Reuters

Update: *SHANGHAI COMPOSITE INDEX FALLS 2.04%(AFTER BEING UP 3.2%)

With all eyes on Chinese FX and equity markets, following the worst start to a year for US (and Chinese) stocks in history, PBOC decided (after 7 straight days of devaluation and 7% devaluation since August) to halt the run and increase Yuan fix by a paltry 0.01% to 6.5636 (notably below yesterday's 6.5939 CNY close). Offshore Yuan is strengthening and US equity markets are jumping. Chinese equity markets (now theoretically unhampered by their circuit-breaker panic switch) are far less impressed.

"In retrospect, Obama’s intervention in Libya was an abject failure, judged even by its own standards. Libya has not only failed to evolve into a democracy; it has devolved into a failed state...As bad as Libya’s human rights situation was under Qaddafi, it has gotten worse since NATO ousted him."

Silver stackers continued to accumulate silver coins and bars.

If there’s one thing to take away from this year’s developments in markets and economies so far, it’s that they are all linked, they’re all part of the same thing. If you can’t see that, you’re not going to understand what’s happening. It’s tempting to see this as a China problem, but first of all there is no China problem that will not of necessity also gravely affect the west , and second of all when you read, just to name an example, that America’s new jobs pay 23% less than the jobs they replaced, it’s just plain silly to believe that the economy is doing well, let alone recovering.

Remember 'The Santa Claus Rally' that Bob Pisani said "we should expect" - well The Dow is now down over 1200 points from the highs just before the end of the year and extending those losses as Reuters reports, PBOC advisors are said to call for steeper yuan depreciation, pressuring the government to depreciate by 10-15%.

• China turmoil sends oil, stocks sliding (Reuters)
• China's Stock Traders Go Home After 29 Minutes (BBG)
• Yuan hits weakest since Feb 2011 on fresh low midpoint (Reuters)
• Stocks Extend Rout, Oil Slides on China as Soros Warns of Crisis (BBG)
• China's 29 Minutes of Chaos: Stunned Brokers and a Race to Sell (BBG)
• North Korea Uses Bomb Test to Boost Dictatorship (WSJ)

In a move that could very well lead Iran to take the "proxy" out of Yemen's proxy war, Saudi Arabia has reportedly bombed the Iranian embassy in Sana'a, injuring staff in what Tehran says was a "deliberate" attack. "My classmate and I were at recess when a huge explosion hit the neighborhood. We ran to the side and she fell to the ground in fear."

Obama's Keystone pipeline rejection "mission accomplished" banner has just led to a big slap on the face of the former constitutional expert, and could carry a multi-billion dollar chage after late this afternoon, TransCanada filed a lawsuit in Federal court in Houston, suing the U.S. government and claiming the Obama acted unconstitutionally when he rejected the Keystone XL, while also seeking $15 billion alleging the pipeline denial was "arbitrary and unjustified."

"These people that we welcomed just three months ago with teddy bears and water bottles ... started shooting at the cathedral dome and started shooting at police. Well seasoned police officers then confessed to me that they never saw something like this in their entire lives."

To be sure, there were already a number of concerns about the upcoming Olympic games in Rio. For instance, last summer we learned that thanks to a lack of sanitation infrastructure, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact with disease-causing viruses in the water. In the latest embarrassment, power to the stadium that will host the Olympic track and field events was cut off after a dispute between the government and a soccer club ended in a $250,000 unpaid utility bill.

Gold has has been one of the best months for gold in terms of monthly performance in the last 10 years. Bloomberg confirms that today.

Energy investors got clobbered in 2015, and are hoping for things to turn positive as we head into the New Year. What can we expect in 2016? Here is a rundown of some key trends to watch for...

And with that we can finally close the book on slippery central bank semantics on what precisely it is that they do, and what it is they plan to achieve.