United States

NATO Supreme Commander Philip Breedlove has accused Russia of deliberately becoming an adversary of the West, and has warned that Russia poses an “existential threat” to the U.S. and the Western world.  U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter added fuel to the fire by accusing Russia of intimidating its neighbours, saying that he doubts Moscow is committed to strategic stability on nuclear weapons. Both of these anti-Russian views were given by Carter and Breedlove in testimony before two congressional committees on February 25, reflecting the growing anti-Russian mood in Washington and Europe.

Submitted by StraightLineLogic.com's Robert Gore via The Burning Platform blog,

On Thursday night the U.S. test-fired its second intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the last seven days, as a clear warning to Russia that America is prepared to use a nuclear missile against Russia in the future.  The Minuteman III missile was fired from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, racing across the sky at 15,000 mph before landing 30 minutes later at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific.

One week ago, we reported that even as traders were focusing on the daily headline barrage out of OPEC members discussing whether or not they would cut production (they won't) or merely freeze it (at fresh record levels as Russia reported earlier today) a bigger threat in the near-term will be whether the relentless supply of excess oil will force Cushing, and PADD 2 in general, inventory to reach operational capacity.

Less than two years ago, news of Russia test-firing an ICBM just as the east Ukraine civil war was heating up, was sufficient to send the stock market into a brief tailspin. Since then, the launches of nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles has become an almost daily occurrence, with the market hardly batting an eyelid.