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Maldives high court orders police to release former president Yameen

FILE PHOTO: People ride motorcycles past an image of Maldives President Abdulla Yameen on a road ahead of the presidential election in Male
FILE PHOTO: People ride motorcycles past an image of Maldives President Abdulla Yameen on a road ahead of the presidential election in Male, Maldives September 19, 2018. REUTERS/Ashwa Faheem

March 28, 2019

MALE (Reuters) – A court in the Maldives on Thursday ordered the release of former president Abdulla Yameen, saying there was not enough reason to hold him beyond a month under the law.

Yameen was arrested on February 18 to face charges of money laundering stemming from the lease of islands for hotel development during his tenure.

A three-judge bench of the High Court said the prosecution had not provided any reason to extend his remand in custody.

Yameen, who cultivated close ties with China, lost an election in a surprise result last year. His critics accused him of abuse of power and graft.

(Reporting by Mohamed Junayd; Writing by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: OANN

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Malaysia to begin delayed graft trial of former PM Najib next week

FILE PHOTO: Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak leaves a court in Kuala Lumpur
FILE PHOTO: Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak leaves a court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin

March 28, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The corruption trial of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak on charges linked to a multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB will start next week after a delay of nearly two months, his lawyer said on Thursday.

The postponement was seen as a blow for the government of Mahathir Mohamad, which reopened investigations into the alleged theft of $4.5 billion from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) after winning elections last May and vowed swift justice.

Originally set to begin on Feb. 12, Najib’s trial was postponed because of appeals over procedural matters raised in pre-trial hearings.

It will now begin on Wednesday, his lawyer, Farhan Read, told Reuters in a brief text message.

Najib has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power over a suspected transfer of 42 million ringgit ($10.3 million) into his bank account from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit.

The trial is the first of several criminal proceedings Najib is expected to face over the scandal, and the sum involved is a fraction of the $1 billion investigators allege made its way to his bank accounts.

He faces years in prison if convicted on a total of 42 criminal charges, most of them linked to 1MDB.

At least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, have launched money laundering and graft investigations into 1MDB, set up by Najib in 2009.

U.S. prosecutors say money stolen from the fund went to buy a private jet, luxury real estate, artwork by Picasso and Monet, as well as jewelry for Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor, who has also been charged.

(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: OANN

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Protesters converge on Sudan defense ministry sit-in to demand civilian rule

A group of protesters acting like a mock TV crew interview a demonstrator in front of the Defence Ministry in Khartoum
A group of protesters acting like a mock TV crew interview a demonstrator in front of the Defence Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan, April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

April 18, 2019

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people headed to a sit-in outside Sudan’s defense ministry on Thursday to demand that a transitional military council hand power to civilians, a Reuters witness said.

Protesters chanted “Freedom and revolution are the choice of the people” and “Civilian rule, civilian rule”.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Aidan Lewis)

Source: OANN

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Trump team overruled 25 security clearance denials: Official

WASHINGTON-- A career official in the White House security office says dozens of people in President Donald Trump's administration were granted security clearances despite "disqualifying issues" in their backgrounds including concerns about foreign influence, drug use and criminal conduct.

Tricia Newbold, an 18-year government employee who oversees the issuance of clearances for some senior White House aides, says she compiled a list of at least 25 officials who were initially denied security clearances last year because of their backgrounds. But she says senior Trump aides overturned those decisions, moves that she said weren't made "in the best interest of national security."

Newbold's allegations were detailed in a letter and memo released Monday by Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform committee. That panel has been investigating security clearances issued to senior officials including Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former White House aide Rob Porter.

The letter comes about a month after The New York Times reported that Trump ordered officials to grant Kushner a clearance over the objections of national security officials and after Newbold spoke out to NBC News and other news outlets about her concerns. It also sets the stage for another fight between the White House and the Democrat-controlled House. Cummings said he will move this week to issue his first subpoena in the probe.

Cummings said the subpoena will be for the deposition of Carl Kline, who served as the White House personnel security director and supervised Newbold. He has since left the White House for the Defense Department.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Newbold laid out her experience in the White House during a March 23 interview with bipartisan committee staff. Portions of that interview were included in the memo released by Cummings.

