23Apr2018 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street Futures Show Markets Opening Higher As US 10-year Treasury Yield Jumps To 2.99%, Investors Bet On Inflation, More Fed Hikes Coming

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are mixed today. The DAX is up 0.04% while the CAC 40 gains 0.04%. The FTSE 100 is off 0.04%.

China may backslide on deleveraging if trade war looms

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s efforts to reduce its reliance on debt and find a more sustainable route to grow its economy may be derailed by the simmering trade dispute with the United States, economists warn.

Stock futures flat as U.S. bond yields near 3 percent

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks index futures treaded water on Monday, ahead of a bevy of earnings from the world’s biggest companies and as wary investors watched U.S. bond yields approach peaks that have sparked stock selloffs in the past.

Hasbro blames Toys ‘R’ Us for dismal first quarter

(Reuters) – Toymaker Hasbro Inc fell 23 cents a share short of Wall Street expectations for profit in the first quarter as the fallout of the Toys ‘R’ Us bankruptcy drove a nearly $100 million shortfall in revenue.

GM Korea drops bankruptcy vote plan after last-minute wage deal

SEOUL (Reuters) – General Motors Co’s (GM) South Korean unit dropped a plan to consider filing for bankruptcy after winning concessions on pay, bonuses and benefits from its labor union in a tentative deal reached on Monday.

Halliburton revenue jumps on higher North American demand

(Reuters) – Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co reported a 34 percent jump in first-quarter revenue on Monday as rising oil prices prompted North American companies to boost oil and gas production.

China fund managers slash ZTE valuation after U.S. sanction

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese funds have slashed valuations of ZTE Corp after the United States banned American companies from selling components to the telecoms equipment maker for seven years, a move ZTE said threatened its very survival.

U.S. fund managers brace for trade war with focus on pricing power

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investors’ fears of an all-out trade war between the United States and China is prompting U.S. stock fund managers to hunt for companies that can easily pass on higher costs to their consumers.

Exclusive: China’s Lishen plans first European sales office for electric vehicle batteries – source

LONDON/BERLIN (Reuters) – Chinese battery maker Tianjin Lishen plans to open a sales office in Germany, its first in Europe, and is in talks to supply local auto makers with batteries used to power electric vehicles, a source at the company told Reuters.

Elliott wants Hyundai Motor Group to adopt holding company structure

SEOUL (Reuters) – U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management said on Monday a restructuring plan proposed by Hyundai Motor Group to simplify its shareholding structure was not enough, and recommended it create a holding company, among other measures.

Mossad Accused Of Assassinating Hamas-linked Professor In Malaysia, Israel Denies

After the mysterious assassination of a well-known Palestinian engineer and academic in Malaysia over the weekend, Israel’s defense minister issued a statement denying accusations that the Israeli spy agency Mossad was behind the killing.

Dr Fadi Mohammed al-Batash, 35, had been living with his family in Malaysia for the past ten years and was a university professor in the field of electrical engineering. Batash was further recently employed by the Energy Authority in the Gaza Strip and had long held a position as lecturer at the British-Malaysian Institute at the University of Kuala Lumpur, according to Israel’s YNet news. Israeli officials have recently accused him of being a rocket expert and downplayed his advisory work connected to Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.

Multiple international reports indicate that as Batash made his way from his home in Kuala Lumpur to a nearby neighborhood mosque for dawn prayers sometime around 6am, a motorcycle drove by and two unidentified men unleashed a volley of ten shots, at least four of which hit Batash in the head and body, killing him on the spot.

Witnesses say the killers had European features.

Assange Twitter Account Returns As #ReconnectJulian Campaign Takes Over

Julian Assange’s twitter account has started tweeting again, but not because Ecuadorian authorities have restored his access to the Internet. Instead, his Twitter account has been taken over by a group of supporters leading the campaign to #ReconnectJulian.

In late March, the Ecuadorian government decided to suspend Assange’s Internet access due to his controversial tweets in support of Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader who had been detained in Germany. Ecuador’s new government, according to RT, was facing intense diplomatic pressure from its European ally, Spain.

