United Kingdom

Cable has strengthened notably in the last week or so as Cameron and Osborne unleashed phase 2 of "project fear" and 'some' Brexit polls suggested market fears of a 'leave' decision were overblown. However, the broad polls still show the decision is too close to call, which is why the news from Ladbrokes - Britain's largest bookmaker - that they have seen a sudden surge in Brexit bets in the last few days. Interestingly, sterling has started to leak lower today...

British prime minister David Cameron is trying to fast-track an EU-Canada trade deal without parliamentary consent.  A set of leaked notes that were allegedly made during the EU Foreign Affairs/Trade-Council in Brussels on 13 May, appears to show that the UK is aggressively pushing for a controversial trade between the EU and Canada to be implemented through parliament before MP’s have a chance to vote on the issue.

• Wall Street Crime: 7 Years, 156 Cases and Few Convictions (WSJ)
• Japan's Abe points to 2008 crisis as G7 leaders debate global risk (Reuters)
• Brent Crude Rises Above $50 a Barrel (WSJ)
• New York financial regulator gearing up to probe online lenders (Reuters)
• At Swinging Wall Street Parties, the Feds Are Now on the Prowl (BBG)
• Do U.S. Killings of Militant Leaders Work? (WSJ)
• Fed's Bullard: global central bank policy divergence has been priced in (Reuters)
• Insurers Seek Big Premium Boosts (WSJ)

The single biggest event overnight was the PBOC's devaluation of the Yuan to the lowest since March 2011, setting the fixing at 6.5693, the highest in over 5 years and in direct response to a stronger dollar, which however if one looks at the DXY remains well below the recent highs in the 100 range, suggesting for China this is only just beginning.

Hoax bomb threats lead to lockdowns and evacuations in dozens of elementary and high schools across both the US and UK on Monday. In the UK thousands of children in at least 21 schools were evacuated after bomb threats were phoned in to police. One anonymous caller said that the resulting shrapnel would “take children’s heads off.” Classes resumed only after police failed to find any explosives or other dangerous items. Today, nine more UK schools in Devon, North Wales, Northern Ireland, South Lanarkshire and across central Scotland were evacuated following malicious phone threats.