• The dollar edged higher against a basket of major currencies to hit a two-week high on Wednesday, as market participants grew more optimistic about lawmakers’ progress on U.S. tax legislation.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six rival currencies, was up 0.18 percent at 93.547.
• The U.S. Senate voted to go to a conference committee to resolve differences between its tax legislation and a rival version passed by the House of Representatives, moving the Republican-led Congress a step closer to a final bill.
• U.S. Senate Republicans agreed to talks with the House of Representatives on sweeping tax legislation on Wednesday, amid early signs that lawmakers could bridge their differences and agree on a final bill ahead of a self-imposed Dec. 22 deadline.
• U.S. private-sector employment growth eased in November even as the manufacturing sector added the most jobs in at least 15 years, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.
Private employers added 190,000 jobs last month, down from an unrevised 235,000 in October, the ADP National Employment Report showed. That was roughly in line with expectations for a gain of 185,000 jobs in a Reuters poll of economists, with estimates ranging from 150,000 to 240,000.
• U.S. President Donald Trump would sign a stop-gap spending measure funding the government through Dec. 22 that is being considered by the House of Representatives, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.
Trump and Congress are facing a deadline of Friday at midnight to pass fresh spending legislation. If they cannot agree on the terms, parts of the federal government could shut down.
• Large military drills being carried out by the United States and South Korea and U.S. threats of a preemptive war against Pyongyang have made the outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula “an established fact”, North Korea’s foreign ministry said.
A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry also blamed “confrontational warmongering” remarks by U.S. officials for pushing the peninsula to the brink of war.
“The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?” the spokesman said late on Wednesday in a statement carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.
“We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it,” he said.
• U.S. crude on Wednesday slid nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, its biggest daily decline in more than two months, after a sharp rise in U.S. inventories of refined fuel suggested demand may be flagging, while U.S. crude production hit another weekly record.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 ended down 2.6 percent, or $1.64 a barrel to $61.22, for its lowest close since Nov. 2.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 settled down $1.66, or 2.9 percent, to $55.96 a barrel. It marks the lowest close for the benchmark since Nov. 16 and the biggest one-day decline for WTI since Oct. 6.
Reference: Reuters
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