As noted earlier, while European stocks and US equity markets have ignored the commodity crash in China, which in addition to iron ore plunging limit down, also saw rubber tumble 7% lower, and steel rebar, coke, coking coal plunge over 6% … … Axiom’s Gordon Johnson warns (as we did a month ago) that the worst is yet to come, and in fact, the “backdrop of […]
By Richard Cowan and Yasmeen Abutaleb | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives was set on Thursday for a cliffhanger vote to repeal Obamacare, as Republican leaders worked to deliver President Donald Trump a win for one of his top legislative priorities. House Republican leaders have expressed confidence the bill would pass and several party moderates who previously objected to it got behind it on Wednesday, […]
11:00 am Suppose we could be brave, Bryce, and go with a pic of Jeffery Lacker as our portrait for today 11:01 am Well, he stepped down from the Richmond Fed after fessing up to helping a colleague at a sister publication — Medley — on a story 11:02 am 11:03 am I could give you a rival’s analysis of the story 11:03 am It’s not the […]
Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress are poised for a high-stakes vote on healthcare reform on Thursday that could decide whether the president will achieve one of the key elements of his domestic legislative agenda following a rough first 100 days in office. After three months of roller-coaster efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — the healthcare law known as Obamacare that was […]
By Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to do “whatever is necessary” to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians as he hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, but offered no sign of how he could revive long-stalled negotiations. In their first face-to-face meeting, Trump pressed Abbas and other Palestinian leaders to “speak in a unified […]
By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks retreated on Thursday, taking their cues from a subdued session on Wall Street, while the dollar retained gains made after the Federal Reserve delivered a hawkish policy statement. At the end of its two-day meeting, the Fed kept its benchmark interest rate steady as expected, but downplayed weak first-quarter economic growth and emphasized the strength of the labor market, […]
By Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday outlined for his staff how an “America First” agenda translates into foreign policy, but did not address the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts, which worry many diplomats. It was the first time Tillerson had addressed all employees since his first day on the job on Feb. 2, when he spoke to hundreds of […]
Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here The Federal Reserve said it believed the recent slowdown in US growth was likely to prove temporary as it stayed on course for a further increase in short-term interest rates as soon as June. The US central bank kept its target range for the federal funds rate at 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent following its latest two-day meeting. In […]
By Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September and avoid federal agency shutdowns on Saturday when existing money is depleted. With the 309-118 vote in the Republican-controlled chamber, the legislation now goes to the Senate, which is expected to pass it before a midnight Friday deadline. The Pentagon is a […]
Mr. Abbas, 82, who was among the negotiators on hand for the historic signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn in 1993, indicated that he did feel optimistic that nearly a quarter-century later Mr. Trump might be the president who finally builds on that initial agreement to forge a final resolution to the conflict. Continue reading the main story Praising Mr. Trump’s “courageous leadership,” […]
By Bryn Stole | BATON ROUGE, La. BATON ROUGE, La. U.S. Justice Department officials were expected to announce on Wednesday that they will not bring federal charges against two white officers in the fatal shooting of a black man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last summer, according to news media reports. The shooting of Alton Sterling, 37, was one of a series of high-profile killings of black men […]
By David Morgan and Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump and his aides courted moderate Republican lawmakers on Wednesday on a proposal to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system as the White House struggled to avoid another embarrassing defeat on a top legislative priority. As White House aides prepared for meetings and phone calls to persuade skeptical lawmakers on the healthcare bill, Republican House of Representatives […]
Mr. Abbas’s visit to the White House will present Mr. Trump with the Palestinian viewpoint more directly than he has ever heard it as president. But at 82, Mr. Abbas is a weakened political figure facing public discontent and divisions at home. Continue reading the main story His Palestinian Authority operates in the West Bank, while the more militant rival Hamas faction rules in Gaza. Despite an […]
By Susan Heavey | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump came to office promising that he would produce so much winning that Americans would be sick of it. As he struggles to produce wins, some signs of frustration are starting to appear. Democrats’ gleeful declarations that they outsmarted Republicans in a battle over a spending bill that avoided a government shutdown drew the ire of the president. […]
Republican leaders are battling to avert another healthcare setback for President Donald Trump as they rally support for a second attempt at reform under pressure from the White House. In the latest Trump administration gamble, senior White House officials have predicted a vote to overhaul Obamacare this week even though party chiefs on Tuesday did not have enough support to pass a bill. The White House is […]
US President Donald Trump said the federal government needed a shutdown this autumn to fix what he called a “mess” in the wake of a Congressional deal that ignored key elements of his budget requests. Taking to Twitter to express his irritation over an agreement sealed on Sunday between the two parties that contained no funding for his border wall, Mr Trump complained that the Republicans had inadequate […]
WASHINGTON Top White House officials said on Monday they expect the U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week to pass the Republicans’ latest plan to reform the nation’s healthcare system, even as the party’s lawmakers still appeared divided over the measure. In interviews on CBS News on Monday, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn expressed optimism the latest […]
By Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Negotiators in the U.S. Congress reached a deal late on Sunday on around $1 trillion in federal funding that would avert a government shutdown later this week, while handing President Donald Trump a down payment on his promised military build-up. The full House of Representatives and Senate must still approve the bipartisan pact, which would be the first major legislation to […]
President Donald Trump was a distracting entertainment from the moment he launched his campaign in June of 2015 — until he wasn’t. His opening speech, in which he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and told the world he would be the best jobs president “God ever created,” was looked at as the ravings of a man whose outsized ego was too big to be anything but hilarious. News […]
‘Burdensome new regulatory regime’ During the most recent fiscal year, the government entered into or modified contracts with nearly 70,000 companies or their subsidiaries to deliver hundreds of thousands of distinct goods and services. To figure out which companies to hire, agencies begin by posting solicitations, usually on FedBizOpps.gov, where registered contractors can sift through opportunities. When an agency puts out a solicitation, dozens of companies might […]
The Trump administration has opened the door to huge potential savings for hedge fund and private equity managers by proposing to slash tax rates for small businesses in a way that could be exploited by Wall Street financiers. Hedge fund and private equity managers are a subgroup that could emerge with some of the biggest gains from the President Donald Trump’s tax plan, which was scorned by […]
WASHINGTON The White House press corps gathered on Saturday for its annual black-tie dinner, a toned-down affair this year after Donald Trump snubbed the event, becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to bow out in 36 years. Without Trump, who scheduled a rally instead to mark his 100th day in office, the usually celebrity-filled soiree hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association took a more sober turn, […]
The pope said he did not know enough about French politics to respond, but, he said, “Europe is in danger of breaking apart, this is true.” He noted that the migrant crisis fueled fears that destabilized the Continent, “but we mustn’t forget that Europe is made by immigrants.” Continue reading the main story “Centuries and centuries of immigrants,” he said. “It’s us.” That inclusive message has proved […]
Fox News is “state-run TV” and MSNBC has become “the opposition” in primetime and in the mornings, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker said in an interview, adding that he thinks CNN is “seeking the truth.” Zucker, speaking in an interview with New Yorker Editor David Remnick for the magazine’s podcast on Friday, added that there are “clear agendas” at play at both of CNN’s rival networks. “So […]
