Early Headlines: Asia Stocks Down, Dollar Up, Oil Down, Gold Up, Yields Down, Block Witnesses, Trump Gloats, Virus Death Toll Soars, Brexit Eve, Palestine Peace Plan, Wall Blows Into Mexico, Plus More - 19 Articles, 8 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 30 January 2020.

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

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Key Articles

Global

Hong Kong stocks tumble more than 2.5% as coronavirus death toll in China continues to rise (CNBC) Stocks in Asia fell on Thursday as the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold and investors continued to watch for developments on the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. The U.S. dollar index was last higher at 98.061 after seeing an earlier low of 97.995. Brent crude futures down 1.76% to $58.76 per barrel. The U.S. crude futures contract also shed 1.73% to $52.41 per barrel. Spot gold rose 0.1% to $1,578.95 per ounce by 0338 GMT and U.S. gold futures gained 0.5% to $1,578.90. Bonds sold off sharply (yields rose).

U.S.

‘GAME OVER,’ Trump declares, as old Bolton, Schiff videos surface amid Senate impeachment trial (Fox News) Republicans anbd the president are citing the absence of any concerns about President Trump’s motivation toward Ukraine in his opublic statements in August:

In the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interview clip, Bolton made no mention of any illicit quid pro quo, and acknowledged, as Republicans have claimed, that combating “corruption” in Ukraine was a “high priority” for the Trump administration.
Bolton also called Trump’s communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “warm and cordial,” without mentioning any misconduct. It seemingly contradicted reported assertions in Bolton’s forthcoming book that Trump explicitly told him he wanted to tie military aid to Ukraine to an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. (Zelensky has said his communications with Trump involved no pressure for any investigation.)

Republicans Move to Block Impeachment Witnesses, Driving Toward Acquittal (The New York Times) The White House and Senate Republicans worked aggressively on Wednesday to discount damaging revelations from John R. Bolton and line up the votes to block new witnesses from testifying in President Trump’s impeachment trial, in a push to bring the proceeding to a swift close.

As the Senate opened a two-day, 16-hour period of questioning from senators, Mr. Trump laced into Mr. Bolton, his former national security adviser, whose unpublished manuscript contains an account that contradicts his impeachment defense. The president described Mr. Bolton on Twitter as a warmonger who had “begged” for his job, was fired, and then wrote “a nasty & untrue book.”

China

China virus toll rises to 170 as fear grows over global economic hit (Reuters) Countries began isolating hundreds of citizens evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday to stop the spread of an epidemic that has killed 170 people as worry about the impact on the world’s second-biggest economy rattled markets.