MTS Help Center

• The U.S. dollar rose on Friday as Republican negotiators in the U.S. Congress put the finishing touches on a sweeping tax overhaul, raising expectations that the bill would be passed by year-end.

The dollar index .DXY against a basket of six major currencies rose 0.49 percent to 93.944.

• Bitcoin investors expect futures volumes to perk up when CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator, launches its own contract to wager on the cryptocurrency on Sunday.

CME, the world's largest futures exchange, launched its own bitcoin futures contract Sunday under the ticker "BTC."

CME bitcoin futures were higher by about 75 points, or 0.4 percent, to 19,575 as of 7 p.m. New York time. CBOE bitcoin futures were 8 percent higher.

• Congressional Republicans on Friday unveiled the final version of their dramatic U.S. tax overhaul - debt-financed cuts for businesses, the wealthy and some middle-class Americans - and picked up crucial support from two wavering senators ahead of planned votes by lawmakers early next week.

Passage of the biggest U.S. tax rewrite since 1986 would provide Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump their first major legislative victory since he took office in January. Prospects for approval soared after Republican senators Marco Rubio and Bob Corker pledged support.

Three Republican senators, enough to defeat the measure in a Senate that Trump’s party controls with a slim 52-48 majority, remained uncommitted: Susan Collins, Jeff Flake and Mike Lee.

• U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday defended a Republican tax-cut plan against Democratic charges that it favors the rich, saying it will be “one of the great Christmas gifts” for the middle class with just days to go before Congress votes.

With a vote on the biggest tax rewrite in three decades set for Tuesday, Republicans were working to ensure party members were holding the line in favor of the legislation against entrenched Democratic opposition.

• Top U.S. Republicans said on Sunday they expected Congress to pass a tax code overhaul this week, with a Senate vote as early as Tuesday and President Donald Trump aiming to sign the bill by week’s end.

• Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday she would not be derailed from leaving the European Union, laying the groundwork for difficult meetings this week in which she will try to unite a divided cabinet behind her vision for post-Brexit Britain.

A poll has found that 51 percent of Britons would now keep European Union membership while 41 percent want to leave the bloc, a near reversal of last year’s referendum result.

• The BMG poll of 1,400 people for The Independent published on the newspaper’s website on Saturday came as Britain moves into a second phase of negotiations on exiting the EU, which will focus on trade.

British finance minister Philip Hammond said that China and the United Kingdom have agreed to accelerate preparations for a London-Shanghai stock connect program.

Hammond was speaking at a press conference in Beijing.

In September, Britain and China agreed to carry out a feasibility study the connect scheme, but did not provide further details.

• Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) agreed to open exploratory talks on forming a government with Chancellor Angela Merkel, party leader Martin Schulz said, providing a chance to end a rare period of political deadlock in Europe’s largest economy.

• Japanese companies expect consumer prices to rise an average 0.8 percent a year from now, higher than their projection three months ago, a central bank survey showed on Monday.

Three months ago, companies expected prices to rise 0.7 percent over the next year.

• Oil prices were mixed on Friday, lingering below two-year highs as the continuing outage of a North Sea pipeline gave support, while climbing U.S. output and weak gasoline demand kept a lid on gains.

Brent crude futures settled down 8 cents or 0.1 percent to $63.23 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled up 26 cents to $57.30 a barrel. WTI hit a two-year high of $59.05 on Nov. 24.

Reference: Reuters, CNBC