What Caused the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank?

Xi Jinping Refocuses On Taiwan With Renewed Political Outreach China hosted a high-profile meeting between Xi Jinping and a senior Taiwanese opposition figure from the Kuomintang (KMT), marking a notable resumption of party-to-party engagement after years of limited direct contact, according to Nikkei Asia. The meeting was tightly choreographed, featuring an extended handshake, formal seating arrangements, and controlled media coverage. These elements were designed to convey parity and legitimacy, signaling that Beijing views engagement with Taiwan’s opposition as politically substantive. The KMT has historically supported closer economic and political ties with mainland...

"The Situation Is Dire": Half Of Available Global LNG Tankers Are Trapped In The Persian Gulf There are thousands of ships in the global oil tanker fleet, by some estimates nearly as many as 9000 (and that excludes sanctions vessels). Just a fraction of these are either waiting to enter the blockaded straits of hormuz, or to leave it.  By contrast, the global LNG fleet is a tiny fraction, and now most of it is stuck inside the Persian Gulf.  According to the WSJ, at least 20 LNG carriers a bout half...

US Retail Sales Dropped In January As Weather, Weak Gas Prices Weigh This morning's retail sales data is for January (still lagging due to the govt shutdown) and is expected to be a decline (BofA's omniscient analysts see a worse than consensus drop MoM, due in large part to weather disruptions). The actual print was a decline but slightly better than expected at -0.2% MoM. Despite two months of no increase, sales rose 3.2% YoY in January (increased from December) Source: Bloomberg The decline was driven by a decline in sales at gas...