• Today, the former director of the FBI, James Comey, released a written transcript of the prepared opening statement he will make tomorrow in his testimony to the Senate Committee on Intelligence. This seven-page document details the former director’s contact with President Trump, going over his interactions meeting by meeting, phone call by phone call.
His opening statement contains a detailed account of all interactions he had directly with the president. They were created from a series of written memos, written immediately following any direct contact with Donald Trump, either face-to-face or on the phone.
• British Prime Minister Theresa May faces the voters on Thursday in an election she called to strengthen her hand in looming Brexit talks, with her personal authority at stake after a campaign that saw her lead in opinion polls contract.
Voting begins at 0600 GMT and ends at 2100 GMT. There will be an exit poll as soon as voting finishes. The first handful of seat results are expected to be announced by 2300 GMT, with the vast majority of the 650 constituencies due to announce results between 0200 GMT and 0500 GMT on Friday morning.
• The lead of British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party over the opposition Labour Party has remained at one percentage point, according to a Survation poll published on Wednesday, one day before Britain's national election.
Survation said it put support for the Conservatives at 41.3 percent with Labour close behind on 40.4 percent.
• The U.S. Congress may be headed for a reckoning with the federal debt limit within weeks, thanks to wealthy Americans and corporations deferring tax payments in the hope that they would benefit from the lower tax rates promised by President Trump.
Trump promised tax cuts during his election campaign last year and has reiterated those promises in recent months leading some wealthy Americans and businesses to shift accounting for income into the future, betting that lower tax rates will arrive, perhaps in 2018, wealth managers told Reuters.
• Investor sentiment in the euro zone rose in June to its highest level in nearly a decade, underpinned by promising economic reports from the single currency bloc, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The Frankfurt-based Sentix research group's euro zone index rose to 28.4 points from 27.4 in May, hitting its highest level since July 2007. The June reading surpassed the consensus for a reading of 27.5 in a Reuters poll of analysts.
• Japan's economic growth was much weaker in the first quarter than initially estimated, the Cabinet Office said, but analysts made light of the decline as a "one-off" adjustment in oil inventories that would not thwart recovery.
Japan's economy, the world's third largest, expanded at an annualised rate of 1.0 percent in the first quarter, less than half the initial estimate of 2.2 percent growth and 2.4 percent gain seen by economists, Cabinet Office data showed on Thursday.
• China reported stronger-than-anticipated exports and imports for May despite falling commodity prices, suggesting the economy is holding up better than expected despite rising lending rates and a cooling property market.
Exports rose 8.7 percent from a year earlier, while imports expanded 14.8 percent, official data showed on Thursday.
• Aides to U.S. President Donald Trump are urging him not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions despite rifts between the two men, sources familiar with internal White House conversations said on Wednesday.
Media reports that Sessions offered to resign recently surfaced earlier this week. They added to pressure on Trump as former FBI Director James Comey, who was abruptly fired last month, prepared to testify in Congress on Thursday about his interactions with the president.
Trump did not accept Sessions' resignation offer and is now being advised to keep his attorney general in place, at least for the time being, two sources said.
• Crude futures edged up in early Asian trading on Thursday following heavy losses in the previous session after official data showed that U.S. inventories rose for the first time in 10 weeks, reawakening concerns of a supply glut.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 were up 26 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $45.98 a barrel at 0651 GMT. On Wednesday, they closed down 5.1 percent, or $2.47 a barrel, at their lowest settlement since May 4.
Brent crude prices LCOc1 rose 34 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $48.40 a barrel, after falling 4.1 percent in the previous session, also to the lowest since May 4.
Reference: Reuters
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