The U.S. House of Representatives passed the tax reform legislation yesterday. But the market reaction was broadly muted. Another round of voting is expected to take place today following which the tax cut plans would be cleared. Economic data continued to remain soft. The U.S. department of commerce showed that housing starts increased 3.3% on the month in November to 1.29 million units. It was the highest level in 13 months.
Crude oil prices continued to remain trading flat but near recent highs on the outage due to the North Sea pipeline. Reports also showed that Rosneft, Russia’s oil firm was expecting to cut production beyond 2018. Crude oil futures rose 0.5% higher on the day to settle at $57.46.
Looking ahead, the economic calendar today will see the German PPI data coming out. The BoE Governor, Mark Carney will be speaking while later in the day, the U.S. existing home sales data will be coming out. New Zealand will be reporting on its third quarter GDP numbers today.
