Germany

S&P futures are again modestly in the green as European shares hold steady ahead of a meeting of the Catalan regional parliament and a possible declaration of independence by Catalan leader Puigdemont, while Asian shares rise a the second day. The dollar declined for the 3rd day, its losses accelerating across the board amid growing concerns that Trump's tax reform is once again dead following the Corker spat and a rejection from Paul Ryan, with the move gaining traction after China set the yuan’s fixing stronger for the first time in seven days.

After German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted late last year that she had “lost control” of Germany’s refugee crisis after adopting an “open door” policy that fueled an unprecedented spike in crime, her weakened ruling coalition announced Monday that it would seek to impose new restrictions on the number of refugees admitted to the country.

Germany famously admitted nearly one million refugees from Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and other war zones in 2015, a five-fold increase over the previous year.

With no North Korean nuclear test over the weeknd contrary to a Friday morning rumor, S&P futures rebounded and edged higher as European stocks gain, led by Spanish shares after mass demonstrations in favor of Spanish unity and speculation Catalonia may back down on unilateral independence demands, while Chinese mainland stocks reopened catching up to gains missed during the holiday week following last weekend's RRR cut.

Authored by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

Following the disappointing for Angela Merkel and her CDU German election results, which propelled the populist AfD into Germany's political establishment with 92 members of parliament, the first casualty was Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who in a few days will relinquish his long-held post and move on to the ceremonial role of Bundestag president.