Tuesday Watch

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:

• US-China Rift Eases After Blinken Trip, But Frictions Remain
• Xi Tells Blinken ‘Very Good’ That Progress Made on US-China Ties.
• Chinese Banks Disappoint With Modest Cut to Five-Year Rate.
• Yen Pressure Mounts With Trade-Weighted Gauge at Two-Decade Low.
• ECB’s Guindos Says Slowdown in Core Inflation May be Limited.
• RBA Frets Over Inflation Risk in ‘Finely Balanced’ Rate Call.
• Equities Fall as China Loan-Rate Cuts Underwhelm: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Drifts Lower on Concern Chinese Stimulus Will Fall Short.
• Treasury Yields Jump to Extend Global Bond Slide Before Powell.
• Staley Sought Business, Family Advice From Epstein, Emails Show.
• Aircraft Mega-Deals Have Industry Veterans Warning About a Bubble.
• California Puts a Price on Slavery’s Legacy and Draws a Blueprint for Reparations.
• Tropical Storm Bret Forms in Atlantic Headed for the Caribbean.
• A Zero-Day Flaw in Hacked MOVEit Software Was Exposed on Twitter.

Zero Hedge:

• China Says Xi, Blinken Meeting Was Just A "Courtesy", Castigates US For "Misperceptions".
• "We Are Restricting Freedom... For The Common Good": Irish Green Party Calls For Limiting Free Speech
• 10 Very Important Questions That We Should All Be Asking Right Now
• Trump 'Needs To Be Shot': Democratic Lawmaker Quickly Backpedals During On-Air Tirade.
• Ron Paul: We Need A Peace President.
• School Principal Quits Job To Homeschool Her 3 Kids On A 10-Acre Homestead: 'I Wanted To Raise Thinkers'.
• The Berkeley Files: Faculty Applicants Were Ranked On Their Support For DEI Policies And Practices.
• Global Markets Drop, US Futures Flat In Muted Holiday Trading.
• It is getting extremely extreme.
• Confidence In America Is Collapsing.
• Global Economic Surprise Plummets As Eurozone Enters Recession.
• Victor Davis Hanson: The Ukraine-American Gordian Knot.
• Vax-Pushing Debate Dodger Linked To 'Chimeric' Coronavirus Creation In Wuhan.
• Rand Paul: "Bill Gates Is Largest Funder Of Trying To Find Viruses In Caves And Bring Them To Big Cities".
• Key Events This Week: No Data Releases But Fed Speakers Galore Including Powell (Twice).
• "Extreme Greed": A "Prescient Signal Of A Durable Economy" Or A Giant Bull Trap
• Bazball.
• Disney Pixar Movie With Non-Binary Character And Woke Themes Bombs.
• China Has A Simple Solution To Its Soaring Youth Unemployment.
• Tearing Apart The Governing Consensus.
• The Utter Failure Of Merrick Garland: Turley.
• "No One's Going Short Here".
• Black Americans Support, US Majority Reject Reparations.
• Juneteenth Headlines Recap - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.

Wall Street Journal:

• I Paid for Free Speech at Arizona State. The university is firing me for organizing an event featuring Charlie Kirk and Dennis Prager. 
• Homeless Numbers Rise in U.S. Cities.
• Internal JPMorgan Report Provides New Details on Bank’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
• Why Inflation Around the World Just Won’t Go Away.
• How Much America’s Biggest Companies Are Paying Their Workers.
• U.S. Becomes Transgender-Care Outlier as More in Europe Urge Caution.
• SVB Clients Who Lost Deposits Remain on the Hook for Loans.
• New Land Grab by Oil Giants Is Deep Underground.

CNBC:

• U.S. lawmakers to urge automakers to cut their reliance on China.
• China cuts two more key lending rates as economy sputters.

MarketWatch.com:

• Spotify’s Bill Simmons calls Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘grifters’ after podcast deal ends
• This incredible chart shows the close relationship between the S&P 500 and Fed liquidity
• Alibaba, other tech stocks drop as Goldman downgrades China growth forecast

NewsMax:

• FBI Taking Years Hunting for Trump Jan. 6 Ties.
• Giroir: GAO Report Proves Fauci 'Misleading'.
• Gays Against Groomers Rep: Dodgers' Actions 'Offensive'.
• Esper: China ‘Can’t Afford’ to Get on Our ‘Bad Side’.

Fox News:

• Dem slammed after accidentally saying Trump 'needs to be shot': 'Quite the Freudian slip'
• YouTube takes down interview with Democrat presidential candidate for 'misinformation'.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• “We Do Not Support Taiwan Independence” – Tony Blinken Gives Green Light to Chicoms to Invade Taiwan (VIDEO).
• 28-Year-Old Rising MMA Star in ‘Peak Physical Condition’ Hospitalized After Cardiac Arrest.
• FOX NEWS IS GONE: Bret Baier Attacks Trump on Classified Documents But Defends Pence After He Lied About Holding the Documents Illegally at His Home (VIDEO).
• Kari Lake’s HIT SONG “81 Million Votes My Ass” Topping The Charts – Will Debut on Billboard’s Hot Singles Chart This Week.
  
• Here We Go: American Medical Association Claims BMI is “Racist” and Should Not Be Used Due to Its Origin in 19th Century White Body Standards
• Lindsey Graham Defends FBI, DOJ and the Two-Tiered Justice System – Accuses “Irresponsible” Republicans of Stoking Violence in Opposing Blatant DOJ Lawlessness.
• Several People Killed, Dozens Injured as Juneteenth Celebrations in North Carolina, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Washington Turn Bloody.
• Situation in Israel and Middle-East Deteriorating, Biden Asleep at the Wheel.
• NPR “Honors” Fathers By Celebrating Pregnant Dad Story.
• FLASHBACK: As TGP Previously Reported, Dr. Peter Hotez Received Millions of Dollars from Dr. Tony Fauci in Same Grant that Funded Chinese Communist Regime Scientists.
• Scale of Bidens’ Illegal Payment Scandal Triples Overnight.
• Halderman Report: Dominion Machines Can Be Defeated During Certification Testing and Can Spread Malware Throughout a County.
• TGP EXCLUSIVE: Limited Maricopa County 2022 Ballot Signature Review Shows Obviously Mismatched Signatures Accepted at Level One – VIEW RECORDS HERE.
• Vaccine Promoter Peter Hotez Cowers from Debating Robert Kennedy Jr. on COVID Vaccine Disaster – Responds to Elon Musk by Begging for Cash.

The Epoch Times:

• Xi Calling Bill Gates ‘An Old Friend’ Is Not a Compliment: Expert.
• South Korea Conducts Nationwide Probe Into Alleged Covert Chinese ‘Police Stations’.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 964,389 Reports(+1,106 from prior week) Through June 2nd, 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 indices are -.75% to unch. on average.
• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 111.75 -1.0 basis point.
  
• China Sovereign CDS 58.75 -2.5 basis points.
• China Iron Ore Spot 112.7 USD/Metric Tonne -1.0%.
  
• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 45.3 -.01%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 64.3 +.4%.
• Bloomberg US Financial Conditions Index .20 -3.0 basis points. 
  
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 16.6 +.6%. 
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures n/a.
• S&P 500 futures -.24%.
• NASDAQ 100 futures -.22%.

Morning Preview Links

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by financial and industrial 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 week.