J.W. Verret, who served as deputy director of economic policy for the Donald Trump pre-transition team, said it is time to start impeachment proceedings.
Verret, a professor of law at George Mason University, made his comments in a column posted by The Atlantic. He worked on the Trump team from Aug.-Oct. 2016.
“I wanted to share my experience transitioning from Trump team member to pragmatist about Trump to advocate for his impeachment, because I think many other Republicans are starting a similar transition,” he said. “Politics is a team sport, and if you actively work within a political party, there is some expectation that you will follow orders and rally behind the leader, even when you disagree.
“There is a point, though, at which that expectation turns from a mix of loyalty and pragmatism into something more sinister, a blind devotion that serves to enable criminal conduct.”
He said the report by special counsel Robert Mueller was the tipping point for him.
“Depending on how you count, roughly a dozen separate instances of obstruction of justice are contained in the Mueller report,” he said. “The president dangled pardons in front of witnesses to encourage them to lie to the special counsel, and directly ordered people to lie to throw the special counsel off the scent.
“This elaborate pattern of obstruction may have successfully impeded the Mueller investigation from uncovering a conspiracy to commit more serious crimes. At a minimum, there’s enough here to get the impeachment process started.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday an Alabama-born woman who joined ISIS but now wants to return home with the 18-month-son she had with her ISIS husband will not be admitted back into the United States, saying she is not a U.S. citizen anymore.
“Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,” Pompeo said in a statement. “She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States. We continue to strongly advise all U.S. citizens not to travel to Syria.”
Muthana, 24, has pleaded with officials to let her back into the U.S. following her recent escape from ISIS and capture by Kurdish forces. She is being held in a refugee camp in northeast Syria and told The Guardian in an interview that her last four years with the terrorist group have been a traumatizing experience where “we starved and we literally ate grass."
“I would tell them please forgive me for being so ignorant, and I was really young and ignorant and I was 19 when I decided to leave,” she told the newspaper when asked if she had a message for American officials.
Muthana first made headlines in 2015 after it emerged that she left her family in Birmingham, Alabama to join the bloodthirsty terrorist group.
An attorney representing her parents at the time said Muthana was “brainwashed” over the Internet, according to the Associated Press, and that she went against her family’s wishes and the teachings of Islam by secretly boarding a plane to Turkey in late 2014 to link up with ISIS.
The attorney said it then, but it wasn’t until Sunday -- in her interview with The Guardian -- that Muthana admitted herself that she was “brainwashed” and made a “big mistake.”
“I thought I was doing things correctly for the sake of God,” she said, adding that she was “brainwashed once and my friends are still brainwashed.”
The newspaper says Muthana, during her time with ISIS, lived in their once-stronghold of Raqqa and was married to jihadists from Australia, Tunisia, and Syria – the first two of which have been killed in battle.
In 2015, Muthana reportedly operated a Twitter account and once tried to use it to incite Americans to commit acts of violence amongst themselves on national holidays.
“Americans wake up! Men and women altogether. You have much to do while you live under our greatest enemy, enough of your sleeping!” she once wrote, according to The Guardian. “Go on drivebys, and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc day … Kill them.”
Muthana now has an 18-month-old son from one of her ISIS marriages. In her interview with The Guardian, Muthana also claims her parents were too strict on her in her upbringing, a factor that she says contributed to her decision to defect to ISIS.
“You want to go out with your friends and I didn’t get any of that,” she said. “I turned to my religion and went in too hard. I was self-taught and thought whatever I read, it was right."
Now Muthana is not allowed to leave the camp she is being held at and has to be escorted around by Kurdish fighters, more than 6,500 miles away from the Alabama city she once called home.
Fox News’ Greg Norman and Nick Kalman contributed to this report.
