Asia

In what may be the latest example of unintended irony, shortly after the October 7 pound sterling flash crash, which saw the UK currency plunge by more than 9% against the dollar, falling from $1.26 to $1.14, in about 40 seconds - a historic flash crash in one of the world's most liquid currencies - we presented a forensic explanation of what happened in that minute when sterling plummeted in a bidless market from Citigroup. 

Submitted by Daniel Cloud

“Donald Trump is either too incompetent to understand that his foolish phone call threatens our national security, or he’s doing it deliberately because he reportedly wants to build hotels in Taiwan to pad his own pockets.”

       - (Democratic National Committee Spokesperson)

There’s a lot to be worried about going into 2017 both in terms of financial markets and in terms of geopolitical concerns.

European and Asian markets rose, while U.S. index futures were little changed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average pushing for yet another record, as traders digested the Italian referendum news, await the ECB's Thursday announcement and reflect in a notably quieter overnight session.  Oil slipped from a 16-month high after 4 straight days of gains, as doubts emerged about how OPEC will implement the first supply curbs in eight years. European bonds gained with stocks.

As BofA's rates strategist Ralf Preusser writes in a note this morning, "not even a month since the US election and markets seem unrecognizable" adding that the Trump election represented a paradigm shift. Fiscal easing would take over from monetary easing and would allow for the dollar and rates to rise in unison, a trend not seen for a while.