Business

Asian shares and oil are lower, European shares are little changed, and S&P futures are fractionally in the red after gaining for most of the overnight session, perhaps troubled by warnings from two Fed presidents who warned that markets and valuations appear frothy, and the Federal Reserve may have to raise rates more times than currently forecast. The latest round of Fed hawkishness helped the dollar gain further after recent losses which earlier this week pushed it to 4 month lows.

Over the past dew days, Bloomberg market commentator Mark Cudmore has been decidedly skeptical of any rebound observed in US stocks, and overnight he did not change his sentiment despite what some have said is an attempt for the reflation rally to reassert itself. In a note titled "Why I Don’t Believe in This U.S. Equities Bounce" he explains why, giving seven reasons why despite stocks seemingly poised for a third day of gains, he refuses to BTD and chase the latest rally.

From Bloomberg

With analysts noting that markets are "taking the Fed's tightening policy in their stride," demand for emerging-markets debt is so strong that Bloomberg reports one of Asia's poorest nations is mulling a debut dollar-bond sale... Papua New Guinea.

Source: BBC

On the heels of the melt-up in US mega-cap tech stocks, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has leapt past Amancio Ortega and Warren Buffett to become the world’s second-richest person.

As Bloomberg reports, the 53-year-old founder of Amazon.com Inc. added $1.5 billion to his net worth on Wednesday, the day after the e-commerce giant announced it will buy Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com, and has added over $7 billion since the global equities rally began following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president on Nov. 8.

One day after UK PM Theresa May officially unleashed the Article 50 letter proclaiming the beginning of the end of Britain within the EU, the UK stock market had rallied over 16% since the vote that elites said would bring armageddon. However, remove the support of a collapsed currency and things look very different for a US dollar investor.

The UK's FTSE 100 - whose megacap members get the majority of their revenue from outside the UK - looks very different when adjusted for the depreciation of the pound.