• The euro fell to a six-week low on Tuesday after a senior lawmaker in one of Italy’s ruling parties said most of the country’s problems would be resolved if it readopted a national currency.
The lawmaker, Claudio Borghi, later rowed back on the comments, while Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the euro was “unrenounceable.”
The single currency EUR= dropped as low as $1.1505, its weakest level since Aug. 21, before retracing to $1.1541, down 0.30 percent on the day.
• U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday hailed a “remarkably positive outlook” for the U.S. economy that he feels is on the verge of a “historically rare” era of ultra-low unemployment and tame prices for the foreseeable future.
The array of trade tariffs and counter measures from other countries could raise U.S. inflation but there is so far no indication of that happening, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday.
• The dollar index .DXY rose 0.25 percent to 95.531, after rising to 95.744, the highest level since Aug. 21.
• Sterling slid to a three-week low as a conflict over UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan escalated, with deep divisions on show at the ruling Conservative Party’s conference.
• Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said on Tuesday that with the U.S. economy at or past full employment, and inflation at the Fed’s 2-percent goal, the Fed should move rates gradually toward “neutral” and then stop to assess the situation.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said on Tuesday that he is comfortable with one more U.S. interest-rate hike this year, and his base case is for two more next year - but that could change if he sees signs economic growth needs to be restrained.
• President Donald Trump on Monday touted a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico as a win for U.S. workers while investors breathed a sigh of relief that the key pillars of NAFTA had survived his hardball strategy to reshape global commerce.
• The steel industries of Mexico and Canada on Tuesday urged their governments to resolve a tariff dispute with the United States before signing a new trilateral trade deal that was unveiled this week.
• China’s hopes of negotiating a free trade pact with Canada or Mexico were dealt a sharp setback by a provision deep in the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that aims to forbid such deals with “non-market” countries, trade experts said on Tuesday.
• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to North Korea at the weekend for denuclearization talks with the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, the State Department said on Tuesday, calling this “forward progress,” despite negative signals from Pyongyang.
Pompeo will also travel to Japan, South Korea and China from Oct. 6-8, and will be in North Korea on Sunday local time, or Saturday in U.S. Eastern Time.
• Oil prices eased slightly on Tuesday after rallying for three straight sessions, but remained close to four-year highs on worries that global supplies will drop due to Washington’s sanctions on Iran.
Brent LCOc1 fell 18 cents to settle at $84.80 per barrel, a day after hitting a four-year high of $85.45. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were off 7 cents at $75.23 a barrel, after earlier touching a four-year high of $75.91.
Reference: Reuters
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