Aside from the previously noted FX fireworks early in the illiquid Asian session, which saw the US Dollar "flash crash" briefly against most pairs, including the Euro and the Swiss Franc...
Billionaires are the richest of the rich. Many young entrepreneurs hope to one-day reach this ultimate financial milestone. But before these entrepreneurs are allowed to join this group, they first must ask how did billionaires acquire their wealth in the first place? Take a look at the map below to see the distribution of billionaires by country and type.
Having already made it clear that any sanctions would be met with retaliation, IFX reports that Russian Commissioner Foreign Ministry on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov exclaimed that "any anti-Russian sanctions are futile and counter-productive."
Via IFX (Google Translate)
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.