US stimulus delayed as Republican talks fall into disarray – FT

Adding to the prevalent risk-aversion, Financial Times (FT) conveyed news of the US policymakers’ delay in offering the much-awaited phase 4 fiscal stimulus during the early Friday morning in Asia.

Key quotes

The Republican leader in the US Senate was forced to delay the announcement of a $1tn stimulus package as lingering disagreements with the Trump administration and disarray within the party take their toll.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, had been expected to announce the party’s stimulus proposal on Thursday morning, only to reverse course later in the day and announce the plan would not come until next week.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell said that a ‘framework’ had been assembled for the proposal, based on an ‘agreement in principle with the administration’. However, he said the administration had ‘requested additional time to review the fine details’.

The delay has prompted criticism from Democrats who noted that the House of Representatives, which they control, had passed its own $3tn recovery proposal two months ago.

‘Republicans need to pull their head out of the sand, get their act together, sit down with [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and me, and start negotiating a real package,’ Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top-ranking Democrat, said.

Market reaction

Given the early hours of the Asian session, risk barometers are slow to react to the market-negative news. However, commodity-linked currencies line the dollars of New Zealand and Australia are on the back foot while Gold extends recovery moves from $1,882 to pierce $1,890 by the press time.