According to the memo, Newbold's list of overturned security clearance denials included "two current senior White House officials, as well as contractors and individuals throughout different components of the Executive Office of the President."

"According to Ms. Newbold, these individuals had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct," the memo says.

Newbold said she raised her concerns up the chain of command in the White House to no avail. Instead, she said, the White House retaliated, suspending her in January for 14 days without pay for not following a new policy requiring that documents be scanned as separate .pdf files rather than one single .pdf file.

Newbold said that when she returned to work in February, she was cut out of the security clearance process and removed from a supervisory role.

Cummings' memo doesn't name the officials on Newbold's list. The committee has previously singled out Flynn, Porter and Kushner as it sought records from the White House about how their clearances were handled.

Flynn maintained his clearance even after the White House learned he lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russia's ambassador and that he was under federal investigation by the Justice Department for his previous foreign work.

Kushner failed to initially disclose numerous foreign meetings on security clearance forms, and according to the Times, career officials recommended against granting him one before Trump personally overruled them.

Porter had high-level access with an interim security clearance even though the FBI repeatedly told the White House of past allegations of domestic violence lodged against him by two ex-wives.

Porter resigned after the allegations becoming public.

Source: Fox News Politics

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IS claims suicide bombing in Pakistan that killed 20

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at an open-air market in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta a day earlier that killed twenty people.

The Sunni militant group, which has repeatedly targeted Pakistan's minority Shiites, said in a statement posted on an IS-affiliated website Saturday that it targeted Shiites and elements of the Pakistani army.

Police said a suicide bomber hit the market Friday, killing eight Shiites, a paramilitary soldier and others. Four paramilitary troops guarding the market were among the 40 wounded.

Protests by dozens of angry Shiite youth from the Hazara community continued Saturday in Quetta for a second day, demanding greater security protection. The community has been targeted many times in recent years by Sunni militant groups.

Source: Fox News World

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For Love of Country

One week into his cross-country trip to visit 50 state capitols in 50 days, Mickey Straub felt deflated.

The inspirational author and management consultant thought to himself, “This trip is silly, as he munched on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of the trunk of his 1997 Lincoln Town Car.

Straub was in Annapolis, Maryland, 800-plus miles from home in Illinois. It was September 2012 and Barack Obama was running for a second term as president of the United States.

The trip had weighed on Straub’s heart for 10 years, but Obama’s second run pushed him to put things into motion.

His goal was to promote conservative ideals by invoking America’s unifying principles, something he felt was missing in the country at the time.

His method was to recite Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at every state capitol in the country — and to do it in 50 days or less.

But that day in Annapolis was a struggle.

Straub was feeling lonely. He missed his wife and teenaged daughter. He was taking quite a bit of time off of work. He questioned why he would set such a lofty goal in such a short deadline.

“It was a wild-haired, bold, and brilliant idea,” said buddy John D. Morris, the founding director of the Ronald W. Reagan Society of Eureka College, who suggested Straub read the Gettysburg Address at each stop.

“At the time, I thought it was crazy, but there’s something so positively fun about it,” he added.

“What Mickey did, in invoking the great, honorably the greatest speech in American history, is so profound because it highlights the founding principles of this country during a very divisive time and goes back to our ideals.”

And at each capitol, something kept him going, starting in Annapolis. By that point, Morris noted, Straub had been away from home for three weeks, and “was being pushed to the limit both physically and emotionally, and I admired his grit.”

Naval Academy plebe David Gordeuk was walking by in his all-white midshipman uniform.

Straub took Gordeuk for dinner at a steakhouse and bought him coffee to thank him for his patriotism.

Gordeuk in return gave him invaluable advice: Focus on one thing at a time.

“That’s what I did the rest of the trip. I call him my Capitol Angel.”

His wife, Charmaine, a nurse, kept things at home running smoothly, with a daughter who was knee-deep in college applications and high school tennis.

Straub hired a personal trainer to help prepare him for the haul — 14,900 miles and close to 275 hours on the road — and purchased the 1997 Lincoln Town Car to symbolize America’s 16th president.

