Friday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:        

• Xi Tightens Communist Party Grip Over China in Major Revamp.
• Turmoil Means ECB Will Finally Set Rates One Meeting at a Time.
•  Global Banking Turmoil Threatens to Topple Mexico’s ‘Super Peso’.
• ‘Seek-and-Destroy’ Markets Pile Pressure on Global Central Banks.
• Asia Stocks Rise on Bank Rescue, Bond Yields Climb: Markets Wrap.
• Microsoft to Bring OpenAI’s Chatbot Technology to Office Apps.
• A Fast and Furious Year by the Fed That Blindsided Everyone.
• Banks Borrow $164.8 Billion From Fed in Rush to Backstop Liquidity.
• Money Market Funds Get Biggest Cash Inflow Since Early 2020.
• Schwab Clients Pull $8.8 Billion From Prime Funds This Week.

Wall Street Journal:

• Bank’s Executives Sold $12 Million in Stock in Months Before Crash.
• Streetwise: A Cost to Moral Hazard. 
• Credit Suisse Shares Rebound After Bank Secures Loan.
• TikTok CEO Says Sale Won’t Protect U.S. Data.
• Global Supply of Cocaine Hits Record Level, U.N. Says.
• Heard on the Street: Banks’ Plan Won’t Solve Bigger Problems.
• Why Washington Chose to Rescue SVB Depositors.
• Tiger Global Writes Down Venture Funds’ Bets by 33%.
• Why Is the Maternity Mortality Rate So High in the U.S.?
• Wave of Stealthy China Cyberattacks Hits U.S.
• More Students Are Turning Toward Apprenticeships.
• Did ESG Help Sink SVB? One entrepreneur says the bank was offering ‘basically subprime business loans.’

Fox News:

• Dem-run city becomes the latest to crack down on gas appliances as part of liberal climate agenda.

CNBC.com:

• Wall Street rides to the rescue as 11 banks pledge First Republic $30 billion in deposits.
• One year after the first rate hike, the Fed stands at policy crossroads.
• Banks take advantage of Fed crisis lending programs.

MarketWatch:   

• First Republic gets $30 billion in deposits from 11 major U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase, BofA and Wells Farg.
• U.S. stocks set for wild swings as trillions in options contracts set to expire Friday.
• YouTube TV hikes prices to $72.99 a month, citing high content costs.

Zero Hedge:

• The Trump, DeSantis, Tucker Effect: New Polls Show Republicans Increasingly Done With Ukraine.
• Biden DOJ Stands Accused Of Hiding This Evidence Of Biden-China Corruption: Sperry.
• Target Shutters Downtown Philly Location Citing "Declining Performance".
• 'An All-Out Assault On The Second Amendment': Gun Rights Groups Respond To Biden’s New Executive Order.
• Get Woke, Go Broke? It's Time To Talk About SVB's Ties To The World Economic Forum.
• Watch: Border Patrol Chief Testifies Border Is Not Secure, Wall Needed.
• Big Banks Agree To Historic $30 Billion Unsecured Deposit Injection In First Republic Bank
• The Tyrants Are Passing State Laws To Push CBDCs.
• James O’Keefe Announces New Project After Project Veritas Ouster.
• The Liquidity Phase Of The Bank Crisis Is Over... But The Solvency Phase Is Getting Worse.
• FedEx Soars After Boosting Earnings Forecast Amid Aggressive Cost-Cutting.
• Pornhub Acquired By Canadian Private Equity Firm 'Ethical Capital Partners'.
• As Bank Crisis Looms, Biden's Aggressive Focus On Firearms Is Suspicious.
• Americans Value Truck-Parking Facilities, But Not In Their Backyards.
• Risk appetite recovers on distressed bank lifelines - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• Fed Balance Sheet Explodes By $300BN As Bank Bailouts Lead To Record Discount Window Surge.
• Stocks bought and bonds sold as distressed banks are offered a lifeline - Newsquawk US Market Wrap.
• Stocks Soar As Big-Banks' Depo-Reacharound Rescues Regionals; Bonds Dumped.

Newsmax:      

• Rep. Comer: Bank Records Show Hallie Biden Got China Cash.
• Rep. Turner to Newsmax: Biden Family's Business Links 'Lead to China'.
• Kimberly Guilfoyle: SVB's 'Woke' Actions 'Disturbing'.
• Comer: Bank Records Show Hallie Biden Got China Cash.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• UPDATE: Contracts Released For CDC Purchasing Of Phone Data To Track Americans’ Compliance With COVID Lockdowns.
• BREAKING: House Oversight Committee Shows Bidens Received $1 Million after China Wired $3 Million to Biden Associate.
• “I Was Severely Injured by the Moderna Vaccine” – Former Pussycat Dolls Member Shares Her Vaccine Injury Story (VIDEO).
• The Great Reset: Journalist Discovers Greta Thunberg’s Ties to Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum.
• ALL IN THE FAMILY: House Oversight Shows Daughter-in-Law Hallie Biden Got China Cash in 2017 While Sleeping with Her Dead Husband’s Brother Hunter.
• Top Executives at First Republic Bank Sold Millions of Dollars in Company Stock Before Shares Plummeted – And No SEC Filing!
• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Admits Joe Biden’s Inflation Crisis is Linked to the Banking Crisis (VIDEO).
• McCarthy’s Approval Surges After Release Of Jan 6th Tapes, Trump Praise – Far Higher Than RINO Paul Ryan’s At Similar Point.
• Rasmussen Poll Shows a Majority of ALL Voters Believe Trump’s 2020 Campaign Was Sabotaged by GOP D.C. Politicians.

The Epoch Times: 

• Demand Plunges in China, Contradicting CCP’s Official Narrative About Economy.
• China Ramping Up Intelligence Collection Efforts Against US: Expert.
• UK Bans TikTok From Government Phones.

 

Twitter: 

• @backtolife_2000 - Only ONE member of failed SVB's board had a career in investment banking - and the rest were Obama, Clinton mega-donors who 'grieved' when Trump won including one who went to Shinto shrine 'to pray'.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 942,034 Reports(+3,859 from prior week) Through March 3rd, 2023.
  

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.

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are unch. to +1.0% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 135.0 -2.25 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 76.0 -4.0 basis points. 
• China Iron Ore Spot 129.0 USD/Metric Tonne -.12%.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 47.2 +.04%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index  48.6 +.9%. 
• Bloomberg US Financial Conditions Index -.76 +13.0 basis points.
  
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 23.9 +1.3%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.39%.

• S&P 500 futures -.14%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.07%.  

Morning Preview Links

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly higher, boosted by financial and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 75% net long heading into the day.