Europe

In the aftermath of China's gargantuan, record new loan injection in Q1, which saw a whopping $1 trillion in new bank and shadow loans created in the first three months of the year, many were wondering where much of this newly created cash was ending up.

We now know where most of it went: soaring imports of crude oil.

We know this because as the chart below shows, Chinese crude imports via Qingdao port in Shandong province surged to record 9.86 million metric tons last month based on data from General Administration of Customs.

Now that everyone has finally figured out that the only way to not get steamrolled in this "market" is to frontrun central banks - something we have been pounding the table on since mid-2009 when we said that the only two financial statements that matter are the Fed's H.4.1 and H.3 - and not just central banks, but central banks who are now so intimately intertwined in capital markets that the moments they adjust one variable, they unleash a torrent of "reflexive" actions which promptly leads to a cascading effect across the markets and promptly undoes whatever it is that they want

On Friday we wrote our latest take on how the ECB's CSPP, or corporate bond buying program, in which we explained how this ECB's latest market manipulating adventure is about to crush the fundamentals of the European (and soon, courtesy of the ECB's "SPV" loophole, global) bond market. We showed how the ECB, in its latest attempt to become an even more market-moving hedge fund, is set to buy billions in corporate bonds and not just European but also international, as long as they have a European-domiciled (read Ireland or Netherland) SPV holdco.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says that he can not rule out a combat role for British troops in Libya. British ground troops, supported by the Air Force and Navy, may go to Libya to take action against ISIS in the future, Hammond said, just days after telling MPs that no such plans were in the works. RT reports: Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond made his remarks in a Telegraph interview on Sunday. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) are seeking to turn Libya into a “bolthole” for launching attacks on mainland Europe or Western ships at sea, Hammond argued.

As DB previews, the April FOMC gathering headlines a crowded economic events calendar this week.