Pressure on Trump, Fed Speakers and Stocks Set to Bounce

The Federal Bureau of Investigation warned of armed protests and potential violence across the U.S. over the next week. The week ahead will be the inauguration of Joe Biden as president.

House Democrats are going to bring impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. This was after the Vice President delayed answering a call for him to remove Trump from office. That is by invoking the 25th Amendment of the Constitution.

Due to being voted on today is a motion formally calling on Pence to take action. An impeachment vote will likely happen on Wednesday.

In other news, right-wing social media site Parler said it would sue Amazon for refusing to host its service. That is with its Cloud unit AWS. 

Moreover, on Monday, Facebook announced that it would take down all content featuring “Stop the Steal.” Trump popularized this slogan after the November election.

Fed Signalled at Year-end Tapering of Bond Purchases

Officials at the U.S. central bank hinted that they would be open to the idea of tapering the bank’s bond purchases. All indicated a degree of openness, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin, Atlanta’s Raphael Bostic, and Dallas’ Robert Kaplan. That is to wind down stimulus from the Q4 in various public appearances.

The yield on the 10-Year Treasury bond was up further in response overnight. It rose to a new high for the year of 1.16%, keeping the dollar supported against the other currencies.

On Tuesday, there will be another barrage of Fedspeak, starting with Bostic again at 8:30 AM ET. Then, Governor Lael Brainard at 8:35 AM. 

Kaplan and Bostic both speak at 11 AM ET. The Cleveland Fed’s Loretta Mester speaks at 12 PM, and her Kansas City counterpart, Esther George, speaks at 1 PM.

Stocks Set to Bounce

U.S. stock markets should open modestly higher, recovering some of Monday’s losses.

Dow Jones futures were up 76 points or 0.3% by 6:30 AM ET. S&P 500 futures were also up 0.3%, and Nasdaq futures were up by 0.4%. Nasdaq Futures had the heaviest losses on Monday.

Stocks likely to be in focus again include social media companies. They are now squarely in the middle of a new culture war over free speech and hate speech. 

Moreover, medical device makers Cantel Medical (NYSE:CMD) and STERIS (NYSE:STE) are in merger talks.

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