Cartoon via China’s Global Times, the paper noting:
Historic deadlock drags on in US House
218 votes are needed to win
The Republican Party majority in the House have ample numbers to get to 218 votes but a hard-line faction is voting consistently against Republican front-runner McCarthy, preventing him from getting the job.
The last time the Speaker vote went on this long was in 1859 – it took 44 rounds, and two months.
Japan chief cabinet secretary Matsuno says now that its possible North Korea will take further provocative actions, such as conducting a nuclear weapons test.
I think that is a solid bet indeed.
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The North Korean test today had the ballistic missile tracking over Japan’s Hokkaido and landing in the Pacific Ocean outside Japan’s economic zone.
US President Biden is speaking in an interview on US TV, 60 minutes.
We are going to get control of inflation
I am more optimistic than I have been in a long time
Ukraine is not losing the war, is making gains in certain areaws
US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion
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The defence of Taiwan comment is sure to raise eyebrows and I suspect the White House will issue some sort of retraction or clarification or muddying of the waters.
A US State Department spokesperson said the United States had received Iran’s response to the EU bid to revive the 2015 deal and would formulate its own response. “We are studying it and will respond through the EU, but unfortunately it is not constructive,” the State Department spokesperson said.
Iran sent its reply to the EU on Thursday after careful examination, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement on Telegram. “The sent text has a constructive approach with the aim of finalizing the negotiations,” the statement said.
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This new news from the US Star=te Dept should act as a tailwind for oil (check out that link above to my earlier post for why)
This has been dragging on for the longest of time and latest talks are that a deal is “imminent” again with reports suggesting that Iran has dropped demands related to delisting several companies tied to the IRGC – a key sticking point in discussions previously. But from the messaging above, it remains to be seen if we are actually seeing any real progress. Or if this is just another rodeo ride.
Iran’s parliament has scheduled a closed session for 17 August 2022 (local time) on the latest developments on the talks in Vienna with the EU on the nuclear deal.
While not directly applicable to forex, the news of a judge granting a search warrant to the FBI given probably cause of criminal behaviour is attracting a lot of interest. Given Trump’s close links to Putin and other nefarious actors, his attempts at a coup, his leading of a violent cop-killing insurrection, and other activites, there could be more to this than meets the eye. I guess we’ll find out in time.
Reuters have a recap up of all the legal investigations into former President Trump. Allegations include:
boxes of White House documents from Trump’s Florida home, some of which contained classified materials
trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat
obstruct any official proceeding
raised some $250 million from supporters to advance fraudulent claims in court that he won the election, but steered much of the money elsewhere
efforts to influence the Georgia’s 2020 election results
EUR traders will be keeping an eye on Italian politics ahead of the September 25 election.
Italian politics are volatile, an alliance formed late last week has been called off already:
ver the weekend (late Friday to be more accurate), Moody’s:
affirmed Italy’s sovereign rating at Baa3
cut Italy’s outlook to “negative” from “stable”
The agency citing:
“Risks to Italy’s credit profile have been accumulating more recently because of the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and domestic political developments, both of which could have material credit implications”
higher funding costs
increased risk that energy supply challenges would weaken economic prospects
sluggish growth may pressure Italy’s fiscal strength.