United States

Doubleline Capital founder Jeff Gundlach warned that the flattening yield curve could become a concern for US economic growth when two and three-year notes yield about the same, and the price per barrel of WTI crude oil plunges into the $30s, he said during a phone call with a Reuters reporter.  

The last time the spread between two- and three-year yields held below 10 basis points was around the time former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced the beginning of Operation Twist and then QE3 in late 2012.

Authored by Brad Hoff via The Libertarian Institute,

Russia will not back down, and neither will its Syrian and Iranian allies on the ground, says a former White House insider.

Shortly after Russia's deputy foreign minister Ryabkov snubbed the US, cancelling a meeting with the Under Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon, Jr., in retaliation to the Trump administration's announcement on Tuesday that it has imposed sanctions on 38 Russian individuals while a parallel bill of Russian sanctions is making its way through Congress, the US State Department issued a statement on US-Russian relations.

Statement from @statedeptspox on U.S.-#Russia relations: pic.twitter.com/UoMnydnuJC

As we have pointed out numerous times, Goldman notes that elevated US policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk indicate heightened risk of more frequent political and geopolitical tail events, in the form of both ‘known unknowns’ or ‘unknown unknowns’...

And given the extreme complacency in markets, Goldman suggests the following trade as a clean way to play that concept of reality emerging into market pricing once again...

Which equity option strategies work in low volatility markets?

Is Trump about to have his biggest diplomatic victory yet?

According to Yonhap, North Korea's top envoy to India on Wednesday offered a conditional moratorium, i.e. halt, on his country's nuclear and missile tests in what was said to be an "apparent bid to hold talks with the United States." While the North Korean offer is conditional, its "demands" are hardly outrageous.