US markets closed higher as Senate moves to end government shutdown

23 Jan 2018 Evaluate

The US markets closed higher on Monday, as the Senate approved a procedural bill that clears the way to ending a shutdown of the US government. Lawmakers failed Sunday to end the federal government closure, as negotiations over immigration continued to roil Capitol Hill. However, on Monday, the Senate approved a procedural vote that sets the stage to fund the government through February 8. The next step would be for Senate to pass the actual bill to finance the government and send it to the House. The International Monetary Fund warned policymakers to be on guard for the next recession even as it predicted global growth will accelerate to the fastest pace in seven years as US tax cuts spur businesses to invest. The fund raised its forecast for world expansion to 3.9 percent this year and next, up 0.2 percentage point both years from its projection in October. That would be the fastest rate since 2011, when the world was bouncing back from the financial crisis. IMF added that cuts to the corporate tax rate will give the world’s biggest economy a shot in the arm, lifting US growth to 2.7 percent this year, 0.4 point higher than the fund expected in October. Projected US growth was the highest among advanced economies. But in an unfortunate twist for President Donald Trump, who loathes the $505-billion US trade gap, the nation’s current-account deficit will widen as stronger demand drives imports. The IMF also predicted that the tax plan will reduce US growth after 2022, offsetting earlier gains, as some of the individual cuts expire and the US tries to curb its budget deficit.

On the economy front, a measure of national economic activity calculated at the Chicago Federal Reserve gained in December with a particular push from factories. Housing and other components in the index softened. The Chicago Fed’s index of national economic activity rose to a positive 0.15 last month from a downwardly revised positive 0.11 in November. October’s reading of positive 0.87 was the highest for the volatile index since positive 0.94 in December 2006. The swings over the past few months highlight the importance of the index’s less-volatile, three-month moving average. It edged down to positive 0.23 in December from positive 0.26 in November. The Chicago Fed index is a weighted average of 85 economic indicators, designed so that zero represents trend growth and a three-month average below negative 0.70 suggests a recession has begun. Forty-three of the 85 individual indicators made positive contributions to the CFNAI in December, while 42 made negative contributions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 142.88 points or 0.55 percent to 26,214.60, the Nasdaq gained 71.652 points or 0.98 percent to 7,408.03, and the S&P 500 edged higher by 22.67 points or 0.81 percent to 2,832.97.

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