United States

The U.S. military are going to deploy thousands of troops to the Russian border in an effort to protect NATO’s eastern borders from “aggressive Russia”. Around 4,500 soldiers armed with 250 tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Paladin self-propelled howitzers, and over 1,700 vehicles will station themselves at the border in the biggest deployment of its kind since the end of the Cold War. Vice News reports: They will conduct military exercises across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, according to a statement from US European Command.

Chinese military plan to keep their next generation intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles on a hair-trigger state of readiness as a deterrent against the US. World leaders with the exception of Russia gathered in Washington today for the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by president Obama to discuss nuclear weapons and security. Sputnik reports: China’s nuclear deterrence strategy in the past has relied on patience, with a calm focus on long-term retaliation rather than immediate reprisal. Under President Xi Jinping, that policy is about to change.

We are one step closer to another full-blown return of the cold war.

Yesterday, during a briefing in Latvia's capital Riga, NATO Gen. Philip Breedlove said that NATO and the United States are switching their defense doctrine from assurance to deterrence in Eastern Europe in response to a “resurgent and aggressive Russia."

The comments by Breedlove come a day after the Pentagon said it would begin continuous rotations of an additional armored brigade of about 4,200 troops in Eastern Europe beginning in early 2017.

With US crude production starting to drop, the lagged plunge in oil rig counts appears to be having some effect. Baker Hughes reports that the number of US oil rigs dropped 10 to 362 (14th weekly drop of last 15), the lowest since Nov 2009. The total rig count tumbled 14 to 450, fresh record 41-year lows. Crude was leaking lower into the data and rose modestly after.