A global punitive campaign on North Korea propelled by sharp new U.N. sanctions - amounting to a $1 billion ban on North Korea exports - received a welcome, and unexpected, boost on Sunday from China, the North's economic lifeline, when Beijing slammed its neighbor for its ongoing missile and nuclear tests.
Authored by Llewellyn King via InsideSources.com,
In October 1973, the world shuddered when the Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo on the United States and other nations that provided military aid to Israel in the Yom Kippur war. At the same time, they ramped up prices.
Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the world has had one undisputed economic superpower: the United States.
It took stocks only a few minute to "price in" the latest political shock out of Washington, and as of this morning Emini futures no longer care that Mueller has a grand jury, trading 0.08% in the green with European stocks and Asian shares all little changed as investors await the looming July jobs report, which is expected to show a slowdown in hiring from 222K to 180K but will have little impact on either the Fed's thinking or the market.
China's 19th National Congress of the Communist Party - the quinquennial confab where the party selects new members of the Politburo, its ruling council - is expected to begin this fall (official dates have not yet been publicly announced). And in an effort to guarantee that the leadership reshuffle goes off without a hitch, President Xi Jinping is tightening the government’s grip on the internet to help protect the official narrative that Xi's "Chinese Dream" remains intact.