US senators haggle over funding of $1 trillion infrastructure compromise

Reuters provided an update over the White House negotiations on US President Joe Biden’s infrastructure and spending plan during the weekend while suggesting the plan, “has been gaining support in the U.S. Senate, but disputes continued on Sunday over how it should be funded.”

After cutting the total outlay to the fourth of what originally proposed, US President Biden told reporters, per Reuters, last week to have a response to the plan as soon as Monday. However, the same is unlikely to be delivered considering the current progress.

“Twenty-one of the 100 U.S. senators - including 11 Republicans, nine Democrats and one independent who caucuses with Democrats - are working on the framework to rebuild roads, bridges and other traditional infrastructure that sources said would cost $1.2 trillion over eight years,” added Reuters.

The news also mentions that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders was unclear, on CNN's "State of the Union" and NBC's "Meet the Press", about whether he could support the bipartisan plan even if the tough area like indexing the gas tax to inflation were removed.

In a piece of separate news, also conveyed by Reuters, the White House said on Sunday it saw as an "interesting signal" North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's comments that he is ready for "dialogue and confrontation," but added that Washington was still waiting for direct communication from Pyongyang to start any talks relating to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

FX implications

While North Korean news could be cited as the risk-positive, it has a little importance of late versus the US stimulus talks and hence an extended deadlock over the spending talks could exert additional downside pressure on the market’s sentiment. That said, the early Asian session saw the Antipodeans extending the previous day’s downside momentum near the yearly low.

Read: NZD/USD: Bears flirt with seven-month low above 0.6900 amid broad USD strength