European and Asian stocks were modestly in the green, with U.S. futures higher, before a critical procedural vote on a Republican health-care bill to repeal Obamacare, while Janet Yellen is set to speak in Washington at 8:45am.
With political uncertainty near record highs (but equity market uncertainty near record lows), Goldman's Jan Hatzius analyzes the four biggest political risks receiving the most attention from market participants (and stand to create the most chaos if the priced for perfection market is disappointed).
Via Goldman Sachs,
Q: What are the near-term risks on the agenda in Washington?
There are four risks we are monitoring that have recently received some attention from market participants:
Authored by Mohamed El-Erian via Project Syndicate,
Financial markets seem convinced that the recent surge in business and consumer confidence in the US economy will soon be reflected in “hard” data, such as GDP growth, business investment, consumption, and wages. But economists and policymakers are not so sure. Whether their doubts are vindicated will matter for both the United States and the world economy.
Appearing on Meet the Press earlier this morning with the always condescending, well at least if he's interviewing a Republican guest, Chuck Todd, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, said there's no hope of achieving a balanced budget this year. Of course, that should hardly come as a surprise to almost anyone other than the suddenly fiscally conservative Chuck Todd.
Trey Gowdy fought back tears in Congress as he put the elite pedophile ring on notice, warning that anyone who dares interfere with his child exploitation investigation will be forced to publicly explain why they are [...]