presidential primary

European, Asian stocks and S&P futures all drop after traders were left with a sour taste from the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s order halting some immigration and ahead of central bank decisions from the U.S. and Japan.  Markets in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam are all shut due to the Lunar New Year public holiday, leading to a quiet Asian session. Oil rebounded after sliding as much as 0.7%.  Gold was unable to hold its overnight gains and has dipped into the red to $1,190 after rising just shy of $1,200 in early trading.

Whistleblowing website Wikileaks has offered a cash reward to anyone who can expose an agent of the Obama administration destroying important records before leaving office. A Twitter post on Tuesday said “We are issuing a US$20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest or exposure of any Obama admin agent destroying significant records,” however, it is not explicitly alleged that the administration is suspected of inappropriate conduct. The bounty was raised to $30,000 on Wednesday.

With Obama doubling down late Thursday on accusations of a Putin-orchestrated Russian hack, and going as far as vowing retaliation against the Russia for "its meddling in the US presidential election", telling NPR that "there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections that we need to take action and we will at a time and place of our own choosing," moments ago Donald Trump likewise retaliated on his favorite medium, Twitter, when shortly after 6am, Trump suggested that the so-called "Russian hack" disclosed information that was in the public'

Update: Alain Juppe concedes making Francois Fillon Les Republicans' presidential candidate against Marine Le Pen in next year's presidential election.

#BREAKING Alain Juppe concedes defeat in French presidential primary

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 27, 2016

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Update: It's official - not only is Sarkozy out, but he is backing Francois Fillon, in a setback for the alleged - if only according to the ever more embarrassing industry of pollsters - frontrunner for the presidency, Alain Juppe, and another big win for Marine Le Pen.

French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy admits defeat in conservative presidential primary and endorses centrist Fillon https://t.co/QRPaJzRsRz

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) November 20, 2016