06Jun2016 Pre-Market Commentary: Morning Futures Fractionally Higher Ahead Of Ms. Yellen’s Speech, Crude Higher, US Dollar Down Below 94

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are broadly higher today with shares in London leading the region. The FTSE 100 is up 1.15% while Germany’s DAX is up 0.23% and France’s CAC 40 is up 0.19%.

Yellen faces fine balance on Fed rate hike after job growth tumbles

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will likely keep the door open to an interest rate hike within the next few months when she speaks on Monday, while striking a balanced tone about recently disappointing jobs growth and mixed signals in the U.S. economy.

Exclusive: As Iran’s oil exports surge, international tankers help ship its fuel

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – More than 25 European and Asian-owned supertankers are shipping Iranian oil, data seen by Reuters shows, allowing Tehran to ramp up exports much faster than analysts had expected following the lifting of sanctions in January.

Stock futures up marginally; Yellen in focus

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures inched higher on Monday as investors await Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech after a shockingly weak jobs report all but killed the prospects of an interest rate hike this month.

BlackRock’s $2.5 billion sale: a sign of life for Singapore’s office market

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc said it would sell a 43-storey Singapore office tower for $2.5 billion – one of at least three office building deals in the last two months for a market gripped by worries about oversupply and rising vacancies.

Devon Energy to get nearly $1 billion from asset sales

(Reuters) – U.S. oil and natural gas producer Devon Energy Corp said it would sell assets in Texas for nearly $1 billion and that it was making progress on the sale of other assets as part of its plan to improve its finances through divestitures.

HSBC to shake up global banking business to cut costs

LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC is to restructure its global banking division to cut costs and make the business more “agile”, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday.

Oracle whistleblower suit raises questions over cloud accounting

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A whistleblower lawsuit filed against Oracle Corp over its accounting practices underscores the pressures established computer companies face to show that they are growing in the fast-moving business known as the cloud.

Exclusive: NY Fed first rejected cyber-heist transfers, then moved $81 million

DHAKA/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hours before the Federal Reserve Bank of New York approved four fraudulent requests to send $81 million from a Bangladesh Bank account to cyber thieves, the Fed branch blocked those same requests because they lacked information required to transfer money, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Cancer drug prices highest in U.S. least affordable in India, China: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Americans pay the highest prices in the world for cancer drugs, but the treatments are least affordable in lower income countries, according to the results of a new study released on Monday.

Morgan Stanley’s Dour S&P500 Outlook: 5% Of Possible Upside vs 27% Of Downside

The drumbeat of negative sellside macro research reports continued over the weekend, when following virtually every other investment bank, Morgan Stanly was the latest to share “four charts you can’t miss”, key of which perhaps was the well-known fishhooks chart showing sliding forward EPS estimate every year (with 2014, 2015 and 2016 earnings all now virtually identical), as well as the observation that PE ratios are far higher currently than where they should be based on real TSY yields…

… but what we found most interesting was the bank’s forecast matrix. While MS has a year end “base case” S&P500 target of 2,050 – about 50 points lower from where the market will open – it also present its bull and bear case, which are 2,200 and 1,525 respectively, or 5% of potential upside vs 27% of potential downside.

In any other investing climate this unattractive Upside/Downside would be sufficient to pull money from the market, however in this day and age, bad news for the market is implicitly good news for the market as it means even more doubling (tripling, quadrupling) down by central banks to keep it propped up. It may also explain why the S&P is set to open up well above 2,100 on the day after the US economy reported its worst jobs number since 2010.

The Cloud Deal Wave Hasn’t Crested Yet

A selloff of cloud-software stocks opened doors for M&A activity, but buyers shouldn’t expect bargains.

Long Shadow Hangs Over China’s Banks

Chinese banks’ shadow balance sheets stuffed with wealth-management products are again on the rise. This time, the sequel is scarier than the original.

Valeant Earnings: Here We Go Again

A first test looms this week for Valeant’s new CEO and his attempt to stabilize the embattled drugmaker.

Tips For Identifying Elliott Waves On Your Charts

from Elliott Wave International

The Elliott Wave Principle is based on 5 core Elliott wave patterns, each having hard-and-fast rules, and a handful of guidelines. Here, our master instructor Jeffrey Kennedy gives you his tips for applying the Wave Principle to any chart, in any market, on any time frame.

GDP Forecasting – Can Two Wrongs Make A Right?

from the Atlanta Fed

— this post authored by Pat Higgins

In a recent macroblog post, I showed that forecasts from the Atlanta Fed’s real gross domestic product (GDP) nowcasting model – GDPNow – have been about as accurate a forecast of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’s (BEA) first estimate of real GDP growth as the consensus from the Wall Street Journal Economic Forecasting Survey.

Need to Know: One of the year’s biggest contrarian trades could deliver some ‘serious gains’

Traders have had all weekend to stew over the lousy jobs report, but it doesn’t mean they’re any closer to figuring out what impact it’ll have on the market in the coming days.

The Wall Street Journal: Apollo Global Management is still in talks to buy Concordia Healthcare

Apollo Global Management LLC is still in talks to buy Concordia Healthcare Corp. after two other private-equity firms walked away over concern that tighter regulatory scrutiny of pharmaceutical companies might hurt the Canadian pharmaceutical company’s earnings.

The Wall Street Journal: AMG to buy stakes in 5 money managers in $800 million deal

Affiliated Manager Group Inc. has agree to buy minority stakes in five money managers.