parliamentary elections

First it was the US, then Germany blamed much of what is wrong in society on "fake news", and not, say, a series of terrible decisions made by politicians. Now it is Italy's turn to call for an end to "fake news", which in itself would not be troubling, however, the way Giovanni Pitruzzella, head of the Italian competition body, demands the European Union "cracks down" on what it would dub "fake news" is nothing short of a total crackdown on all free speech, and would give local governments free reign to silence any outlet that did not comply with the establishment propaganda.

And just like that the narrative of Russia hacking the presidential election has escalated to the highest possible level, and has officially jumped the shark.

With concerns that Italy may proceed with early elections as soon as January or February of 2017 slamming the Euro in early trading, which taking place so soon to the Renzi referendum would likely assure anti-establishment forces a victory (whether or not they can form a coalition cabinet is a different topic), moments ago Reuters reported that Italy's constitutional court said it would hold a hearing on the legitimacy of a new electoral law on Jan.

European, Asian stocks rise as do S&P futures as OPEC ministers gathering in Vienna appeared to be set to announce a deal to cut oil production and prop up global prices. Oil has surged over 7% as a result, also pushing US TSY yields and the dollar higher.

With all eyes on Vienna, where optimism OPEC ministers will salvage a deal to cut production, oil has soared by over 6% reverberating through the financial markets, spurring oil’s biggest gain in two weeks and sending stocks of energy producers and currencies of commodity-exporting nations higher.

There was much surprise, as well as accusations of outright voter fraud, when on Monday the Austrian presidential race - which was set to be won by the candidate of the right wing Austria Freedom Party much to the humiliation of Brussels - Norbert Hofer, was handed to his competitor, Green party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, with postal votes tipping the final result in the favor of the former despite Hofer winning the outright vote by a solid margin. In retrospect, there may have been reason for the skepticism.