Europe

VRT the Belgian public broadcaster have said that the death toll  in Brussels has risen to 34, with 20 people killed in the blast on a Metro train and 14 in explosions at the airport. Around 151 others were also injured. British prime minister David Cameron will chair a meeting of the Government’s emergency Cobra committee saying he was “shocked and concerned” after the explosions this morning. Cameron said “we absolutely stand” with the Belgian people and that he has spoken to the Belgian prime minister, offering condolences and security support.

It appears the 'shrug' of markets assuming a post-Paris panic-buying bounce has faded and now stocks and crude are tumbling as bonds and bullion are bid...

As we detailed earlier,

While stock markets are modestly lower, and "off the lows", perhaps in anticipation of the quite unbelievable panic-buying that occurred after the French terrorist attacks, investors have seemingly rotated from black gold to pet rocks for safety as the former drops back below $41 and the latter bounces back above $1250.

For the past month, despite the biggest quarterly bounce back from its lows in Dow Jones history, the market skepticism has not only remained but intensified: JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, SocGen, all have warned that this is a sucker's "bear market" squeeze, not the start of a real rally. Techniclans have been just as vocal in their skepticism, while the smart money has been selling relentlessly (not in its 8 consecutive week - more shortly).

At the risk of being crass, we've said on several occasions that the Paris attacks, the San Bernardino massacre, and the wave of sexual assaults that have swept Western Europe are the best things that ever happened to Donald Trump's presidential campaign. 

Abandoned life jackets pile up in Greece showing the horrific magnitude of the refugee crisis NBC News reports: “People are still dying in these waters”: At a dumping ground for lifejackets used by refugees fleeing to Europe in the worst refugee crisis since World War II, American volunteers find fake jackets stuffed with newspaper and floatation devices more suited to kiddie pools than the stormy Mediterranean Sea.