United States

While everything was awesome last week (apart from the last 10 minutes), it appears lower oil prices this week (WTI just crossed back below Brent's price and under $37 once again) is not "unequivocally good" for US equity markets. Following the bloodbath in China's "B" Shares overnight, traders are hoping this pain will stop once the machines "get back to work" at 930ET...

If this holds, S&P 500 will open back in the red for 2015.

As Bloomberg reports,

• The Year Nothing Worked: Stocks, Bonds, Cash Go Nowhere (BBG)
• Oil falls toward $37, near 11-year low, as excess supply weighs (Reuters)
• End of easy money for mini-refiners splitting U.S. shale? (Reuters)
• Shale's Running Out of Survival Tricks as OPEC Ramps Up Pressure (Reuters)
• 'Safe’ Puerto Rican Debt Stirs Worries (WSJ)
• These Will Be Wall Street's Most In-Demand Jobs Next Year (BBG)
• ‘Star Wars’ Becomes Fastest to Pass $1 Billion at Box Office (WSJ)
• The Hustlers at Scores (NYMag)

The last trading week of 2015 begins on a historic precipice for stocks: as reported over the weekend, the U.S. stock market has not been lower for any year ending in a “5? since 1875.

Paris -- Here's another great post from my friend and co-author Fred Feldkamp that talks about why credit spreads are crucial to understanding our economic prospects. His comment also illustrates how the SEC handed the large banks a monopoly on short-term finance in 1998 by amending Rule 2a-7 and made the 2008 financial crisis inevitable.  Few significant players in "corporate finance land" are willing to take on the bank monopoly/monopsony over short-term funding for fear of being cut off.

The Kremlin have announced the possibility of using Special Forces against the U.S. and Turkey after proof emerged that both of these nations support ISIS, and that ISIS are planning to attack Russian soil.  Russia have accused Turkey of training terrorist armed fighters “Majlis of Crimean Tatars” who are preparing to launch guerrilla warfare inside the Crimea Oblast. They also say that the U.S.