United States

Submitted via Duane of Free Market Shooter

On Tuesday, president-elect Trump tweeted about General Motors, stating the GM was building its Chevrolet Cruze in Mexico, importing them to the US tax-free, and selling them at US car dealers:

General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017

Having succeeded in turning around Ford's plans to invest $1.6 billion in Mexico last week, and converting it into a US-targeted investment into the US last week, after similar twitter-based confrontations with Toyota and GM also last week, moments ago Trump tweeted his thanks to Fiat which as reported last night, also announced plans to invest $1 billion in Ohio plants, adding some 2,000 jobs.

While various other carmakers, such as GM, Ford, Fiat and Toyota, have had their share of headaches in recent weeks worried if and when Trump will tweet about them next, the epicenter of all car scandals over the past two years remains Volkswagen, and sadly for the German carmaker things continue to get worse: according to the NYT, the FBI haed arrested a Volkswagen executive on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. 

Around the time Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen, who last month infamously spoke to Trump putting the long-standing "One China" policy in jeopardy, made a controversial stopover in Houston, China's state-run tabloid Global Times warned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that China would "take revenge" if he reneged on the one-China policy. 

European, Asian stocks fall and U.S. equity-index futures traded mixed on Monday with fresh memories of the Dow Jones rising to under 1 point of 20,000 on Friday. The dollar has rebounded on fresh geopolitical concerns, while the pound extends its decline from Friday and has slide to 10 week lows on a Sunday interview from Theresa May which suggested a "Hard Brexit" may be in the cards. Oil dropped below $54 a barrel on Iran supply concerns, while gold rose 0.6% to $1,180.