House votes to open formal impeachment inquiry into President...
House votes to open formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The House vote split along party lines, with every Republican supporting opening an impeachment probe into whether the president benefited from his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings and every Democrat voting against it. The vote formalizes an ongoing Republican inquiry that has not yet turned up any evidence of wrongdoing by the president, who called it a “baseless political stunt.” For a little extra drama on Capitol Hill, the vote came hours after Hunter Biden defied a subpoena to testify privately to Republicans, saying his father had no involvement in his business.
Fed rate cuts may come in threes next year. The Federal Reserve had investors popping bottles yesterday, not just because it made the expected move of holding interest rates steady for now but also for signaling that there may be multiple interest rate cuts in 2024. Most Fed officials penciled in three quarter-percentage-point cuts in their projections. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said inflation had “eased” but still did his best to keep everyone from getting too excited, saying, “No one is declaring victory. That would be premature.” Even so, markets started pricing in even more aggressive cuts than the projections.
SCOTUS to rule on abortion pill access. In its most significant abortion case since overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court will decide a challenge to federal regulations widening the availability of mifepristone, a common abortion pill. The court will hear arguments next year and is expected to rule by June. The justices also agreed to consider another case with broad political implications: They will review the charge of “obstruction of an official proceeding” that’s been brought against hundreds of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, as well as Donald Trump.
Word of the Day
Today’s Word of the Day is: renaissance, meaning “a rebirth or revival.”
U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones...
U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at an all-time peak after the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.4% higher, while the S&P 500 gained 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.4%, according to preliminary data from FactSet.
The Dow scored its first record close since January 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil for January delivery rose 86 cents to $69.47 per barrel Wednesday. Brent crude for February delivery rose $1.02 to $74.26 per barrel.
Wholesale gasoline for January delivery rose 4 cents to $2.02 a gallon. January heating oilrose 4 cents to $2.55 a gallon. January natural gasrose 3 cents to $2.34 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged but signaled three cuts to borrowing costs in 2024
Federal Reserve officials left interest rates...
Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged in their final policy decision of 2023 and forecast that they will cut borrowing costs three times in the coming year, a sign that the central bank is shifting toward the next phase in its fight against rapid inflation.
Interest rates are now set to a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent, where they have been since July. After making a rapid series of increases that started in March 2022 and pushed borrowing costs to their highest level in 22 years as of this summer, officials have now held policy steady for three straight meetings.
In its latest monthly report, the Energy Information Administration has revised its 2024 Brent crude...
In its latest monthly report, the Energy Information Administration has revised its 2024 Brent crude oil price forecast downward by $10 to an average of $83 per barrel and lifted its 2023 US oil production forecast to a record 12.93 million barrels per day. Additionally, the agency expects US crude and petroleum products exports to increase from around 1.8 million bpd this year to nearly 2 million bpd next year, driven by increased crude and hydrocarbon gas liquids production.