presidential election

With volume starting to fade ahead of Friday's holiday, and geopolitical concerns growing as a US aircraft carrier approaches North Korean, S&P futures pointed to a slightly lower open, in line with stock markets in Europe and Asia. Safe havens such as gold and treasuries strengthened along with Japanese yen, which erased all of yesterday's losses and neared its 110 support on investor caution about global security risks and the future of U.S. interest rates after Yellen's Monday speech failed to provide clarity.

Submitted by Stock Board Asset Management

While US stocks were relatively stable last week (amid death-feying BTFD rips), investors are paying the most for equity protection since before the U.S. presidential election in November.

 As Bloomberg reporets, Credit Suisse's Fear Barometer, which measures the cost of bearish to bullish three-month options on the S&P 500 Index, has climbed for six straight days, its longest streak since August.

Roughly at the same time as today's French election narrative shifted again as traders started paying attention to the suddenly surging in the polls far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, which pushed the Euro to the lowest level in a month, Goldman has come out with a recommendation to short June OAT futures (OATM7) at 147-72, for an initial target of 144.00, and stops on a close above 150.00,

An alleged Russian hacker, Pyotr Levashov, has been detained in Barcelona at the request of the FBI, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the U.S. presidential election, AP reports. A spokeswoman for Spain's National Court said that the Pyotr Levashov was arrested in response to a U.S. computer crimes warrant while a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Madrid confirmed the arrest on Sunday.