Asia

European, Asian stocks and S&P futures all drop after traders were left with a sour taste from the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s order halting some immigration and ahead of central bank decisions from the U.S. and Japan.  Markets in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam are all shut due to the Lunar New Year public holiday, leading to a quiet Asian session. Oil rebounded after sliding as much as 0.7%.  Gold was unable to hold its overnight gains and has dipped into the red to $1,190 after rising just shy of $1,200 in early trading.

While we remain in the purely abstract, theoretical and hypothetical realm of Trump tax reform - there have been no concrete proposals floated yet, with Trump as recently as a week ago slamming the critical border-adjustment tax, only to full reverse himself on it just a few days later - Bank of America has created a useful matrix taking a deep dive into the potential (and we do underline the word potential, because at this rate Trump may spend much of his first year dealing with immigration reform and Obamacare) implications of Trump's tax reform.

In the harshest warning yet that China is actively contemplating a worst case scenario for its diplomatic relations with the US, a senior Chinese military official said that “a war within the president’s term’ or ‘war breaking out tonight’ are not just slogans, they are becoming a practical reality.” The remarks, first reported by the SCMP, were published on the People’s Liberation Army website in response to the escalating rhetoric towards China from America's new administration, and as Beijing braces itself for a possible deterioration in Sino-US ties, with a par

The Federal Reserve is hell-bent on tanking the economy in order damage President Donald Trump and turn the people against him, according to former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). “The Federal Reserve’s policies of printing trillions of dollars back in ’08-09 have locked into place a serious financial crisis at some point in our future,” Paul stated. Explaining that the collapse will occur in the next 12-18 months, Paul warned that the unaccountable Federal Reserve is so powerful even the President won’t be able to stop the crisis.

Lifting of Sanctions Could Be Costly To Russia

Paul Craig Roberts

Tweets on social media say Trump is about to lift the sanctions placed on Russia by the Obama regime. Being a showman, Trump would want to make this announcement himself, not have it made for him by someone outside his administration. Nevertheless, the social media tweets are a good guess.

Reports are that Trump and Putin will speak tomorrow. The conversation cannot avoid the issue of sanctions.