Europe

Following yesterday's dollar spike which topped the longest rally in the greenback in one month, the prevailing trade overnight has been more of the same, and in the last session of this holiday shortened week we have seen the USD rise for the fifth consecutive day on concerns the suddenly hawkish Fed (at least as long as the S&P is above 2000) may hike sooner than expected, which in turn has pressured WTI below $39 earlier in the session, and leading to weakness across virtually all global risk assets.

Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

A common misconception in America today is that our nation is evenly divided between conservatives and liberals in an absolute sense. This is not necessarily true.

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

ISIS have issued a statement following the attack in Brussels, saying that they intend to commit to further numerous small-scale attacks in Belgium and Europe – without the need for centralised coordination or authority from their leaders.  ISIS say that individual militants and cells are now free to operate semi-independently – opening the gates for many more spontaneous attacks throughout Europe.