Disaster

Traders in India are boycotting Coca-Cola en masse after the soda giant was caught draining the country’s scarce water resources.  Over one million traders in India have vowed to boycott fizzy drinks manufacturers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and will replace them with locally produced soft drinks instead. The Guardian reports: “These foreign companies are using up scarce water resources of the state,” said K Mohan, secretary of the Vanigar Sangam, one of the associations supporting the boycott.

Via Daniel Lang of SHTFPlan.com,

Earlier this month, we all heard the news that the Oroville Dam was damaged, and that thousands of residents living in its shadow would have to be evacuated. Fortunately the dam held, and the residents of Oroville were able to return to their homes. For the most part the story has since faded from the news. However, the damage remains.

An avalanche of hawkish Fed speakers appear to have got their way as March rate-hike odds have extended yesterday's move to 82% this morning. As stocks soar after a more presidential Trump, bond yields are also rising, catching up to stocks after diverging for two weeks.

From 24% to 82% in 3 weeks... did the economic data shift that much?

Umm no...

Stocks are soaring... bonds playing catch up for now.

But while bond yields are higher - 30Y above 3.00% - though the move is fading now...

While gold prices in dollars has been on a tear - almost erasing its post-Trump losses - the price of the precious metal in euros has soared as European elections loom.

As Bloomberg notes, in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party is holding a slim lead in polls before elections next month, and French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has campaigned on overturning France’s ruling elites.

February is set for the biggest gains (almost 6%) since June 2016 (pre-Brexit) nearing the Maginot Line of EUR1200 once again.

The mother of all storms is set to hit California in the near future, with large sections of the State at risk of severe flooding, according to the National Weather Service. According to scientists, the recent bout of storms across the West coast of America are just a precursor to a much bigger storm that will be of “biblical proportions” compared to recent weather. Recent research has shown that every 200 years for the past 2,000 years or more, California has experienced massive floods that have swept through the state causing thousands of deaths.