Saudi Arabia Hands Out More Money

In an effort to quell whispers of revolution, The House of Saud bribed its citizens again. King Abdullah announced they would be building 500,000 new homes, give money to the unemployed, set the minimum wage at $800 per month and mandated all civil servants, students and members of the military receive 2 months of “bonus pay” for their loyalty to the crown.

Watch oil

Update: A French spokesman was quoted saying operations could commence “within hours.”

Post Japanese quake, Apple is having a difficult time procuring NAND and DRAM memory chips, as well as glass for its iPad 2.

Toshiba, #2 global supplier of NAND flash, said their factories in Japan would be closed for at least 1 month. Since then, spot prices for both NAND and DRAM have soared.

Because of these difficult headwinds, there is a distinct chance Apple’s margins will be hampered in Q2.

It’s being reported that an operator at working on reactors 3 & 4 said power would likey resume by 3/20.

As minor progress or lack of outright disaster in Japan permeates the dog brains of investors, shares in Asia are being bid up fanatically, with the NIKKEI posting a 3% move. Other markets are up, but nothing as exceptional as Japan.

US futures are ripping higher by 1%. And commodities are up across the board.

In other words: risk on.

Crack spreads are up another 1.8% today, following yesterday’s 5.5% surge, to $24 (new highs).

Refinery related names are reacting in kind, with gains in ALJ (+7.4%), CVI (+3.4%), VLO (+1.6%) and TSO (+1.5%)

UPDATE: Spreads closed up 2.27% to $24.08.

Thus far:

GMR -23%

SANM -17%

SCLN -17%

CBEH -15%

FEED -13%

GES -11%

FUQI -10%

Thus far:

UCBI +26%

MAXY +26%

SWS +22%

FTK +20%

VRA +14%

MRT +12%

SSN +10%

CIGX +10%

CGR +10%

Japanese stocks are lifting higher on the expectation that their nuclear plant will not melt down, leading to the creation of GODZILLA, who would gladly eat the city of Tokyo for lunch.

Here are the outperformers:

iiJi +7.7%

PC +7%

KYO +6.4%

NJ +5.6%

SNE +5.5%

NMR +4.8%

KNM +4.5%

Due to the ridiculous amount of snow hitting the U.S. this winter, there is an expectation of massive flooding in the northern Great plains and the midwest. Sandbags have been deployed near the banks of rivers. However, the bigger issue is delay to plant. Record moisture is fucking with the small brains of farmers, forcing them to choose soybeans over wheat and vice versa. Also, the arduous conditions threatens to murder cattle, across the board.

Bottom line: Wheat prices are at new highs and there is a broad expectation that livestock and this year’s harvest will be dreadful.

Due to supply concerns out of Japan, with 1/3rd of their refineries offline, crack spreads or profit margins for refiners have soared over the past week.

As of now, they are up 0.7%, erasing earlier losses, approaching $24. It’s worth noting, crack spreads were up more than 5% yesterday.

European futures have erased earlier losses and are now pointing to a broad based rally of almost 1%.

U.S. futures have been strong all night and are now at session highs, also suggesting a 1% jump at the open.

Five year swaps for Japanese sovereign debt widened 12 basis points to 119.5. Corporate CDS have seen similar moves, especially in Tokyo Electric CDS, which have blown out completely—up more than 600% in the past week.

The fear lies in the 200%+ debt to GDP figure, as borrowers question Japan’s ability to rebuild and effectively service their debt over the long term. Japanese officials, acknowledging this fact, have discussed levying a special one time tax on its populous, in order to raise funds.

In the old head stuck in the toilet bowl monetary policy move, India’s central bank raised rated to 6.75% from 6.5% in order to “fight inflation.”

India “enjoyed” a CPI reading of 8.3% last month.

Despite a late pick up in Asian markets, they ended decidedly lower for the evening, with the Heng Seng standing out down more than 2%. The NIKKEI rebounded and flirted with green, but is now lower more than 1.4%. The Shanghai added to the carnage,  lower by more than 1%.

Small LCD factory has sustained significant damage due to quake and will be shut down for at least 1 month.

Kyodo is reporting that radiation levels have not gone done, despite Tepco’s helicopter over nuke plant water trick.

Speculation of further BOJ intervention into the currency markets has led to a dollar rally versus the yen, now trading above 79. Earlier this evening, it was 76.

S&P futs are 7.5 points above fair value or 0.6%. Both Japanese and Hong Kong markets are down less than 2%.

Related: Food commodities are soaring, on average up around 1.5%.

Update: the broader based Japanese Topix is now up. Crisis over.

It’s being reported by police in Japan, the confirmed death toll is 5,178 and 8,606 missing.

Additionally, several thousand more are injured.

These fuckers, alongside lying bitches at GE, have been lying since 1975. Falsified records, coercion, the works.

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