CHINA - While the main event this week will be the official start of the Q1 earning season which is expected to blockbuster, if mainly at the EPS level thanks to Trump's corporate tax cut... the biggest risk overhang remains the escalating trade war with China, and specifically Beijing's retaliation to the unexpected Trump escalation in which he told the USTR to consider an additional $100 BILLION in tariffs for a $150 BILLION total.

CHINA - China is evaluating the potential impact of a gradual yuan depreciation, people familiar with the matter said, as the country’s leaders weigh their options in a trade spat with US President Donald Trump that has roiled financial markets worldwide. Senior Chinese officials are studying a two-pronged analysis of the yuan that was prepared by the government, the people said. One part looks at the effect of using the currency as a tool in trade negotiations with the US, while a second part examines what would happen if China devalues the yuan to offset the impact of any trade deal that curbs exports. “It seems as if Beijing is showing the full extent of policies they could deploy,” said Viraj Patel, a strategist at ING Bank NV in London.

CHINA - On Friday, we reported that among the five "nuclear" options available to Beijing to retaliate against Trump's latest $100 billion in proposed import tariffs, was the choice whether to sell US Treasuries. But what if Beijing did not want to unleash a full-blown market nuke, and instead was hoping for a targeted EMP hit? Then it would simply stop buying US paper, instead of dumping it outright; in the process it wouldn't hurt the US too much - avoiding a furious tit-for-tat response - but would still send a clear signal to the White House, whose fiscal spending plan will more than double net Treasury issuance this year from under $500 billion to over $1 trillion, and which needs every possible marginal buyer of US paper, both domestic and foreign.

USA - The Republican overhaul of America's tax code and increased government spending are projected to boost economic growth to 3.3 percent this year but push the national debt to nearly the same size as gross domestic product by 2028, according to government data released Monday. "Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences for the budget and for the nation," the CBO report said.

SYRIA - The White Helmets, which claim to be an impartial NGO, saving civilians in war-torn Syria, have repeatedly been busted using false videos of their daily rescue operations. The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, has published several clips and pictures, showing the alleged aftermath of the chemical attack in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta.

GERMANY - A traditionalist branch of the German Christian Democratic Union wants to throw over their longtime leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel. They are to begin with a “conservative manifesto,” demanding a return to Christian values.

FINLAND - With the launch of its first direct cargo train link to China last week, Finland became the first Nordic country to establish itself as a node in China’s emerging New Silk Road trade network. The new rail link, connecting the southeastern Finnish city of Kouvola with Xi’an and Zhengzhou in central China, is the fastest among the many similar connections opened between China and Europe in recent years. It only takes ten days for trains from Kouvola to travel the 8,000km route through Russia and Kazakhstan to Xi’an. The direct transportation route to China’s fast-developing central regions is expected to offer new business opportunities for companies in Finland, as well as other Nordic and European countries.

USA - A string of powerful earthquakes have rocked the west and central US with several of them hitting near to the dreaded RING OF FIRE. Some eight earthquakes have rocked the United States in quick succession, all of which have taken place on April 9. The strongest of the earthquakes, and also the most recent, came in Perry, Oklahoma, when a 4.3 magnitude tremor hit the central US state. Since midnight, there have also been earthquakes in Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and three in California. Both California and Alaska sit on the deadly Ring of Fire – the largest and most active fault line in the world, stretching from New Zealand, all around the east coast of Asia, over to Canada and the USA and all the way down to the southern tip of South America – which causes more than 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes.

USA - The Marxist authoritarians who run Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and every other major social media can claim all they want that their platforms are free, open, fair, and accessible to all, but they continue to prove almost on a daily basis what horrible liars they are. And I’ll take that one step further: If you’re a conservative and you are in the public square — as a publisher, an entertainer, a writer, or part of the academic commentariat — you’re going to be banned at some point from all of your social media accounts. That’s because at some point you’re going to drop a massive truth bomb that the Marxist snowflakes don’t like and they’re just going to ban you out of spite, hatred, disgust, etc. The Left doesn’t really believe in freedom and liberty for everybody.

RUSSIA - Thirty years ago Wall Street slid into the abyss, suffering the biggest one-day market fall of over 22 percent. Since then the Dow Jones has risen from 1,738 points to an all-time high of over 23,000, raising fears another historic crash is on the cards. RT talked to Keiser Report host Max Keiser about the root causes of the 1987 crash and the possibilities of another market meltdown.

USA - This week’s dramatic stock market sell-off has raised concerns of an impending bear market, which, according to legendary investor Jim Rogers, will be more catastrophic than any other market downturn that he has lived through. “When we have a bear market again, and we are going to have a bear market again, it will be the worst in our lifetime,” Rogers told Bloomberg.

GERMANY - Berlin is using a bland name to obscure a dramatic shift in its approach to defense: integrating brigades from smaller countries into the Bundeswehr. In a very few years, the idea of an EU army finds its way back into the news, causing a kerfuffle. The concept is both fantasy and bogeyman: For every federalist in Brussels who thinks a common defense force is what Europe needs to boost its standing in the world, there are those in London and elsewhere who recoil at the notion of a potential NATO rival.

USA - A new survey has found that a third of young millennials in the US aren’t convinced the Earth is actually round. The national poll reveals that 18 to 24-year-olds are the largest group in the country who refuse to accept the scientific facts of the world’s shape. YouGov, a British market research firm, polled 8,215 adults in the United States to find out if they ever believed in the “flat Earth” movement. Only 66 percent of young millennials answered that they “always believe the world is round.” Science teachers across the US will be shaking their heads after learning that nine percent of young adults answered that they have “always believed” the planet was flat.

CHINA - It took China just 11 hours to retaliate against the United States for proposing tariffs on some 1,300 Chinese products, but Chinese officials are holding back on taking aim at their largest American import: government debt.

USA - President Donald Trump has denied that the US and China are engaged in a trade war, despite Beijing announcing it would slap import tariffs on American goods in a tit-for-tat move. “We are not in a trade war with China,” Trump tweeted. “That war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the US. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!” Many of the imported goods are from American manufacturers, which send raw materials to China due to cheap labor. When the goods are shipped back to the US, they are considered imports in the trade balance.