Assange’s supporters announced their takeover in a tweet:

Julian Assange has been gagged and isolated from visitors and communications after heightened pressure. This is on top of his six years without access to sunlight and arbitrary detention in violation of two UN rulings. Account now run by his campaign. https://t.co/cbM33Ng42C pic.twitter …

Blain: “The Big Fear I’m Hearing Today Is “Liquidity” – What Happens If We Do Get A Meltdown?”

Submitted by Bill Blain of Mint Partners

“Time you straighten right out, better think of the future, else you’ll wind up in jail.”

This morning we are all “cautiously optimistic”, apparently

The world reminds me of a duck: Serene and calm(ish) on the surface. Paddling furiously under the water. That’s one way to picture the current round of geopolitical manoeuvring across Asia: China-Japan, US-Korea, China-US dialogs. Forget the Trump noise, but these discussions are likely to lead to new dynamic across Asia.. If the outcome of the current games are as positive as we expect/hope, then the prospects for the global economy are pretty solid. Ducks can pivot on a heart-beat! Over the next 10-years or so we expect to see South-East Asia’s middle classes grow from around 600mm to over 2 billion – that’s an enormous market to sell into. It will be ripe with opportunity – and we have ideas, but not without challenge.

Much of what we see on the news, and read on the wires is just NOISE. It’s getting more confusing as twitterfeeds, fake-news, and rogue media provide more information than analysts can analyse to strip facts from the sturm-et-drang of “click-bait”. Noise can cause markets to go up, down, sideways and shake-it-all-about – but within the noise are clear trends. Some negative, some positive. Much to our surprise – like what’s happening in Asia -some of the noise is far more positive than we expected!

This morning I’m tempted to check some of the stuff I’m reading about Macron.. comparing himself to Trump seems a mistake of the first-egg, but hey-ho! As for the UK – the less said about our sorry excuse for government.. the better. They’ve dug themselves into a horrible mess over Windrush…. But I’m afraid it could get worse. As the blame game deepens, the Conservatives unerring ability to d …

Stocks Stumble As 10Y Hits 2.996%; Dollar Squeeze Accelerates

Global stocks stumbled on Monday ahead of an avalanche of earnings in this season’s busiest reporting week but the big story overnight was the spike in 10Y Yield which climbed as high as 2.9957%, the highest level since January 2014, and nearing the psychological 3% level which has triggered market spasms and more than one tantrum in the past. The move was catalyzed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying over the weekend that he is planning a trip to China, an indication the US is considering a truce in its trade war with China.

Citi’s technical team repeats the key highlights, pointing out that we’re 1bp away from the psychological 3% level in the Treasury 10y yield. “The benchmark is trading at levels not seen since 2014, and we are continuing to make fresh YTD highs. The 10s now trade at 2.99% while the 2s10s trades on the 51 mark.”

If we break 3%, major levels come in here that extend up to 3.05%: this is the level where we have the 2014 high which is also the long term double bottom neckline and the long term channel top:

How the Fed Keeps Bank Stocks Down

Bank shares are being held back by uncertainty over how the Federal Reserve’s stress tests would affect dividends and buybacks.

No Bad News Counts as Good News at GE

General Electric beat lowered expectations for first-quarter earnings and maintained its full-year guidance, but further recovery would hinge on concrete signs of improvement in cash flow at its power unit.

Honeywell Sounds the Charge for Industrial Stocks

Strong performance across Honeywell’s business portfolio seems poised to continue.

S&P 500 may head lower before breakout toward 3,000 points

The current correction is going to laster longer than initially thought, says Avi Gilburt.

Need to Know: Investors face a ‘do or die’ moment last seen on the brink of the dot-com collapse

There have been times lately that those swift and painful selloffs across the major U.S. indexes have certainly felt like corrections, or at least volatile tremors leading to that BIG correction bears having been anticipating for years. But… really?

The Wall Street Journal: ComScore taps Bryan Wiener CEO as it looks to move beyond accounting issues

ComScore Inc. has tapped board member and digital agency veteran Bryan Wiener as its new chief executive, as the media-measurement company tries to move past years of accounting irregularities.