Day: October 1, 2023

(C) Reuters. FILE PHOTO: U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivers a statement on allegations surrounding U.S. President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as the House of Representatives returns from its summer break facing a looming deadline to avoid a gove

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces an attempt by members of his own party to oust him because he passed a stopgap funding measure with Democratic support to avoid a government shutdown.

Representative Matt Gaetz, a hardline Republican lawmaker, said he would file what’s called the “motion to vacate.”

WHAT IS THE MOTION TO VACATE?

The motion to vacate is the House’s procedure to remove its speaker. The chamber’s current rules allow any one member, Democrat or Republican, to introduce the motion. If it is introduced as a “privileged” resolution, the House must consider it at some point, although it could be delayed with procedural votes.

If the motion to vacate comes to the House floor for a vote, it would only need a simple majority to pass. Republicans currently control the House with 221 seats to 212 Democrats, meaning if McCarthy wants to keep his speaker’s gavel, he cannot afford to lose more than four votes.

HOW CAN A SINGLE MEMBER BRING A MOTION TO VACATE?

McCarthy endured a brutal 15 rounds of voting in January before being elected as speaker, during which he agreed to multiple concessions increasing the power of Republican hardliners.

One was the decision to allow just one member to put forward a motion to vacate, which meant that hardliners could threaten McCarthy’s speakership at any time.

This was a change from the rules in place under his Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, when a majority of one party needed to support a motion to vacate to bring it to the floor.

WHO HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT FILING A MOTION TO VACATE?

Republican Representative Gaetz, a firebrand from Florida and perpetual thorn in McCarthy’s side, has repeatedly threatened to file a motion to vacate. The speaker has been unfazed.

In a Sept. 14 closed-door meeting of House Republicans, McCarthy dared Gaetz to bring a motion to the floor.

Others including Representatives Dan Bishop and Eli Crane have also suggested they would support a motion to vacate.

HAS THE MOTION TO VACATE BEEN USED BEFORE?

The motion was first used in 1910, when then-Republican Speaker Joseph Cannon put forward the motion himself to force detractors in his own party to decide whether they supported him or not, according to the House Archives. The motion failed.

Then-Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich was threatened with a motion to vacate in 1997. Although he managed to tamp down resistance and avoid an actual resolution being filed, he resigned in 1998 after disappointing results in the midterm elections that year.

Republican then-Representative Mark Meadows in 2015 filed a motion to vacate against Republican Speaker John Boehner. It did not come to a vote, but Boehner resigned anyway a few months later, citing the challenges of managing a burgeoning hardline conservative faction of his party.

(C) Reuters. A Tesla logo is seen outside a showroom of the carmaker in Beijing, China May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – U.S. automaker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) on Sunday released an updated version of its Model Y in China, with minor changes to the vehicle’s exterior and interior.

The changes include a new wheel design, according to a post by Tesla’s official WeChat account. The starting price in China for the Model Y, the company’s global best-seller, was unchanged at 263,900 yuan ($36,146).

Tesla unveiled a restyled Model 3 with a longer driving range, manufactured at its Shanghai factory, in China and other export markets in early September.

($1 = 7.3010 Chinese yuan renminbi)

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(C) Reuters. Overview of crowds and city skyline during the “March of a Million Hearts” (Marsz Miliona Serc) opposition rally, two weeks ahead of the parliamentary election, in Warsaw, Poland October 1, 2023. Agencja Wyborcza.pl/Slawomir Kaminski via REUTERS
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By Justyna Pawlak

WARSAW (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people held an opposition rally in Warsaw on Sunday, two weeks ahead of an election that the liberal Civic Platform (PO) says may decide Poland’s future in the European Union and its democratic standing.

Opinion polls suggest the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government could win the vote but may struggle to form a majority amid discontent among some over rising living costs and concern over an erosion of democratic checks and balances.

Warsaw city authorities said about a million people attended in the capital’s biggest rally on record. Public broadcaster TVP, which independent media observers say has become a government mouthpiece under PiS rule, quoted police saying about 100,000 people had joined.

Online news channel onet.pl said that according to its calculations some 600,000-800,000 people attended the rally.

Some carried banners saying “PiSexit” or “The cat can stay”, referring to the pet animal of PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

The opposition is hoping the march galvanises voters to participate in the election, giving it a chance to come ahead.

