Thursday's Market Minute: No Rest For The Weary

President Trump is on deck to sign the passing of a Hong Kong civil rights bill that has already made its way through the Senate and House. Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted 417-1 in approval of the legislation that the Senate signed on Tuesday.

In addition, the House passed a different bill proposing to ban the export of certain munitions to the Hong Kong police. Reuters reports that Trump, who is expected to sign both bills into law, may face a challenge by backing Hong Kong while continuing already-rocky negotiations with China. U.S. equities sold off yesterday just before noon after reports surfaced that a Phase One trade deal between the two countries may not happen, while a new round of headlines this morning signaled otherwise.

The S&P 500 made up some of those losses before markets closed, but was still off session highs. Overnight, S&P 500 futures (/ES) remained relatively range-bound compared to the start of the week, and still hadn’t fully come back from the nearly 0.9% drop earlier in the day from session highs of 3118.5 to lows of 3090.75. And then there was Powell.

FOMC minutes for the Oct. 30 meeting revealed Federal Reserve members are in agreement over taking a neutral position toward interest rates and having a positive economic outlook. The minutes reiterated that no further rate cuts are in place, barring something like negative economic data leading to a “material reassessment” of the economic outlook. Members also said trade tensions, though easing, were still elevated.

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