Europe

Gold is up 5 days in a row and is surging above $1150 today as someone decided to buy $3.5 billion notional of the precious metal into the European close.

It appears the rotational year-end flows are rebalancing back into bullion as well as bonds... Over 30,000 contracts ripped through futures in the last few minutes before Europe's close - around $3.5 billion notional. 

This is gold's best day since 11/2.

Silver is bid too...

Bitcoin is leaking after breaking $1000 equivalent in Yuan...

As noted previously, at some point today the White House is set to unveil new sanction, and other retaliatory "measures" against Russia and specifically the Kremlin, in retaliation for what according to a constantly repetitive narrative has been Russian hacking of the US election. Obama will do so by using a 2015 executive order that would allow the president to freeze the US assets of Russians overseas who have engaged in cyber acts, even though such order only applies to actions that have threatened U.S.

One day after the biggest drop in US stocks in over two months, taking the Dow ever further from the "promised" Dow 20000, global stocks struggled as they tried to close out 2016 on a positive note. The dollar dropped the most in two weeks, sliding alongside bond yields, while oil retreated from its highest close in 17 months as investors prepared to close out a volatile year for financial markets. European stocks slid from a 2016 peak, and extended losses for 2016 after briefly going green for the year.

Submitted by George Igler via The Gatestone Institute,

Authored by George Soros, originally posted at Project Syndicate,

Well before Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, I sent a holiday greeting to my friends that read: “These times are not business as usual. Wishing you the best in a troubled world.” Now I feel the need to share this message with the rest of the world. But before I do, I must tell you who I am and what I stand for.