Asia

Despite US markets being closed in observance of Washington's birthday, S&P futures spiked during overnight trading, reaching new all time highs before fading some of the gains. Both Asian and European markets traded modestly higher after paring early gains. The U.S. dollar traded in a tight range ahead of a busy week for Federal Reserve events, while the pound rallied the most in more than two weeks ahead of a House of Lords Brexit debate, while South Africa’s rand fell on political turmoil. Oil advanced for a third day and spot gold rose for the fourth session in five.

Threatening to destabilize the tentative improvement in Sino-US relations achieved in recent days following Trump's recent concession over the "One China" policy, was the US deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) to the disputed waters of the South China Sea on Saturday as part of maritime "routine operations", according to an announcement posted on the Vinson's Facebook page.

S&P equity futures followed Asian and European stocks lower, driven by weakness in Franch and Italian markets, as French political concerns returned; the pound tumbled after UK monthly retail sales unexpectedly dropped pushing the dollar higher and Euro lower.

Exactly one month ago, South Korea's political crisis - recall that the country's president Park Geun-hye was impeached last December - spilled over into the corporate sector when the country's special prosecutor unexpectedly sought a warrant to arrest the head of Samsung, the country's largest conglomerate, accusing him of paying multi-million dollar bribes to a friend of impeached President Park Geun-hye. On the night of January 16, investigators had grilled the head of Samsung, the world's largest maker of smartphones, flat-screen TVs and memory chips, Jay Y.

Scientists have discovered a new continent hidden in plain view in the Pacific Ocean right next to New Zealand. Zealandia, as it is formally called, is a continent with a 5 million square kilometre landmass that lays largely submerged in the south-west Pacific. The 11 geologists from New Zealand and Australia who discovered Zealandia say that it should be confirmed as earth’s eighth continent, after Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.