China

One of the more under-reported stories - at least among the Western press - are the growing tension between China and India. As reported over the weekend, in the latest escalation, Indian and Chinese soldiers, in addition to the ongoing tense military standoff over a contested road in Doklam, were involved in an altercation in the western Himalayas on Tuesday, further raising tensions between the two countries which are already locked in a two-month standoff in another part of the disputed border.

While overnight equity, bond and FX markets traded in a narrow range as a result of scarce mid-summer liquidity, mounting Trump administration and geopolitical concerns and uncertainties ahead of Friday's Jackson Hole symposium, the same can not be said about the latest "berserker" action in the commodity space in general, and industrial metals in particular, where China's horde of momentum-chasing speculators were unleashed overnight, sending Zinc to its highest since October 2007 at $3,180.50 a tonne, the bellwether industrial metal, and "doctor", copper surged to to $6,593 a ton

Last week AutomotiveNews reported rumors that at least one Chinese automaker had made a bid for Fiat Chrysler (FCA) at a slight premium to the company's prevailing market price though it was reported rejected.  While it's unclear whether an official bid was made, this morning Reuters is confirming that China's Great Wall Motor Company has expressed interest in acquiring FCA, sending the company's shares to a new 52-week high.

Authored by Adam Garrie via The Asia Times,

When Paul Robeson belted out the lyric “I’m tired of living, and scared of dying,” he stumbled on to a paradox of emotional dissonance that could easily define the geo-strategic cognitive dissonance that the US exhibits when dealing with its fellow superpowers Russia and China.

It was two years ago, in June of 2015, when just as the Shanghai Composite was flirting with 5,000 and when literally the local banana stand guy was trading stocks, that the Chinese stock bubble burst, unleashing an unprecedented selling spree, a 40% drop in just two months, and Beijing's nationalization of the stock market, courtesy of the domestic plunge protection team, the China Securities Regulatory Commission also known as the "National Team".