Hillary Clinton’s “regime change” policies as Secretary of State helped spread the chaos that has turned the Middle East into a killing field and might have done even worse if not for extraordinary obstructions from the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff regarding Syria, as Gareth Porter recounts at Middle East Eye. By Gareth Porter Seymour…

Following China's disappointing drop in Manufacturing PMI overnight, this morning started off poorly with Canada's PMI crashing to its lowest reading since records began at 47.5. Then US Manufacturing PMI tumbled to 51.2 - its lowest print since October 2012 (with US factory orders collapsing to weakest since 2009).

Markets have started 2016 with a healty dose of turmoil, and so many were wondering how long - and who - would be the first central bank to intervene in either directly or verbally in markets.

Moments ago we go the answer when Sweden's Riksbank announced it has held an extraordinary monetary policy meeting in which it took the decision required to be able to "instantly intervene on the foreign exchange market if necessary, as a complementary monetary policy measure, to safeguard the rise in inflation."

This is what else it said:

Having been halted down around 7% overnight, China's CSI-300 index is extending its losses in US trading as ASHR (the CSI-300 tracking ETF) is down 9% - its biggest drop since the August collapse. This plunges Chinese stocks to 3-month lows...

The S&P 500 is down over 2% at the cash open - with FANTAsy stocks collapsing 5-8% - flirting with the crucial 2,000 "mission accomplished" level. Here are the short-term support levels..

S&P support levels stand at: