Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Trump says was ‘psyched to terminate NAFTA’ but reconsidered

A truck heads towards the United States at the Lacolle border crossing in Lacolle, Quebec, Canada April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

By Jeff Mason and David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he was “psyched” to terminate the NAFTA trade deal with Canada and Mexico, but changed his mind after their leaders asked for it to be renegotiated instead.

Trump said in an interview with Reuters that he will not hesitate to change course again and pull the plug on the North American Free Trade Agreement if the negotiations become “unserious.”

His comments came at the end of a long 24 hours during which Ottawa and Mexico City were whipsawed over the Trump administration’s intentions over the 23-year-old trade pact.

“You know I was really ready and psyched to terminate NAFTA,” Trump said.

He decided that it would be better to terminate the trade deal after hearing about Wisconsin farmers’ struggles with new Canadian dairy rules that were shutting out their milk protein exports.

“You saw that, you wrote about it,” Trump said. “And I said I’ve had it. I’ve had it.”

But after administration officials said a withdrawal order was being prepared, Trump said he received phone calls from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking to renegotiate the pact.

“I’m not looking to hurt Canada and I’m not looking to hurt Mexico. They’re two countries I really like,” Trump said. “So they asked to renegotiate, and I said yes.”

News of the possible U.S. pullout from NAFTA rattled financial markets on Wednesday. Relative calm returned on Thursday after Trump’s comments, and the Mexican peso strengthened 0.86 percent against the U.S. dollar, while the Canadian dollar was flat versus the greenback.

Mexico, Canada and the United States form one of the world’s biggest trading blocs, and trade disruptions among them could adversely affect farm, automotive, energy and other sectors in all three countries. NAFTA removed most trade and tariff barriers between the neighbors, but Trump and other critics have blamed it for deep U.S. job cuts.

Trump campaigned for president last year on a pledge to pull out of NAFTA if he could not renegotiate better terms. The United States went from running a small goods trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63-billion deficit in 2016.

Asked by Reuters what would make NAFTA a fair deal, Trump said: “Open markets. Open borders for trade” and “Fairness, no government subsidies so that it makes it impossible for our people to compete.”

He added that if the NAFTA negotiations “become unserious, I will terminate.”

As Trump spoke, a new trade irritant between the United States and Canada emerged, as Boeing Co asked the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate alleged price dumping and unfair Canadian government subsidies for Bombardier Inc’s new Canadian-made CSeries jetliners.

‘GET TO WORK’

Trudeau told a news conference in Saskatchewan he had urged Trump not to withdraw from the trade pact and warned that doing so “would cause a lot of short- and medium-term pain.”

“That’s not something that either one of us would want, so we agreed that we could sit down and get to work on looking at ways to improve NAFTA,” Trudeau said.

Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. On Tuesday, Trump said he did not fear a trade war with Canada, a day after his administration moved to impose tariffs on Canadian lumber.

In Mexico City, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Pena Nieto had called Trump on Wednesday and spoken with him for about 20 minutes in a conversation focused exclusively on the looming talks over NAFTA’s “renegotiation and modernization.”

Trump has accused Mexico of luring away American factories and jobs with cheap labor and other advantages enabled by NAFTA. During the presidential campaign he accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals into the United States, and as president plans a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

One of Trump’s first major acts after becoming president in January was to pull out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

Several agriculture lobby groups in Washington were told U.S Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, confirmed by the Senate on Monday, met with Trump on Wednesday evening to dissuade him from withdrawing from NAFTA.

American Soybean Association President Ron Moore said, “When you’re talking about $3 billion in soybean exports a year, any threats to withdraw from agreements and walk away from markets makes farmers extremely nervous.”

Formal NAFTA talks likely will not get started until August. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office must first send Congress a notice that starts a 90-day consultation period preceding any negotiations.

A USTR spokeswoman said the notice would not be sent until the Senate confirmed Trump’s nominee for trade representative, Robert Lighthizer.

(Additional reporting by Stephen J. Adler, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland, Susan Heavey and Mohammad Zargham in Washington, Veronica Gomez and David Alire Garcia in Mexico City, David Ljunggren in Ottawa, and P.J. Huffstutter and Mark Weinraub; Writing by David Lawer and Will Dunham; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Clarence Fernandez)

World stocks pause near record highs ahead of Trump landmark

People walk through the lobby of the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File photo

By Vikram Subhedar

LONDON (Reuters) – Concern about global trade and U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies kept appetite for risky assets in check on Friday, setting world stocks on the path to a sluggish end to what will be their sixth straight month of gains.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the U.S. trade pact with South Korea “unacceptable” and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his administration completed a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico.

Trump’s comments sent Seoul stocks <.KS11> and the won <KRW=> into reverse.

Global stocks <.MIWO00000PUS> were steady, however, little changed on the day and holding near all-time highs and on track for a sixth straight month of gains.

Stock futures on Wall Street <ESc1> were up 0.1 percent, also near their highest ever levels.

Saturday marks Trump’s 100th day in office and his attacks on free trade and scepticism about his administration’s ability to see through a tax and spending campaign promises has dented some of the enthusiasm in markets that followed his election win.

“Trump is reaching the 100-day mark with nothing to show for it and these recent comments just coincide with that. They (the U.S. administration) are finding it hard to push through fiscal plans and all this rhetoric is probably related,” Kiran Kowshik, strategist at Unicredit.

EUROPE POWERING AHEAD

The mood on Europe, however, remains upbeat.

Euro zone bond yields rose across the board on Friday and the euro strengthened, rising 0.6 percent against the dollar <EUR=> to $1.0944, as output data from several countries reaffirmed a picture of economic strength in the bloc.

At the same, inflation blew past expectations to hit a three-year high, keeping pressure on the European Central Bank to start dialing back its stimulus measures.

Regional banking shares <.SX7P> added to recent gains.

Barclays <BARC.L> shares were an outlier, however, sliding 5 percent after disappointing investment banking results and weighing on the broader STOXX 600 <.STOXX> index which fell 0.2 percent.

European stocks are still up more than 2 percent on the week. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) noted that the $2.4 billion of inflows into European equity funds over the past week were the highest since December 2015.

“The hard data for equities is earnings — and they are powering ahead. Q1 earnings season is very strong and revisions trends are positive and broad-based,” said analysts at BAML, who forecast 15 percent earnings growth for European companies and a further 8 percent rally for the STOXX 600.

Healthy earnings, particularly from companies closely geared to economic growth, have underpinned the rally in global stocks, which have added nearly $5 trillion to their market value so far this year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In commodities, oil prices rose but were still on track for a second straight weekly loss on concerns that an OPEC-led production cut had failed to significantly tighten an oversupplied market.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude <CLc1> was at $49.43 per barrel at 0649 GMT, up 46 cents, or 0.94 percent, from its last close. WTI is still set for a small weekly loss and is around 8 percent below its April peak.

Brent crude <LCOc1> was at $51.91 per barrel, up 47 cents, or 0.91 percent. Brent is around 8.5 percent down from its April peak and is also on track for a second, albeit small, weekly decline.

(Additional reporting by Sujata Rao, Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and John Stonestreet)

Exclusive: Trump says ‘major, major’ conflict with North Korea possible, but seeks diplomacy

U.S. President Donald Trump looks out a window of the Oval Office following an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

By Stephen J. Adler, Steve Holland and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programs, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute.

“There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday.

Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple U.S. presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasizing by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table.

“We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” he said.

In other highlights of the 42-minute interview, Trump was cool to speaking again with Taiwan’s president after an earlier telephone call with her angered China.

He also said he wants South Korea to pay the cost of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system, which he estimated at $1 billion, and intends to renegotiate or terminate a U.S. free trade pact with South Korea because of a deep trade deficit with Seoul.

Asked when he would announce his intention to renegotiate the pact, Trump said: “Very soon. I’m announcing it now.”

Trump also said he was considering adding stops to Israel and Saudi Arabia to a Europe trip next month, emphasizing that he wanted to see an Israeli-Palestinian peace. He complained that Saudi Arabia was not paying its fair share for U.S. defense.

Asked about the fight against Islamic State, Trump said the militant group had to be defeated.

“I have to say, there is an end. And it has to be humiliation,” he said, when asked about what the endgame was for defeating Islamist violent extremism.

