Europe

As Jim Reid writes, "it's been a very dull 24 hours" in the markets, so to pass the time the Deutsche strategist recapped his bigger picture thoughts "on government bond yields given the sell-off of the last two weeks." Hardly surprising, he goes along with the consesus, and expects yields to rise as more central banks turn hawkish (for reasons we have discussed on countless occasions, most recently yesterday) although what is interesting is Reid's take on what happens after the initial reaction, and it's here that the gloom descends because in a world with 327% debt/GDP...

• Trump Looks to Wall Street for Fed Bank Regulator (WSJ)
• Rates play prods dollar to four-month high versus yen, kiwi dollar falls (Reuters)
• Kaspersky Lab Has Been Working With Russian Intelligence (BBG)
• Buffett’s Berkshire Moves Away From Stock Picking (WSJ)
• OPEC's Barkindo says all producers should help balance market (Reuters)
• China hits back at criticism over North Korea (Reuters)
• North Korea’s Missile Might Not Survive Reentry, South Says (WSJ)
• Trump's election panel puts hold on voter data request (Reuters)

Just hours after Snap(chat), or rather its shareholders, were gravely injured when the stock tumbled below its IPO price, one of the company's IPO underwriters Morgan Stanley decided to add some insult, when its analyst Brian Nowak downgraded the social network, or photo app, or whatever it is these days, to equal-weight, cutting its price target to $16 from $28 on ad product and competition concerns. Shares promptly tumbled another 2.7% to $16.50 in pre-market trading on the downgrade .

U.S. index futures point slightly lower open. Asian shares rose while stocks in Europe fell as energy producers got caught in a downdraft in oil prices and reversed an earlier gain after Goldman unexpectedly warned that WTI could slide below $40 absent "show and awe" from OPEC. The dollar rose, hitting a four-month high against the yen and bonds and top emerging market currencies were back under pressure on Tuesday, following last week’s hawkish rhetoric from central bankers.

Goldman has done it again: less than two weeks after the bank said "oil prices have likely hit bottom of the price range, and look attractive" when it slashed its WTI price target from $55 to $47.50 (and every other Wall Street bank promptly followed), in a note released overnight by its analysts including Damien Courvalin and Jeffrey Currie, the central banker incubator has effectively thrown in the towel, and writes that while its 3 month base case price target remains$47.5, it warns that absent a "shock and awe" production cuts from OPEC, oil could tumble below $40/barrel