Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:         

• Breakaway Georgian Region Seeks to Be Putin’s Next Annexation.
• Putin ‘Misinformed’ by Advisers on the War, White House Says.
  
• Ukraine Update: U.S. Says Putin Feels Misled by Military Leaders.
• Kuroda Favors BOJ Policy Credibility at Cost of Weakening Yen.  
• China’s Mega Banks Face New Obstacles After Comeback Year.
  
• Fuel Hikes Anger Food Delivery Drivers and Truckers Across Asia.
• Indian Cookie Giant’s Price Plans Shows Coming Inflationary Pain.
• U.S. Futures Rise as Oil Drops on Reserves Report: Markets Wrap.   
• Oil Retreats as U.S. Weighs Reserves Release to Combat Inflation.
• OPEC Mulls Snubbing IEA Oil Data as Political Rift Deepens.
  
• SEC Chief Casts Doubt on Imminent Deal to Avoid China Delistings.  
• Crypto-Bridge Hacks Reach Over $1 Billion in Little Over a Year.   
• Bird Flu Is Spreading in the U.S., Threatening Chicken Exports.  
• Fed Keeps Wary Eye on Yield Curve While Signaling Hikes on Track.

Wall Street Journal:

• Big Stock Sales Are Supposed to Be Secret. The Numbers Indicate They Aren’t.
• Russia Plays Down Peace Talks, Steps Up Eastern Assault.
• Latest Updates: U.S. Says Putin Advisers Misinformed Him.
• Biden’s Global Quest for Oil Triggers Political Pushback.

Fox News:  

• China defies Biden admin, calls Russia sanctions 'illegal'.
• GOP gov takes action to protect 'fairness' in women's sports.

CNBC.com:

• Why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could spark a NATO defense spending spree.
• How Google and Amazon bankrolled a group of small business owners to lobby against Big Tech oversight.

 MarketWatch: 

• What stock-market investors need to know about the bond market’s recession signal.
  
• Apple reportedly wants to handle its own financial services, and partners’ stocks paid the price.
  
• Office buildings sit more than half empty. Why the next recession could spur more trouble.
  
• These 10 dividend stocks with yields of at least 5% can help you take on stagflation or a recession.

Zero Hedge:

• White House Cites Intel Claiming Putin Being "Misled" By His Own Generals On War's Progress.
• Watch: DeSantis Accuses Disney Of "Sexualizing Kindergarteners".
• FEC Fines Hillary Clinton, DNC Over Steele Dossier Hoax.
• Yen At Risk Of "Explosive" Downward Spiral With Kuroda Trapped... And Why China May Soon Devalue.
• Hunter Biden Dam About To Burst? WaPo, CNN Go Scorched Earth Over 'Laptop From Hell'.
• Lavrov: Russia, China Moving Towards Multipolar 'Fair World Order'.
• Pandemic Lessons Learned: CDC Versus Natural Immunity.
• "Sounding The Alarm": A $3 Trillion Problem Emerges As The Fed Prepares To Launch QT.
• Shanghai Residents Struggle To Obtain Food & Medicine As Citywide Lockdown Continues.
• Xi's "Maradona Theory" Of Policy Making Needs Tweak.
• "Cannibal" Coronal Mass Ejection Detected By NASA, Will Hit Earth Tonight.
• The Global Rush To Own Gold Has Only Just Begun.
• UN Establishes War Crimes Tribunal To Probe Russian Actions In Ukraine.
• Matt Gaetz Enters Hunter Biden Laptop Data Into Congressional Record.
• Bonds, Bullion, & Black Gold Bid As Putin Sparks Stock Skid, Dollar Dump.

Newsmax: 

• UK Intel: Russia Seeking Cyber Targets in Nations That Oppose Its Invasion. 
• Russian Planes Carrying Nukes Strayed Into Swedish Airspace.
• Ruble Rebound Raises Questions of Sanctions' Impact.

