The Bank of Japan rolled forth what it 's calling a "new form of policy easing." That alone should trouble you. But when bank chief Kuroda says he doesn't think the bank has been cornered--meaning out of arrows in its monetary quiver--they've been cornered. Much the same holds for the indecisive, Janet Yellen-led Fed. Here we use the term led real loosely. About as loosely as one of Al Roaker's 15 year old suits would fit him now days. There's hardly a shortage of reformed weight loss zealots today. Brave central bankers, yes! The Fed held to its steady as she goes theme. But actually threatened all of us with the prospect of fewer cuts in 2017 and 2018,
Things never happen in a vacuum. Other central banks will now have to adjust, if for no other reason than the fear of being outliers. Remember, central bankers are not picked for their path blazing fearlessness. We're talking economists here, human behavior, not a bunch of coonskin cap-wearing Daniel Boones. These people are well trained, one of their major flaws. Most of them never saw the inside of a good bar room drunken brawl. For a lot of them their version of making love is still most likely holding hands in the last row of a darkened theater.
Another way to recognize for certain the counter intuitive is check with MSM. Specifically, Bloomberg. Late last year, October to be exact, the editorial board released this gem: "Abernomics Is Working." Sure it is. From first blush it looks as if overnight investors got what they wanted as Reuters reported:
Asian shares surged on Thursday, taking their cue from Wall Street, after the Federal Reserve left U.S. interest rates unchanged and slowed the pace of future hikes, slugging the dollar and lifting commodity prices. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS advanced 0.9 percent in its sixth straight session of gains, just 1.1 percent off its one-year high touched earlier this month. Australian shares rose 0.9 percent, while South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 advanced 1 percent.
Asia's strong gains follow a surge of 1.1 percent for the S&P 500 .SPX, 0.9 percent for the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI and 1.3 percent for the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC, which closed at a record high. Thursday was a Japanese holiday. But the Nikkei closed out Wednesday up 1.2%. So the next open session could be a blazing one for Japanese equities, depending how well that meal gets digested within the next 24 hours.
CNBC reported: U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading at $45.59 per barrel at 0045 GMT, up 25 cents from their previous close. The contract had already gained as much as 3 percent the day before. Prices jumped after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) surprised the market with a 6.2 million barrel fall in crude oil inventories last week to 504.6 million barrels. Forecasters in a Reuters poll had expected a 3.4 million-barrel build. "Oil prices rose after EIA data showed U.S. crude inventories declined to the lowest level since February," ANZ bank said in a note on Thursday.
CNBC reported: U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading at $45.59 per barrel at 0045 GMT, up 25 cents from their previous close. The contract had already gained as much as 3 percent the day before. Prices jumped after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) surprised the market with a 6.2 million barrel fall in crude oil inventories last week to 504.6 million barrels. Forecasters in a Reuters poll had expected a 3.4 million-barrel build. "Oil prices rose after EIA data showed U.S. crude inventories declined to the lowest level since February," ANZ bank said in a note on Thursday.
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