Tuesday 15:15 GMT Overview The dollar and Treasury yields are steadying, but US equities are edging lower, as stronger-than expected US GDP data raise concerns that the Federal Reserve may quicken the pace of interest rate rises. The firmer buck is adding to pressure on commodity prices, with gold selling off and oil prices sliding on scepticism over an Opec deal to curb output. Hot topic It […]
An employee of a foreign exchange trading company works near monitors showing U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaking on TV news (top) in Tokyo, Japan, November 9, 2016. (Toru Hanai/Reuters). With Donald Trump’s victory, the prospects for digital trade have dimmed. This development owes much to the hostility towards trade that Trump brings to the presidency. But it also involves shifts more fundamental than Trump’s rejection of trade […]
4224 28 by Adam Segal November 18, 2016 A man is silhouetted against a video screen with an Facebook logo as he poses with an Samsung S4 smartphone in this photo illustration taken in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, August 14, 2013. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) Here is a quick round-up of this week’s technology headlines and related stories you may have missed: 1. Disinformation. Disinformation everywhere. Since Donald Trump’s […]
While there is no sign of our collective obsession with social media fading any time soon, there is also a growing determination by some to cut all ties and go on a technology detox. It sometimes feels as if new platforms for posting, sharing and pontificating are appearing by the day. With so many outlets for people to share their opinions and views of the world, and […]
Democrats are taking aim at potential conflicts of interest in President-elect ‘s emerging administration, focusing on the role Mr. Trump’s son-in-law could play in government and introducing legislation that would force the incoming president to distance himself from his business interests. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government […] (via WSJ)
Donald Trump was due to meet former critic Mitt Romney for a second time on Wednesday as aides to the president-elect stepped up a public rearguard action against the possible appointment of the one-time Republican nominee as secretary of state. Mr Trump has narrowed the list of candidates to several frontrunners, including Mr Romney and Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a faithful ally of the […]
Speculation that vast numbers of illegal immigrants are on voter rolls isn’t just coming from President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter account. A similar concern was aired by Republican Kansas officials in a recent case before skeptical federal appeals court judges weighing a Kansas law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration at state DMV offices. Mr. […] (via WSJ)
Much of the markets’ mixed reaction reflects uncertainty about a new president who has never held public office, leaving political leaders, business executives and international institutions to make bets on how a Trump administration may rewrite rules that have governed global affairs under American presidents of both parties. Continue reading the main story “For allies and adversaries alike, the election of Donald Trump represents the likely abandonment […]
President-elect ‘s pick for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, will be facing his first confirmation hearing since 1986 when a Senate panel rejected his appointment to the federal bench. Mr. Sessions would later get elected Alabama attorney general and U.S. senator from the state, a job he’s had since 1997. But his failed confirmation decades ago could loom again […] (via WSJ)
President Bashar al-Assad’s forces seized a wide swath of rebel territory in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, spurring the flight of tens of thousands of civilians amid intense fighting that threatens the collapse of the opposition’s last major urban stronghold. Activists and rebel leaders said pro-Assad forces on Monday recaptured the northern districts of the city, which has been divided between opposition forces on the east […]
November 28, 2016 by: Jessica Dye in New York and John Paul Rathbone in Miami Donald Trump on Monday threatened to end the Obama administration accord that restored diplomatic ties between the US and Cuba if the former Cold War foe did not negotiate a better deal with his government. Following the death of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday, the US president-elect tweeted that he […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: ‘Millions of people’: President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that he had fallen short in the popular vote in the general election only because millions of people had voted illegally. [NYT] • Despite Trump’s claims, no evidence has emerged so far of widespread voting by illegal immigrants. [WSJ] Trump […] (via WSJ)
Industry eyes opportunity to reinvest at higher yields and leave low rate era behind ©Noam Galai/WireImage/Getty Donald Trump may be just what the global insurance industry needs. Shares in several of the sector’s largest companies have outperformed the market strongly since the US election, on hopes that a prolonged squeeze on their returns is finally drawing to a close. Years of ultra-low rates have eaten away at […]
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday said his administration will scrutinize what he called “abuses” of visas amid speculation that he intends to restrict the flow of skilled workers into his country. In a two-minute video posted on YouTube, Mr. Trump for the first time since the Nov. 8 election articulated to the public what he plans to do during his first 100 days in office. “On […]
Donald Trump has attacked Hillary Clinton’s campaign team for backing an election recount effort based on suspicions that foreign hackers rigged the vote in key states, even as the US President-elect made the unsupported claim that “millions” of Americans cast ballots illegally. Reacting to a weekend decision by the Clinton campaign to participate in a recount in Wisconsin, one of three swing states targeted for new counts by […]
Our round-up of the week’s best comment and analysis from the Financial Times focuses on how infrastructure and fiscal policy shake-ups will play out for investors in the light of the current “Trumpflation” market rallies. The selection is taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, written by industry contributors and FT commentators. Infrastructure spending is the new zeitgeist of our age but we should have […]
Seven states passed ballot initiatives easing marijuana laws this year, four of them legalizing it for recreational use. But some in the nascent, if growing marijuana industry fear President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general will hinder progress toward legalization. The Alabama Republican senator has been outspoken in his opposition to […] (via WSJ)
Nov 24, 2016 10:02 am IST President-elect Donald Trump has chosen the first women for posts in his administration, picking South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and school-choice advocate Betsy DeVos as his secretary of education, his transition team said Wednesday. Ms. Haley long held reservations about Mr. Trump’s candidacy during the GOP primary, and endorsed both Sens. […]
The US is heading towards the potential drama of an election recount in Wisconsin after Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Saturday joined a process initiated by a third-party presidential candidate. Donald Trump won Wisconsin by about 27,000 votes and Mrs Clinton’s campaign lawyer, Mark Elias, said she would join recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania if they were initiated too. But he said he did not expect Mr Trump’s […]
Gold pared a third weekly drop as the dollar halted a rally that sent bullion prices to a nine-month low and pushed silver into a bear market. Bullion’s first gain in four days cut this week’s loss to 2 percent. Prices have tumbled as strong economic data and the prospect of more spending after Donald Trump’s U.S. election win boosted bets for higher interest rates. Investors are […]
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, Liberals, progressives, and the left-wing (to the extent that one still exists) are aligning with the corrupt oligarchy against president-elect Trump and the American people. They are busy at work trying to generate hysteria over Trump’s “authoritarian personality and followers.” In other words, the message is: here come the fascists. Liberals and progressives wailed and whined about “an all white male cabinet,” […]
The dollar broke new ground in its post-US election surge against the yen on Friday as the market eyed a potential ¥3.8tn ($34bn) deluge of yen selling by life insurers. Tokyo’s morning session saw speculators pushing the dollar into the high ¥113 zone — an eight-month peak and a move that is underpinned by more unwinding of long yen positions built ahead of what big Japanese investors […]
As Wall Street traders departed for Thanksgiving this week, they could celebrate a rare achievement. On Monday and Tuesday, the four most widely cited indices of US stocks — the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite and the Russell 2000 — hit all-time highs simultaneously. The last time a “grand slam” happened was on New Year’s Eve 1999, at the height of the […]
A declining gold market faces a major challenge as a $3.8bn outflow from exchange traded funds over the past 10 days is seen intensifying the liquidation of holdings by investors. Gold has dropped below $1,200 a troy ounce for the first time since February as ETF outflows have risen to their highest level since July 2015. A stronger dollar, higher US yields and a rallying stock market […]
