The Morning Read

Feels good to be back at my desk. I hope your long weekend was as good as mine. Here is what I am reading this morning.

• How activist shareholders turned from villains into heroes - (Economist)
• Alcoa to close Australian aluminum smelter - (WSJ)
• Time to stop obsessing about central banks - (Alphaville)
• Blackberry: Dan Loeb buys 10m shares - (Barron's)
• BOJ surprises markets - (WSJ)
• The risk of Chinese monetary policy failure - (The Market Monetarist)

"Not every mistake is a foolish one." - Cicero

Let's take a quick peek at the markets.

Us futures are modestly higher this morning: /ES +2.25, /YM +29.00, /NQ +4.25

The Bank of Japan sent the Nikkei soaring 3.13% as the central bank announced they will expand loans available to commercial banks (at nearly 0%). They will also lengthen the duration of those loans, giving Japanese banks a better carry trade. This must mean that policy makers (perhaps even Shinzo Abe himself) are growing concerned about hitting their inflation target.

You can build houses on fault lines for a long time before an earthquake strikes.