United States

In light of Xi Jinping's spirited defense of free trade in Davos yestrday, which implicitly blamed rising protectionism on Donald Trump, here are some revelant facts courtesy of Axiom's Gordon Johnson.

China has been hit with a number of steep, and at times draconian, steel import tariffs from the US in 2015 (when imports into the US from China fell -25.1% YoY) and 2016.

Exhibit 1: China Steel Imports into the US

The United States is increasing airdrops of weapons, ammunition and other supplies to foreign-backed militants in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The weapons are intended for opposition forces to “fight ISIS”  as they close in on the groups self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa in Syria, according to US media reports citing the country’s military. Gen.

Having listened stoically for the past two months to accusations without evidence that Moscow "hacked the US election", and that Hillary's loss was indirectly due to Putin's alleged meddling, which resulted in Obama's expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, on Wednesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov finally snapped, and lashed out at the ongoing US election scapegoating fiasco, saying that leaders and top officials from the UK, Germany, and France have “grossly interfered” in US internal affairs, “campaigned” for Hillary Clinton, and openly “demonized” Donald Trump.

With Trump's Commerce Secretary, Wilber Ross, currently speaking in his confirmation hearing, it is convenient that overnight Barclays released a report looking at steel demand in the US as a result of Trump's proposed stimulus projects, an area that will be of substantial focus by Ross as he seeks to revitalize the moribund US steel sector.

That said, Barclays notes that while the potential demand from US infrastructure is there, it notes that it is skeptical on implementation for two main reasons. One is the rising risk of protectionism:

In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Joe Biden took aim at president-elect Trump and Russian president Putin in what is likely his final public appearance as US vice-president.

The speech was long on scaremongery and war rhetoric and short on 'fact', as The Wall Street Journal reports, Mr. Biden said cooperation between the U.S. and Europe formed “the bedrock of the success the world enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century."