BitGou: Friday Morning Briefing: A pivot in the Fed could define Chairman Jerome Powell’s tenure

Highlights

The Federal Reserve’s promise in January to be “patient” about further interest rate hikes calmed markets after weeks of turmoil. But interviews with more than half a dozen policymakers and others close to the process suggest it also marked a more fundamental shift that could define Chairman Jerome Powell’s tenure as the point where the Fed first fully embraced a world of stubbornly weak inflation, perennially slower growth and permanently lower interest rates.

North Carolina’s elections board has ordered a new election for a U.S. House sear after a “tainted” vote. The bipartisan board’s 5-0 decision came after Republican candidate Mark Harris, confronted by days of evidence that an operative for his campaign orchestrated a ballot fraud scheme, called for a new vote in the state’s 9th Congressional District..

Actor Jussie Smollett staged a hate crime in an attempt to get higher pay, Chicago police said on Thursday. The “Empire” actor was said to have paid two brothers to stage a racist and homophobic attack on him and pose as supporters of President Donald Trump because he was unhappy with his pay on the hip-hop TV drama. Smollett, who is black and openly gay, was arrested on Thursday and charged with lying to police about the supposed attack on Jan. 29.

The United States will keep 200 American troops in Syria for a period of time after a U.S. pullout, the White House said on Thursday. President Trump has been under pressure from multiple advisers to adjust his policy of complete withdrawal in order to ensure the protection of Kurdish forces, who supported the fight against Islamic State and who might now be threatened by Turkey, and to serve as a bulwark against Iran’s influence.

North Korea Summit

The United States and North Korea will seek a common understanding of what denuclearization means when President Donald Trump when they meet in Vietnam next week, U.S. officials have said. Trump is set to press Kim Jong Un to give up all of the North’s nuclear weapons, and has made it clear that he does not expect it to be his last summit with Kim, a dictator he once derided as “little rocket man” but now considers a partner with whom he can work.

Ahead of the summit next week, North Korea has warned that it is facing a food shortfall of some 1.4 million tons in 2019. The country has been forced to almost halve rations, blaming high temperatures, drought, floods and United Nations sanctions in a memo seen by Reuters. U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun said earlier this month the United States had eased rules on humanitarian assistance to North Korea and was working to clear a backlog of U.N. approvals.

World

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has started shutting borders in an attempt to stop aid from entering the country. Opposition leader Juan Guaido is leading a relief effort to help those affected by a humanitarian crisis that has sparked an exodus of millions. He and some 80 opposition lawmakers are poised for a showdown on Saturday when they will attempt to bring in food and medicine across the border. Convoys sent to collect the aid are being blocked, causing some opposition figures to suggest forming human chains to pass packages from person to person. Maduro denies there is a humanitarian crisis.

A ninth lawmaker has quit Britain’s opposition party. Ian Austin, a Labour lawmaker since 2005, said the party was “broken” and had been taken over by the “hard left”. He said he had no plans to join the The Independent Group in parliament, launched by seven of his former Labour colleagues on Monday and since joined by an eighth as well as three former members of the governing Conservatives.

A large number of trucks loaded with civilians has left the final Islamic State enclave in eastern Syria, as U.S.-backed forces waited to inflict final defeat on the surrounded jihadists. Reporters near the front line at Baghouz saw dozens of trucks driving out with civilians inside them, but it was not clear if more remained in the tiny pocket.

African Elections

Senegal, the most stable democracy in West Africa, is preparing for an election on Sunday with President Macky Sall facing off against four other candidates. Sall is widely expected to win a second term, with support remaining strong for his ambitious development and reform program aimed at transforming Senegal into an emerging economy by 2035.

After a week-long delay to Nigeria’s election, the result is hard to call. The vote was due to happen last Sunday and is scheduled for Saturday, but the delay could suppress voter turnout. Many of the country’s 72.8 million eligible voters spent considerable sums of money on travel last weekend, and are now weighing up the expense and disruption in returning to the city they are registered in. Brauna Afraimu, 41, a civil servant, said he was too disillusioned to make another 440 kilometer journey to vote. “I’ve already spent a lot of my resources and time last week,” he said.

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.@Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned in Myanmar for 438 days. Follow updates on the case: https://reut.rs/2E6BUxt

6:59 AM - 22 Feb 2019

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