He started his trip in Pennsylvania, near Gettysburg, and finished at Lincoln’s tomb near the Illinois capitol in Springfield. Straub flew to Alaska and Hawaii, stayed in 33 hotel rooms, and spent about two hours in each capitol. He estimates the trip cost him more than $20,000.

Straub still gets emotional recalling the venture, and says he’s still as passionate about it now as then.

His efforts became part of the Congressional Record in November 2017.

“I launched the trip on behalf of God and country, but it was actually God and country that pulled me through,” he said. “My personal mission now is to live, love, inspire, and serve.”

The trip only took 44 days. He mostly lived off Subway’s tuna sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, Starbucks, and plenty of healthy snacks. He lost 15 pounds on the trip, but gained an even deeper sense of faith and patriotism.

Straub, 61, grew up in Pennsylvania, where Lincoln’s famous 272-word address, delivered during the Civil War on the battlefield near Gettysburg, was etched into his fabric. He was always drawn to the Lincoln Memorial and mesmerized by Lincoln’s statue and his noteworthy words.

“Lincoln was all about freedom and liberty. He tried to unite us in ways that no speech has ever since. The word ‘I’ or ‘me’ is not in the Gettysburg Address — he refers to us collectively to try to unite us,” said Straub.

“And since many Republicans and Democrats claim Lincoln, I knew he would be a unifying factor.”

Straub worked for the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C., out of college, investigating military and defense personnel applying for secret and top-secret clearances. It was in Los Angeles, where he moved in the 1980s while working with Ryan Insurance Co., that he went from a Kennedy Democrat to a Reagan Republican, later moving to Chicago.

“Reagan was a true gentleman. He wanted us to work together. He embodied the true American dream,” said Straub.

His final move to Chicago was where he and Charmaine met.

“He worked hard, long hours. He was very ambitious, and all of that still applies today,” she recalled.

Politics grew more important as time went on and Straub, now president of Sales Activity Management, a Burr Ridge, Illinois-based company that provides sales management and coaching services to clients, got more involved to promote Reagan’s values after Obama was elected in 2008.

He became mayor of Burr Ridge in 2014 and was re-elected in 2017 — and in early 2018 unsuccessfully made a run for the state House of Representatives.

He resigned as mayor last November, mostly because of the time constraints — Straub was working 20-30 hours for a low stipend of $6,000 — and to focus on a book about his trip around the country.

“Abraham Lincoln united us like no other president, and in his Gettysburg Address, he never spoke about himself. He saved the nation.

“The Gettysburg Address contained within it the formula for our country’s future: God, liberty, unity, and patriotism. May it unite us again!”

Source: NewsMax America

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Putin declines to say if he wants Donald Trump to be re-elected

Russian President Putin attends the International Arctic Forum in Saint Petersburg
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a session of the International Arctic Forum in Saint Petersburg, Russia April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov

April 9, 2019

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday declined to say if he wanted to see U.S. President Donald Trump re-elected next year, citing a long list of disagreements with the Trump administration.

Putin, speaking at an Arctic forum in the Russian city of St Petersburg, said the question of Trump’s possible re-election was a matter for the American people.

But he said he hoped Moscow and Washington would be able to work together to try to resolve their many differences on the international stage once what he described as a U.S. political crisis was over.

Putin in July last year said he had wanted Trump to win the 2016 U.S. presidential election because he had spoken of wanting to repair U.S.-Russia relations.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Maria Tsvetkova; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Christian Lowe)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain's far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Spain’s far-right party VOX wave Spanish flags as they attend an electoral rally ahead of general elections in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By John Stonestreet and Belén Carreño

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Vox party, aligned to a broader far-right movement emerging across Europe, has become the focus of speculation about last minute shifts in voting intentions since official polling for Sunday’s national election ended four days ago.

No single party is anywhere near securing a majority, and chances of a deadlocked parliament and a second election are high.

Leaders of the five parties vying for a role in government get final chances to pitch for power at rallies on Friday evening, before a campaign characterized by appeals to voters’ hearts rather than wallets ends at midnight.

