Business

It was just last month when we checked in on BofA economist Ethan Harris who, in May of 2015 derided the “perma-bear” crowd for crowing about an abysmal Q1 GDP print.

“Looking ahead, it is much too soon to declare victory, but we expect the data to improve in the months ahead as seasonal and other distortions fade,” Harris concluded, suggesting that if the double-adjusted data continued to “improve”, BofA’s economics team would be able to proclaim that the bears had been vanquished once and for all.

Against expectations of a 3.5mm build (following a small draw last week), API reports total crude oil inventories shockingly drew down by 3.3 million barrels. Meanwhile Cushing inventories also drew down (by 175k versus expectations for a 700k build and 523k build last week), but we note that Gasoline inventoriers rose (by 750k) for the 14th week in a row.

API Breakdown:

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

This is starting to become very concerning.

The momentum to “ban cash”, and in particular high denomination notes like the 500 euro and $100 bills, is seriously picking up steam.

On Monday the European Central Bank President emphatically disclosed that he is strongly considering phasing out the 500 euro note.

Yesterday, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers published an op-ed in the Washington Post about getting rid of the $100 bill.

Congratulations to Devon Energy: moments ago it announced that with Goldman as underwriter, it became the first company to successfully access the equity offering window in a long, long time sell equity in the form of 55 million shares in stock, or just over $1 billion in proceeds assuming today's closing price of $20.33.  The proceeds will be used "for general corporate purposes, including bolstering the Company’s liquidity position, reducing indebtedness and funding the Company’s capital program." In other words, Devon is rusing to sell equity while it still can sell equity.

There really is only one clip for this...

This is the first 3 consecutive 1% gains for S&P since Oct 2011 - most notably S&P remains well below its 50dma...