Business

Around 915ET we tweeted the need for an OPEC meeting headline as oil prices started to accelerate losses. 70 minutes later, the market's "wish" was granted when Algeria (yes, seriously) announced they will attend, Nigeria is hopeful, and Libya said it would not attend... of course any headline is a buying opportunity and the algos went wild...

We tweeted...

WTI CRUDE DROPS 1.6% TO SESSION LOW; S&P FUTURES DOWN 11PTS. quick, need some OPEC meeting headlines

You decide...

The markets' various indicators of 'Brexit Risk' are all elevated this morning post-Belgium-attacks.

GBPUSD is tumbling...

But most crucially, the cost of protection against pound currency swings over EU currency swings has jumped to the highest ever signalling the highest market-impled risk of Brexit so far.

As Fed's Lockhart warned yesterday, the contagious risk of Brexit will likely spread to the US economy - so this is not to be ignored.

WTF is going on? Richmond Fed's manufacturing survey exploded from -4 to 22 in March, beating expectations of 0 by the most ever). This is the 3rd highest print ever (in 23 years) driven by the highest level of New Orders in 6 years. Inventories tumbled, prices paid and received jumped, and expectations for future orders surged (despite stagnation in expectations for jobs).

WTF!

WTF!-er...

WTF!-est...

As everything exploded...

From the survey:

Given the extraordinary jumps in several regional Fed surveys, hope was rife that US Manufacturing PMI's flash print would jump... it didn't. Hovering near multi-year lows at 51.4, PMI missed expectations of 51.9 by the most since Aug 2013. With record highs in wholesale inventories, Markit claims that "pre-production inventories decline at the steepest pace in over 2 years." The blame for this plunge: dollar strength, weak global demand, and Trump.

Not recovering...

As Markit explains,