By tradition, the final day before a Spanish election is politics-free.

Two main prizes are still up for grabs in the home straight. One concerns which of the two rival left and right multi-party blocs gets more votes.

The other is whether Vox could challenge the mainstream conservative PP for leadership of the latter bloc, which media outlets with access to unofficial soundings taken since Monday suggest could be starting to happen.

The right’s loose three-party alliance is led by the PP, the traditional conservative party that has alternated in office with outgoing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists since Spain’s return to democracy in the 1970s.

The PP stands at around 20 percent, with center-right Ciudadanos near 14 percent and Vox around 11 percent, according to a final poll of polls in daily El Pais published on Monday.

Since then, however, interest in Vox – which will become the first far-right party to sit in parliament since 1982 – has snowballed.

It was founded in 2013, part of a broader anti-establishment, far-right movement that has also spread across – among others – Italy, France and Germany.

While it is careful to distance itself from the ideology of late dictator Francisco Franco, Vox’s signature policies include repealing laws banning Franco-era symbols and on gender-based violence, and shifting power away from Spain’s regional governments.

TRENDING

According to a Google trends graphic, Vox has generated more than three times more search inquiries than any other Spanish political party in the past week.

Reasons could include a groundswell of vocal activist support at Vox rallies in Madrid and Valencia, and its exclusion from two televised debates between the main party leaders, on the grounds of it having no deputies yet in parliament.

Conservative daily La Vanguardia called its enforced absence from Monday’s and Tuesday’s debates “a gift from heaven”, while left-wing Eldiario.es suggested the PP was haemorrhaging votes to Vox in rural areas.

Ignacio Jurado, politics lecturer at the University of York, agreed the main source of additional Vox votes would be disaffected PP supporters, and called the debate ban – whose impact he said was unclear – wrong.

“This is a party polling over 10 percent and there are people interested in what it says. So we lose more than we win in not having them (in the debates),” he said

For Jose Fernandez-Albertos, political scientist at Spanish National Research Council CSIC, Vox is enjoying the novelty effect that propelled then new, left-wing arrival Podemos to 20 percent of the vote in 2015.

“While it’s unclear how to interpret the (Google) data, what we do know is that it’s better to be popular and to be a newcomer, and that Vox will benefit in some form,” he said.

For now, the chances of Vox taking a major role in government remain slim, however.

The El Pais survey put the Socialists on around 30 percent, making them the frontrunners and likely to form a leftist bloc with Podemos, back down at around 14 percent.

The unofficial soundings suggest little change in the two parties’ combined vote, or the total vote of the rightist bloc.

That makes it unlikely that either bloc will win a majority on Sunday, triggering horse-trading with smaller parties favoring Catalan independence – the single most polarizing issues during campaigning – that could easily collapse into fresh elections.

(Election graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2ENugtw)

(Reporting by John Stonestreet and Belen Carreno, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of the OPEC is seen at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

April 26, 2019

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.

“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy near Lyon
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

April 26, 2019

By Julien Pretot

MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.

It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.

“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.

Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.

They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.

At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.

In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.

At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.

“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.

As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.

The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.

“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.

SAME TREATMENT

One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.

“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.

This is not the case with the boys, she added.

“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.

Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.

“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.

OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.

“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.

“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”

‘ONE CLUB’

The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.

While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.

There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.

“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.

“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.

Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.

“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.

“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”

Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.

“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.

“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo

April 26, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.

“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.

The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.

The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.

Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.

Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)

Source: OANN

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U.S. dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT

The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.

Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.

Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.

(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)

2/FED: UP OR DOWN?

Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.

Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.

Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.

Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.

Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.     

(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)

3/HEISEI TO REIWA

Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.

The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.

The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.

The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.

(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)

4/EARNING TURNING

Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.

Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.

That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.

The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.

Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.

GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.

(GRAPHIC: Earnings forecasts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DuO2ZF)

5/WAITING FOR THE OLD LADY

Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.

Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.

Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.

The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.

(GRAPHIC: Sterling positions – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XJwUXX)

(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)

Source: OANN

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