Business

Tuesday's session started off on the back foot, with the Euro first sliding on Draghi's dovish comments before Europarliament on Monday where he signaled no imminent change to ECB’s forward guidance coupled with a Bild report late on Monday according to which Greece was prepared to forego its next debt payment if not relief is offered by creditors, pushing European stocks lower as much as -0.6%. However the initial weakness reversed after Greece's Tzanakopoulos denied the Bild report, sending the Euro and European bank stocks higher from session lows.

With the market pricing in near certainty of a June rate hike despite the Fed's tacit warning that it would like to see evidence the recent economic slowdown is over, a recurring question among trading desks is why aren't long-dated bonds selling off more, or rather why is the 10 and 30Y seemingly bid the closer we get to the next Fed hike with everyone - from hedge funds, to central banks to primary dealers - buying in surprising amounts.

Three months after China unveiled "Silent Hunter" - its vehicle-slicing laser weapon, Stars & Stripes reports that US military forces are testing their own array of hi-tech weaponry.

 The Silent Hunter laser is powerful enough to cut through light vehicle armor at up to a kilometer away, making you wonder if China already has more powerful laser weapons only for domestic use.

What a difference 16 months makes.

It was in February of 2016 when, looking at the latest trends in the Hong Kong housing market, we wrote that in January [2016] Hong Kong home prices tumbled the most since July 2013, and after a 12 year upcycle, prices were now down 10% from the recent peak just four months prior...

... while the local Centaline Property Agency estimated that total Hong Kong property transactions at the start of 2016 were on track to register the worst month on record.

EURUSD is sliding in early Asian trading after Greece's government is reportedly planning to forego its next bailout payment (of around EUR7bn) if no debt relief is offered by creditors (thus leaving it likely to default on its next round of repayments).

Bloomberg reports, Greece’s government preparing to possibly go without next bailout payment if creditors don’t agree on debt relief for the country according to German newspaper Bild (without saying where it obtained the information).