Wednesday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:

• Record Dividends, Buybacks Act as an Anchor for Japanese Stocks.
• Europe’s Property Slump Easing as Rents Increase, Report Says.
• Asian Stocks Follow US Rally Before CPI Report.
• Oil Advances With Supply in Focus as US Stockpiles Seen Lower.
• S&P 500 Gets Close to All-Time High Before Key CPI.
• GameStop, AMC Shares Soar as Traders Pounce on Meme Stocks.
• S&P 500 Is Going Nowhere Through Year-End, Goldman’s Kostin Says.
• OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever Is Leaving the Company.
• Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day: Asia.

Zerohedge:  

• CPI Preview: After Five Beats In A Row, The First Miss Of 2024?
• "We Need To Deal With The Debt" - Goldman CEO Warns Interest Costs On America's Ballooning Borrowings Means "Issues Down The Road".
• OpenAI 'Exploring' How To Responsibly Generate AI Porn.
• Citadel's Ken Griffin Tells Qatar Audience: American Campus Chaos Is "Anarchy".
• House Oversight Cmte Probing Biden Voter Mobilization Order.
• RFK Jr. And AV24 Super PAC Sue Meta, Alleging Election Interference.
• Goldman Finds Commercial Power Demand In Virginia Explodes Higher As 'Next AI Trade' Soars.
• 1 In 8 US Adults Have Tried GLP-1 Obesity Medications, Poll Finds.
• Record Household Debt, Jump In Delinquencies Signal "Worsening Financial Distress", Fed Warns.
• US stocks ultimately gained after two-way price action post-PPI - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• Snyder: "Demographic Winter Is Coming" As Fertility Rates Plummet All Over The Globe.
• Putin Plotting 'Physical Attacks' On West, UK Intelligence Warns, Amid Spate Of Mystery Arsons.
• Over Half Of Illegal Aliens In US Are Unemployed: Report.
• Will Tariffs Outweigh CPI?
• WTI Rebounds Off Two-Month Lows After API Reports Crude Draw.
• Markets see two-way action after PPI ahead of CPI - Newsquawk US Market Wrap.
• Retail Wrecking Crew Hammers Hedgies Again; Stocks/Powell Shrug Off Stagflation Signals.

Wall Street Journal:

• Biden Moves Ahead on $1 Billion in New Arms for Israel.
• Google to Roll Out AI Search Summaries to Billions.
• Ship That Hit Baltimore Bridge Suffered Power Outages Before Leaving Port, NTSB Says.
• Harvard Reaches Deal With Student Protesters to End Encampment.
• Walmart to Lay Off and Relocate Workers.
• Regulators Probe Alphabet’s Waymo After 22 Self-Driving Car Incidents.

CNBC.com:

• China’s economy reveals pockets of softness. What to watch ahead of Friday’s data.
• Google I/O wrap-up: Gemini AI updates, new search features and more announced.
• Reddit shares close near record after two-day rally driven by meme stocks. 
• Fed Chair Powell says inflation has been higher than thought, expects rates to hold steady.
  

MarketWatch.com: 

• 5 things to know about meme stocks like GameStop and AMC — and why they’re hot again.
• Stock market could suffer ‘ugly’ day if April CPI comes in above this level.
• Red Lobster may file for bankruptcy by end of May: report.

Fox News:

