Real-time News

1. U.S. stock indexes closed mixed: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.38% to 47,560.29 points, the S&P 500 fell 0.09% to 6,840.51 points, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.13% to 23,576.49 points. JPMorgan Chase fell more than 4%, and Boeing fell nearly 3%. 2. European stock indexes closed mixed: the German DAX rose 0.45% to 24,153.3 points, the French CAC40 fell 0.69% to 8,052.51 points, and the UK FTSE 100 fell 0.03% to 9,642.01 points. 3. US Treasury yields rose across the board. The 2-year Treasury yield rose 4.80 basis points to 3.615%, the 3-year Treasury yield rose 4.84 basis points to 3.652%, the 5-year Treasury yield rose 4.73 basis points to 3.788%, the 10-year Treasury yield rose 2.35 basis points to 4.188%, and the 30-year Treasury yield rose 0.81 basis points to 4.809%. 4. International precious metals futures generally closed higher. COMEX gold futures rose 0.45% to $4236.6 per ounce, and COMEX silver futures rose 4.72% to $61.16 per ounce. 5. Brent crude oil futures fell 0.61% to $62.11 per barrel. 6. London base metals fell across the board. LME aluminum fell 1.47% to $2,845.50/ton, LME copper fell 1.42% to $11,470.00/ton, LME lead fell 1.10% to $1,976.50/ton, LME zinc fell 1.03% to $3,089.00/ton, LME nickel fell 0.61% to $14,750.00/ton, and LME tin fell 0.09% to $39,850.00/ton.

US President Trump: Will meet with "several" Federal Reserve chair candidates.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced that it has selected Google's (GOOG.O) Gemini for Government system to provide artificial intelligence services to its approximately 3 million civilian and military employees.

U.S. Trade Representative Greer: If the U.S. renews the African Growth and Opportunity Act, it may consider “different treatment” for South Africa and may exclude it.

U.S. Trade Representative Greer: The Trump administration has made it clear to South Africa that if it wants to improve its tariff treatment, it must address the trade barriers.

U.S. Trade Representative Greer: More trade agreements are expected to be signed in the coming weeks.

According to three senior government officials, U.S. President and Treasury Secretary Bessant plan to interview former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh on Wednesday.

Senior U.S. government officials say Hassett remains in the lead and is expected to succeed Powell as Federal Reserve Chairman in May.

Market news: Canada's special envoy for U.S. affairs will be leaving his post, and Wiseman is considered the top candidate.

On December 10th, US Senate Republicans finally reached an agreement on a plan to address the expiring "Obamacare" subsidies in response to a Senate Democratic proposal, but both proposals are expected to fail in a vote later this week. The Senate Republican proposal, unveiled Monday night but having been in development for weeks, proposes abandoning enhanced premium subsidies in favor of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), redirecting funds that would otherwise go directly to insurance companies to consumers. Senate Republican Leader Thune argued that the Democratic proposal, unveiled last week by Senate Minority Leader Schumer, which plans to extend subsidies for three years, offers little help in controlling US healthcare costs and instead benefits wealthy Americans and insurance companies. The Senate plans to vote on the two competing proposals on Thursday.

On December 10th, local time, Jorge Rodríguez, Speaker of the Venezuelan National Assembly, strongly criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a parliamentary address on December 9th, accusing the institution and some of its judges of "hypocrisy" and "bias," stating that it "does not exist to uphold justice or defend rights," and indicating that Venezuela is prepared to withdraw from the international judicial mechanism. Rodríguez stated that the ICC exhibits clear bias in handling international cases, and that continuing to be a signatory to the Rome Statute of the ICC is an insult to the Venezuelan people. He reiterated his accusation that the institution serves the United States and is used as a tool to attack countries that do not serve U.S. interests.

The API reported that U.S. crude oil production increased by 187,000 barrels per day in the week ending December 5, compared with 416,000 barrels per day in the previous week.

U.S. refined product imports for the week ending December 5 were -279,000 barrels per day, compared to 125,000 barrels per day in the previous week.

U.S. crude oil imports for the week ending December 5 were 175,000 barrels, compared to 276,000 barrels in the previous week.

U.S. heating oil inventories for the week ending December 5 were 296,000 barrels, compared to 30,000 barrels in the previous week.

U.S. crude oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, rose 47,000 barrels in the week ending December 5, compared with a previous week's decrease of 89,000 barrels.

U.S. API distillate fuel inventories for the week ending December 5 were 1.027 million barrels, compared to an expected 1.478 million barrels and a previous reading of 2.884 million barrels.

U.S. gasoline inventories for the week ending December 5 were 6.955 million barrels, compared to an expected 2.343 million barrels and a previous reading of 3.136 million barrels.