United Kingdom

Greenspan Warns Moving Into “Stagflation Not Seen Since the 1970s”

Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.8% after Apple surged to record highs following a strong beat and optimistic projections ahead of the launch of the company's new batch of iPhones. Eminis are little changed, up 0.1% to 2,475, trailing Asian markets, while European stocks and crude oil fall.

Welcome to August: you may be surprised to learn that S&P 500 futures are once again levitating, higher by 0.3%, and tracking European and Asian markets. Asian equities traded higher across the board after China's Caixin Manufacturing PMI beat expectations and printed its highest since March, refuting the decline in the official PMI data reported a day earlier, while firmer commodity prices boost both sentiment and commodity stocks across Asia and Europe.

By Bill Blain of Mint Partners

Politics - More Destabilizing Than You Think!

“With comedy we can search for the profound...”

Dark skies, torrential rain and thinking about putting the log-burner on.. Welcome to high-summer in England. Markets are thin and the crowds trying to clamber on the train were noticeably lighter this morning. (Actually, the sun was shining this morning as my train sat listlessly somewhere “Sarf” of Wimbledon..)

Unofficially, Libor died some time in 2012 when what until then was a giant "conspiracy theory" - namely that the world's most important reference index, setting the price for $350 trillion in loans, credit and derivative securities had been rigged for years - was confirmed. Officially, Libor died earlier today when the top U.K. regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority which regulates Libor, said the scandal-plagued index would be phased out and that work would begin for a transition to alternate, and still undetermined, benchmarks by the end of 2021.