An employee of Germany's Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) uses his mobile phone in front of a screen set up for the auction of spectrum for 5G services at the Bundesnetzagentur headquarters in Mainz, Germany, March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
March 19, 2019
By Douglas Busvine
MAINZ, Germany (Reuters) – Germany begins an auction of spectrum for next-generation 5G mobile networks on Tuesday, the outcome of which will play a decisive role in determining whether Europe’s largest economy remains competitive in the digital age.
It nearly didn’t happen: a raft of lawsuits brought by network operators was thrown out by a court only last week. The buildup has also been overshadowed by U.S. pressure on its allies to bar Chinese vendors from participating in building 5G networks due to national security fears.
In the end, regulators preferred to draft tougher rules for all vendors rather than meet the U.S. demand to banish China’s Huawei Technologies, the global network market leader.
Here’s an overview of how the auction will work:
WHAT IS BEING AUCTIONED?
Germany’s Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) is auctioning off 41 blocks of spectrum in the 2 GHz and 3.6 GHz bands.
These frequencies have relatively short range and high data-carrying capacity, suiting them to use in running ‘connected’ factories – an industrial policy priority.
Urban areas should get 5G coverage early, with another application likely to be super-fast domestic wireless broadband.
WHO’S TAKING PART?
Germany’s three network operators – Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland – have been admitted into the auction.
Also participating is 1&1 Drillisch, a virtual mobile operator controlled by United Internet that wants to run a fourth network.
The Big Three filed lawsuits to delay the auction, arguing that its requirement to provide high-speed coverage to 98 percent of households by 2022 was too onerous. They also criticized rules for network sharing, arguing they would make life too easy for new market entrants.
The Cologne Administrative Court threw out those lawsuits on Friday. Outstanding litigation may yet lead to the results of the auction being reviewed, although BNetzA says it is on firm legal ground.
HOW MUCH MONEY WILL THE AUCTION RAISE?
BNetzA has declined to forecast proceeds but the federal government hopes to raise several billion euros – money it will reinvest in upgrading Germany’s broadband networks.
The last auction in 2015, for 4G frequencies, raised 5.1 billion euros ($5.8 billion). Back in 2000, a 3G auction raised more than 50 billion euros – a ruinous sum that forced some players out of the market and others to merge.
HOW WILL IT WORK?
The auction is being held in old army barracks in the south-western city of Mainz. Bid teams will have to surrender their phones when they enter. They will submit offers from separate rooms via a secure network, and can only seek guidance via fax from their head offices.
All 41 blocks will be auctioned simultaneously and results will be published online https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Sachgebiete/Telekommunikation/Unternehmen_Institutionen/Frequenzen/OeffentlicheNetze/Mobilfunknetze/mobilfunknetze-node.html after each round. Minimum bids range between 1.7 million and 5 million euros and total 104.6 million euros. The process ends when no fresh bids are entered.
Based on past experience, the auction could run for weeks – a previous one in 2010 lasted six weeks.
WHAT ABOUT U.S. CALLS TO SHUT OUT CHINESE VENDORS?
Germany resisted calls from the United States to shut Chinese network vendors out of its 5G buildout due to national security concerns.
Instead of banning Huawei outright, regulators have tightened rules on all network vendors. These won’t bid in the auction but will be key partners in upgrading network infrastructure.
WHAT ABOUT OTHER EUROPEAN AUCTIONS?
Several countries – among them Ireland, Finland, Italy, Switzerland and Austria – have already auctioned 5G spectrum. Most have been low-key affairs, with only modest sums raised because the sales were designed to leave operators with money left over to invest in network upgrades.
The exception was Italy, where frenzied bidding last year raised 6.5 billion euros for the cash-strapped government but left operators financially stretched.
Countries like France have yet to hold 5G auctions, leaving Europe as a whole lagging early adopters like the United States, Japan and Korea.
($1 = 0.8818 euros)
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
The family of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a rabid nemesis of President Trump, has announced their intention to support former Vice President Joe Biden for the 2020 presidential race.
The McCain family is preparing to break from the Republican Party in an extraordinary snub to the president, and will formally back Biden’s candidacy at some point in the election race in hopes of removing Trump, a source close to both the Bidens and McCains reportedly said.
