Europe

Authorerd by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg

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.

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.

Authored by Konstantin Richter via Politico.eu,

Last weekend, European leaders gathered in Rome for the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. They discussed, not for the first time, how to get the EU back on track. And they told each other they are still committed to the Union and believe in its future. (We’ve heard that one before, too.)