Submitted by Stephen Bergstrom via The Saker blog,
On the surface, American exceptionalism appears to represent a boldly-stated concept but when contrasted to the subtleties of personal experience, the lessons and flow of history and individual geographically-rooted place, horribly small-minded and delusional, conceivable only as a statement by a crazed, power-hungry overlord to an underling.
Cable has strengthened notably in the last week or so as Cameron and Osborne unleashed phase 2 of "project fear" and 'some' Brexit polls suggested market fears of a 'leave' decision were overblown. However, the broad polls still show the decision is too close to call, which is why the news from Ladbrokes - Britain's largest bookmaker - that they have seen a sudden surge in Brexit bets in the last few days. Interestingly, sterling has started to leak lower today...
British prime minister David Cameron is trying to fast-track an EU-Canada trade deal without parliamentary consent. A set of leaked notes that were allegedly made during the EU Foreign Affairs/Trade-Council in Brussels on 13 May, appears to show that the UK is aggressively pushing for a controversial trade between the EU and Canada to be implemented through parliament before MP’s have a chance to vote on the issue.
In what has been another quiet overnight session, which unlike the past two days has not seen steep, illiquid gaps higher in US equity futures (the E-mini was up 3 points and accelerating to the upside as of this writing so there is still ample time for the momentum algos to go berserk), the main event was the price of Brent rising above $50 for the first time since November with WTI rising as high as $49.97.
As shown in the chart below, Brent crude surpassed $50 a barrel for the first time since November, lifting commodity companies and buoying currencies where oil is produced.
Submitted by Thad Beversdorf via FirstRebuttal.com,
I happened to be going through the Red Cross audited financials this morning (this is not typical morning reading for me but I’m doing some due diligence on another matter). Under the Notes to Financials I came across the organization’s pension assets breakdown and what I found was a bit shocking.
More than half of the organization’s pension assets are level 3 assets. For those not up to speed on the level 3 assets here is the definition from Wikinvest.