Europe

Concerns about a potential, and so far unsubstantiated, nuclear "incident", reportedly in the vicinity of the Arctic circle, spread in the past week after trace amounts of radioactive Iodine-131 of unknown origin were detected in January over large areas in Europe according to a report by the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, the French national public expert in nuclear and radiological risks. Since the isotope has a half-life of only eight days, the detection is an indication of a rather recent release.

Two weeks ago, Goldman analysts were stunned when they noted that in recent weeks gasoline demand in the US has collapsed to levels that suggest not all is well with the economy. In fact, as the bank's oil expert Damien Courvalin said "to achieve the 5.9% decline suggested by the weekly data, our model requires PCE to contract 6%, in other words, a recession."

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

Finnish Prime Minister Sauli Niinistö made it clear to CNBC last week that while Russia's actions involving Crimea must come to a peaceful resolution, the most important issues facing Europe right now are terrorism and migration. Despite Finland pledging $55 Million Euros to NATO, Niinistö also made it clear that European nations need to ultimately be responsible for their own security.

I think that Europeans start to understand that they have to take more responsibility of their own security, in spite of the fact that they are members of NATO.

The Trump Presidency continues to be a boon for stock investors with Trump’s tweeting having become a kind of administrative PPT that ignites a new rally any time stocks are in danger of breaking down.

However, the reality is that Trump can only tweet the markets into rallying for so long. Trump is inheriting an eight years of the most profligate Fed monetary policy in history: a balance sheet expansion of $3.5 trillion, and seven years of ZIRP, which permitted the US to double its debt load.