Europe

So far, so expected. After earlier announcing the failure to attract any anchor investors for a private capital raise, Monte Paschi has announced that it will officially ask the Italian government for a "precuationary capital increase" - in other words a bailout. The funds will come from the newly decreed EUR20 billion bailout fund, and as Bloomberg reports will not trigger a "bail-in."

This is the third bailout in three years and reportedly the biggest nationalization in Italian history.

In what, for the past seven years, has been an upside-down investing world where the opposite of what financial and economic theory - and certainly consensus - suggests should happens with centrally-planned regularity, what better trading recommendation list than one focusing on the "Costanza Trades" for the year ahead.

Conveniently, that's what RBC's Mark Orsley has put together, so for those who know what the right trade is, and need just that little bit of confidence push to do the opposite, here it is...

2017 Costanza Trades

The market was waiting for the DOJ to announce the long-awaited settlement with Deutsche Bank today. Instead, it got news of a surprise lawsuit filed by the DOJ which sued Barclays after failing to settle a long-running probe into the UK bank's involvement in pre-crisis mortgage fraud. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are in settlement negotiations with the DOJ over similar claims.

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

In the late 1400s, the city-states of Italy were among most dominant powers in the world.

Most of the city-states had abandoned the feudal system that persisted across Europe.

So Italy was one of the only places on the continent where anyone, including foreigners, could work hard, take risks, and become wealthy.

People could start businesses and own private property– revolutionary concepts in the 1400s.

By EconMatters

There are a lot of concerns out there that has the market terrified, investors are just hoping like hell they don`t lose money before the year is out because they can`t sell due to tax costs. Forget the Market Pullback, we may have a market crash in 2017 if Trump starts a Trade War with China!