“They talk regularly and have been supportive of his run,” the source told Washington Examiner. “The question is going to be timing and coordinating with the Biden campaign. There are a lot of moving parts there and [Biden’s campaign is] not necessarily organized. I wouldn’t expect a formal family endorsement because some of McCain’s family is still in the military, but I do expect Cindy to speak out at some point.”
But one senior McCain aide worried if the family’s endorsement would even help Biden as the Democrat field lurches far-left.
“I’m just not sure how much that helps in a primary where the party is constantly moving towards the left. If you’re a two-term former vice president and basically tied with Bernie Sanders, that’s not a good sign,” the aide said.
“My name’s Joe Biden. I’m a Democrat. And I loved John McCain,” he had said. “The way I look at it, the way I thought about it, was that I always thought of John as a brother. We had a hell of a lot of family fights. We go a long way.”
Biden is expected to launch his 2020 campaign on Thursday, according to reports.
“Creepy Uncle Joe” has slipped in the polls after videos of him being “handsy” with girls and women even smelling their hair have gone viral. Paul Joseph Watson exposes the left’s double standard as they rush to defend Biden.
ORLANDO, Fla. – When Florida authorities shut down 10 massage spas last month and arrested hundreds of men for buying sex, they broke a longstanding pattern.
In the past, owners had mostly faced minor charges and punishment, patrons almost never were arrested, and signs of human trafficking often didn't lead to investigations.
An Associated Press review of state records shows that while law enforcement in Florida has investigated hundreds of individual massage parlors for illegal sexual activity, it was usually low-level massage therapists who were arrested.
Owners were often exempted or charged with misdemeanors resulting in fines and probation. Johns usually were not charged at all.
In stark contrast, the investigation announced last month focused heavily on the possibility of widespread human trafficking, and hundreds of johns were arrested.
KEENE, N.H. -- Beto O’Rourke predicts that if he wins the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, he’ll take his native state of Texas in the general election.
The former congressman from El Paso also said he would “absolutely” support his campaign staff if they wanted to unionize. He also would consider lowering the federal voting age to 16, scrapping the Electoral College, increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court, and eliminating the filibuster in the Senate.
Speaking with reporters after holding his first event in New Hampshire as a presidential candidate, O’Rourke said, "Yes I think we can win Texas. I think we’ve proven we know how to campaign. We’ve been to each one of those 254 counties. We’ve listened to the stories our fellow Texans have told us. We’ve incorporated it in the way in which we campaign.”
In his U.S. Senate run last year, O'Rourke raised $80 million in contributions and nearly defeated incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in the midterm elections. O'Rourke's campaign boosted him to Democratic Party rock-star status and launched him toward his White House bid.
Winning Texas and its 38 electoral votes would be a major coup for the Democrats. The last Democrat to take the state in a presidential election was Jimmy Carter in 1976. Republican President Donald Trump won Texas in 2016 but by a smaller margin than GOP nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.
O’Rourke arrived in New Hampshire – the state that will hold the first presidential primary, after an eight-and-a-half-hour drive in his Dodge Caravan from State College, Pa., the home of Pennsylvania State University. He spoke and took questions from a couple of hundred people who had waited at least two hours at Keene State College. The stop was O’Rourke’s first in a 48-hour swing in which he said he would visit all 10 of New Hampshire’s counties.
Asked about lowering the voting age to 16, O’Rourke said “I’m open to the idea of a younger voting age. ... There’s some merit to it.”
And he said he would “seriously consider” scrapping the Senate’s filibuster -- a generations-old tactic for preventing a measure from coming to a vote – as well as the Electoral College and increasing the number of justices on the high court.
“We have to look at some of these institutional reforms, whether it’s the Supreme Court, the Electoral College, the filibuster in the Senate. We’ve got to get democracy and our institutions working again,” he said.
