Xi's speech did not help (with no growth measures revealed) but oil markets seem extremely fragile this morning having broken below $50 and flash-crashed for the second time in a few hours.
“The oil market has come under renewed pressure” and “a large part of the move is due to a broader market sell-off,” said Warren Patterson, commodities strategist at ING Bank NV.
“Specifically for the oil market, there are no clear signs yet of the market tightening.”
WTI is trading extremely ugly this morning...

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/2018-12-18_6-51-22.jpg?itok=dkHNwSvZ

Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.