United States

So far "Triple Threat Thursday" has been a dud. In the day with the greatest concentration of market-moving risk events so far in 2017, market action - at least for the time being - has been a whimper, with European stocks and US futures modestly higher ahead of the ECB’s rate decision and Comey's testimony (which has now been fully publicized, removing much of the risk), as the U.K. voting is underway. Asian stocks fell led by a decline in Japan as the yen first strengthened, only to tumble later in the session.

Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Trump's proposal to overhaul the U.S. food stamp program, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as it's currently known, has brought with it a widely overlooked fee that could end up costing food retailers billions.  Per MSN:

That provision is a new fee that the White House wants to charge retailers that accept food stamps, which is now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

 

Shortly after the most famous PIMCO alum, Bill Gross, unleashed today's dose of doom and gloom when he warned that market risk is the "highest since before the 2008 financial crisis" and warned that “instead of buying low and selling high, you’re buying high and crossing your fingers,” his replacement and current PIMCO CIO, Dan Ivascyn shared a similar dour outlook on the economy at the Bloomberg Invest summit, where he predicted that U.S.

In the latest red flag for the US economy, moments ago the Fed reported that consumer credit for the month of April rose a paltry $8.2 billion, barely half the consensus estimate of $15.5 billion, and 40% of march's $19.5 billion. This was the lowest monthly increase in consumer credit going back nearly 6 years to August 2011. The increasingly obvious downward trendline in crediting is hardly indicative of a confident consumer.

While revolving, i.e. credit card, debt rose a modest $1.5 billion, far below the increase in the prior two months...