

When last we checked in on the 1MDB saga, Goldman was busy tying up a few loose ends.

Tim Leissner, the banker who built the firm’s Southeast Asia operation from the ground up and the man behind a series of questionable deals that funded what would eventually become Malaysian PM Najib Razak’s personal slush fund, was essentially forced out in January, after bank investigators uncovered what they said was an unauthorized reference letter.

In March the US economy added a healthy 215K jobs, beating expectations and more importantly, pushing the average hourly earnings up by 0.3% on the month. Which, however, is curious because a cursory look at the job additions in the month reveals that nearly two-third of all jobs, and the three top categories of all job additions, were once again all minimum wages jobs.

Via Mint's Bill Blain's Morning Porridge,

”A common mistake when trying to design something completely fool-proof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools..” 

Following China's miraculous PMI jump back into expansion, Markit reports US Manufacturing also rose to 51.5 in March (despite the biggest drop in manufacturing jobs since 2009). As Markit details, output growth is unchanged from February’s 28-month low, and prices charged decline amid further drop in input costs. ISM Manufacturing also jumpedfrom 49.5 to 51.8 - the first 'expansion' in 7 months.

It appears Goldman clients are once again taking a bath. Having proposed that with monetary concerns temporarily sidelined, "good news should be good news for risky assets," today's better-than-expected jobs print (following China's better than expected PMIs) has sent stocks lower, bonds higher, and crack gold and oil... 

Stronger USD has sent commodities reeling...

Extending overnight losses from China's "Good" news...

But bonds are bid as stocks slip lower...