European stocks are modestly in the green as gains in banks and oil companies offset declines in miners. Asian stocks and S&P futures rise with Emerging-market stocks extending their longest winning streak since August on the back of the 5th consecutive daily drop in the USD.
With the omnipotence of the world's central banks suddenly all too evidently exposed as nothing more than 'Oz'-like smoke-and-mirrors, it is not just US politicians that are losing faith and calling for more oversight of the most-powerful unelected officials in the world. Handelsblatt reports today that Germany's federal auditor says The ECB lacks accountability in banking sector oversight and government will work to close that oversight gap.
There has been no shortage of sellside reactions to last week's Fed rate hike, which have run the gamut from congratulatory as per BofA and Credit Suisse, to the outright critical, as we showed last week in a note from Goldman Sachs, RBC and SocGen, all of whom accused the Fed of either misleading the market, or soon being being forced to double down on its hawkish message as a result of the dramatic easing in financial conditions as a result of a rate hike.
If after a day full of James Comey's dramatic testimony in Congress, which according to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough was “the worst day of Donald Trump’s presidency” after Comey stated on the record that he is not aware of any wiretapping of Trump Tower and that the FBI has been probing Russia for ties with the Trump campaign since July, Trump wanted to send the world a signal that his priorities remain focused on Russia, and he is not backing down from demanding NATO pay its "fair share", his Secretary of State has done just that after Reuters reported that Rex Tillerson plans to skip the April
The Conspiracy Against President Trump
Paul Craig Roberts
March 20, 2017: Listening today to the broadcast of testimony by FBI Director Comey and National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers before the House Intelligence Committee (an oxymoron) made it clear that the Democrats, Comey, and Rogers intend conflict with Russia.