Pedro da Costa and Alister Bull at Reuters write:
The Federal Reserve stuck to its plan to buy $85 billion in bonds each month to push down borrowing costs and prop up the economy, citing risks to growth from recent budget tightening in Washington.
Read more at Fed sticks to stimulus plan, worried about fiscal drag | Reuters.
John Garnaut writes:
[Capt. James Fanell], in comments that went largely unnoticed outside the small circle of China military specialists, spelled out in rare detail the reasons the United States is shifting 60 percent of its naval assets — including its most advanced capabilities — to the Pacific. He was blunt: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is focused on war, and it is expanding into the “blue waters” explicitly to counter the U.S. Pacific Fleet. “I can tell you, as the fleet intelligence officer, the PLA Navy is going to sea to learn how to do naval warfare,” he said. “My assessment is the PLA Navy has become a very capable fighting force.”
Read more at Xi's War Drums – By John Garnaut | Foreign Policy.
Gary Rivlin gives us an insight into the machinations of Wall street lobbyists on Capitol Hill:
As he prepared to sign the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—the sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another spectacular financial collapse—into law, the president [Obama] first acknowledged the miracle of having a bill to sign at all. “Passing this…was no easy task,” he told the crowd of hundreds. “We had to overcome the furious lobbying of an array of powerful interest groups and a partisan minority determined to block change.”
Indeed, some 3,000 lobbyists had swarmed the Capitol in hopes of killing off pieces of the proposed bill……
That sense of victory barely lasted barely the morning. …..After Dodd-Frank’s passage, lobbyists for the big banks and industry trade groups divided themselves into eighteen working groups, each organized around a different element of the new law. “That’s when the real work began,” Talbott tells me……
Read more at How Wall Street Defanged Dodd-Frank | The Nation.
Alex Berezow posts:
Why is China maintaining allegiance to the North? As Andrei Lankov explains in the New York Times, there are two main reasons: (1) Regime change could result in chaos, meaning thousands or millions of refugees swarming into China, not to mention the possibility of the North’s weapons getting into the wrong hands; and (2) A unified Korea would be a U.S. ally. China doesn’t like either of those outcomes, so it prefers to maintain the status quo. Lankov concludes:
China faces a choice between two evils: a nuclear North Korea or a collapsing North Korea. And a collapsing North Korea clearly represents a greater evil.
Read more at China Shouldn't Let the Korean Crisis Go to Waste, RealClearWorld – The Compass Blog.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports:
The region’s core inflation rate – which strips out food and energy – fell to 1pc in March. This is far below expectations and leaves monetary union with a diminishing safety buffer. “The eurozone is tracking the experience in Japan in mid-1990s. There is a very high risk of a slide into deflation,” said Lars Christensen, a monetary theorist at Danske Bank.
Read more at Eurozone risks Japan-style trap as deflation grinds closer – Telegraph.
A welcome development reported by LAURA STEVENS , DAVID ENRICH and ULRIKE DAUER at the Wall Street Journal:
FRANKFURT–Deutsche Bank AG [DBK.XE] said Monday it will raise €2.8 billion ($3.65 billion) in fresh capital in a dramatic about-face for the bank, which has repeatedly said it won’t turn to shareholders for help boosting its capital cushion.
The bank, Europe’s second-largest by assets, has long faced doubts from investors and analysts about whether it has enough capital to absorb potential future losses and to meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements……
Deutsche Bank has long been considered thinly capitalized but have always countered with the argument that the leverage is justified by the quality of the assets on their balance sheet. Low risk-weightings provided a false sense of security, with Greek and other PIIGS government bonds rated as zero-risk in the past, encouraging banks to leverage up on precisely the wrong kind of assets. It is time for risk weightings to be removed from bank capital ratios. The bipartisan bill sponsored by US senators Sherrod Brown and David Vitter is a step in the right direction.
Read more at Deutsche Bank Plans Capital Boost – WSJ.com.
Singapore’s Straits Times Index broke long-term resistance at 3300, signaling an advance to the 2007 high of 3900*. Troughs above zero on 13-week Twiggs Momentum strengthen the signal.
* Target calculation: 3300 + ( 3300 – 2700 ) = 3900
India’s Sensex followed through above resistance at 19000. Breach of the descending trendline would indicate a primary advance to 22000*. 13-week Twiggs Money Flow below zero, however, signals selling pressure and reversal below 19000 would warn of another test of primary support at 18000.
* Target calculation: 20000 + ( 20000 – 18000 ) = 22000
China’s Shanghai Composite is again testing medium-term support at 2150. Failure of support would warn of a decline to test primary support at 1950/2000. Reversal above 2250, however, would penetrate the descending trendline, indicating another test of 2500.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 continues to climb, with a steeply rising 13-week Twiggs Money Flow indicating strong buying pressure. Target for the advance is 15000*.
* Target calculation: 11500 + ( 11500 – 8000 ) = 15000
The ASX 200 is testing resistance at 5150. Breakout would offer a target of 5400*, but bearish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow warns of selling pressure. Failure of support at 4900 would signal a reversal.
* Target calculation: 5150 + ( 5150 – 4900 ) = 5400
Germany’s DAX found support at 7500 and is again testing long-term resistance at 8000 (shown on the quarterly chart below). 13-Week Twiggs Momentum and Twiggs Money Flow both display bearish divergences, warning of selling pressure. Reversal below 7500 remains likely and would signal a correction to test the rising trendline.
* Target calculation: 7500 – ( 8000 – 7500 ) = 7000
Italy’s MIB index found support at 15000. Follow-through above 17000 would indicate a primary advance and penetration of resistance at 18000 would confirm the primary up-trend signaled earlier by bullish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Momentum.
* Target calculation: 18 + ( 18 – 15 ) = 21
The FTSE 100 is testing resistance at 6500. Rising 13-week Twiggs Money Flow and Twiggs Momentum both suggest that breakout is likely — which would signal an advance to 7000.
* Target calculation: 6500 + ( 6500 – 6000 ) = 7000
The TSX Composite correction found support at 12000. Expect a rally to test resistance at 12500, but penetration of the rising trendline indicates weakness and breach of support at 12000 would be a strong bear signal. Bearish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow warned of a correction; a fall below zero would suggest a (primary trend) reversal.
10-Year Treasury yields broke through support at 1.70%. Prior to 2012, the 1945 low of 1.70% was the lowest level in the 200 year history of the US Treasury. Expect a test of primary support at 1.40%.
Falling Treasury yields generally indicate a flight from stocks to the safety of bonds. The S&P 500, however, is consolidating below resistance at 1600. Breakout would suggest an advance to 1650, while reversal below 1540 would indicate a correction to the rising trendline at 1475. Recent weakness on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow favors a correction, but oscillation above zero indicates a healthy primary up-trend. A June quarter-end below 1500 would present a strong long-term bear signal.
* Target calculation: 1475 + ( 1475 – 1350 ) = 1600
The Nasdaq 100 index is testing resistance at 2900. Breakout would offer a target of 3400*, but bearish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow favors a break of 2800 and test of the rising trendline at 2700.
* Target calculation: 2900 + ( 2900 – 2500 ) = 3400
Gold rallied to test resistance at $1500/ounce. Breakout would suggest a bear trap and a rally to $1600, but respect of resistance is likely and would signal another test of support at $1330/1350. A gold bear market indicates falling inflation expectations, but that could also translate into lower growth in earnings and higher Price Earnings ratios.
Structural flaws in the US economy have not been addressed and uncertainty remains high, despite low values reflected on the VIX.
