S&P 500

Despite the panicky "reverse engines!" dynamic last Friday in the US rates market - with popular “reflation” trade expressions (which had been seeing vicious unwinds) suddenly breathing new life as Fed’s Dudley clarified his "misconstrued" comments on "little pause" with short-term rates hiking -  RBC's head of cros asset strategy Charlie McElligott points out that 5y5y inflation remains stuck, EDZ7/8 curve is flattening again, and the EDZ789 butterfly too is again fading.  

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.

Who says activist investors are dead, swallowed whole by the relentless passive, ETF wave?

Moments ago Whole Foods, which has seen its stock suffer a painful decline for the past two years, spiked on a WSJ report that Barry Rosenstein's Jana Partners has amassed a 9% stake in WFM and is pushing the organic grocer to speed up its turnaround efforts while also exploring a possible sale. 

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.

With Morgan Stanley's Adam Parker having left the investment bank to continue his career at Eminence Capital, it was up to his replacement, Michael Wilson to come up with the Initiation of coverage report for the "Classic Late Cycle." So, in keeping a stiff upper lip, and breaking away from the gloom that appears to have recently gripped his colleagues over at Goldman Sachs, Wilson had no choice but to keep a stiff upper lip and keep the Punch Bowl full (to paraphrase Bill Dudley's famous March 30 speech).