Following the report that Trump and Powell discussed negative rates, among other things, the dollar has slumped to session lows, with the Bloomberg dollar index dipping below 1,200.

And in an amusing twist, CNBC’s Eamon Javers notes that this morning’s Fed meeting took place in the White House residence – the president’s personal quarters- not in the West Wing, where the Oval Office is

A White House official tells me this morning’s Fed meeting took place in the White House residence – the president’s personal quarters- not in the West Wing, where the Oval Office is. I am told the president has not yet been in the West Wing today.

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) November 18, 2019

*  *  *

Moments ago, the Fed announced that in a previously unannounced meeting that was not on the official White House calendar, Fed Chair Powell met with Trump and Mnuchin at the White House “to discuss the economy, growth, employment and inflation”, marking the second face-to-face meeting between the world’s two most powerful people amid Trump’s relentless criticism of the central bank. As a reminder, Powell had dinner with the president in February and the two have spoken since by telephone since. The Fed’s boilerplate statement was followed by another, with the Fed noting that “Powell’s comments were consistent with his remarks at his congressional hearings last week. He did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming information that bears on the outlook for the economy.” What is notable is the Fed’s addition that “Powell said that he and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis.”

Statement on Chair Powell’s meeting with the President and the Treasury Secretary

At the President’s invitation, Chair Powell met with the President and the Treasury Secretary Monday morning at the White House to discuss the economy, growth, employment and inflation.

Chair Powell’s comments were consistent with his remarks at his congressional hearings last week. He did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming information that bears on the outlook for the economy.

Finally, Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis.

it is worth noting that the Fed’s statement is almost word for word identical as the one released in February. Only difference as CNBC’s Eamon Javers adds, seems to be that today the Fed added the phrase “as required by law” to explain what the Fed’s priorities are for monetary policy. During his Congressional testimony last week, Powell called the U.S. economy a “star” performer and voiced solid confidence that its record expansion will stay on track even as, paradoxically, the Fed recently cut rates three times in the past four months and in October launched NOT QE (spoiler alert: it is QE) to purchase T-Bills in a move which Bank of America described is QE in all but name. And just to provide some color on what happened, Trump tweeted moments after the Fed press release that “Everything was discused including interest rates, negative interest, low inflation, easing, Dollar strength & its effect on manufacturing, trade with China, E.U. & others, etc.”

Just finished a very good & cordial meeting at the White House with Jay Powell of the Federal Reserve. Everything was discused including interest rates, negative interest, low inflation, easing, Dollar strength & its effect on manufacturing, trade with China, E.U. & others, etc.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2019

Nick Note: Don’t let them shit you again. The system is crumbling. Endless pumping of monye is close to the end. All that is left is massive negative interest rates……….

WASHINGTON (AP) — A lack of notice. Past failures to level with the American people. A tough week for the White House as public impeachment hearings got under way.

Add it all up, and President Donald Trump’s unscheduled weekend visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center raised suspicions about his health, despite White House officials’ insistence that the president was merely getting a head start on his annual physical.

For any president, a sudden trip to the hospital would raise questions. But such scrutiny was magnified with a president who has a history of exaggeration and playing loose with the facts, giving skeptics room to run with their own theories. “The one thing you can be absolutely sure of is this was not routine and he didn’t go up there for half his physical,” tweeted Joe Lockhart, a press secretary under President Bill Clinton, who was himself impeached for perjury and obstruction. “What does it mean? It means that we just won’t know what the medical issue was.” The president’s medical appointment wasn’t listed on his Saturday public schedule, and his last physical was just nine months ago. Press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the 73-year-old president was “anticipating a very busy 2020” and wanted to take advantage of “a free weekend” in Washington to begin portions of his routine checkup. Grisham followed up Monday night tweeting a memorandum from the president’s physician, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, who described Saturday’s visit as a “routine, planned interim checkup as part of the regular, primary preventative care he received throughout the year.” Conley said that due to scheduling uncertainties, the trip was kept off the record. He said after a little more than an hour of examination, labs and discussion, the president visited with medical staff and the family of a soldier undergoing surgery. “Despite some of the speculation, the President has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues,” Conley wrote. Trump’s 2018 and 2019 physicals were both announced ahead of time. Grisham said after the visit that the president had gotten “a quick exam and labs.” “The real Donald Trump is getting exposed for what he’s done, and that’s what’s driving him to the doctor,” Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton aide and Chicago mayor, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”. Jamieson said there is a set of expectations about how a president’s annual exam is handled, which includes the advance public notice that the Trump White House provided for his first two exams. She said the reasonable question is: “If this is routine, why was it not handled in a routine manner?” First, annual physicals typically aren’t performed in installments unless someone needs a special test not available at their doctor’s office — something that shouldn’t be an issue at a military hospital. Nor are they usually performed three months early; Trump’s last physical was last February. Nick Note: Or favorite asshole is one sick demented puppy. As i have often said he will resign because he is in ill health. You can see it i his speeches. I pray he does not have a heart attack while in office carried out feet first… WHY? I want him to die a decrypted disgraced broken old man,,,, Hopefully at 90 years old.

