This week is simply the worst we had in recent history for markets, RBS exclaims, the worst ever start to the year for The Dow, the worst since 1999 for S&P and the second-worst for credit since 2008. Worst still is, they think there’s more weakness ahead and that many fundamental risks will continue to haunt markets. Why? Simple! Investors drank too much policy kool-aid last year.

Worst ever start to a year...

And worst week for equity and credit markets in recent history...

Now that the Fed has commenced its rate hike cycle, the jobs report suddenly takes on far less significance because only a massively "outlier" print will have an impact on Fed thinking, thinking which so far appears undented despite a raging manufacturing recession across the US. This means that the December jobs could be the "most important ever" only in retrospect, with either a huge miss (think < 100,000) or huge beat (> 275,000) having a material impact at a time when algos are much more focused on China scrambling to prevent its economy - and market - crashing, hard.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is an intelligent man who can get his views across in the simplest of manners, but it comes as at a price. He tweeted in less than 140 characters that the terror threat is high and warned people to get smart. People around the world have reviewed his latest tweet as a sign that the Republican hopeful might not be the right candidate for the U.S. presidency. Trump said on Thursday: “Man shot inside Paris police station. Just announced that terror threat is at highest level. Germany is a total mess-big crime.

On Thursday we explained the upcoming IPO of the world’s most valuable company: Saudi Aramco, Riyadh's state-owned crown jewel that’s the world’s most prolific crude producer.

The move comes as Saudi Arabia burns through cash and takes on debt in a desperate attempt to plug a yawning budget hole created by the largely self-inflicted pain from "lower for longer" crude.

According to Facebook you no longer need to know someone’s phone number in order to make video and voice calls. Facebook Messenger renders the old phone number obsolete. It can send messages in all formats. Trusted Reviews reports: Facebook’s vice president of messaging products David Marcus claims users of the app no longer need to know a contact’s phone number in order to use the full communication spectrum. When speaking about the death of flip phones, which brought texting to the fore, Marcus wrote: “Old communication styles are disappearing too.