Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Here’s What to Watch for at the G-7 Summit in Japan.
• Japan’s Imports Fall for the First Time in Over Two Years.
• BOE’s Bailey Warns of Risk of Inflation Persistence in UK.
• CDS Panel Says Credit Suisse AT1 Wipeout Won’t Prompt Payout.
• ECB Tightening Mostly Done But Has ‘a Way to Go,’ Guindos Says.
• Asia Stocks Follow US Gain on Debt-Deal Optimism: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Steadies as US Debt Optimism Offsets Rising Crude Stockpiles.
• Biden ‘Confident’ on Reaching Debt Deal as GOP Bashes Japan Trip.
• Commercial Real Estate Prices in the US Fall for First Time Since 2011.
• Fed Inspector General Defends $378,000 Pay From Senate Criticism.
• Citadel Securities Alleges Ex-Employees Stole Trade Secrets.
• NY MTA Lost $690 Million Last Year to Fare And Toll Evasion.
• Micron to Get $1.5 Billion From Japan for Next-Gen Chips.
• Debt-Ceiling Tail Hedges Are ‘Cheap Lottery Tickets,’ Bank of America Says.

Zero Hedge:

• China Says New US Support For Taiwan "Absolutely Intolerable".
• FBI Leadership Sabotaged Clinton Foundation Investigations: Durham Report.
• FBI Audit Reveals 8,000 Unjustified Searches Of Americans' Communications.
• Jeffrey Epstein Moved $270,000 For Noam Chomsky, Paid Leon Botstein $150K
• The Hate Industry.
• "Softening Sales Trends" - Target Stores Go Woke As Consumer Slowdown Signals Accelerate.
• Wendy's Plans New Underground Delivery System for Mobile Orders.
• Supreme Court Sides With Inmate Who Wants To Be Executed With Nitrogen Gas.
• Finally some moves.
• Taxpayers Fleeced Again? Big Banks Push New FDIC Re-Funding 'Trick'.
• US stocks rallied amid optimism amongst regional banks and debt ceiling talks - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• Another Disney World Brawl: Guest Conduct Mirrors Company's and Society's Decay.
• Stocks surge on debt ceiling optimism, regional bank recovery, and retail earnings - Newsquawk US Market Wrap. 
• Banks Bounce Again As Massive Short Squeeze Lifts Stocks; Bonds Battered.

Wall Street Journal:

• Young Americans Are Dying at Alarming Rates.
• Apple Is Trying to Make This $3,000 Gadget Cool.
• Epstein Assisted Chomsky, Botstein With Financial Transactions.
• Schwab Taps Credit Markets to Raise $2.5 Billion in Debt.
• The GOP Can Win on Work Requirements and Welfare. The details show how reasonable the House debt-ceiling proposals are.

CNBC.com:

• Target expects organized retail crime-fueled losses to jump by $500 million this year.
• Google plans to use new A.I. models for ads and to help YouTube creators, sources say.
• California’s high-speed rail is running out of money, but progress has been made.

MarketWatch: 

• Opinion: Cisco sends a worrisome signal for tech demand, and the stock is falling.
• 20 AI stocks expected to post the highest compound annual sales growth through 2025.
• China’s reopening recovery is running out of steam and starting to worry financial markets.
• Ovulation tracker app Premom charged with sharing users’ personal information.
• ‘I see several worrying trends’: Americans are not paying off their credit-card debt. We should be concerned. 
• Why market timers are concerned about the gap between the Dow transports and the Dow industrials.

 Newsmax:

• Sen. Tuberville: 'Cartels Are Running Our Borders'.
• Key FBI Whistleblowers Prepare to Testify Thursday Before House.
• Jeff Clark: 'Accountability' Must Follow Durham.
• Gidley: Removal of IRS Investigators of Hunter 'Stinks'.
• Sen. Paul: Russiagate Hoaxers Should Go to 'Prison'.

Fox News:

• Lawmakers on Dems’ $14 trillion reparations demand to address harms 'since the founding’.
• Chicago mayor's allies push for $12 billion financial package to raise taxes, defund police.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• UPDATE: “This Was COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Names” – Maricopa County Signature Reviewer Testifies in Kari Lake Trial Trial She Felt “Pressured” by Supervisors Sending Already Rejected Signatures Back to Them for Approval.
• BREAKING: GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna Submits House Resolution to Expel Serial Liar Rep. Adam Schiff from Congress.
• EXCLUSIVE J6 FOOTAGE | Defense Attorney Exposes THE EXACT MOMENT.
  
• Ballots Stolen In Philadelphia On Election Day.
• Adidas Collaborates with Radical Designer – Unveils Homely Male as Company’s Newest Women’s Swimwear Model – Conservatives Respond in Brutal Fashion.
• CNN Death Spiral: Newsmax Beats CNN in Prime Time Ratings.
• Judicial Watch Chairman Tom Fitton: Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax Was Made Up By Hillary to Keep Herself Out of Jail (Video).
• Map Tracks Illegal Aliens Biden Regime Is Strategically Placing Across America… Are They Moving To Your Community?
• Here We Go: NIH Begins Testing of Clinical Trial of Universal Flu Vaccine Based on mRNA.
• Covenant School Files Motion of Intervention to Block Release of Trans Nashville Shooter’s Manifesto.
• Democrat Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill to Pack the U.S. Supreme Court, Add Four More Liberal Judges (VIDEO).
• Devin Nunes Tells OANN People Involved in the Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax Should Be Put on Trial (VIDEO).
• Elon Musk Schools Reporter on ‘Conspiracy Theories’ by Pointing Out That the Hunter Biden Laptop Was Real and ‘Election Interference’ (VIDEO).
• Miller Lite Doubles Down on Vulgar, S-Bomb-Laden Feminist Ad and Insults Americans for Airing Complaints – Company Previously Made Huge Donation to Far Left Woke Group.
  

The Epoch Times:

• Chinese Spies Highly Active in EU’s Heartland: Report.
• NIH Cuts Off Funding to Wuhan Lab at Center of COVID Leak Controversy.
• Sunak Abandons Campaign Pledge to Ban Confucius Institutes.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 959,637 Reports(+1,684 from prior week) Through May 5th, 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 +.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 130.0 -1.75 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 71.5 -1.25 basis points.
  
• China Iron Ore Spot 107.7 USD/Metric Tonne -.5%.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 47.3 -.05%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 55.6 +1.4%. 
• Bloomberg US Financial Conditions Index .00 -10.0 basis points.
  
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 20.0 -.16%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.63%.

• S&P 500 futures -.06%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.05%.  

Morning Preview Links

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