Happy Holidays 

The USDA's projected 2016/17 world sugar stocks-to-use ratio of 17.7% would be the lowest in more than 20 years ...

Baltic Exchange Dry Index etc.

is up-to-date

Donald Trump seems to have brought the techniques of Twitter to the construction of his government. “Trolling” on Twitter is defined as “making a deliberately offensive online posting with the aim of upsetting someone”. In this spirit, Mr Trump has placed a climate-change denier in charge of environmental protection, an opponent of the minimum wage as labour secretary, a conspiracy theorist in charge of the National Security Council and a protectionist at the commerce department. The pièce de résistance could be the appointment of Rex Tillerson, a recipient of the Kremlin’s Order of Friendship, as secretary of state.

 (FT) Gideon Rachman

QUICK OVERVIEW

•  China flies nuclear bomber over South China Sea to 'send a message' to Donald Trump
•  US officials say flight is in response to President-elect’s phone call with Taiwan's leader
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• Hmm. Is America about to enter a new golden age under (I'm, like a smart person) Trump  ? Another fresh all-time high of the skyrocketing Dow seems to says so.
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• Libor Fed Fund spread is looking interesting 

• Russia and others join OPEC in a rare, coordinated push to cut oil output...

• One in six Americans now believes that military rule would be a good idea...

• The CIA concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help elect (I'm, like a smart person) Trump...

• Trump (I'm, like a smart person) is expected to name the CEO of Exxon Mobil Tillerson as the country's top diplomat.HE RUNS WORLDS LARGEST OIL COMPANY, has extensive business dealings with Putin & Russia, and favors doing away with sanctions. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, Russia’s highest honors for foreigners.

• (NYT) Trump (I'm, like a smart person), in Louisiana, says he will end energy regulations…

• China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 2.3% YoY in November, up from October's 2.1% the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced.

• (WP) Trump's (I'm, like a smart person) transition team has issued a list of 74 questions for the Energy Department, asking agency officials to identify which employees and contractors have worked on forging an international climate pact as well as domestic efforts to cut the nation’s carbon output.

• Gold futures fell on Thursday as the European Central Bank' s decision on quantitative easing supported the U.S. dollar

• (Paul Krugman) Another metric: Trump would have to do one Carrier-sized deal a week for 30 years to save as many jobs as Obama's auto bailout

• (Reuters) - Britain's Royal Mint and leading U.S.-based derivatives exchange CME Group have teamed up to create a blockchain-based digital platform for dealing in gold in a drive to cut the costs involved in trading the precious metal.

• Economists at Zillow arepredicting a trend reversal in 2017, due partly to expected policy changes under President-elect Trump and partly to the ongoing housing recovery. Experts there say 2017 will see more millennial home ownership, more driving and rising construction costs.

• (Zillow) Experts Predict Housing Market Will Soon Favor Buyers

• The median home value in the U.S. is now $191,200, up 6.2 percent since last October, according to Zillow's October Real Estate Market Report

• - Home values rose 6.2 percent over the past year to a Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) of $191,200 in October.

• - Rents rose 1.4 percent over the past year to a Zillow Rent Index (ZRI) of $1,402.

• - There are 6 percent fewer homes for sale than a year ago, with Boston and Indianapolis reporting the greatest drop in inventory.

• - Most experts surveyed predict the housing market will shift from the current seller's market to a buyer's market by 2019.

Weekly Charts are up-to-date