Originally posted at The Daily Bell,
Stock markets suspect Federal Reserve has interest rate jitters ... Hints that the Fed won't raise interest rates in March are proving to be good news for miners and oil producers' share prices The Federal Reserve's William Dudley said further strengthening in the dollar could have 'significant consequences' for the health of the US economy. – UK Guardian
Blame it on the dollar!
As we documented last autumn in “Syria Showdown: Russia, Iran Rally Forces, US Rearms Rebels As ‘Promised’ Battle For Aleppo Begins,” Syria’s largest city has been among the hardest hit of the country’s urban centers over the course of the last five years.
Newsweek documented the destruction in a series of stark and profoundly indelible images in 2012, perhaps the most striking of which was this:
Recapturing the city is critical to restoring Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power.
The US has slammed comments by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in which he vowed to regain control of Syria. A spokesman for the US state department said there was no military solution to the years-long conflict in Syria after Assad said he planned to liberate the entire country from the the control of terrorists.
With Q4 earnings season drawing to a close, here is a quick recap of the key issues facing corporate CEOs and CFOs based on their conference calls as summarized by Goldman's David Kostin: 1) Company managements forecast positive US GDP growth in 2016, in contrast with investor concerns of a potential recession. However, global growth prospects appear grim, particularly within commodity-exposed nations. (2) Strong domestic consumer demand persists amid industrial weakness. (3) Several firms announced large or accelerated share repurchase programs in 2016.
The Director of the US National Intelligence Agency has warned that ISIS are preparing to launch a chemical weapon attack against the United States. Speaking at a global security conference in Munich, James Clapper warned that the terror group are in possession of chemical weapons, and have already used them numerous times in both Iraq and Syria.