United States

What started off in familiar fashion, with Asian stocks rising, and Europe hitting multi-month highs and US futures in record territory has stumbled in recent minutes following a continued rush for safety in short-dated German Bunds (the 2Y is now trading at -0.92%) and ongoing selling in the USDJPY, which has pushed Stoxx 600 back to unchanged, and S&P futures to modestly red for the session.

The exact  catalyst is unclear although traders are citing continued French political risks, as the recent OAT selloff continued this morning on Le Pen fears.

Submitted by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The Gallup organization samples Americans’ approval-disapproval of Russia in February of each year, and the approval-figure for this year is only slightly more than half as high as it had been back in 2012 when Obama publicly mocked his Presidential-campaign opponent Mitt Romney’s famous statement that «Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe».

While the U.S. outspends all NATO allies when it comes to overall defence spending in relation to her GDP, Statista's Dyfed Loesche notes - and President Trump is very well aware of - the U.S. is also the prime direct financer of NATO.

However, direct contribution are more evenly split between the major NATO powers. Germany for example, spends only 1.19 percent of her GDP into defence (USA = 3.61 percent) but seemingly pulls its weight when it comes to direct funding of NATO. This does not include contributions to particular military operations.

Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

If eight years under Obama rule, 6 of which included Republican majorities in Congress, taught us anything, it's that Presidents have fairly broad authority to govern through executive orders and rules changes implemented at the 100's of government agencies responsible for overseeing our every move.  Fortunately for the Trump administration, this broad Presidential authority extends to immigration laws and, despite his recent defeat in the 9th Circuit, grants the executive branch of the federal government broad authority on vetting immigrants and enforcing immigration laws.  Per Bloomberg: