Yesterday, Trump Tweeted that he never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. The president claimed that because he acted on the ‘advice of counsel’, he is off the hook for any crime. Cohen was recently sentenced to three years behind bars and said that he acted at the direction of Trump. Prosecutors and a judge have agreed with these sentiments and it remains to be seen what will happen in the future.
Initial jobless claims came in much better than expected at 206,000 up to 8 December 2018, from the previous week’s revised level of 233,000. The markets had been expecting a decline to 225,000, so the near 49-year low is encouraging. It is the steepest decline in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits since April 2015.
Like the eurozone, the schedule is quite busy for America today. In addition to the manufacturing, composite and services PMI for December, we will also see retail sales for November, as well as the industrial and manufacturing production figures for the same month.
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