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It was less than two months ago when we brought to you the "Macy's Massacre": on November 11, the stock of the iconic retailer crashed 13% and its CDS soared after Macy's announced a trifecta of weak data, reporting a miss on Q3 sales which came at $5.87 billion below the $6.1 billion expected, down from the $6.2 billion, as well as a plunge in comparable store sales which tumbled by 3.9%, far worse than the expected drop of -0.4%, and nearly three times as bad as the 1.4% drop a year ago.

Overnight, we got two notable headlines out of the Far East.

First, the yuan devaluation continued unabated with the RMB falling to five-year lows and the spread between the onshore and offshore spots blowing out to record wides.

Second, Kim Jong-Un detonated an H-bomb. Or so Pyongyang says.

On the first trading day of the year, stocks crashed after China shocked the world with a circuit-breaking market slide that was not contained by the government. On the second trading day, after the Chinese government intervened drastically, global equities stabilized if just barely.

Standard & Poor’s slashed the credit ratings of 112 corporations around the globe to default (D) or selective default (SD) in 2015, according to S&P Capital IQ Global Credit. The highest number of global defaults since nightmare-year 2009, when a previously unthinkable 268 companies defaulted, and not far behind the second highest default tally of 125, in 2008.

Over a dozen U.S. Army troops have been left trapped in Marjah, Afghanistan, amid enemy fire by Taliban fighters after a U.S. special operations soldier was killed earlier on.  Enemy forces surround the compound the soldiers are taking cover in, as they wait for backup over night. Foxnews.com reports: A U.S. official described the “harrowing” scene to Fox News, saying there were enemy forces surrounding the compound in which the special operations team sought refuge.