XI ‘TRYING VERY HARD’

Trump said North Korea was his biggest global challenge. He lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese assistance in trying to rein in Pyongyang. The two leaders met in Florida earlier this month.

“I believe he is trying very hard. He certainly doesn’t want to see turmoil and death. He doesn’t want to see it. He is a good man. He is a very good man and I got to know him very well.

“With that being said, he loves China and he loves the people of China. I know he would like to be able to do something, perhaps it’s possible that he can’t,” Trump said.

Trump spoke just a day after he and his top national security advisers briefed U.S. lawmakers on the North Korean threat and one day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will press the United Nations Security Council on sanctions to further isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

The Trump administration on Wednesday declared North Korea “an urgent national security threat and top foreign policy priority.” It said it was focusing on economic and diplomatic pressure, including Chinese cooperation in containing its defiant neighbor and ally, and remained open to negotiations.

U.S. officials said military strikes remained an option but played down the prospect, though the administration has sent an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region in a show of force.

Any direct U.S. military action would run the risk of massive North Korean retaliation and huge casualties in Japan and South Korea and among U.S. forces in both countries.

‘I HOPE HE’S RATIONAL’

Trump, asked if he considered North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be rational, said he was operating from the assumption that he is rational. He noted that Kim had taken over his country at an early age.

“He’s 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age.

“I’m not giving him credit or not giving him credit, I’m just saying that’s a very hard thing to do. As to whether or not he’s rational, I have no opinion on it. I hope he’s rational,” he said.

Trump, sipping a Coke delivered by an aide after the president ordered it by pressing a button on his desk, rebuffed an overture from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who told Reuters a direct phone call with Trump could take place again after their first conversation in early December angered Beijing.

China considers neighboring Taiwan to be a renegade province.

“My problem is that I have established a very good personal relationship with President Xi,” said Trump. “I really feel that he is doing everything in his power to help us with a big situation. So I wouldn’t want to be causing difficulty right now for him.

“So I would certainly want to speak to him first.”

Trump also said he hoped to avoid a potential government shutdown amid a dispute between congressional Republicans and Democrats over a spending deal with a Saturday deadline looming.

But he said if a shutdown takes place, it will be the Democrats’ fault for trying to add money to the legislation to “bail out Puerto Rico” and other items.

He also defended the one-page tax plan he unveiled on Wednesday from criticism that it would increase the U.S. deficit, saying better trade deals and economic growth would offset the costs.

“We will do trade deals that are going to make up for a tremendous amount of the deficit. We are going to be doing trade deals that are going to be much better trade deals,” Trump said.

(Editing by Ross Colvin)

U.S. Republican leaders hunt for votes for healthcare bill

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks about healthcare at his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S, April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House Republicans were making headway in efforts to build support for a reworked plan to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, but have not decided when to vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday.

Ryan spoke as Republican leaders scoured the U.S. Capitol in search of centrist Republican backing for the amended measure after it gained the approval on Wednesday of a group of hard-right Republican conservatives who had helped to sink the original version last month.

“We’re making very good progress,” Ryan told reporters at a news conference, saying the changes endorsed by conservative Freedom Caucus Republicans on Wednesday would also appeal to moderate Republicans.

The House could vote as early as this week on the legislation, aides said, meaning it could pass the House in time for President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office on Saturday.

It remained unclear whether the amended bill could attract the 216 votes needed to pass the House, given the united Democratic opposition. Its future is further clouded in the Senate.

“We’re going to go when we have the votes,” Ryan said.

Republicans in Congress have made repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, a central campaign promise for seven years. Republican President Donald Trump made it a top campaign promise.

But House Republicans are not keen to repeat last month’s debacle, when their leaders acquiesced to Trump’s demand for a floor vote on the bill, only to unceremoniously yank the measure after determining it could not pass.

The Republican healthcare bill would replace Obamacare’s income-based tax credit with an age-based credit, roll back an expansion of the Medicaid government health insurance program for the poor and repeal most Obamacare taxes.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had estimated 24 million fewer people would have insurance under the original version.

The new amendment that has won over a number of conservatives, drafted by Representative Tom MacArthur, would allow states to seek federal waivers to opt out of some of the law’s provisions. That includes the highly popular provision mandating that insurers charge those with pre-existing conditions the same as healthy consumers, and that insurers cover so-called essential health benefits, such as maternity care.

Some centrists say the changes do not address their worries that the bill would hurt poor Americans in the Medicaid program. Others, including Republican Representative Dan Donovan of New York, said the loosening of protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions was a major problem.

“It’s going to cost people with pre-existing conditions even more money to have coverage … It’s something that we shouldn’t be doing,” Donovan said on CNN.

House Democrats on Thursday threatened to oppose a short-term government funding bill if the Republicans try to bring the healthcare bill to the floor this week.

Ryan brushed off this threat, even though Republicans are expected to need some Democratic votes to pass the funding bill.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters that Trump was making Republicans “walk the plank” on a healthcare bill that was “wildly unpopular.”

Ryan dismissed the idea that some Republican lawmakers’ House seats were at risk if they vote for the healthcare bill. “I think people’s seats are at risk if we don’t do what we said we would do” and repeal Obamacare, he said.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Amanda Becker and Will Dunham; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Trump seeks to shrink federal role in education with new order

U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order on education as he participates in a federalism event with Governors at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S. April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to review the U.S. government’s role in school policy, which supporters cheered as the first step in creating more local control in education and critics worried could lead to lower quality schools in poorer neighborhoods.

DeVos has 300 days “to review and, if necessary, modify and repeal regulations and guidance issued by the Department of Education with a clear mandate to identify places where D.C. has overstepped its legal authority,” said Rob Goad, a Department of Education official, according to a transcript of a White House call with reporters.

The second most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, California’s Kevin McCarthy, said the federal government had in recent years exceeded its legal authority in creating regulations and guidance

“Different people in different states and communities will have different goals and ways of achieving those goals. That is something we should celebrate and enable, not try to stop,” he said in a statement.

The Democratic National Committee, though, said the order was politically motivated, with Trump wanting something to show in school policy in his first 100 days.

The head of the American Federation of Teachers union, Randi Weingarten, said the current education law, Every Student Succeeds Act, already reduces federal power over schools, especially when it comes to standards and teacher assessments.

“What the new law doesn’t do is abandon the requirement for the federal government to protect the civil rights of our students, even if those rights run counter to what states and districts want to do,” she said in a statement.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Israel, White House discussing Trump visit: Israeli official

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media next to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue during a roundtable discussion with farmers at the White House in Washington, U.S. April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel and the White House are in preliminary discussions about a visit to Israel by U.S. President Donald Trump as early as next month, an Israeli government official said on Wednesday.

A Trump visit would mark an early personal engagement by the new Republican president in efforts to resolve the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Trump in the White House in February, one of the first foreign leaders to do so after the wealthy businessman took office in January, and has spoken of positive change in U.S. Middle East policy after years of friction with Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.

“There are preliminary contacts between the (Israeli) Foreign Ministry and the White House and there is a 70 percent chance that a (Trump) presidential visit will happen,” the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because a trip had not been finalised.

Trump has said he intends to pursue efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace. The last round of talks between the two adversaries collapsed in 2014. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to see Trump in Washington on May 3.

Praising U.S. policy since Trump entered the White House, Netanyahu has cited in particular a U.S. missile strike in Syria on April 6 in retaliation for what Washington charged was a Syrian government chemical weapons attack in a rebel-held area that killed scores of civilians. Damascus denied responsibility.

Netanyahu had an often tense relationship with Obama over the 2015 U.S.-backed Iran nuclear deal and Israeli settlement building on occupied land that Palestinians want for a state.

His vision for a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unfulfilled, Obama came to Israel twice in his eight years as president – in 2013 and last September for the funeral of Israeli elder statesman Shimon Peres.

Trump, who appeared to surprise Netanyahu at their White House meeting by urging him to curb settlements, is due to make his first overseas visit as president, to Europe in May.

A senior U.S. administration official said last week a stop in Saudi Arabia might be added.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Jeffrey Heller and Mark Heinrich)

Trump slams federal court ruling on funding for ‘sanctuary cities’

People participate in a protest against President Donald Trump's travel ban, in New York City, U.S. January 29, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday attacked a federal judge’s ruling that blocked his executive order seeking to withhold funds from “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants, vowing to appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco was the latest blow to Trump’s efforts to toughen immigration enforcement. Federal courts have also blocked his two travel bans on citizens of mostly Muslim nations.

“First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!” Trump said in a tweet, referring to the San Francisco-based federal appeals court and its judicial district.

The Trump administration has targeted sanctuary cities, which generally offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants and often do not use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Critics say authorities endanger public safety when they decline to hand over for deportation illegal immigrants arrested for crimes, while supporters argue that enlisting police cooperation to round up immigrants for removal undermines trust in local police, particularly among Latinos.

Dozens of local governments and cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, have joined the “sanctuary” movement.

In his ruling, Orrick said Trump’s Jan. 25 order targeted broad categories of federal funding for the sanctuary cities and that plaintiffs challenging it were likely to succeed in proving it unconstitutional.

An appeal is likely to be heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before it goes to the Supreme Court. Republicans view the appeals court as biased toward liberals, and Trump was quick to attack its reputation in his tweets.

It “has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%). They used to call this “judge shopping!” Messy system,” he wrote.

The appeals court raised Trump’s ire earlier this year when it upheld a Seattle judge’s decision to block the Republican president’s first travel ban on citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations.

In May, the court will hear an appeal of a Hawaii judge’s order blocking Trump’s revised travel ban, which placed restrictions on citizens from six mostly Muslim countries. A Maryland judge also blocked portions of the second ban.

Trump has issued sweeping condemnations of courts and judges when they have ruled against him or his administration.

In February, he called the federal judge in Seattle who ruled against his first travel ban a “so-called judge.” During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump accused an Indiana-born judge overseeing lawsuits against the defunct Trump University of bias based on his Mexican ancestry.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Paul Simao)

Trump tax plan slashing business rates to test support in Congress

President Trump waves as he boards Air Force One. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

By Amanda Becker

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will release a tax plan on Wednesday proposing some deep rate cuts, mostly for businesses, including a slashed corporate income tax rate and steeply discounted tax rate for overseas corporate profits brought into the United States, officials said.

Trump intends for his broad blueprint, which will fall short of the kind of comprehensive tax reform that Republicans have long discussed, to be a guidepost for lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

“We’re driving this a little bit more,” a senior White House official told a group of reporters late on Tuesday.

The plan is not expected by analysts to include any proposals for raising new revenue, potentially adding billions of dollars to the federal deficit.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been leading the Trump administration’s effort to craft a tax package that can win support in Congress.

Though the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are both controlled by the Republican Party, some aspects of Trump’s proposals could be a difficult sell, including to some fiscal hawks in his own party. Trump’s plan will cut the income tax rate paid by public corporations to 15 percent from 35 percent and sharply cut the top tax rate by pass-through businesses, including many small business partnerships and sole proprietorships, to 15 percent from 39.6 percent, an official said.

Trump will also propose a repatriation tax on offshore earnings along the lines of his campaign proposal for a 10 percent levy, versus the 35 percent due on repatriated foreign profits under present law, the official said.

Trump’s proposal will not include a controversial “border-adjustment” tax on imports that was in earlier proposals floated by House Republicans as a way to offset revenue losses resulting from tax cuts.

Mnuchin has said the cuts will pay for themselves by generating more economic growth, but fiscal hawks, potentially some in Trump’s own Republican Party, along with Democrats are certain to question these claims.

Whether Trump will include provisions that could attract Democratic votes, such as a proposal to fund infrastructure spending or a child-care tax credit as proposed by his daughter Ivanka, is still the subject of speculation.

The senior white house official said Trump would like to see Congress pass tax reform by the middle of autumn.

The last overhaul of the U.S. tax code was in 1986 during the administration of former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Congress moves closer to deal to avert government shutdown

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump's overview of the budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2018 are displayed at the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) on its release by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington, U.S. on March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

By Eric Beech and Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress was moving closer to crafting a deal to avoid shutting down at the stroke of midnight on Friday, but the details and even broad strokes of an agreement were still murky.

Some lawmakers are optimistic they can hammer out a budget bill to take the government to the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30, while others see Congress putting a short-term spending resolution in place for a week, while talks continue.