• Trump unleashes on 'fascists' in Dem Party after 'very good day' of trial.
• Biden repeats false claim that inflation was 9% when he became president.
• Battleground state removing noncitizens from voter registration.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• HUGE! White House Admits the Biden-Led Witch Hunt Trial Against Trump is “Related to 2024 Elections” (VIDEO).
• Northwestern University Journalism Professor Says the Quiet Part Out Loud “Our Work is Not About Objectivity”.
• BIDEN BORDER BLOODBATH: Illegal Alien From El Salvador Murders West Virginia Woman by Lighting Her on Fire.
• The W.H.O. “Pandemic Treaty” WILL be Negotiated in Secret! Our Sovereignty is Under Attack, as a Loophole is Uncovered (VIDEO).
• Taxpayer Funds at Play: Secretary Blinken Rocks Out in Kyiv, Singing “Rocking to the Free World” to Ukrainians As Russian Troops Advance on Kharkiv (VIDEO).
• WAYNE ROOT: If You’re Paying Attention, Biden Just Told Us How Democrats Plan to Rig & Steal 2024 Election.
• German Court Allows Intelligence Monitoring of Conservative AfD Party Over ‘Threat to Democracy,’ Could Ban It Altogether.

The Epoch Times:

• ‘It’s Cheating’: Biden Champions China Tariffs Among Union Workers.
• China’s Migrant Workers Look For Work Outside Construction Amidst Dismal Real Estate Market.

X:

• @catturd2

• If this doesn’t infuriate you, nothing will. Nothing to see here. Just Secretary of State Antony Blinken partying at a bar in Ukraine after delivering them another $80 BILLION. These people hate us. (video)

• @MikeBenzCyber

• So no elections in Ukraine for another 10 years. No elections (the US State Dept declares) “even if there is a long term ceasefire or peace.” (video)

• @wideawake_media

• One of the world's most respected scholars, Thomas Sowell, on the "man-made global warming" scam: (video)

• @VigilantFox

• Watch Aaron Rodgers and Tucker Carlson Dunk on Joe Biden, Zelensky, and More. Biden “can’t even walk,” doesn’t even know how to “operate a microwave,” and “sh*ts his pants every now and then.” Zelensky “looks like he’s going to be in the Village People music video.” And White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is the “single dumbest but most self-confident person in the entire nation of 350 million people.” (video)
• Ed Dowd: “The Only Way Biden Wins Is If They CHEAT”. “We’ve never seen approval numbers like this. So if he wins, if he’s still actually alive, it’ll be theft.” Official reports suggest that Biden’s approval ratings are hovering around 36%. But Biden’s real approval rating is only about 8%, according to economic forecaster Martin Armstrong and an anonymous Big Tech source. Ed Dowd revealed that he has “seen numbers” to suggest that 30% of black men and 15% of black women will vote for Trump in 2024. (video)

• @DiedSuddenly
  

• Former United States Assistant Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts explaining what the planned “Great Reset” really is. Shocking. (video)

• @Liz_churchill10
  

• Ukraine was a money-laundering operation. Shouldn’t be hard to see at this point. Our tax dollars sent for defence in Northern Ukraine was immediately stolen. Lol. (pic)

• @newstart_2024

• This is scary... Dr. Meryl Nass, a biowarfare expert, says Covid was likely made in a lab "You know, maybe it was deliberate. That's one thing you have to consider. But the other thing is you just look at the genome. There are so many different things that have been changed. There's at least a dozen things in that genome that are very odd and that cause specific medical problems. So there are things in that genome that are there to impact your immune system and make it harder for you to fight off the infection. People knew when they created the vaccine, for instance, that the spike was very toxic. (video)
  

• @WallStreetSilv

• ALERT: NYC Mayor Says ILLEGAL Aliens Could Solve Lifeguard Shortage Because They're "Excellent Swimmers". New Yorkers also want them to stay to handle cheap lawn care, cheap dish washers, cheap nanny and all sorts of jobs they deem appropriate for the permanent underclass. (video)

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 1,010,545 Reports(+992 from prior report) Through April 26th, 2024.

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 +.75% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 96.75 -1.75 basis points.

• China Sovereign CDS 62.0 -1.75 basis points.
  
• China Iron Ore Spot 114.6 USD/Metric Tonne -.03%.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 39.8 +.03%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 66.5 +1.7%.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 14.3 -.06%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures +.20%.

• S&P 500 futures +.03%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.03%.  

Morning Preview Links

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology and healthcare shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher.  The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.