Scrapping the Electoral College -- an idea that some of O’Rourke’s Democratic rivals also support -- is an unpopular idea in New Hampshire, a small state that sees plenty of traffic in the presidential general election thanks to its status as a battleground state.
O’Rourke arrived in the Granite State one day after independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – one of the front-runners in the 2020 Democratic field – became the first presidential candidate to unionize his campaign staff.
Asked by Fox News if he would do likewise, O’Rourke said: “Absolutely. If those who work on this campaign and who comprise what I hope will be the largest grassroots effort this nation has ever seen, want to unionize, I support that all the way.”
During a question-and-answer session with the crowd, O’Rourke was asked about accepting large sums of contributions from pro-Israeli lobbyists during his 2018 Senate campaign.
“If you’re asking if the contributions I accept connect to the policies I support, the answer is no,” he responded.
O’Rourke once again called for a “two-state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians to achieve peace in the Middle East.
“I believe in peace and dignity and full human rights for the Palestinian people and the Israeli people. The only way to achieve that … is a two-state solution,” he said.
But he also took aim at embattled Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu – a close ally of Trump – as well as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
“Right now we don’t have the best negotiating partners on either side. We have a prime minister in Israel who has openly sided with racists,” he charged. “On the Palestinian side, we have an ineffectual leader. Mahmoud Abbas has not been very effective in bringing his side to the table.”
O'Rourke was also asked about his commitment to reducing America’s consumption of fossil fuels.
“I support the Green New Deal. Yes, I understand that as close to 2030 as we possibly can, we have to have this economy and this country fully transitioned off a reliance on fossil fuels,” he said.
But he added that “I also drove here in a Dodge Caravan that burns gasoline. ... We also have to acknowledge that we’re still using these fossil fuels right now, so there’s got to be a responsible transition.”
'Collision course with everyday Americans'
The Republican National Committee took aim at O'Rourke.
"By embracing the Green New Deal, calling for an end to the Electoral College and supporting late-term abortions, Beto O’Rourke is on a collision course with everyday Americans who will reject his extremist views that offer no substance or solution," the RNC's Mandi Merritt said.
O’Rourke declared his candidacy last Thursday, and immediately drew throngs of media and large crowds during a three-day swing through Iowa, the state that votes first in the presidential caucus.
The day before he arrived in New Hampshire, O’Rourke announced that he hauled in an eye-popping $6.1 million in his first 24 hours as a candidate, the most yet by any 2020 Democratic White House hopeful.
O’Rourke told Fox News that he would release updated campaign cash figures on Wednesday morning.
Carol Beckwith, a resident of nearby Fitzwilliam, N.H., told Fox News that "Beto-mania" is “coming our way.
"We haven’t had much exposure to it really, compared to other people," she said, adding that she remained undecided on whom she’ll vote for in next February’s primary.
"I want the best person for the job," she said.
But Russ Provost of Richmond, N.H., is already sold on O’Rourke, saying he’s already contributed to the Texan's campaign.
“I watched him on TV a number of times," Provost said. "I liked his style. I want someone young. I want someone under 60 to take over the reins of this country. I don’t want older people running it anymore.
“If he could take Texas and just win the same states Hillary won, he wins."
Police in Canada have released surveillance video of a suspected hitman who posed as a delivery man and shot a woman in the chest with a crossbow concealed in a large box when she answered the door.
Peel Regional Police showed the footage Monday seeking leads in the unsolved five-month-old case.
“This was not a random act,” Supt. Heather Ramore said, according to CTVNews. “Comments that were made to the victim by the suspect indicate that the victim was targeted and that the suspect may have carried out the attack at the request of another individual.”
Cops were called to the 44-year-old victim’s home in Mississauga around 8 p.m. on Nov. 7.
Police indicated that the woman is lucky to have survived.
"The arrow used in this incident is designed to hunt large game such as moose and deer and inflict the maximum amount of damage possible," police said in a news release.
