Taiex

Global shares hit another record high on Wednesday, propelled higher by what increasingly more call (ir)rational exuberance, and investors’ unflagging enthusiasm for tech stocks. That said, S&P futures are unchanged the morning before Thanksgiving (at least before the market open ramp), as are European stocks (Stoxx 600 is flat), despite the euphoria in the Asian session which saw the MSCI Asia Pac index hit a new all time high...

S&P futures retreated along with European and Asian shares with tech, and Apple supplier shares leading the drop while safe havens such as gold and the yen rose, as the war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un escalated and North Korea threatened to launch a hydrogen bomb, leading to a prompt return of geopolitical concerns. Trade focus now turns to a planned speech by Theresa May on Brexit (full preview here).

For the first day in three S&P futures have pulled back modestly from record levels as some investors cautioned that gains had gone too far, too fast, European shares are mixed while Asian equities extended their longest rising streak in almost two months as continued gains in Japan and India offset the losses in Hong Kong. The dollar ended a two-day advance as TSY yields dropped in what has become a close correlation trade (see below) while oil and gold rose, perhaps in response to the ongoing plunge in bitcoin.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The threat of total abandonment of NAFTA took on a second front this weekend as Canada’s biggest private-sector union said NAFTA should be scrapped if Mexico cannot agree to better labor standards.

Please consider Sharp Differences Over Labor Surface at NAFTA Talks in Mexico.

Amid a two-day tumble in stocks, Taipei-based Economic Daily News reports that the Taiwanese government unleashed its 'Plunge Protection Team' yesterday as the local stock market fell on growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

Eight Taiwan government-run banks bought combined net NT$1.96 billion (around US$65 million) of shares Wednesday to stall the slump...