· The dollar rose to a more than one-month high against a basket of currencies on Wednesday, as optimism about U.S. fiscal reforms boosted sentiment in favor of the greenback.
The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was up 0.47 percent at 93.401, after touching 93.607, the highest since Aug. 23.
The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 2.31 percent on Wednesday, up from levels around 2.2 percent on Tuesday.
Against the Japanese currency, the dollar held onto most overnight gains to fetch 112.76 yen.
The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 2.31 percent on Wednesday, up from levels around 2.2percent on Tuesday.
· Orders for durable or long-lasting goods such as passenger planes rose sharply in August and business investment strengthened again in a good showing for the U.S. economy.
· Americans signed fewer contracts to buy homes in August, the fifth month of declines in the last six, prompting the Realtor industry group to slash its forecast for sales in 2017.
NAR has cut its full-year forecast for sales in the wake of a tepid spring selling season and the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. The group now expects 5.44 million homes will be sold in 2017, a 0.2% decline from the 5.45 million sold in 2016 and well below the 5.52 million sales it predicted at the start of the year.
· Regular interest-rate hikes are needed to avoid overheating a U.S. economy in which inflation is only temporarily weak and unemployment is headed yet lower, a Federal Reserve policymaker said on Wednesday.
Reinforcing the hawkish group of policymakers in the U.S. central bank, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren brushed off concerns among some of his colleagues that inflation readings have drifted further below the Fed’s2.0-percent target this year to 1.4 percent.
He instead highlighted the risk of halting a series of gradual rate rises, calling the policy tightening “appropriate risk mitigation” in the face of possible dangerous spikes in inflation or asset prices that could halt the recovery.
· President Donald Trump, faced with the latest Republican failure to undo Obamacare, pledged on Wednesday to tackle it again next year, suggesting without evidence that he had the votes to pass reform and promising to work with Democrats in the meantime.
Trump told reporters at the White House that he also was working on an executive order, possibly to be signed next week, that would allow individuals to buy health insurance across state lines.
· U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will return to the healthcare legislative effort early next year and negotiate with Democrats on the issue, a day after the failure of Republicans’ latest attempt to get a healthcare plan through the Senate.
The Republican president, refusing to admit defeat on one of his primary promises during the 2016 presidential campaign, told reporters at the White House that Republicans will tackle healthcare again in January or February.
· President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed the biggest U.S. tax overhaul in three decades, offering to cut taxes for most Americans but prompting criticism that the plan favors the rich and companies and could add trillions of dollars to the deficit.
The proposal, which the Republican president said was aimed at helping working people, creating jobs and making the tax code more simple and fair, faces an uphill battle in Congress with Trump’s own party divided and Democrats hostile.
The plan would lower corporate income tax rates, cut taxes for small businesses, reduce the top income tax rate for individuals and scrap some widely used tax breaks including one that benefits people in high-tax states dominated by Democrats.
The plan would lower the top individual rate from to 35 percent from 39.6 percent.
It foresees a 20 percent corporate income tax rate, down from the current 35 percent but not as low as Trump’s initial demand for 15 percent.
The White House and congressional Republicans did not give an estimate of the plan’s cost or how much it might add to federal deficits. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget policy group on Wednesday estimated that the plan contains about $5.8 trillion over a decade of total tax cuts and would have a net cost of $2.2 trillion through 2027.
· Analysts have warned that huge tax cuts would balloon the federal deficit and debt if economic growth projected by Republicans to offset the costs fails to materialize amid rising interest rates.
· He is anti-gay, pro-gun and warns that China is taking over Brazil. And with one year to go before Brazil’s presidential election, right-wing Congressman Jair Bolsonaro is running second in opinion polls.
Bolsonaro, a 62-year-old former paratrooper, lacks a major party behind him but hopes to emulate Donald Trump’s unexpected rise to the U.S. presidency with the support of Brazilians fed up with corrupt politicians and bad government.
· Brent prices fell on Wednesday while U.S. crude rallied, after crude stockpiles in the world’s top oil consumer unexpectedly drew down with refiners coming back online following Hurricane Harvey last month.
Brent LCOc1 slipped from 26-month highs to settle down 54 cents, or nearly 1 percent, at $57.90 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) CLc1 ended 26 cents, or 0.5 percent, higher at $52.14 but stayed below five-month highs.
U.S. crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell 1.8 million barrels last week, the U.S. Energy Department said, versus forecasts for a 3.4 million-barrel build.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, Market Watch
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