Weekend news wrap: Trump, European politics/banks and China

After a blockbuster week with the odds for a Fed March hike doubling and Fed Chair Yellen rubber stamping a March hike with some plain speaking language on Friday, looking to weekend news, it was Trump, European politics and China taking up the headlines.

Trump was tweeting how Obama had tapped his phones in the run-up to the elections, of which Obama denies.  Meanwhile, following a rise in the euro on Friday with news of the French populist Le Pen’s slippage in the polls in favour of independent Macron, Francois Fillon's corruption scandal will not prevent him pulling out ahead of the April 23 first-round vote and he was arguing that the potential charges of embezzlement against him were “unfair,”  as reported by Reuters. 

In respect of Germany's election later this year in September, the conservatives have a one point lead over the Social Democrats in the latest Emnid poll. Lastly from Europen politics, Finland's foreign minister, Timo Soini, said he would step down as the leader of the Finns party in June, as reported by Reuters.

From the latest news on the European banking troubles, as part of a wider shakeup, Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank plans to raise about 8bn euros (£6.9bn, $8.5bn) by issuing new shares. Germany's biggest bank is trying to reshape itself after grappling with huge losses and a 15bn euro legal bill imposed by regulators since 2012, reports the BBC.

In China, Reuters reported that China will cut its steel capacity by 50 million tonnes and coal output by more than 150 million tonnes this year as the world's No. 2 economy deepens efforts to tackle pollution and curb excess supply.