Jan 23, 2019, by Lorcan Roche Kelly
(Bloomberg)
Trying something
Lawmakers in the Senate will vote tomorrow on competing proposals aimed at ending the record-setting U.S. government shutdown. Neither looks likely to succeed: One includes funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall and is likely to be blocked by Democrats in the House, while the Democrat proposal would need to win the backing of 13 Republican Senators. Among the things making a path to a compromise more difficult is the lack of clarity over what the president may be willing to sign. The effects of the funding freeze, meanwhile, do not seem to be falling evenly across government work.
Brexit Warning
U.K. Trade Secretary Liam Fox said that a no-deal Brexit is “a real possibility” at the World Economic Forum in Davos this morning, adding that the biggest danger for Britain was not abiding by the result of the 2016 referendum. With less that 10 weeks to go to the scheduled exit date, he told Bloomberg Television that he could accept an extension to the deadline in order to get a deal done. The impact of the uncertainty remains hard to gauge, with some data pointing to large amounts of cash leaving the economy, while employment and wage numbers point to a booming labor market.
Probe
Deutsche Bank AG’s woes continue. It is now being examined by the Federal Reserve over how it handled billions of dollars in suspicious transactions from Danske Bank A/S. In an emailed statement the lender said there are “no probes” but that it had “received several requests for information from regulators and law enforcement agencies around the world.” Shares in the bank dropped at the European before recovering to trade 0.8 percent higher by 5:50 a.m. Eastern Time.
Markets mixed
Overnight the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slid 0.4 percent while Japan’s Topix index closed 0.6 percent lower despite the Bank of Japan’s relatively dovish monetary policy update. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was 0.1 percent higher at 5:50 a.m. as the gauge recovered from early session losses with retailers leading the gains. S&P 500 futures pointed to a gain at the open, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.737 percent and gold was unchanged.
Coming up…
It’s day two at Davos, which you can follow on our live blog. At 9:00 a.m. the U.S. FHFA House Price Index is published, with the January Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index at 10:00 a.m. In earnings today Ford Motor Co., Procter & Gamble Co., and Comcast Corp. are among the companies reporting.
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