The Senate report on Russian election interference has found that it is still ‘active and ongoing’. Accounts tied to the Internet Research Agency – which has been criminally charged with creating fake accounts to influence the 2016 presidential election in favour of Trump – are still active. Researchers have found that Russians moved their work to Instagram after Facebook and Twitter were scrutinised. Instagram is owned by Facebook.
Democrats are preparing for a prolonged government shutdown which will begin on Saturday if a deal is not reached on bills to fund the government. Trump has said he will shut the government down is the Democrats don’t agree to pay $5 billion for his border wall. If the shutdown were to continue into January – when Democrats will take control of the House – they will pass a funding bill without money for the wall.
Today is fairly quiet for US economic data, but we will see building permits and housing starts for November. Tomorrow is the all-important Federal Reserve interest rate decision. While it is widely expected that rates will be hiked 25 basis points to 2.5% this time around, it will be interesting to see what policy makers have to say about their intentions next year. We could see some dollar volatility if the tone is more dovish than it has been in recent times.
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