United States

In response to the latest imposition of US sanctions on Russia, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that the new sanctions would further damage relations between the two countries and that Moscow would respond with its own measures. "We regret that Washington is continuing on this destructive path," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

As a reminder, on Tuesday the United States widened sanctions against Russian businessmen and companies adopted after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the conflict in Ukraine.

We were surprised to note yesterday that even some of the legendary market "bears" appear to be throwing the towel in light of the relentless Trumpflation rally which will not stop until 20K is in the rearview mirror, when we noted that even Bob Janjuah said that "the trends over H1 2017 should be higher (especially US) equities and yields, steeper curves, a stronger USD, and mixed performance in credit (especially in the IG sphere) and EM....

US equity futures and Asian stocks were unchanged while European stocks declined after touching the highest level in almost a year, as Italian and Spanish banks dragged indexes lower. The dollar eased back from 14-year highs as bond yields fell on Wednesday and oil extended its advance in increasingly thin trading.

Submitted by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

Heading into the New Year with oil prices above US$50, both OPEC and the U.S. shale industry are claiming victory in the latest oil war battle - and both expect to benefit from higher prices, but there can really only be one winner here.

Submitted by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

In 2007, Vladimir Putin spoke at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy. Far from being a diatribe, Mister Putin spoke eloquently and without the bluster that we tend to expect from political leaders.