For the first time in its 52 years of operation, Subway announced that it contracted in 2016, shuttering 359 US locations which as Bloomberg described was the "biggest retrenchment in the history of the restaurant chain" whose total store count dropped 1.3% from 27,103 in 2015 to 26,744 even as it remained the most ubiquitous fast-food eatery in the US, although McDonalds still tops if by sales.
The US has seen evidence that the Chinese military is preparing "for a potential North Korea contingency", CNN reports citing a US defense official, and adds that Chinese air force land-attack, cruise-missile-capable bombers were put "on high alert" on Wednesday.
The official added that the US has also seen an extraordinary number of Chinese military aircraft being brought up to full readiness through intensified maintenance.
Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
Doug Kass wrote a very interesting piece this week on the bond market:
“As overvalued as I believe the U.S. stock market may be, fixed-income instruments may be even more overvalued.
Whether China is right about North Korea conducting a nuclear test on April 25 remains to be seen, but for now Kim Jong-Un is content with merely escalating the verbal warfare and overnight North Korean state media warned the United States of a "super-mighty preemptive strike" following the latest round of comments by Rex Tillerson who said the United States was looking at ways to bring pressure to bear on North Korea over its nuclear programme.
European stocks rose amid earnings beats, offsetting weakness in the energy sector and easing investor concerns ahead of the weekend’s French election. Asian shares and U.S. futures also rise. The dollar weakens against the euro and most crosses, while crude oil rebounds following renewed OPEC chatter of a production cut, this time with Saudi Arabia seemingly onboard.