Bloomberg:
- Ukraine Slides Deeper Toward War as Russia Warns on Vote. Russia’s foreign minister said Ukraine is sliding into a civil war that will make it impossible to hold legitimate elections, as Ukrainian leaders and their international allies blamed Russia for the violence. “When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians, I believe it’s as close to civil war as you can get,” Sergei Lavrov told Bloomberg Television in an interview in Moscow yesterday. “In the east and south of Ukraine, there is a war, a real war, with heavy weaponry used, and if this is something that is conducive to free and fair elections, then I don’t understand something about freedom.”
- UBS Sees 20% Drop for Biggest China Stocks on Profit Drop. UBS AG says it’s time to start cutting Chinese profit forecasts again. Chen Li, the chief China equity strategist at UBS, estimates companies in the nation’s CSI 300 Index (SHSZ300) will post a 3 percent drop in earnings this year, versus consensus forecasts for a 14 percent gain. As analysts downgrade projections to account for a weak property market and depreciating yuan, China’s biggest non-bank stocks may extend this year’s drop to 20 percent, Chen says. The Shanghai-based strategist sees parallels with 2012, when the nation’s slowing economy spurred analysts to reduce profit estimates and the CSI 300 index fell more than 20 percent from its May high through the December low.
- Japan Defense Academy Recruitment Jumps as China Tensions Rise. A 6:00 a.m. bugle call summons 22-year-old student Mutsumi Iida to begin a day organized by the minute between study, sports and training until lights out at 10:30 p.m. She picked the National Defense Academy over the freedom of an ordinary university as the best route to her dream of becoming an officer in Japan’s Marine Self-Defense Forces. The largest number of young people in 26 years followed in Iida’s footsteps to the college this year, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushes a more active defense posture. Abe today will announce plans to reinterpret Japan’s pacifist constitution to expand the role of the military.
- Asian Stocks Fall as Yen Holds Gain; Nickel, Crude Slip. Asian stocks dropped, pushing the regional index down from a four-month high, as Japanese shares slid after U.S. gauges retreated from record highs. The yen maintained gains while crude oil fell with industrial metals. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.5 percent by 10:02 a.m. in Tokyo, after closing at the highest level since Jan. 13 yesterday.
- Nickel Plunges More Than 9%, Biggest Slump Since 2011. Nickel slumped the most in 31 months as investors deemed the metal’s rally this year as overdone. Contracts for delivery in three months on the London metal Exchange dropped as much as 9.7 percent, the largest intraday drop since September 2011, to $18,090. The metal, which touched $21,625 on May 13 and is the still the best performer on LME this year, traded at $18,460 at 10:13 a.m. Shanghai time.
- Obama Said to Put Personal Push Behind EPA’s Emissions Rules. U.S. President Barack Obama plans to personally unveil proposed carbon-emissions rules for power plants, elevating climate change policy as a top tier issue for his final two years in office, according to two people familiar with White House strategy. Obama is preparing to make the announcement with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, who said yesterday the rules are on track to be proposed by June 2, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the schedule is still being planned.
- Cisco(CSCO) Revenue Forecast Tops Estimate on Pickup in U.S. Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) gave a forecast for fourth-quarter revenue that topped analysts’ estimates as orders in the U.S. climb on demand for networking machines to handle data traffic, making up for weaker emerging-market sales. Cisco’s revenue in the current period through July will be $12 billion to $12.3 billion, based on the company’s forecast for a decline of 1 percent to 3 percent from a year earlier. Analysts were projecting, on average, sales of $11.8 billion.
- Ukraine 'Close to Civil War,' Says Russian Foreign Minister. Talks Open in Kiev Without Separatists as Moscow Calls for Considering 'Needs of All the Country's Regions'.
- Crisis in Ukraine: Streaming Coverage.
- Interest Rates Sink Globally in Expectation of Stimulus. Nervous Investors Pile Into Bonds. Global bond rates dropped to their lowest levels of the year Wednesday, as central bankers signaled their determination to jolt the world's largest economies out of their malaise. Investors piled into U.S., German and British government bonds—used to price everything from mortgages to car loans—driving down their yields. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury dropped to as low as 2.523%, its lowest level in more than six months. In...
- Obamacare 'won't have a happy ending': Ken Langone. Burdensome levels of regulation are stunting growth, and nowhere is that more prevalent than with the Affordable Care Act, businessman Ken Langone said Wednesday.
- CNBC charts the top 100 fee-only wealth management firms. The CNBC Digital editorial team presents our inaugural list of the Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management Firms. Click here for the full firm financial and contact details.
- The Max Pain Trade. (graph)
Business Insider:
Telegraph:
- Modi's Thatcherite talk cannot restore India's flagging fortunes. India's superpower dreams are giving way to the same old reality of poverty.
- None of note
- Asian equity indices are -.75% to unch. on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 115.75 -1.75 basis points.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 81.75 -1.25 basis points.
- FTSE-100 futures -.17%.
- S&P 500 futures -.01%.
- NASDAQ 100 futures +.07%.
BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by technology and financial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into the day.
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