On Saturday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected Trump’s latest shutdown deal before he had even announced it. The president offered temporary concessions on the status of threatened migrant groups in exchange for $5.7 billion for a wall on the US-Mexico border. The current shutdown began on 22 December 2018 and is the longest one in history. Pelosi said that Trump’s proposals were a ‘compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable’. The situation will rumble on for some time yet by the looks of things.
California senator, Kamala Harris, officially entered the 2020 US presidential race yesterday, presenting herself as a fighter for justice, decency and equality. The former Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, announced that he is considering a presidential run as an independent. There could yet be a few more announcements and the race to be the next president will certainly be an eventful one.
The only release of note on the schedule is existing home sales for December and tomorrow we will see mortgage applications up to the week ending 18 January 2019. Thursday is the busiest day for the US, with manufacturing and services PMI set for release, as well as initial jobless claims up to 19 January 2019.
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