Overall crude inventories rose for the 6th week in a row according to API. Despite draws in Gasoline, Distillates, and Cushing; Crude inventories surged 8.8mm barrels - the 2nd biggest weekly build in a year.
API, according to RTRS:
This was a big draw in Cushing but appears to be dominated by the surge in overall inventories...
Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
In this past weekend’s newsletter, I stated
“While my “emotions” are currently screaming to start increasing equity allocations at this juncture, there are several reasons why my discipline is keeping me from doing so currently:
Belgian PM Charles Michel said earlier that "this is the deadliest attack on Brussels ever," and as we noted in this morning's pre-open wrap:
This morning's Brussels bomb attacks have led to risk-off sentiment across European asset classes, with Bunds higher and equities firmly in the red, although if the Paris terrorist attacks of November are any indication, today's tragic events may be just the catalyst the S&P500 needs to surge back to all time highs
Submitted by Thad Beversdorf via FirstRebuttal.com,
Free trade is a great concept, as are free markets and freedom. The problem is none of these things exist in practice because they don’t provide sufficient advantages to the ruling class. The Fed and HFT systems now dominate global markets, western nations systematically overthrow any (freely elected) foreign government that doesn’t bow down to them and free trade agreements are put in place to ensure investors maximize profits no matter what the costs to society. Let’s focus on this last one.
Submitted by Boyd Roddy of the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation
Globus Medical’s Inside Job
Last February spinal orthopedic device maker Globus Medical purchased Branch Medical Group, a key supplier and contract manufacturing operation based just three miles away from its Audubon, Pa. headquarters.
The BMG deal was announced on the same day Globus released fourth quarter and 2014 earnings and little attention was paid to what looked like another instance of a high-profile, larger company merging with a small, privately-held one.