Africa

As 2016 comes to a close, Reuters has compiled a list of the biggest winners and losers of the year from across the globe.  Of course, after global equities started out the year on a weak note, in the closing weeks of 2016 computer algos investing professionals have rarely seen a stock they didn't want to buy more of.  That said, currency traders with exposure to the Egyptian pound or Nigerian naira didn't make out quite so well.  And then there were the Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Submitted by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

Anonymous leakers at the CIA continue to make claims about Russia and the 2016 election. In response to demands to provide evidence, the CIA has declined to offer any, refusing to meet with Congressional intelligence committees, and refusing to issue any documents offering evidence. Instead, the CIA, communicating via leaks, simply says the equivalent of "trust us."

The market was waiting for the DOJ to announce the long-awaited settlement with Deutsche Bank today. Instead, it got news of a surprise lawsuit filed by the DOJ which sued Barclays after failing to settle a long-running probe into the UK bank's involvement in pre-crisis mortgage fraud. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are in settlement negotiations with the DOJ over similar claims.

Submitted by Peter Tertzakian via OilPrice.com,

There’s less than two weeks left before the 2016 calendar gets tossed. So for the pundit community it’s time to publish the obligatory list of, “What to Watch For in in the New Year”.

It’s pointless to list the obvious. For oil and gas, pundits know that things like OPEC compliance, U.S. rig counts, pipeline angst, and Chinese consumption are on a long list of standard items that are obligatory to parse from our cluttered news feeds.

Submitted by Jayant Bhandari via Acting-Man.com,

India’s Currency Ban, Part VII

This article continues right where Part VI left off (for earlier updates on the demonetization saga see Part-I, Part-II, Part-III, Part-IV, and Part-V).