Either way, the pressure is mounting to come up with a plan before Friday night. If lawmakers do not have one, funding for many federal agencies will abruptly stop and millions of government workers will be temporarily laid off.

Many policy makers are nervous about a repeat of 2013, when the government was shuttered for 17 days.

On Monday President Donald Trump eased up on demands to include funding for a southern border wall in any budget pact, clearing a major obstacle in the negotiations.

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told CNN late on Tuesday that the Trump administration had also informed Democrats on Monday it would move discussions on building a border wall to September, when the government must negotiate the budget for its next fiscal year.

“And we thought that was going to get a deal done and we’ve not heard anything from them today,” he said. “So I’m not sure what’s happening.”

Even though Trump’s fellow Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they only have 52 seats in the Senate. To amass the 60 votes needed there to pass the budget, Republicans will have to bring Democratic lawmakers onto their side.

The most powerful Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said on Tuesday his party is concerned about the ratio of increase in defense and non-defense spending. Democrats prefer a one-to-one ratio, and boosting both sides of the budget equally could become a sticking point in negotiations.

Democrats also want provisions for more healthcare coverage for coal miners and appropriations for healthcare subsidies. Health insurance would abruptly become unaffordable for 6 million Americans who rely on cost-sharing subsidies under the national health plan commonly called Obamacare.

Democrats have been seeking immediate assistance for a funding gap in Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program, federal health insurance for the poor, saying it is in such bad shape that 1 million people are set to lose healthcare.

Mulvaney also said Trump would not agree to including Obamacare subsidies in a spending bill.

He told CNN that Democrats “raised Puerto Rico for the first time a couple of days ago,” but did not give Trump’s stance on the Medicaid assistance.

Outside political pressure groups are watching for which “riders” may be added to any deal that emerges this week.

Spending resolutions primarily lay out how government money can flow, but often also include riders, smaller measures attached to the budget so they can become law.

Past riders have touched on areas such as banning the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring corporations to disclose political donations.

Democrats said they were worried Republicans could try to attach language limiting family-planning funds, and Schumer expressed concerns about attempts to undo Wall Street reforms enacted after the 2007-09 financial crisis.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Lisa Lambert; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Nasdaq tops 6,000, Dow surges as earnings impress

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

(Reuters) – The Nasdaq crossed the 6,000 threshold for the first time on Tuesday, while the Dow registered triple-digit gains as strong earnings underscored the health of Corporate America.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose as much as 0.70 percent to hit a record level of 6,026.02, powered by gains in index heavyweights Apple <AAPL.O> and Microsoft <MSFT.O>.

The index had breached the 5,000 mark on March 7, 2000 and closed above that level two days later during the height of the tech boom.

Tuesday’s gains build on a day-earlier rally, which was driven by the victory of centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the French presidential election. Polls show Macron is likely to beat his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in a deciding vote on May 7.

“Political headlines in Europe don’t tend to stick, but create buying opportunities more than having long-term consequences,” said Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments.

At 12:49 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was up 235.96 points, or 1.14 percent, at 20,999.85, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 13.17 points, or 0.55 percent, at 2,387.32 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was up 39.91 points, or 0.67 percent, at 6,023.73.

Investors are also keeping a close watch on the latest earnings season, hoping that companies will be able to justify their lofty valuations, which were spurred in part by President Donald Trump’s pro-growth promises.

Overall profits of S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 11 percent in the first quarter – the most since 2011, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Trump, who had promised to make “a big tax reform” announcement on Wednesday, has directed his aides to move quickly on a plan to cut the corporate income tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, a Trump administration official said on Monday.

The Dow outperformed other major sectors, largely due to a surge in Caterpillar <CAT.N> and McDonald’s <MCD.N> after they reported better-than-expected profits.

Eight of the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors were higher. DuPont’s <DD.N> 2.8 percent increase, following a profit beat, helped the materials sector <.SPRLCM> top the list of gainers.

Biogen <BIIB.O> jumped nearly 4 percent after the biotech company reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Tuesday.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,017 to 853. On the Nasdaq, 2,020 issues rose and 766 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 80 52-week highs and three lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 194 highs and 36 lows.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)