“Big change is coming. This is a sign of Poland’s rebirth,” PO leader Donald Tusk told crowds gathered in a central Warsaw square, many people waving Polish and EU flags.

Tusk, a former European Council president, has said PiS could aim to take Poland out of the EU, something the party denies, and has framed the election as crucial for minority and women’s rights.

PiS, in power since 2015, has campaigned on a pledge to keep migrants out of Poland, saying that was key for national security, and to continue funnelling money towards families and the elderly.

“I want to be free, be in the EU, I want to have a say, I want to have free courts,” said Hanna Chaciewicz, a 59-year-old dentist from Otwock, a town outside of Warsaw.

PiS denies western criticism that it has subverted democratic norms and says its reforms of the judiciary are aimed at making the country fairer and free of vestiges of communism, while its changes to public media rid it of foreign influence.

But it has yet to gain access to billions of euros in EU COVID recovery funds which Brussels has withheld over the Polish court reforms.

“Everybody is investing in jobs, in fighting the climate catastrophe. And we have been denied this money because someone has decided to destroy democracy in Poland,” Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, a senior PO member, told those at the rally.

(C) Reuters. U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol after the House of Representatives passed a stopgap government funding bill to avert an immediate government shutdown, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. September 30, 2023.

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Top U.S. House Republican Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday he expected to survive a threat to his speakership after a hardline critic within his party called for his ouster following the passage of a stopgap government funding bill that drew more support from Democrats than Republicans.

Hardline Republican Representative Matt Gaetz told multiple U.S. media outlets he would file a “motion to vacate,” a call for a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker, testing McCarthy’s support in the House of Representatives, which his party controls by a narrow 221-212 margin.

“I’ll survive,” McCarthy said on CBS. “This is personal with Gaetz.”

Gaetz is one of a group of about two dozen hardliners who forced McCarthy to endure a withering 15 rounds of voting in January before he was elected speaker, during which they squeezed out concessions, including a rule change to allow any one House member to call for a vote to oust the speaker.

It was not clear how much support McCarthy would have in such a vote, or whether any Democrats would back him. McCarthy angered Democrats last month by launching an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden.

“If at this time next week Kevin McCarthy is still speaker of the House, it will be because Democrats bailed him out,” Gaetz said in an interview on ABC. “I am relentless and I will continue to pursue this objective.”

McCarthy stunned Washington on Saturday when he backed a bill to fund the government through Nov. 17, averting a partial shutdown but not imposing any of the spending cuts or changes to border security that his hardline colleagues had called for.

The bill, which was approved by the Senate on a broad bipartisan basis and signed into law by Biden, is meant to give lawmakers more time to agree on a deal to fund the government through Sept. 30, 2024.

An ouster of the speaker would complicate that process.

“It is destructive to the country to put forth this motion to vacate,” Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican, said on ABC. “By putting this motion to vacate on the floor, you know what Matt Gaetz is going to do? He is going to delay the ability to complete that work over the next 45 days.”

Gaetz had been threatening to move against McCarthy for weeks.

Republican Representative Byron Donalds, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus who had been nominated to challenge McCarthy for speaker in January, declined to say how he would vote.

“I don’t know right now,” Donalds said in an interview on Fox. “I gotta really think about that because there’s a lot of stuff going on.”

‘GO AHEAD AND TRY’

McCarthy decided to bring a vote on a measure that could win Democratic support, knowing full well that it could jeopardize his job. One of his advisers told Reuters the speaker believed some hardliners would try to oust him under any circumstances.

“Go ahead and try,” McCarthy said in comments directed at his opponents on Saturday. “You know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that.”

Biden told reporters on Sunday that he hoped McCarthy had learned from the weekend back and forth.

“I hope this experience for the speaker has been one of personal revelation,” Biden said, while leaving it up to congressional Democrats to decide whether to give McCarthy their support to keep his speakership.

The bipartisan measure succeeded a day after Republican Representative Andy Biggs, a leading hardliner, and 20 others blocked a Republican stopgap bill that contained sharp spending cuts and immigration and border restrictions, all of which hardliners favor.

The bill’s failure ended Republican hopes of moving a conservative measure and opened the door to the bipartisan measure that was backed by 209 House Democrats and 126 Republicans. Ninety Republicans opposed the stopgap.

