Germany

The man who made "nein" a household word everywhere, and especially Greece, will no longer be in charge of Europe's biggest economy.

As part of the fallout from Sunday's disastrous, for the CDU election, election which will see Merkel govern in a three-way coalition with the minor German parties, it was expected that Germany's iconic finance minister Wolfgang Schauble would be kicked out of his post. It also means that Germany's pro-business, low-tax FDP, whose support Merkel is likely to need, will be put in charge of the coveted finance ministry position.

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

“Forget Germany, Spain Is The Real Problem”, reads a headline. Eh… no. Germany is definitely the problem in Europe. Spain is a bit player. That doesn’t mean nothing major could happen in Spain in its fight with Catalonia, and soon, but Spain, like all EU nations, is a de facto province of Germany.

S&P futures are flat after Monday’s drop in the S&P 500 where a rout in Apple weighed on tech companies and tensions with North Korea persist; Asian stocks are modestly lower while Europe has shaken off the Korean crisis and is in the green on the back of a sharp drop in the EURUSD which has tumbled below 1.18 as the USD rises ahead of much anticipated speeches by the Fed Chair and the French president.

Authored by James Bovard via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

This year is the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson’s pulling America into World War I. Many people celebrate this centenary of America’s emergence as a world power.

But at a time when the Trump administration is bombing or rattling sabers at half a dozen nations and many Democrats are clamoring to bloody Russia, it is worth reviewing how World War I turned out so much worse than the experts and politicians promised.

European stocks rose as the euro tumbled following Germany’s election result which was dubbed a "Nightmare Victory" for Merkel and could lead to potentially complicated coalition talks and perhaps even another early election. U.S. equity-index futures point to a lower open, while Asian equities slide after a plunge in Chinese property developer names over worries of new real estate curbs as well as tech stocks following more iPhone delivery concerns. S&P500 futures are steady, down slightly by just over -0.1%, after closing little changed on Friday.