Senate

US equity futures in the green ahead of critical Senate debate on US tax reform and a much anticipated testimony from Yellen replacement Jerome Powell for Fed’s current policy approach.  European stocks advance, led by oil and gas stocks after Shell fully restored its cash dividend and unveiled a bullish outlook. Asian shares slide despite the reappearance of the Chinese "National Team" which stabilized the SHCOMP selloff in the last hour. USD recovers gradually from overnight lows against G-10, pushing GBP/USD and EUR/USD to session lows, while oil and treasuries edged lower.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the GOP Congressional leadership has repeatedly failed to corral the votes needed to transform the president’s legislative agenda into law, largely thanks to the Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the senate, which has bred factionalism and encouraged senators to play hardball to try and strong-arm the leadership into concessions.

The traditionally illiquid post-Thanksgiving week has started with a series of whipsaws across stocks and bonds, as European stocks turned positive after starting the day on the back foot, initially mirroring a slide in Chinese stocks and price action in U.S. equity futures as investors look to a possible - and absolutely critical - tax-plan vote in the Senate this week.

President Trump has been active on Twitter this morning, taking aim at the Alabama Senate race...

The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster!

Judicial Watch has just dumped a new treasure trove of FBI emails regarding Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's conflict check relative to the Clinton email investigation (for those who missed it, we reviewed all of McCabe's many scandals here: "FBI Director McCabe Subject Of Three Separate Federal Inquiries Into Alleged Misconduct: Report").   Ironically, this particular FOIA request was filed in October 2016 under the Obama administration but they apparently just "didn't have time" to get to it.