Nikkei 225

The crisis that has rocked the previously unshakeable administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is not the result of bungled economic policies, party in-fighting or any of the other calamities that have brought down Japanese leaders in the past, which includes Abe's first administration as prime minister. Abe is struggling to shake off a scandal involving a kindergarten.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie

A quiet start to today's quad-witching St. Patrick's day, with European stocks mixed, Asian shares and U.S. index futures (-0.1%) little changed ahead of industrial production data with just Tiffany's set to report earnings.

World stock indexes soared to record highs on Thursday while the dollar traded close to a one-month low after the Federal Reserve hiked U.S. interest rates but signaled no pick-up in the pace of tightening. European and Asian were broadly higher this morning, with S&P tagging along, driven by two main events: the latest "dovish" Fed rate hike, and the Dutch election results, in which Geert Wilders performed worse than some expected, reducing concerns of Eurozone political risk, and broadly seen as a sign of support for Europe's establishment.

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Last night a good friend of mine came over for dinner.

He’s originally from Poland, and growing up there he heard a lot of bizarre stories about what it was like during the Nazi invasion and World War II.

In 1939, even as 1.5 million German soldiers prepared to invade, the general mood in Poland couldn’t have been more carefree.

Days after Apple stock briefly jumped following reports it may announce new products as soon as next week - most likely involving an update to the company's iPad line - the new product fever returned when moments ago Japan's Nikkei reported that the most expensive iPhone 8 handsets will feature curved screens based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, to be solely provided by Samsung Electronics.