• The dollar gave back some of its gains in Asian trading on Tuesday but stuck close to a one-week high against a basket of currencies as a German political deadlock continued to pressure the euro.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rival currencies, dipped 0.1 percent to 94.029, but was still within sight of its overnight peak of 94.104, its highest since Nov. 14.
The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.1739, nursing losses after dropping to $1.1722 in the previous session after German coalition government talks collapsed.
• The Republican tax-overhaul effort is in for a marathon debate on the Senate floor at the end of this month, with dozens of doomed Democratic amendments. But the real action will be elsewhere, behind closed doors.
Two parallel and largely private negotiations will determine the content of the bill that’s due for a full Senate vote as early as Nov. 30: One is aimed at getting about a half-dozen wavering GOP senators on board. The other will attempt to smooth the path for a final House-Senate compromise in December.
Congress is trying to make a self-imposed deadline of adopting tax legislation by year’s end -- to achieve a major legislative accomplishment before the 2018 mid-term elections. But they won’t accomplish much of note this week; both chambers are out for the Thanksgiving holiday. When lawmakers return, the Senate has only 15legislative days left on its official 2017 calendar. Expect the chamber to vote on a tax bill during the week of Nov. 27.
If all goes smoothly for Senate leaders, that vote would most likely occur late on the evening of Nov. 30 or after midnight on Dec. 1. It’ll come only after a “vote-a-rama,” an overnight series of votes on what could be dozens of amendments offered by both Democrats and Republicans.
Significant differences remain between the House and Senate tax plans: The Senate is proposing to repeal the so-called “individual mandate” that individuals must have health insurance, a requirement of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Its plan also would delay a corporate income tax cut by one year and would make individual tax cuts temporary; they’d expire in 2026.
• President Donald Trump on Monday promised a tax overhaul by Christmas, even as a nonpartisan tax analysis group said the Senate package would leave half of taxpayers facing higher by 2027.
• The European Union has picked Paris as the new host for its London-based banking authority after Britain leaves the bloc, in a second drawing of lots in just one evening, following three rounds of voting that failed to produce a winner.
Earlier on Monday, a series of EU votes to pick a new site for the European Medicines Agency, also now based in London, also ended in a tie before Amsterdam won in drawing of lots.
• Greece expects to overshoot its budget surplus targets for a third consecutive year in 2018, a senior government official said on Monday, an outcome that could help ease the austerity burden imposed on a recession-weary population.
In a final budget draft due to be submitted to parliament on Tuesday, Greek authorities will outline projections of a primary surplus — the fiscal surplus excluding debt repayments - of between 2.4 and 2.5 percent this year, and of more than 3.7 percent next year, the official told Reuters.
The figures mark an upward revision. A draft budget submitted on Oct. 2 had put the surplus at 2.2 percent for 2017 and 3.57 for 2018.
• South Korea and Japan on Tuesday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying it would ramp up pressure on Pyongyang to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Monday that the move to designate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism will help dissuade third parties from supporting Pyongyang.
• Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday as the impact from expectations of an extended OPEC-led production cut was canceled out by rising output in the United States.
Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $62.20 per barrel at 0301 GMT, 8 cents above their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $56.50 a barrel, also up 8 cent from their last settlement.
Traders said they were avoiding taking on large new positions due to uncertainty in markets.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg
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