Chicago

World stocks pulled back from all time highs, and European bourses initially followed U.S. futures and Asian shares lower, however both European risk sentiment as well as E-Minis rebounded after an Odoxa poll showed Macron overtaking Le Pen in the 1st round for the first time, and that the addition of Juppe instead of Fillon may see a 2nd round run-off between Macron vs Juppe, leading to a slump in Bund futures to session lows, and a bounce in European stocks.

In his speech to a joint session of Congress last night, Trump once again took direct aim at the violence in Chicago, saying "In Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot last year alone –- and the murder rate so far this year has been even higher ... This is not acceptable in our society."

Yesterday marked the most violent day of 2017 for folks living in Chicago as the city recorded at least 13 shootings and 7 homicides.  According to the Chicago Tribune, five of the victims were killed over just a two hour period, including a woman who was eight months pregnant.  Meanwhile, the violent Wednesday night brought total shootings for the year to 495 with 99 homicides.

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Over the past year we've frequently written about the alarming homicide rates in Chicago (see "Chicago Violence Worst In 20 Years: 'Not Seen This Level Of Disrespect For Police Ever'").  But, the Wall Street Journal recently conducted an analysis of homicide data since 1985, for the 35 largest cities in the United States, and found that Chicago isn't the only place where violent crime is surging.  As it turns out, murder rates are also spiking in Baltimore, Milwaukee and Memphis, all of which have in the past two years approached or exceeded the records set a quarter-century ago, wh