DXY is up again as King Trump romps hither and thither.
AUD eased.
Lead boots ahoy!
Commods yawn.
Miners smashed.
EM pause.
Junk hope.
Yields stall.
Stocks ATH.
The court of King Trump is a circus.
President Donald Trump issued his most direct threat yet to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying the Ukrainian president had “better move fast” to reach a deal with Russia “or he is not going to have a Country left.”
Trump’s social media post denouncing Zelenskiy as “a modestly successful comedian” and “a dictator” marks an all-but-final rejection of Ukraine as a full partner in negotiations that Trump has initiated with Russia to end the war that began with President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of his neighbor three years ago.
Classic art of the deal stuff with full media derangement in tow.
Perhaps the most significant outcome is this.
Panicking European countries have rallied to immediately support Ukraine, promising increased defence and security spending “within days and weeks” after Donald Trump unleashed a withering attack on Volodymyr Zelensky, calling the Ukraine President a “dictator” who had done a “terrible job”.
There will be no European army, but there are significant defense industries in Europe that can scale up.
Whether this is the kind of stimulus to support a sustained recovery is a different question, not really, and we’ve go to get past the German election yet.
It all goes to show that there is only so far that sensitive risk assets like the AUD can get in King Trump’s circle.
There is always another shock coming.
