• The U.S. dollar slipped to a six-day low against a basket of currencies on Thursday as investors balked at emerging details of the U.S. Senate Republicans’ version of a tax cut plan.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major currencies, was down 0.4 percent to 94.482.
Against the yen, the dollar slipped to its lowest this month, and was down 0.58 percent to 113.2 yen.
• “I think the markets are getting a bit jittery over details of the plan as it looks like it is going to be pushed off another year,” said Paresh Upadhyaya, director of currency strategy at Amundi Pioneer Investment Management in Boston. “The initial reaction is disappointment over the Senate plan.”
• “There is a bit of a risk-off undertone to markets here,” said Shaun Osborne, currency strategist at Scotia Bank in Toronto, referring to the yen’s performance against the greenback.
• U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled a tax plan on Thursday that differed from the House of Representatives’ version on several key fronts, including how they treat the corporate tax rate, the tax deduction for state and local taxes, and the estate tax.
Complicating a Republican push for the biggest overhaul of U.S. tax law since the 1980s, senators said that, like the House, they wanted to slash the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, but in 2019, not right away.
The House was set to vote on its measure next week after its tax-writing Ways and Means Committee approved the legislation on Thursday along party lines, with Democrats united in opposition.
• Stocks, which have rallied this year on hopes for business tax cuts, declined as details of the two plans emerged. Investors worried about divergence between the House and Senate and the Senate’s proposed corporate tax rate cut delay.
• Republican U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Mike Lee said they want a child tax credit to increase to $2,000 in a Senate tax bill unveiled on Thursday.
“While we are glad to see an increase to the child tax credit, like the House bill, it is simply not enough for working families,” Rubio and Lee said in a joint statement. The Senate bill would raise the child tax credit to $1,650 from $1,000 currently.
• Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ended Nov. 4, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims had fallen to 229,000 in the prior week, near a 44-1/2-year low, and remain well below the 300,000 level generally regarded as signaling a healthy labor market.
Last week marked the 139th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller.
• Confidence among Japanese manufacturers slipped in November from a decade high seen the previous month, a Reuters poll showed, but it remained strong - underscoring the economy’s continuing expansion.
• Chinese investors are stepping up their hunt for education assets overseas as more Chinese students seek access to Western educational resources at home or abroad.
• Oil prices rose nearly 1 percent on Thursday, supported by supply cuts by major exporters as well as continuing concern about political developments in Saudi Arabia.
Brent crude oil LCOc1 settled up 44 cents or 0.7 percent at $63.93 a barrel, still close to Tuesday’s intra-day high of $64.65, which was the highest since June 2015.
U.S. light crude CLc1 was up 46 cents or 0.8 percent at $57.27, just shy of this week’s more than two-year high of $57.69 a barrel.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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