The Morning Read

Here are some interesting reads to start the day.

• Beijing signals new worry on growth - WSJ
• Why is Ukraine's economy in such a mess? - Economist
• Deflation risk, UK edition - Alphaville
• China solar credit does not equal gold - Alphaville
• Marijuana decriminalization approved by Washington D.C. - Bloomberg

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."

-Steve Jobs

This Friday is "non-farms Friday," meaning non-farm payroll data for February is due to be released at 8:30am. After the volatile start to this week, I would expect things to quiet down ahead of this Friday's number.

Overnight, Asian markets were mixed as China is facing its first onshore corporate bond default (see "China solar credit does not equal gold" above). The Shanghai lost 0.93%, while Hong Kong trading saw a modest decline of 0.34%. In Japan, all was well - the Nikkei added 1.20% to finish at 14,897.

As of 7:30am, European markets are all taking very modest haircuts. The FTSE is down 0.60% and the German DAX is off by 0.31%. US futures are flat this morning - not a whole lot of excitement to note.

In terms of what I'm doing today - may continue to look for some more long exposure, but in the way of selling premium (i.e. selling out-of-the-money put spreads). There are not a whole lot of names "on sale" - that don't deserve to be - with the broad market printing new highs.

See anything interesting? Let me know. Have a great day.