Japan

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

Rumors of the Trumpflation rally's death have been greatly exagerated, and not only is the Dow 20,000 back on the radar, following a 124 point surge in Dow futures, bringing the "key psychological level" back within 100 points, but European stocks rose for a third day and entered a bull market, rising 20% from theor lows set last February, following strong Chinese manufacturing and services PMI data, both of which ended 2016 on robust notes well inside expansion territory.

A powerful earthquake has struck the eastern coast of Japan. The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) put the quakes magnitude at 6.3 while the US Geological Survey reported the tremor to be 5.9.

A 5.9 magnitude quake has struck northeastern Japan, 18km NNE of Daigo, and in close proximity to the infamous Fukushima nuclear power plant the US Geological Survey reported; no tsunami warning has been issued. The epicenter of the quake was given as Ibaraki Prefecture in central Japan, the same as was impacted during the 2011 Fukushima quake. The prefecture has a population of some 3 million people.

Earlier, the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) earlier put the magnitude at 6.3.

Global markets continued their levitation with the UK returning from vacation, pushing the MSCI Asia Pacific Index higher for the first time in seven days, while oil headed for the longest winning streak in almost seven years ahead of the promised OPEC production cut which is set to begin in just days.