U.S. Futures were lower on Monday, after U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed a tweet fury over the weekend, sparking another round of political uncertainty. First, Trump accused Special Counsel Robert Mueller of hiring “hardened Democrats” to investigate a ties between the 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. After a while, he dismissed the idea that former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe had incriminating documents. McCabe was fired on Friday, just two days before his retirement.

Combined these two tweets caused more havoc than entire macroeconomic updates coming from the Fed: The S&P 500 futures fell 14 points or 0.54% to 2,741.25 while Dow futures decreased 131 points or 0.52% to 24,834.0. Meanwhile tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures was down 98 and a half points or 1.40% to 6,945.50.

Markets are also looking ahead to Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve delivers its interest rate decision. Traders are expecting an interest rate increase as Fed chair Jerome Powell gives his first press conference.

In Europe stocks were down. Germany’s DAX fell 116 points or 0.94% while in France the CAC 40 decreased 35 points or 0.67% and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 91 points or 1.28%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 25 points or 0.74% while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 64 points or 0.66%.

Sources: 

https://www.ft.com/markets?format=&page=2

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/stocks-us-futures-point-to-lower-opening-bell-after-trump-tweet-storm-1347564

https://www.ft.com/content/8c71d1ca-2b14-11e8-9b4b-bc4b9f08f381

https://www.ft.com/content/d959b06c-2889-11e8-b27e-cc62a39d57a0

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/five-reasons-why-single-trump-tweet-mueller-stretched-truth-n857831

Daily Forex: the dollar has been rising on Thursday as investors look ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve meeting at which the market expects a 25 basis point rate rise. The index tracking the world’s reserve currency is up 0.2% at 89.857. In the meantime, the euro is down 0.3% at $1.2333, while the pound is flat at $1.3956. Against the euro, sterling is 0.2% stronger, with £0.8835 required for a unit of the shared currency.

Oil prices are higher. Brent crude, the international benchmark, is up 0.4% at $65.17 a barrel after Opec lifted its demand forecasts as part of its latest monthly report on the industry, even as it warned of dangers from a potential trade war. Gold is 0.1% lower at $1,322.70 per ounce.

Wall Street stock indices are rising and a sense of cautious optimism is helping European bourses put in a steady showing while investors keep watch on Washington for any signs of more protectionist US trade policy.

The S&P is up 0.2 % in opening trade, bouncing back from a 0.6% fall over the previous session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng recovered from an intraday drop of 0.8% to rise 0.3% overall. Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 is up 0.5%, with London’s FTSE 100 flat. The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 is up 0.2%. Technology and insurance stocks are in demand.

Sources: 

https://www.ft.com/markets/currencies

https://www.ft.com/content/43e68c04-27f7-11e8-b27e-cc62a39d57a0

https://www.investing.com/news/forex-news/forex–dollar-pushes-higher-after-us-import-price-data-1343384

https://www.fxstreet.com/news/latest

https://www.bloomberg.com/markets/currencies

Trump made markets slip again. With Tillerson decision, and turmoils among his advisors who quit amid trade wars concerns US President sends strong uncertainty signals to markets, and not only within US. Asia equities down and Europe called lower amid US political uncertainty, US Treasuries yields fall as stocks stutter. Only oil prices are making good headlines, mainly due to China’s positive data outlook. Oil prices edge down after rocky trading on Tuesday.

Overnight on Wall Street the S&P 500 closed down 0.6% as the tech-focused Nasdaq dropped 1% after Mr Trump blocked Singapore-based Broadcom’s proposed $142bn takeover of Qualcomm on national interest grounds.

The combination of moves by Trump left investors scurrying for safety as global equities took a knock, the dollar fell and bonds rose.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (MIAPJ0000PUS) stumbled 0.7 percent, retreating from a 1-1/2 month high hit on Tuesday, with technology sector the biggest drag.

Japan’s Nikkei (N225) dropped 1 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index (KS11) declined 0.6 percent. China’s SSE (LON:SSE) Composite index (SSEC) and the blue-chip CSI 300 (CSI300) slipped 0.3 percent each.

The weakness followed overnight losses on Wall Street, with the Dow (DJI) off 0.7 percent, the S&P 500 (SPX) down 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) falling 1.0 percent.

Separately, Trump is looking to impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese imports, targeted at information technology, consumer electronics and telecoms.

Oil prices edged up earlier on Wednesday after posting two days of declines at the start of the week.

Support also came from China, where January-February domestic crude oil production fell 1.9 percent on the year to 30.37 million tonnes, equivalent to 3.77 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the National Statistical Bureau on Wednesday. At the same time, crude oil throughput rose 7.3 percent to 93.4 million tonnes, implying a need for more imports.

China’s industrial output grew 7.2 percent in the first two months of the year compared with the same period last year, beating expectations of a 6.1 percent hike.

Sources: 

https://www.investing.com/news/commodities-news/oil-prices-fall-on-relentless-rise-in-us-crude-output-1338074

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/asian-shares-slip-as-tillerson-exit-tariffs-raise-protectionism-fears-1340301

https://www.investing.com/news/

https://www.ft.com/content/8fa467aa-2721-11e8-b27e-cc62a39d57a0

https://www.fxstreet.com/t/news?utm_expid=.kos2fgywQI2pDavx6HhkxQ.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fxstreet.com%2Ft%2Fnews

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-14/trump-moves-closer-to-presidency-of-one-with-tillerson-firing