France

Despite US markets being closed in observance of Washington's birthday, S&P futures spiked during overnight trading, reaching new all time highs before fading some of the gains. Both Asian and European markets traded modestly higher after paring early gains. The U.S. dollar traded in a tight range ahead of a busy week for Federal Reserve events, while the pound rallied the most in more than two weeks ahead of a House of Lords Brexit debate, while South Africa’s rand fell on political turmoil. Oil advanced for a third day and spot gold rose for the fourth session in five.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has accused France of sponsoring terrorists, including ISIS militants, in Syria in order to destabilise the Middle East.  In an explosive interview with Press TV, Assad accused French President Francois Hollande of sponsoring terror in Syria and encouraging other Western governments to end diplomatic relations with Assad, in order to oust the Syrian President from power.

The global "risk on" melt-up continues.

After a modestly hawkish Yellen warned that every meeting is live, and refused to take March off the table, sending the dollar and yield higher and the S&P to fresh record highs, world stocks rose hitting a 21-month high on Wednesday with the dollar rising for the 11th straight day, the longest positive streak since July 2015.

On Friday, after it emerged that as part of Marine Le Pen's strategic vision for France, should she win, is a return to the French franc as well as redenomination of some €1.7 billion in French (non-international law) bonds, both rating agencies and economists sounded the alarm, warning it would "amount to the largest sovereign default on record, nearly 10 times larger than the €200bn Greek debt restructuring in 2012, threatening chaos to the world financial system on top of the collapse of the single currency."

It is now OK to publicly promote infidelity in France. French Catholics have lost a court battle to censor the extramarital dating site Gleeden.com. A French court ruled Thursday that the extramarital affairs dating website has the right to continue advertising its services promoting adultery among married and unfaithful people. Gleeden is primarily marketed to women, specifically those who are already in a relationship. The website uses clever marketing jargon to lure women away from the righteous path.