Another huge week for the GOP tax plan, OPEC's make-or-break battle with shale, and bitcoin goes full bitcoin.
bitcoin goes full bitcoin.
Counting the votes
Republican lawmakers are rushing to secure votes to push a tax plan through the Senate as early as this Thursday. Should the plan get passed, members of both chambers of Congress would then have forge a compromise between their diverging bills.
If everything goes smoothly, tax reform should be ready for President
Donald Trump’s signature by the end of the year. Goldman Sachs Group
Inc., meanwhile, warns the proposed changes could see New York losing some of its highest-income residents.
Germany edges towards new government
Political stalemate in Berlin is showing signs of easing
as the main opposition Social Democrats began haggling over the terms
of a renewed coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative
bloc, rather than seeking to block an alliance between Germany’s two
largest parties. In a speech to the party faithful on Saturday, Merkel emphasized how well her Christian Democratic Union and the SPD had worked together in the previous administration. Elsewhere in European politics, the Brexit train rattles on, with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May grappling with the Irish border question ahead of next week’s talks.
OPEC v shale
The big question
facing ministers at this week’s meeting in Vienna with the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia is how U.S. shale producers
will react to any further production cuts. With the International
Energy Agency predicting American oil production will equal Saudi output
at the height of its expansion in less than a decade, OPEC’s position
as the dominant force in the oil market is challenged. In markets, crude
is slightly lower today, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate for
January delivery trading at $58.54 by 5:45 a.m. Eastern Time.
Markets mixed
Overnight, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.5 percent, while Japan’s Topix index closed 0.2 percent lower as technology stocks dragged regional gauges lower. Chinese shares resumed their decline
in the wake of last Thursday’s plunge. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index
was 0.1 percent higher, recovering from earlier losses in the session.
S&P 500 futures added 0.1 percent, the 10-year Treasury yield was at
2.345 percent, and gold was higher.
Bitcoin surges (again)
The bitcoin frenzy reached new heights as the cryptocurrency surged towards $10,000,
flirting with its latest milestone at breakneck speed. The digital
token was trading at $9,545.03, a 16 percent appreciation over Friday’s
price, after reaching as high as $9,747.49 earlier in the morning.
While hedge funds still have their doubts about whether it’s a
legitimate asset or a bubble waiting to burst, central bankers around the world are taking an ever-closer look at the pros and cons of digital currencies for consumers and markets alike.