FX Week Ahead, courtesy of Rajan Dhall from fxdaily.co.uk
Coming off the back of another bad week for the USD, we look to a barren period for the data schedule in the US, so markets will have to determine whether to extend this weakness based on the evidence so far.
Authored by Pepe Escobar via Asia Times,
China and Syria have already begun discussing post-war infrastructure investment; with a 'Matchmaking Fair for Syria Reconstruction' held in Beijing
Amid the proverbial doom and gloom pervading all things Syria, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune sometimes yield, well, good fortune.
Authored by Cyril Widdershoven via OilPrice.com,
OPEC exports have come under pressure this week from technical threats to oil fields, with Saudi Arabia’s Manifa problems grabbing the headlines.
It was another painfully low-volume overnight session, which however did not prevent global stocks from hitting another record highs, capping their best week in over two months as the dollar stayed close to nine-month lows following Yellen's dovish retreat in which she noted caution on persistently low inflation (hence today's CPI print will be especially important) as odds of future rate hikes in 2017 and 2018 dropped.
One month ago, when describing the bizarre, not to mention systemically dangerous practice of dozens of small and mid-cap Chinese companies and executives offering to backstop losses on their employees' purchases of company shares, we couldn't quite explain it, although it seemed to revolve around a simple, and fraudulent, ponzi scheme: the same executives who were making the "make whole guarantee" had themselves taken out substantial loans collateralized by a pledge on their own stock.