North America

The levitation continues with S&P futures pointing to - what else - another higher open while European stocks swung between gains and losses on the busiest earnings days of the year (85 of the Stoxx 600 report) which has seen European pharma giant AstraZeneca plunge 15%, the most on record, after its flagship lung cancer trial Mystic failed to show benefits, while Deutsche Bank slumped 4% on a 12% plunge in FICC revenue.

As is customary for the heavy-industrial equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar yesterday reported its retail sales, one day ahead of earnings, and as we discussed, the number was solid with Caterpillar reporting the longest positive streak in retail sales going back 51 months.

Several years ago, Gluskin Sheff's superstar economist (previously at Merrill), David Rosenberg (in)famously flipped from bear to bull, predicting what amounts to a victory for the Fed: a jump in (wage) inflation, a burst in economic growth, and an overall selloff in that most deflation-dependent asset, the US Treasury.

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

Now this is the sort of story you're all interested in reading about. I can see it now, 'man forced to eat his own penis after bitcoin bet goes sideways.'

It's one of the most racially segregated cities in North America...

Via Elaine's Idle Mind blog (h/t Climateer Investing),

Good Zoning Laws Make Good Neighbors

Three years ago, FT had an article praising Tokyo’s laissez-faire zoning laws. Landowners can build and demolish as they see fit; the rules are set at the national level, so local governments have no say in the matter.