First, here is one for the Magic Money Tree growers who contend the US dollar will never, ever, with absolute certainty, lose its reserve currency status:
- PBOC'S PAN CONFIDENT YUAN TO BE RESERVE CURRENCY: SEC. NEWS via BLOOMBERG
Of course, the US is confident that all those aircraft carriers stationed around the world will make sure this never happens. But the US was also sure Russia would fold like a cheap lawn chair on the Ukraine crisis, when in reality it is Putin who has so far been the biggest beneficiary.
And the other headline:
- JAPAN MAY DEPLOY DEFENSE TROOPS TO SOUTHWEST ISLANDS: YOMIURI via BLOOMBERG
Some more from Yomiuri [10], as cited by BBG:
- Japan considers deploying troops in southwestern islands Amami Oshima, Miyako and Ishigaki to step up defense in the regions, Yomiuri newspaper reports, without attribution.
- Japan may send ~350 self-defense force personnel to each of the three islands: Yomiuri
- Ishigaki is ~170km away from disputed islands in East China Sea, which are known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese; Miyako is ~210km away from the disputed islands
- Senior Vice Defense Minister Ryota Takeda to visit Amami Oshima this week to request research for establishment of new station on the island: Yomiuri
Perhaps this brilliant plan to provoke China just a little more as Vietnamese protesters are torching Chinese factories and infuriating the Beijing politburo, is precisely the catalyst China needs to test just how easy it would be to become the next reserve currency (with or without Russia's assistance, even as Putin and the top political and oligarch brass is in China right now finalizing Gazprom's "holy grail" deal with China).
As for the market, so far it violently unchanged especially after the USDJPY almost moved more than 2 pips on the ridiculous Japanese data released earlier. Almost.