Iraq

Following yesterday's dramatic escalation in Iraq's suddenly very unstable political situation, when Beghdad was put under a state of emergency after supporters of popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr breached the heavily fortified Green Zone and stormed both the parliament and government offices - an event which we dubbed the collapse of the US-created political system in Iraq - the situation has continued to deteriorate. 

Hundreds of demonstrators in Iraq stormed and are now occupying the country’s parliament. Iraqi officials declared a state of emergency in Baghdad on Saturday after protesters loyal to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr breached the heavily fortified Green Zone which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, including the American one. Video from inside the building showed jubilant crowds waving Iraqi flags and shouting “peaceful, peaceful” and there were no immediate reports of major violence.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has claimed credit for hindering the spread of ISIS terrorism and stopping radicals taking control of Iraq and Syria. RFE/RL reports: Hassan Rohani made his comments April 23 in Tehran at a United Nations-sponsored event. The IS group evolved in part from the remnants of Al-Qaeda’s network in Iraq after it was defeated by U.S. forces. The extremist Sunni group has slaughtered those groups it believes violate its strict interpretation of Islam, including Shi’a, who it considers to be apostates.

The Pentagon has released a video showing a B-52 bomber eliminating ISIS targets in Iraq. While the US and its coalition partners have waged war on ISIS from the air and the ground, only recently did the legendary B-52 bomber join the fight Business Insider reports: The first video released from the Combined Joint Task Force’s Operation Inherent Resolve shows a departure from the B-52’s carpet bombing strategy of old. Instead, this video shows precision munitions hammering individual targets.

One day after stocks were this close from hitting new all time highs on what have been either ok earnings, if looking at non-GAAP data, or atrocious earnings, based on GAAP, and where any oil headline is now immediately translated as bullish by the oil algos, so far futures are relatively flat, while European stocks were at their moments ago in anticipation of the latest ECB announcement due out in just one hour.  However, unlike last month's "quad-bazooka", this time the market expects far less from Draghi.