Environment

Led by a 4.3% collapse in Germany's DAX index, European Stocks plunged 2.5% today which is the worst start to a year ever. European credit markets spiked higher in risk. 10Y bund yields tumbled over 6bps and peripheral sovereign risk spreads jumped 10-15bps. Not a good start for Draghi and his pals...

Germany led the collapse...

Which has driven Stoxx 600 - the broadest European stock index - down over 2.5% for its worst start to a year ever!!

Charts: Bloomberg

Nestle Waters North America is under investigation by the US forest service. The world’s largest food company has applied to renew its bottling operations permit in southern California’s San Bernardino National Forest. According to reports, the US forest service has begun an environmental review of Nestle Waters North America’s bottling operations in drought stricken southern California. The company is allowed to operate while awaiting the result of its permit renewal.

An anti-government armed militia group have taken over a federal building in Oregon on Saturday afternoon, led by Ammon Bundy, a rancher from the local area.  Authorities are monitoring the situation as the group continue to occupy a remote federal wildlife refuge operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The groups leader, Ammon Bundy, is a well known anti-government activist whose father inspired a standoff between local armed militia groups and federal officials who sought to confiscate illegal cattle grazing in 2014.

Since we first highlighted the potential for a "catastrophic event" in Missouri three months ago, there has been little mainstream media coverage. However, as Claire Bernish via TheAntiMedia.org notes, residents near the smoldering fill have expressed increasing frustration with the quarreling agencies offering few answers for an increasing number of health issues, like asthma.

After the first deadly winter storm this season, now come the floods: the near-record water level across the U.S. Midwest has disrupted everything from oil to agriculture, forcing pipelines, terminals and grain elevators to close. This is the worst flood in the region since May 2011, when rising water on the Mississippi and its tributaries deluged cities, slowed barge traffic and threatened refinery and chemical operations and is just shy of the worst flood of breaking 30-year records.