Europe

In a quiet overnight session in which Japan was closed, European shares are mixed as financials and auto weigh, Asian stocks rise led by materials while S&P futures little changed against a backdrop of the continuing commodity rally with oil holding near $48 a barrel, up fractionally on the session. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar index was up slightly at 101.12, very close to a 14-year peak. The dollar also kept most of its recent hefty gains on the yen at 111.05 though it has met resistance around 111.35 in the last couple of sessions

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The EU fired a major global trade war tit-for-tat retaliation today against US banks and the UK in a single action.

Brussels will raise costs for foreign lenders while simultaneously taking a pot shot at London.

Please consider EU to Retaliate Against US Bank Capital Rules.

Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid is one of the few strategists on Wall Street to admit he was wrong (although he may still end up being right). Previewing his annual credit outlook titled "Volatility Ahead", Reid confesses that "we’ve long felt that as we approached 2017 we would likely be at the turning point of the credit cycle. Indeed our forecasts are for wider spreads in our annual outlook for the first time since the Euro Sovereign crisis earlier this decade. However in the course of writing this outlook much has changed." 

Since Trump elevated Steve Bannon to be his Karl Rove, several of you have pressed me to say what I think of him. It has been framed as, “Now that Trump will be bringing such a berserk bigot into the White House, you are obliged to denounce them all. What’s taking you so long?”

The European Union have confirmed that an EU army will be up and running by 2017, and leaders have warned that Brexit is to blame for its creation.  Britain will be liable to fund the £420m-a-year ‘Super Army’ due to the fact that its creation occurred before the UK invoked Article 50. Express.co.uk reports: Brussels politicians convened in the French city of Strasbourg to thrash out the plans that will cost taxpayers’ £420m-a-year. They will vote on the issue to establish an “EU-wide system for the coordination of rapid movement of defence forces personnel” across Europe later today.