With China offline for the rest of the week, global markets have found a new Asian bogeyman in the face of Japan which as reported last night saw its markets crash, and the Yen soar, showing that less than 2 weeks after the BOJ unveiled NIRP, yet another central bank has lost control.
ISIS in Syria and Iraq are facing an epidemic of Swine Flu which last raised its head in Britain during the ‘pandemic’ of 2009/2010. The Islamic jihadists have issued health warnings to citizens under their control, after the virus killed dozens and threatens to wipe out ISIS fighters across Syria and Iraq. The “mysterious epidemic” is sweeping through the Middle East, according to reports.
The British media is perceived to be the most right-wing in Europe, framing immigration in a particularly negative light, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by YouGov, examined the views of people from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland where British respondents noted a right wing bias in the UK press. RT reports: Published on Monday, the poll asked participants whether they think their state’s media coverage of five key issues is too right-wing, left-wing or balanced. Policy areas examined were immigration, health, economics, housing and crime.
The biggest event of the weekend, if not the month, was China's FX reserve outflow update, which at $100BN was slightly better than the $120BN expected (it pushed China's reserves to the lowest in nearly 4 years) but it was in the "no man's land" between the BofA best case scenario ($37.5BN), and the GS worst case ($197BN).
Saudi Arabia will join the UK in military exercises in preparation to fight ISIS in Syria, two sources have revealed to CNN. Saudi will deploy up to 150,000 troops in March to run a multinational military training exercise to prepare for future anti-ISIS operations. CNN reports: He stressed previously Saudis that air strikes alone will not defeat “Daash”, but they returned to reconsider their strategy, which is likely to present them in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.