Asia

Having correctly predicted the dovish relent by the ECB's QE taper announcement last week, whose explicit "open-endedness" appeared to surprise many of his hawkish Wall Street colleagues, overnight Bloomberg macro commentators Mark Cudmore looked at bond yields and concluded that "bond bears have had their fun", as "almost all upcoming risk events are skewed to drive 10-year Treasury yields lower rather than higher."

With a full slate of central bank meetings, data (including payrolls Friday) and earnings next week there’s a little bit for everyone. On Thursday, according to Politico, we will also know who the next Fed Chair is as well as get a first look at a version of the House tax bill in the US, perhaps on Wednesday.

After more than 14 months, it’s possible the first arrests in the FBI’s long-running probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia – launched in July 2016 by then-FBI Director James Comey before being handed off to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May – could happen as soon as this morning.

U.S. futures slid 0.2% as investors await a barrage of announcements including Wednesday's Fed decision, Friday's jobs report and, most importantly Trump's imminent announcement of who the next Fed chairman will be, although after the latest trial balloons, Jay Powell is now largely priced in. Asian equities edged modestly higher despite a tumble in Chinese stocks and bonds with Japan's Nikkei closing 3 points in the green, while European shares hold steady after concerns eased about the Catalan crisis with no notable developments over the weekend, pushing Spanish stocks and bonds higher.

How things change in crypto - in January 2017, before the crackdown by the authorities, China accounted for nearly 100% of bitcoin trading...

In the “golden era” of Chinese crypto trading, mainland operators built up considerable expertise before they were forced out of business. Some of those operators of Chinese exchanges are setting up again in “friendlier” jurisdictions around Asia, as Bloomberg reports, and their aspirations are global.