TheGatewayPundit.com: 

• RINO Susan Collins Flips — Will Vote for Radical Judge Ketanji Jackson Despite Her Leniency of Child Porn Traffickers.
• TOTALLY UNHINGED: Day After FEC Fines Hillary’s 2016 Campaign for Lying About Creating and Funding the Fake Trump-Russia Conspiracy — She Tweets Out a NEW Trump-Russia Conspiracy.
• IT BEGINS: UK Reporter Confronts Liar Fauci on Origins of COVID Virus in China Lab (VIDEO).
• 21 States Sue Biden Administration to Permanently End Federal Mask Mandates for Planes and Public Transportation.
• Farmers Warn About Rising Food Prices — One Way To Prepare.
• Joe Biden Will Drop Trump-Era Title 42 Border Restrictions May 23 – 170,000 Illegals Amass at Southern Border Ready to Storm into US.
• American Households Face $5,200 Biden Inflation Tax This Year – San Fran Fed Blames Historic Inflation Rate on Government Spending.
• Fauci Says Americans Need to be “Prepared” For Another Round of Covid Restrictions (VIDEO).
• FOIA Reveals NIH Secretly DELETED COVID Data Provided by the Wuhan Lab at the BEGINNING of the Pandemic.
• “Our Country is Paying a Big Price for that Rigged Election” – President Trump.

The Epoch Times:

• ‘I Cannot Watch My Father Waiting to Die at Home:’ Residents in Locked-Down Shanghai Being Denied Medical Care.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 795,782 Reports(+7,159 from prior week) Through March 18th, 2022.
  

SKirsch.com:

• Using the MGH numbers with our own VAERS queries, we have 247 cases per million doses from the MGH study divided by 5.97 cases per million doses from VAERS. 247/5.97 = 41. This suggests that the VAERS under-reporting factor (URF) is 41X.

Covid-19(Data, Maps, Graphs):

• Our World in Data:  New Global Covid-19 Cases(7-day rolling average graphs). New US Covid Hospital Admissions/ICU Admissions/Deaths
  
• FT.com:  Fully Vaccinated by Country(graph). Global Lockdown Stringency Index(map).
• Bloomberg.com:  International Travel Restrictions.  Case Graphs by State.
  
• NYTimes.com:  County Trends and Clusters. Local ICU Occupancy.
  
• Brown School of Public Health:  Covid Severity by State/County(map).  US Hospital Capacity(region).
  
• CovidActNow:  Covid Severity/Infection Rate by Metro Area.
  
• KFF:  US Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity.
  
• Carnegie Mellon: Covid-Like Symptoms in Community. Covid Symptom Searches on Google. Covid-Related Dr.Visits.  Restaurant Visits. Wearing Masks. (graphs)
  
• Safegraph.com:  Commerce Patterns(graphs).

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 98.75 +1.5 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 59.0 +1.75 basis points.
  

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 53.74 +.03%. 
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 4,507.0 -68.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 21.9 -1.0%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.57%.

• S&P 500 futures +.32%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.52%. 

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (WBA)/1.39
  

After the Close:

• (BB)/-.03

Economic Releases

7:30 am EST

• Challenger Job Cuts YoY for March.
  

8:30 am EST

• Personal Income for Feb. is estimated to rise +.5% versus unch. in Jan.
• Personal Spending for Feb. is estimated to rise +.5% versus a +2.1% gain in Jan.
• The PCE Core MoM for Feb. is estimated to rise +.4% versus a +.5% gain in Jan.
• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to rise to 196K versus 187K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 1340K versus 1350K prior.
  

9:45 am EST

• The MNI Chicago PMI for March is estimated to rise to 57.0 versus 56.3 in Feb.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The China Non-Manufacturing PMI report, UK GDP report, EU Unemployment Rate, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, (SPWR) analyst day and the BofA Energy/Utilities Conference could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology and consumer shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.