The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to reduce risk in large cap stocks. Among the index's contributors, Tencent was a major drag, with its shares falling by around 2.3%, putting pressure on the technology sector, which has recently been a driving force behind market gains. Weakness in large cap companies like this typically quickly impacts sentiment due to their significant weighting in...
The House of Representatives will attempt to end the longest government shutdown in US history on Wednesday, voting on a stopgap funding package to restart disrupted food aid, pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and restart the crippled air traffic control system. Republicans currently hold a slim 219-213 majority in the House. However, President Donald Trump's support for the bill is expected to keep his party united in the face of stiff opposition from House Democrats, angered that a prolonged stalemate waged by their colleagues in the Senate failed to secure a deal to extend...
Even as a U.S.–China trade truce appears to be holding, analysts caution that the détente remains fragile in a rivalry increasingly defined by strategic competition. A flurry of decisions, outlined in the sweeping trade deal struck by U.S. President Donald Trump with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month, took effect on Monday, with rollbacks of steep tariffs and export controls. The U.S. halved fentanyl-linked tariffs on imports from China to 10% and extended for a year a truce that lowered the reciprocal tariff rate from 34% to 10%. In return, China's Ministry of Commerce rolled back...
Lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday (November 11th), after a 53-day recess, facing crowded airports across the country for a vote that could end the longest US government shutdown in history. With more than 1,000 flights canceled on Tuesday due to the shutdown, lawmakers, including Republicans Rick Crawford of Arkansas and Trent Kelly of Mississippi, said they would drive to the Capitol, while Representative Derrick Van Orden said he would drive 16 hours from Wisconsin on his motorcycle. "It's going to be a little cold, but I'm going to do my job," the Republican said in a video...
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history could end this week after a compromise that would restore federal funding cleared an initial Senate hurdle late on Sunday, though it was unclear when Congress would give its final approval. The deal would restore funding for federal agencies that lawmakers allowed to expire on October 1, bringing welcome relief to low-income families that have seen food subsidies disrupted, hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have gone unpaid for more than a month and travelers who have faced thousands of canceled flights. It would extend funding...
The U.S. Senate is expected to hold a test vote on a spending bill on Sunday evening to end the longest ever U.S. government shutdown, with ABC News reporting that enough Democrats now supported the measure. ABC reported that there will be enough Democratic votes to pass a measure approving funding for the government until January 31, citing a senior Democratic senator. The bill is unlikely to include any extension of the Obamacare subsidies that the Democrats have been holding out for, ABC reported. The ABC report came just before the Senate kicked off a rare late-Sunday session at 6:00...