United States

In an interview with the FT, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed Trump's "tremendous" tax reform, and confirmed what many already knew: that the push to revise the US tax code has been dramatically slowed by the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, and conceded that the administration’s timetable for ambitious tax reforms will be delayed. Mnuchin also said the target to get tax reforms through Congress and on President Donald Trump’s desk before August was “highly aggressive to not realistic at this point”.

Authored by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist blog,

Today’s post will have no answers. I am not sure anyone truly understands the strange day to day squiggles of the increasingly intertwined global financial system, but I wanted to highlight a relationship that cannot simply be monkeys typing Shakespeare.

Following US Vice President Pence's earlier remarks that "the era of strategic patience is over."

.@VP Mike Pence on North Korea: “The era of strategic patience is over.” https://t.co/78WhdfZWfb pic.twitter.com/I3JnAal71I

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 17, 2017

Ambassador Kim, North Korea's Permanent UN Representative, hosted a news conference in Ryong on "the consideration of non-proliferation in the DPRK to be held in the Security Council on April 28."

In the midst of a 10-day Asia trip, Vice President Pence made an unannounced visit to the 4km-wide heavily-mined demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas where he met with troops, encouraged China to take action against North Kore, and warned Pyongyang that after years of testing the U.S. and South Korea with its nuclear ambitions, "the era of strategic patience is over."

Following Sunday night's resumption of trade after a three-day weekend, which saw sharp moves lower in US yields, the dollar and the USDJPY after Friday's disappointing CPI and retail sales data and the weekend's North Korea jitters, the mood has stabilized in light trading with Asian stocks advancing, Europe mostly closed for Easter Monday and S&P futures fractionally lower at 2,325 in early New York trading.