Iran

Despite OPEC's El-Badri proclaiming that Iran and iraq "didn't refuse to join the production freeze," oil prices are tumbling this morning on comments from Iran's oil minister that OPEC's call for a production freeze is "ridiculous."

Proposal by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, Qatar for oil producers to freeze output puts “unrealistic demands” on Iran, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says, according to ministry’s news agency Shana.

 

*IRAN CALLS SAUDI-RUSSIAN OUTPUT FREEZE PLAN `RIDICULOUS': SHANA

For months, the US and Russia have been busy wrangling over possible terms for a ceasefire in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent his Defence Minister Sergei Shogu to make an unannounced visit to Iran in order to deliver a very “special message” to President Hassan Rouhani.  The details of the message are confidential, but the ongoing Syrian conflict is likely to feature as part of their conversation. Ibtimes.co.uk reports: Shoigu landed in Tehran on 21 February and met his counterpart Hossein Dehghan separately. Only days ago the Iranian defence minister visited Russia, where the two countries agreed to step up their military cooperation.

Just when traders thought that the biggest and most violent 3-day short squeeze in 7 years was about to end...

... a squeeze that has resulted in 3 consecutive 1%+ sessions for the S&P for the first time since October 2011, overnight we got one of the Fed's biggest faux-hakws, St. Louis Fed's Jim Bullard, who said that it would be "unwise" to continue hiking rates at this moment, and hinted that "if needed", the most natural option for the Fed going forward would be to do further Q.E.

While we would be the first to admit that we disagree with Jeffrey Sachs on virtually every other issue, on the topic of Hillary Clinton, the ongoing Syria bloodbath which has come to define the geopolitical situation for the past 3 years, and how this is an event that would  "surely rival Watergate in shaking the foundations of the US establishment" if the truth were fully known, we agree 100 percent. 

Hillary Clinton and the Syrian Bloodbath, by Jeffrey Sachs, originally posted on HuffPo