Europe

Two weeks ago, shortly before noting that Venezuela's CDS is now at the same level where Greece was 3 months before its default, we wrote that as a result of a recently implemented gold swap with Deutsche Bank, Venezuela was preparing to liquidate its remaining gold holdings (ostensibly temporarily, if only on paper) in order to pay down its upcoming debt maturities.

Submitted by Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk via Bawerk.net,

Italy is big enough to matter (it is the eight largest economy on the planet), but so uneventful that most does not pay any attention to what is going on there. We contend that Italy will, during the next year or two, be on everyone’s radar screen as it has the potential to derail the European project for real.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

• Risk rally fades as stocks, oil slip back into the red (Reuters)
• Syrian govt. accepts halt to 'combat operations' in line with U.S.-Russian plan (Reuters)
• Earliest Chinese Data Signal Slowdown Hasn't Bottomed Out Yet (BBG)
• The Trickle of U.S. Oil Exports Is Already Shifting Global Power (BBG)
• Greek police remove migrants from Macedonian border as more land in Piraeus (Reuters)
• Clinton, Sanders race takes on angrier tone after Nevada (Reuters)
• London Whale’ Breaks Silence (WSJ)

Unlike Monday's global PMI deterioration (which sent markets around the globe soaring), there was little in terms of macroeconomic data overnight (German IFO earlier missed on expectations and business climate but beat on current assessment) so the "market made the news." These came most from the USDJPY which has continued to fall, sliding to 111.85 overnight, and dragging the Nikkei to a -0.4% drop.