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U.S. Stimulus Confusion, Shipping Fatigue, Brexit Talk: Eco Day

U.S. Stimulus Confusion, Shipping Fatigue, Brexit Talk: Eco Day

Welcome to Wednesday, Europe. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

  • President Donald Trump injected confusion into the outlook for Covid-19 relief on Tuesday night, demanding changes to the bipartisan legislation approved by Congress less than 24 hours earlier. Elsewhere, the U.S. economy has splintered along state and city lines, with the speed of the rebound largely dependent on the magnitude of local business restrictions to combat an unending surge in Covid-19 cases. Meanwhile, consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in December
  • From slow-to-materialize U.S. stimulus to post-Brexit trade disruptions, runaway Indian inflation and a Chinese bond market meltdown, there’s a lot that could go wrong in 2021, writes Bloomberg Economics’ Tom Orlik
  • Nine months of U.K.-EU trade talks are hanging in the balance, while 40,000 lemons have disappeared into the chaos of U.K. ports. In a rare positive, France will start to reopen critical trade and transport links by midnight. Meantime, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is looking to pandemic programs to help out businesses if talks fail
  • Container shipping, the backbone of the global trading system, shows signs of fatigue as the pandemic descends into its darkest days
  • Thailand will likely keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low while monitoring the recent rally in the baht
  • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government rejected a plan by China’s Shandong Gold Mining Co. to buy a gold miner that operates in the Canadian Arctic, potentially inflaming a diplomatic feud
  • India’s economic activity showed signs of stabilizing in November, even as concerns mount over fresh virus outbreaks
  • Israel’s brittle governing coalition collapsed over a budget crisis, sending the election-fatigued country to its fourth vote in two years
  • Swedish overall confidence levels ended a seven-month climb as the nation tightened restrictions to battle a surge in Covid-19 infections
  • Robert Lighthizer has built a career on being a wily contrarian. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that President Donald Trump’s trade czar is going out tilting at a consensus among mainstream economists
  • Japanese companies have pared back year-end bonuses by the most since the global financial crisis, putting additional pressure on consumer spending amid signs of a slowing economic recovery
  • With deals to secure more vaccines than it needs and legislation to distribute it for free, Japan seems to have its plans in place. Yet a tense public history with vaccines and a cautious approval process has some worried over how quickly the country can return to normal

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With assistance from Bloomberg