US Congressional talks continue

In the US, centrist democrat senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema met again on Wednesday with the White House officials and the party leadership on President Joe Biden's social spending plan.

Speaking on the talks, Democratic Congress leaders Schumer and Pelosi said a deal was possible, but Senator Bernie Sanders objected to the possible exclusion of the Medicare expansion proposal from the deal.

Manchin said the Democrats can "absolutely" reach an agreement and his hope is to reach a rough framework that all Democrats can agree on.

House majority group leader Hoyer said a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, already approved by the Senate, could be on Thursday if a social spending package is agreed upon.

The size of the social spending package, once put at $3.5 trillion, is now under $2 trillion, with the rest of Democrats hoping Manchin will come from $1.5 trillion to at least $1.75 trillion. Biden is pushing his party to come to a framework this week as he prepares to head to Scotland for a climate summit.


BOJ meeting

The Bank of Japan is expected at its monetary policy meeting to continue large-scale monetary easing measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic crisis.

According to the Nikkei, the bank is expected to evaluate the economic growth outlook for 2021 downwards, reflecting the decline in exports and production due to supply constraints and the decline in personal consumption.

Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a press conference after the meeting.
 

Europe's gas shortage

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told Alexei Miller, CEO of the Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom, to start pumping natural gas into European gas storage once Russia has finished filling its stockpiles by November 8.

Gas markets in Asia and Europe have skyrocketed since the beginning of this year due to low inventory and increased demand.

“As soon as we finish pumping it into the underground gas storage in Russia, we will start pumping our Gazprom gas into the European storage,” Miller told Putin.

The Russian President said that this will improve his position in the European energy market.
 

US stocks

The S&P 500 fell from record lows on Wednesday as momentum began to weaken during a strong earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 266.19 points to 35,490.69, making its first loss in four days on Visa shares. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% to 4,551.68, making its first decline in three days. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed flat at 15,235 despite gains in Microsoft and Alphabet shares.

Microsoft shares rose 4.2% after the tech company reported earnings that beat analysts' forecasts and its fastest revenue growth since 2018. Google's parent company Alphabet rose 4.9% after a stronger-than-expected quarterly report.

General Motors shares fell 5.4% after beating Wall Street's third-quarter earnings and revenue forecasts. Boeing lost 1.5% after announcing a larger-than-expected loss.