Business

Negative rates may not have found their way to bank deposits in most locales (yet), but that doesn’t mean the public isn’t starting to see the writing on the wall.

At first, NIRP was an anomaly. An obscure policy tool that most analysts and market watchers assumed would be implemented on a temporary basis in a kind of “let’s see if this is even possible” experiment with an idea that, from a common sense perspective, makes no sense.

WTI crude prices are up almost 6% this morning with April (the new front-month) trading above $33.50 - testing post-DOE plunge stops. The irony of the ramp is that it comes amid terrible global PMIs (demand), a report from IEA of oil staying in glut for longer than expected (supply), and warnings from Abu Dhabi's biggest bank that $20 oil is possible. Oh well, we are sure the algos know what they are doing... despite veterans of the 1980s oil glut warning it could take 7 to 10 years to emerge from the current slump.

Until recently, ad blocking - the biggest threat to every Silicon Valley ad-driven business model - was largely a peripheral concern stemming from such companies as AdBlock, which was recently snapped up by a "mystery buyer" while ad-driven quasi-monopolies such as Google pay comparable adblockers to allow their ads through.

According to legal experts, the controversial transatlantic trade deal between the US and Europe could make it impossible for future governments to reverse the privatisation of parts of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) New Legal advice prepared by one of the UK’s leading QCs on European law for the Unite trade union, will reveal on Monday that it has been holding talks with the government about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal between Europe and the US.

One can devise all sorts of complex explanations why global stocks and US futures are on fire this morning, or one can just assume that alos are doing what they do best: fading Dennis Gartman.

From his latest note:

IF VOLUME IS SUPPOSED TO FOLLOW THE TREND…: If volume us supposed to follow the trend then the stock market is in very, very bad trouble indeed, for the volume is strong as the market weakens and its weak as the market weakens and its strong as the market rises.