• The dollar rose to a more than one-week high against a basket of other major currencies on Monday, helped by a pullback in the euro as investors took profits after the common currency’s recent rally.
The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against six rival currencies, was up 0.46 percent at 92.368.
The euro EUR= slipped 0.57 percent to $1.196. It had hit a nearly four-month high of $1.2089 on Thursday.
• The Federal Reserve should consider changing its inflation target to allow for an acceptable range of inflation rates, Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren said on Monday.
Currently, the Fed aims for U.S. consumer prices to rise 2 percent a year but the central bank has rarely met that target since adopting it in 2012, with inflation typically at less than 2 percent. Rosengren said it was possible the optimal rate of inflation could shift with time.
He said one possibility would be for the Fed to create a band that allowed U.S. inflation to range between 1.5 percent and 3 percent.
• The Federal Reserve may only need to raise interest rates two times in 2018 given weak price pressures and possible loss of public confidence in the central bank’s ability to hit a 2 percent inflation target, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on Monday.
• The U.S. Federal Reserve could better fight a recession by committing to keep interest rates lower for longer to keep average inflation on a steady upward path over the years, San Francisco Fed President John Williams said on Monday.
• U.S. President Donald Trump is close to making a decision on who to nominate as vice chair of the Federal Reserve, an administration official said on Monday. The position became vacant in October after veteran central banker Stanley Fischer stepped down for personal reasons.
• President Donald Trump could be interviewed within weeks as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
Mueller raised the issue of interviewing Trump during a meeting in late December with the president’s lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, the Post said. The interview, which would deal with a limited portion of questions, could take place within the next several weeks, the Post said, citing a person close to the president.
• The Trump administration is nearing completion of a new “Buy American” plan that calls for U.S. military attaches and diplomats to help drum up billions of dollars more in business overseas for the U.S. weapons industry, going beyond the limited assistance they currently provide, officials said.
The initiative, which will encompass everything from fighter jets and drones to warships and artillery, is expected to be launched as early as February, senior officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
• Republican U.S. Representative Ed Royce said on Monday he will not run for a 14th term representing his southern California district, a seat that could be a key to Democratic efforts to win back control of the House of Representatives.
• North and South Korea will hold their first formal talks for more than two years on Tuesday, brought together by sport to discuss how the North’s athletes can attend next month’s Winter Olympics in the South despite simmering fears of conflict.
Regardless of its narrow, primarily sporting agenda, the meeting will be closely watched by world leaders eager for any sign of a reduction in tensions on the Korean peninsula amid rising fears over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
• Oil prices were little changed on Monday, trading near their highest since May 2015, as political concerns in some OPEC nations offset projections for higher U.S. oil production.
Brent futures LCOc1 gained 16 cents, or 0.2 percent, to settle at $67.78 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose 29 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at $61.73.
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