Friday 15th February 2019

It’s been a busy 24 hours. As Phil Dobbie discusses with NAB’s David de Garis, markets have been choppy on the back of surprisingly poor retail numbers from the US, leaving some to question whether they’re believable or not. The bigger question is whether both houses of Congress will agree the compromise spending bill in the next few hours and, more importantly, whether the President will put his very large signature on it. In Europe, Germany has come as close to a recession as you can get without actually being in one, and Theresa May has been defeated in parliament, which means her attempt to negotiate a new deal with the EU doesn’t have the support of most MPs. There’s deadlock there and, reportedly, deadlock in the US China trade talks too.