A crossbow like this one was used by a suspect hitman posing as a delivery man in Canada. A woman was shot and is lucky to have survived, police said. (Peel Regional Police)
The brief video clip shows the suspect holding the box in front of him as he stands at the door waiting for it to be opened.
The footage then shows the suspect running off as the front door slams shut.
Police appear to have edited the video to avoid showing the exact moment when the crossbow was fired.
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
April 26, 2019
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter as the gains in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter are expected to reverse, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday.
“Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q,” they wrote in a research note.
Gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate in the first three months of the year, driven by a smaller trade deficit and the largest accumulation of unsold merchandise since 2015, the Commerce Department said earlier Friday.
FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Tom Sims
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet.
The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been “skeptical” about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.
And another top Deutsche Bank executive said on Friday that it had been Commerzbank that initiated the talks, suggesting there was no desperation on their part for a deal.
Commerzbank denied that version of events, ending the apparent truce between the normally highly competitive cross-town Frankfurt rivals over the past six weeks.
German hopes of creating a national banking champion able to challenge global competitors were finally dashed on Thursday when Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank ended their talks due to the risks of doing a deal, restructuring costs and capital demands.
For Sewing, the failure to clinch a deal has left the 49-year-old chief executive of Germany’s largest bank, who took over just over a year ago, with his back to the wall.
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which downgraded Deutsche Bank last year, said on Friday that Deutsche Bank “will remain under strain”, adding that it “seems to have acknowledged the need to adjust its strategy”.
Under Sewing, a new leadership has tried to revive Deutsche Bank’s fortunes, but it has faced money laundering allegations and failed stress tests, as well as ratings downgrades.
At the heart of the debate over its future is whether it should focus its business on Germany and draw a line under its costly global ambitions to take on Wall Street’s big guns.
“MARKET PLAY”
Without a deal, Deutsche Bank now finds itself back at the mercy of equity and debt markets, with UBS analysts warning that in a “stress scenario” it could again “be forced into a ‘debt-driven capital increase’ even with solid capital ratios”.
“Deutsche remains a levered market play vulnerable to external events,” the UBS analysts said in a note.
Sewing, along with many analysts, believes Deutsche Bank can go it alone in the short-term, but will be counting on a turnaround in market conditions to do so in the long-run given its dependence on volatile investment bank earnings.
“To reach our return objective, we also need to see a revenue recovery in our more market-sensitive business,” Sewing said on Friday after reporting results.
“These revenues are available to us in better market conditions given our leading positions in many of these businesses, but we need to capture them,” he added.
Revenue at Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division fell 19 percent in the first quarter, it said on Friday, underscoring weakness at its investment bank.
If those earnings do not improve, Berlin’s desire to keep its biggest bank out of foreign hands may start to wane.
“Germany’s globally active companies need competitive financial institutions that can support them around the world,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.
(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)
Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli reacts to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City, Panama April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erick Marciscano
April 26, 2019
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Panama’s electoral tribunal has ruled that former President Ricardo Martinelli, who is awaiting trial on wiretapping charges, cannot take part in elections on May 5 in which he was running for mayor of Panama City and a seat in Congress, a spokesman for Martinelli said on Friday.
“The ruling of the electoral tribunal has disqualified him as candidate,” said the spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, calling the court’s ruling a “political decision.”
Officials at the tribunal did not immediately confirm the ruling, which also was reported in local media in Panama.
Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon who ran the Central American country from 2009 to 2014, was extradited to Panama last June from the United States and charged with spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists.
A judge had previously cleared Martinelli to run for mayor of the capital. His critics vowed to appeal that decision.
(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Trott)
FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Shares of Walmart, Target and other U.S. retailers fell on Friday as Amazon.com Inc unveiled a one-day delivery plan for its Prime members in a move to further disrupt the fiercely competitive retail landscape.
The e-commerce giant’s announcement on Thursday could cause other brands, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies to have to invest more aggressively to compete with Amazon and its delivery, analysts said.
