Archives of “January 8, 2020” day

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European shares end the session with gains

  
Analysis, Global Indices

German DAX, +0.7%. UK FTSE 100 unchanged

While Pres. Trump was finishing up his address, the European stock indices are closing for the day.
The closes are showing:
  • German DAX, +0.71%
  • France’s CAC, +0.31%
  • UK’s FTSE 100, +0.01%
  • Spain’s Ibex, +0.12%
  • Italy’s FTSE MIB, +0.46%
The major indices also closed nearer their highs for the day.
Meanwhile over in the US, the rally continues with the S&P, NASDAQ and Dow all trading at session highs and up about 0.75% on the day.  The S&P and NASDAQ are both trading at record highs.

Iran believed to have deliberately sought to avoid US military casualties in strikes – report

  
  Analysis
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Reuters report, citing US and European gov’t sources

It looks more and more like they dropped a few bombs in the nearby desert and may have even sent out warnings ahead of time.
If Trump chooses to de-escalate this looks like a sly move to save face without going to war. Then again, many wars have been started by a slight miscalculation.
Trump is set to speak at the top of the hour.

Iran’s Zarif: Missile attacks were act of ‘legitimate self defense”

  
  Analysis

Comments by Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif

  • US assessment of missile attacks should not be based on “illusions”
  • We sent a message to Americans immediately after the attack
Despite the claim, Zarif says that he does not have a statistic on the attack fatalities. As things stand, markets are still treading with caution but fears are certainly not as heightened as they were when the news of the missile attacks first hit the wires.

Iran’s Khamenei: The people of Iran gave the US a ‘crushing response’

  
Analysis, Politics

Comments by Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei

  • The US is Iran’s enemy
  • US troops should leave the region
  • US presence in the region must come to an end
He also adds that the overnight missile strikes are ‘a slap in the face’ of the US and says that Iran refuses to resume nuclear talks with Washington.
If anything else, this just points to the fact that tensions between the two will still persist for quite some time yet. As such, it will be a key geopolitical consideration this year.

Iraq says that there are no casualties among Iraqi forces in missile strikes

  
Analysis, Politics
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Iraq says that there were 22 missiles launched into Iraqi airspace during the timing of Iran’s attacks

No mention of whether or not there were other casualties from the attacks by Iran. For those who are catching up, Iran has claimed that 80 American soldiers were killed by the missile strikes but US president Trump kept a more calm facade in saying that “all is well”.

You’d have to think that if there were significant US casualties, Trump would not wait until the morning to respond but let’s see how the situation unfolds.

UAE energy minister: No OPEC+ emergency meeting needs to be called

  
Analysis, Crude

Comments by UAE energy minister, Suhail Al Mazrouei

OPEC
  • OPEC+ will respond if necessary to US-Iran tensions
  • World economy cannot sustain oil at $100 per barrel
  • Middle East leaders are working for calm
He also tries to ease the focus on geopolitical tensions by claiming that OPEC compliance numbers are looking better in December, pointing to better compliance by Iraq and Nigeria – two countries which haven’t really been playing ball previously.
If anything else, I think they can be a little happy with oil at around $70 but if it starts to trigger shale producers to go into overdrive, it’ll be a bad spot for oil supply in the big picture once geopolitical tensions start to die down.
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