Europe

When reporting yesterday on the abrupt deterioration in European-Turkish relations, in which the European Parliament voted Thursday in an overhwleming majority to impose a temporary, non-binding freeze on talks for Turkey's accession into the EU, we said that it "remains unclear if Turkey will proceed with releasing the nearly three million Syrian refugees allegedly contained within its borders as a result of the European Parliament vote." Today we have an answer: as the FT reports, Turkish president Erdogan warned Brussels on Friday he would allow 3 million refugees to cross over to Europe

Authored by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at Strategic-Culture.org,

Too late actually to compete in the 2012 Republican Presidential primaries, Donald Trump prepared in August of that year a TV ad to show how he would have been campaigning against Obama’s re-election if he were to have been running against him. 

Here it is:

• Dollar rally pauses, Italian stocks underperform (Reuters)
• Retailers Vie for Black Friday Dollars (WSJ)
• Holiday Price War Intensifies as Wal-Mart, Target Pursue Amazon (BBG)
• U.S. Pushes Iran on New Measures to Fortify Nuclear Deal (WSJ)
• Brent and WTI see small gains as end of year approaches (Reuters)
• Turkey’s Erdogan threatens to let 3m refugees into Europe (FT)
• Meet the man who could lead Trump's immigration crackdown (The Hill)
• Austrian election tests support for European populism in Trump era (FT)

Having soared to fresh 13 year highs in a quiet overnight session on thin liquidity due to the US Thanksgiving holiday, which sent the USDJPY just shy of 114 and the Yuan to 6.96, the dollar pared back its weekly advance with modest profit taking after traders wondered if the rally has gotten "too stretched." European shares were fractionally higher, with Asian stocks and US equity futures rising and both the Dow Jones and the S&P set for new all time highs.

With financial markets poised to react to the pivotal Italian constitutional referendum on December 4, consensus suggests that a ‘yes’ vote to the reforms will be positive for asset prices and a ‘no’ represents a sell signal. According to leading Italian commentators, however, a ‘yes’ vote will not fix Italy’s problems and the issues at play are not just black and white, but instead are far more complex than people seem to understand.