Europe

Mario Draghi is set to address the European Parliament's Committee on Monetary and Economic affairs in Brussels on Monday. 

Draghi's comments will of course be parsed for any hints as to what the ECB will do next month, when Draghi is expected to announce further easing, either in the form of another rate cut or an expansion/extension of PSPP.

The first shot in the global war on cash was just fired, by none other than the ECB, which moments ago Handelsblatt reported...

ECB wants to stop issuing 500 Euro bills - our exclusive https://t.co/LLe2qyhBjK

— Daniel Schäfer (@schaeferdaniel) February 15, 2016

Ealier today, we quoted John Plassard, senior equity-sales trader at Mirabaud Securities LLP in Geneva, who explained the surge in global risk as follows: "The Chinese market didn’t react as bad as we feared and with the weak export data there is some big hope that he central banks will react quite fast... It’s a mix of hope of intervention from the Asian central bank, short squeeze and also a relief in some energy and banking sectors, the most shorted sectors."

• China’s Yuan Makes Largest Gain Since 2005 on PBOC Cue (WSJ)
• Japan's Nikkei soars over 7%, for its biggest gain since 2008 (BBG)
• Global shares rise as firmer Chinese yuan eases deflation fears (Reuters)
• Banks' Surge Takes Europe's Stock Rally Into 2nd Day; HSBC Rises (BBG)
• Oil extends rally on prospects OPEC could act to counter low prices (Reuters)
• Europe's Higher-Yielding Bonds Benefit as Global Turmoil Eases (BBG)
• Republicans gear up for Supreme Court battle after Scalia's death (Reuters)

Bad news is once again good news... for stocks that is. 

After a month and a half of markets unable to decide if they should buy or sell on ugly data, over the weekend, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan expressed faith in the economy, and said there is no basis for further Yuan devaluation, something the PBOC has said consistently over the past year, despite two sharp devaluation episodes.