Americas

While the domestic US audience was focused on what Trump would say about the latest scandal of alleged Russian intervention in the US presidential elections, which as a reminder, he called "ridiculous" and suggested that democrats are behind the report, China was more curious by Trump's foreign policy thoughts, which may have sparked yet another diplomatic spat, because one week after Trump snubbed America's long-running "One China" policy, today the President-elect questioned whether the United States had to be bound by its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one China" and brus

The consensus around 2017 being the year of the dollar has clear vulnerabilities, according to Bloomberg's Mark Cudmore, who notes that there’s a strong self-correcting impulse to dollar strength.

I’ve just returned from a week in New York that included meeting a number of FX traders from several different firms. And the one view that was repeated again and again, with conviction, was that next year will see the dollar roar.

Over the weekend we reported that as Obama was speaking at the APEC summit in Peru, hoping to salvage his global trade legacy, the TPP, China's President Xi Jinping officially called for the launch of the Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific for "institutional guarantee of open economy", a move many had expected would take place as China was eager to fill in the void left by the US in any trans-Pacific trade treaty.

• Record highs for Wall Street quartet send other stocks higher (Reuters)
• Oil prices rise to highest this month on hopes of OPEC deal (Reuters)
• OPEC Likely to Reach Output Consensus, Delegate Says (WSJ)
• Trump’s Targets in First 100 Days: Trade, Regulation, Corruption (BBG)
• Trump Poised to Push Nafta Changes, Pressure Mexico on Trade (WSJ)
• China Touts Its Own Trade Pact as U.S.-Backed One Withers (WSJ)
• Trump to kill trade deal on day one (Reuters)
• Overtime Pay Rule to Go Into Effect, but May Not Last (WSJ)

As US stocks push to record highs, trading volume is dwindling and broad market breadth is terrible...