Europe

While various other carmakers, such as GM, Ford, Fiat and Toyota, have had their share of headaches in recent weeks worried if and when Trump will tweet about them next, the epicenter of all car scandals over the past two years remains Volkswagen, and sadly for the German carmaker things continue to get worse: according to the NYT, the FBI haed arrested a Volkswagen executive on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. 

European, Asian stocks fall and U.S. equity-index futures traded mixed on Monday with fresh memories of the Dow Jones rising to under 1 point of 20,000 on Friday. The dollar has rebounded on fresh geopolitical concerns, while the pound extends its decline from Friday and has slide to 10 week lows on a Sunday interview from Theresa May which suggested a "Hard Brexit" may be in the cards. Oil dropped below $54 a barrel on Iran supply concerns, while gold rose 0.6% to $1,180. 

Submitted by Peter Korzun via Strategic-Culture.org,

It should be noted that quite often the most interesting arms contracts escape media attention. That’s how it was in 2016.

Signing a multi-billion-dollar military aid package between the United States and Israel and the subsequent White House approval for long-awaited fighter sales to the Middle East hit the radar screen.

Government officials in the Czech Republic have urged citizens to take up arms to protect against a coming ISIS “super-Holocaust”. Following Czech President Milos Zeman’s warning of an imminent ISIS-led bloodbath, the country’s interior ministry is pushing through a constitutional change that would allow citizens to use guns against terrorists. Zerohedge.com reports: Czech president Milos Zeman had previously proposed that economic migrants should be deported from Europe to “uninhabited Greek islands” or to “empty places” in North Africa.

Along with most of his Wall Street peers, BofA's Chief Investment Strategist Michael Hartnett flipped his outlook on risk assets shortly after the election, turning from quietly bearish to vocally bullish and forecasting a substantial rise in US equities, and even more substantial bounce for Japanese, European and UK stocks as well as oil.

So far, Hartnett has been correct, and according to recent fund flows, much of the investing community agrees.