President Barack Obama acknowledged domestic and international resistance to his plans for a U.S. military strike against Syria and said he'll make a more detailed case for action in an address to the nation next week.

"There is a growing recognition that the world cannot stand idly by" and "there needs to be a strong response," Obama said during a news conference at the close of a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations.

The U.S. president has hit resistance at home and abroad to his call for a military strike to punish the Syrian regime for using chemical weapons and to deter their further use.

One of the biggest hurdles has been put up by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most powerful ally. Putin has questioned U.S. evidence that the Syrian government was behind the chemical weapons attack and blocked action against Syria at the United Nations.

At his own news conference today, Putin said Russia will continue supporting Syria if the U.S. launches a strike. "We are already helping them with weapons and we are cooperating in the economic and humanitarian spheres," Putin said.

David Fuller's view Wall Street and other stock markets are relatively relaxed about the probability of a US missile strike against Syria's military equipment as I complete this copy. However, equities were roiled earlier in the day by a one-sentence comment from Vladimir Putin which was taken out of context.

Needless to say there is plenty of uncertainty about. We expect it to keep stock markets choppy, probably for the lengthy medium term, but that is a buy-low-sell-high opportunity for investors. Equities remain the best long-term investments in our view, not least the Autonomies so often reviewed by Eoin.

While stock markets remain relatively calm, the traditional havens are attracting interest. Precious metals are steadying today, as you can see from these daily charts for gold & silver, following recent small pullbacks. More importantly, crude oil prices (Brent & WTI) are pushing higher once again