Friday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:

• China Is Scaring Away Foreign Investors That Its Cities Want.
• China Housing Rebound Fizzling Shows Risks to Economic Recovery.
• SoftBank Stock Drops After Vision Fund Loses Money Again.
• China’s Copper Woes Damp Spirits of Traders in Asia.
• Japan Stocks, US Futures Edge Up; USTs Hold Rally: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Rises as US Signals It Aims to Refill Oil Reserve After June.
• Musk Says Twitter to Purge Inactive Accounts and Followers May Drop.
• Lyft Will Discontinue Pooled Rides, Launch New Airport Feature.
• Carl Icahn’s Firm OKs Buybacks, Increases Shares Backing His Debt.
• Fees Thwart Switching Cloud Computing Providers, Critics Say.
• Ken Griffin’s Hand-Picked Math Prodigy Runs Market-Making Empire.
• Jamie Dimon Says US Needs to 'Finish' the Bank Crisis.
• Fed’s Kashkari Says Inflation Too High, Wages Softened Somewhat.
• Google and Amazon’s Social Shopping Push Threatens Reign of Instagram Influencers.

Zero Hedge:

• Top Ten Moments From Trump's CNN Town Hall; AOC And Jake Tapper Livid
• US Failure To Recognize Natural Immunity Negatively Affected Pandemic Response: NIH Scientist
• "We Have Reached Our Limit": NYC Suspends Shelter Rules Ahead Of Title 42 Expiration.
• Senator Ron Johnson: 'We Have Evidence Hunter Biden Paid Sex-Trafficked Prostitutes And The Media Isn't Even Looking Into It'.
• Taiwan Says Its Military Won't Let The US Blow Up Semiconductor Factories.
• FBI Stonewalls On Smoking Gun Document Alleging Biden Family 'Criminal Scheme'.
• Two Youths Commit Suicide In Taxpayer-Funded Cross-Sex Hormone Study.
• Bond Turmoil As Biden Delays Debt Ceiling Meeting, Treasury Cash Burn Accelerates.
• Biden's Ex-Disinfo Queen Slaps Fox With Defamation Suit.
• US stocks were mostly lower as regional banking concerns resurfaced - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• Here's How To Hedge The Coming Debt Ceiling Crisis.
• DHS Producing Videos Teaching Citizens How To Identify "Radicalized" Conservatives.
• The "what if" bull.
• Weaponizing Death.
• Fed Emergency Bank Loans Soared As Money Market Inflows Continue To Surge.
• Risk-sentiment sours on more bank woes but GOOGL offers respite for Nasdaq - Newsquawk US Market Wrap.
• Mouse-House Mullered, Banks Battered, But Mega-Cap Tech Turbocharged.
  

Wall Street Journal:

• The Executive Who Keeps Tesla Rolling Isn’t Elon Musk.
• SoftBank Shifts War Chest to AI.
• NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino Is in Talks to Become Twitter CEO.
• Biden’s CIA Assist in the 2020 Presidential Election. The agency, not only retirees, turns out to have worked on the Hunter excuse letter.
• Homes in This Community Cost Millions, Have ‘Frozen’ Bedrooms.
• Migrant Influx Overwhelms Border as Title 42 Ends.

CNBC.com:

• Debt ceiling meeting between Biden and congressional leaders postponed until next week.
• Meta unveils A.I. ‘testing playground’ to help advertisers build campaigns.
• Elon Musk says he’s stepping down as Twitter CEO, will oversee product.
• PacWest shares tumble 20% after regional bank says deposits fell 9.5% last week.
• Pfizer CEO says Medicare will likely face legal action over drug price negotiations.
• Google’s new A.I. search could hurt traffic to websites, publishers worry.
• Bitcoin falls below $27,000 as U.S. regulatory crackdown pressures crypto market makers.
  

MarketWatch:

• Profit risks for 10 large regional banks: How a reversal of pandemic deposit trends could cut earnings.
• ‘1.5 billion square feet of office space could become obsolete,’ says Boston Consulting Group.
• Peloton stock closes at new all-time low after recall announcement.
• Rivian, Lucid and Fisker navigate a ‘treacherous road’ as they struggle to match Tesla’s success.
• ‘The Fed is way late and they’ve already screwed it up.’ This stock strategist is banking on gold, silver and Treasurys to weather a recession.

Newsmax:

• Biden, McCarthy Debt Limit Meet Delayed;  Cuts Now on the Table.
• Peter Reagan: Why Is Janet Yellen Panic-Calling CEOs?

Fox News:

• Democrats and independent voters raise major concerns after bombshell Biden family allegations.
• Manhattan DA will charge Marine veteran in subway chokehold death.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• AOC Melts Down Over CNN Hosting Trump Town Hall: “CNN should be ashamed of themselves…The audience is cheering him on and laughing at the host”.
• Concerned Father Who Gave Heartfelt Speech at School Board Meeting Lost Job After Radical Progressive Activists Began Attacking and Harassing Him – Please Help (VIDEO).
• Dr. Peter McCullough: 3 Painful Facts About Spike Protein That The Media Ignores.
• Bud Light Sales Still PLUNGING Across the Entire US – Down 29% in Rocky Mountain States – HSBC Downgrades Anheuser-Busch Stock!
• Highly Maneuverable Chinese Spaceplane Touches Down After 276 Days in Orbit – Craft Docked Several Times With Another Object – May Be Used as Weapon to Target US Satellites.
• Mourning in America: Democrats and Fake News Hacks Suffer Collective Meltdown Following Trump’s Triumphant Return to CNN.
• Former DEA Official Derek Maltz Joins Rose Unplugged: As Title 42 Expires, Expect A Tsunami of Fentanyl Pouring Into Your Community (AUDIO).
• Fact Check CNN: Trump Was Right and Annihilates Kaitlan Collins Over Chinatown Classified Documents.
  

The Epoch Times:

• China, Taliban Deepen Ties as Afghanistan Joins Beijing’s Infrastructure Plan.
• China’s Shrinking Imports, Slower Exports Growth Darken Economic Outlook.
• IN-DEPTH: China Escalates Its Cyberwar Against the West.

Twitter: 

• @DC_Draino - CNN: “Why does Trump keep calling out 2020 election fraud?” Um, maybe it’s because more than 60% of Americans believe it was rigged, including nearly half of *Democrats*. The fringe position now is thinking there *wasn’t* fraud. (poll)
• @SuburbanDrone - Is everybody happy now? (graph)
• @RebsBrannon - This isn’t a border town. This is Chicago where hundreds of migrants are ending up across the country. Here they’re camping at a police station. (video)
• @KimDotcom - Powerful moment: CNN: "Do you want Ukraine to win this war?" Trump: "I don’t think about it in terms of winning and losing, I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people." *Massive audience applause* The people want peace. (video)

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 957,953 Reports(+2,601 from prior week) Through April 28th, 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 -.25% to +.25% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 130.5 -1.5 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 72.75 +.75 basis point.
  
• China Iron Ore Spot 98.5 USD/Metric Tonne unch.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 47.7 unch.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 53.0 +1.5%. 
• Bloomberg US Financial Conditions Index -.14 -4.0 basis points.
  
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 20.5 -.12%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +..30%.

• S&P 500 futures +.15%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.20%.  

Morning Preview Links

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