133 units, switching off: Low demand behind half of thermal power plants shutting down

Of the country’s total installed generation capacity of 3,63,370 MW, the peak demand met was a little less than half at just around 1,88,072 MW on November 7, according to official data available with grid managers and analysed by The Indian Express. The electricity demand curve, a key indicator of industrial and domestic load trends, is on a downward spiral, with a mounting list of 133 thermal power units across the country reported as shut down due to lack of demand. As on November 11, of the 262 coal, lignite and nuclear units reported to be out-of-service for a variety of reasons, nearly half — or 133 units — were shut as operators were faced with low demand or were unable to ink pacts with distribution utilities for sale of power. Of the country’s total installed generation capacity of 3,63,370 MW, the peak demand met was a little less than half at just around 1,88,072 MW on November 7, according to official data available with grid managers and analysed by The Indian Express. A total of 119 thermal units across mostly India’s northern and western heartland were faced with “reserve shutdown,” a technical term for a unit shut down due to lack of demand, while another 14 units on account of developers not managing to ink power purchase agreements (PPAs — or commercial contracts) with electricity distribution utilities. Grid managers point to this being indicative of tepid industrial and commercial load. While the cumulative capacity of units under forced shutdown was over 65,133 MW, the worrying aspect is that most of these units have been shut for days, sometimes months, according to data of units monitored by the Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) Operation Performance Monitoring Division updated till November 7. Additionally, there are well over a dozen thermal units that are down, according to official data, due to technical reasons, the most common being “water wall tube leakage.” According to an official in the CEA, this, normally, takes just days of repair. But the fact that these faults, in most cases, have stretched for days reinforces the belief that there’s general reluctance among developers to bring their units back on stream, presumably because demand is down.

Given that coal accounts for around 40 per cent of rail freight, analysts point to the downturn in thermal generation having a cascading impact on the driving down of railway volumes to the lowest this decade, spreading the stress to railway finances.

SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices edged lower on Monday, giving up some of last week’s gains, amid uncertainty over a trade deal between the United States and China.

Concerns about plentiful crude supplies in 2020 also weighed on the market, which expects OPEC to extend production cuts in early December to help avoid a new global glut.  Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell 2% or by $1.28 to trade at $62.17 per barrel at 1836 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $56.75 a barrel, down 41 cents. “In the short term, U.S.-China trade talks and (the) OPEC meeting in early December are the two biggest events oil traders are watching for,” Margaret Yang, an analyst at CMC Markets, said.  The 16-month trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has slowed global growth, prompting analysts to lower forecasts for oil demand growth and raising concerns that a supply glut could develop in 2020. China and the United States had “constructive talks” on trade in a high-level call on Saturday, state media Xinhua reported on Sunday, but it gave few other details.  On Monday, CNBC quoted a Chinese government source saying the mood in Beijing about a trade deal was pessimistic due to President Donald Trump’s reluctance to roll back on tariffs.  In a signal that policymakers are ready to act to prop up slowing growth, China’s central bank unexpectedly trimmed a closely-watched lending rate on Monday, the first such cut in more than four years.  The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said last week it expected demand for its oil to fall in 2020, supporting a view that there is a case for the group and other producers like Russia – collectively known as “OPEC+” – to maintain limits on production.  OPEC and its allies are expected to discuss output policy at a meeting on Dec. 5-6 in Vienna. Their existing production deal runs until March.