Retailers in recent years have poured billions into ecommerce and faster shipping options and are trying to close the gap with Amazon.
“This is about making it more expensive to catch up and affirms our world view that only the largest and smartest will survive,” Bernstein analyst Brandon Fletcher said.
The move is expected to heighten consumer expectations on e-commerce delivery just like Amazon did with its two-day shipping option for members of its loyalty club Prime, noted analysts.
“The faster you ship, the more people buy,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said.
The challenge for non-Amazon players was that very few of the existing logistics and parcel delivery players now have the ability to do nationwide one-day delivery, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said.
“And even fewer can do it at the vast scale and reasonable cost that AMZN would need for Prime delivery,” Nowak said in a note.
Walmart Inc’s shares fell about 3 percent, while Target Corp dropped about 5 percent in morning trade.
Shares of Kohl’s Corp, Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc fell about 1 percent. Grocer Kroger Co was nearly 3 percent lower, while consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc dropped 2.1 percent.
(Reporting by Soundarya J and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool (CHINA – Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)
April 26, 2019
By April Joyner
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as the lift from optimism over prospects for U.S.-China trade detente shows signs of wearing off for the wider U.S. stock market, upbeat sentiment around China’s economy could bolster shares of materials companies.
Shares of S&P 500 industrial and technology companies, which were buffeted by last year’s tit-for-tat tariffs as well as slowing global demand, have been very responsive to progress in U.S.-China trade relations and a strengthening Chinese economy. This year, those sectors have outpaced the ascent in the S&P 500, which reached a record closing high on Tuesday.
Materials stocks have not been as sensitive, however, even though they also stand to benefit as a stronger Chinese economy lifts global consumption and industrial output. As China has taken measures to stimulate its economy, its economic data have turned more upbeat. That in turn could aid global growth, which has flagged as a result of China’s cooldown.
“What we’re seeing is China spending more on stimulus: fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York. “That’s likely to be a positive for materials.”
The People’s Bank of China has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio five times over the past year and is widely expected to ease policy further to spur lending and reduce borrowing costs. The stimulus appears to have boosted Chinese economic data, with factory activity growing in March for the first time in four months.
Yet so far in 2019, the S&P 500 materials index has underperformed the S&P 500 at large, rising just 11.9% compared with 16.7% for the benchmark index. Moreover, it is among the biggest decliners in the period since the S&P’s previous record closing level on Sept. 20. The materials index has fallen 7% over those seven months, versus a 5.2% gain for technology and a 3% loss for industrials. Only the energy index has dropped more over that period.
A trade agreement could serve as a catalyst for a bump in materials shares as a drag on China’s economy is lifted, some market strategists say. Some commodity prices, including those for copper and oil, have ascended this year as the prospects for the global economy have somewhat brightened.
“It all goes back to the global growth outlook,” said Andrea DiCenso, portfolio manager for alpha strategies at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “With the front run in hard data, we’re beginning to see a pretty significant rally.”
Additionally, a trade agreement is expected to include commitments from China to purchase higher quantities of U.S. products such as soybeans, which could benefit companies that make agricultural chemicals, including DowDuPont Inc and CF Industries Holdings Inc.
CF Industries is scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, and DowDuPont is scheduled to report before the market open on Thursday.
To be sure, even with a trade agreement, some materials companies could face price pressures. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc fell 10.1% on Thursday after the copper mining company posted a lower-than-expected profit as its production slipped and its costs rose.
A rollback of tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly aluminum and steel, would likely prompt a fall in some commodity prices, which could hurt prospects for certain materials companies, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California.
Even so, those drawbacks may be outweighed by the support for global demand fostered by a U.S.-China trade agreement.
“You could see a number of companies with lowered expectations bring them back up as they talk favorably about the impact that a trade deal would have on them,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.
(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Click below to consent to the use of the cookie technology provided by vi (video intelligence AG) to personalize content and advertising. For more info please access vi's website.