Hardliners complained that the measure, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, left in place policies favored by Democrats, including Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE UNCLEAR

It was not clear what action Democrats might take if a Republican moved to vacate the chair and the House voted on the measure.

Some Democrats have suggested they could support McCarthy if an ouster attempt occurred at a turbulent time. Others have suggested they could back a moderate Republican willing to share the gavel with them and allow power sharing within House committees. Others have shown no interest in helping any speaker candidate aside from House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a leading progressive Democrat, said her party was unlikely to help McCarthy keep his job without receiving concessions from Republicans.

“I don’t think we give up votes for free,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s State of the Union.

Asked if she would vote on a measure to oust McCarthy, Ocasio-Cortez said: “Would I cast that vote? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak Speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus.”

(C) Reuters

Investing.com — With an eleventh-hour deal reached to avert a U.S. government shutdown investors will be focusing on U.S. jobs data and speeches by Federal Reserve head Jerome Powell and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde in the week ahead. Central banks meeting in Australia and New Zealand will also be in focus and markets continue to digest the ‘higher for longer’ interest rates mantra. Here’s what you need to know to start your week.

Nonfarm payrolls

The U.S. is to release what will be a closely watched employment report for September on Friday with economists expecting the economy to have added 163,000 jobs last month, slowing slightly from 187,000 in August.

A stronger-than-expected reading could underline the Fed’s ‘higher for longer’ stance, weighing on markets.

Ahead of Friday’s report the JOLTS jobs report for August is due out on Tuesday, followed a day later by an update on private sector hiring from the ADP National Employment report, which is expected to point to moderating jobs growth.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management is to release its September manufacturing PMI on Monday which is expected to remain in contraction territory for an eleventh straight month. The ISM services PMI, due Wednesday, is expected to indicate slightly slower growth.

Powell comments

Jay Powell, along with Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker is to take part in a roundtable discussion with workers, small business owners, and community leaders on Monday.

Data on Friday indicated progress on inflation, with annual underlying inflation falling below 4% for the first time in over two years, but rising oil prices, which are driving the cost of gasoline at the pump, suggest the road to the Fed’s 2% inflation target will be long.

In September, the Fed left rates on hold but indicated that it still expects one more rate hike this year and fewer cuts than previously indicated next year.

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly are also set to make appearances during the week.

Equity markets kick off Q4

The all-important final quarter of the year is kicking off after a weak third quarter for stocks.

For the quarter, the S&P 500 fell about 3.6%, the Dow lost 2.6% and the Nasdaq shed 4.1%. In September, the S&P 500 dropped 4.9%, the Dow fell 3.5%, and the Nasdaq declined 5.8%.

Surging bond yields are rattling stock markets, and some investors worry the ballooning valuations of megacap companies, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) may be another weak spot.

Shares of tech and growth companies, which often have significant expected profit growth in the years ahead, tend to be hit particularly hard when yields rise because their future projected earnings are discounted more severely.

Q4 though will bring another earnings season and while the AI boom still matters, there are still some questions about the ultimate boost to profits.

Lagarde speech

Christine Lagarde, the ECB president, is due to make a speech on Wednesday with investors on the lookout for indications on the future path of interest rates after data on Friday showing that Eurozone inflation fell to its lowest level in two years last month.

The data fueled expectations that the ECB has raised rates far enough to bring inflation back down to its 2% target.

Inflation in the bloc briefly hit double digits last autumn amid a combination of soaring energy costs, post-pandemic snags in supply chains and high government spending.

In response, the ECB hiked interest rates to a record-high of 4.0% from a trough of minus 0.5% in just over a year, after a decade spent trying to stimulate inflation via an ultra-easy monetary policy.

RBA, RBNZ meetings

The Reserve Bank of Australia will hold its first meeting with new governor Michele Bullock, the first woman to head the bank, at the helm on Tuesday.

Investors will be looking for any indications on whether the RBA is done with rate hikes or if more might be coming after some recent indications of persistent price pressures in the service sector. The consensus is for a pause.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is to hold its latest policy meeting on Wednesday. Despite the RBNZ’s hawkish stance market watchers are not expecting a rate hike – instead they are focusing on any whether officials may flag a possible move in November.

–Reuters contributed to this report