Congress has until today to pass a temporary funding measure to prevent another government shutdown. The stopgap spending measure — which would fund the government until March 23 — is expected to be paired with a two-year budget deal brokered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., The New York Times reports. President Donald Trump indicated in a tweet that he supports the budget agreement.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will meet in executive session today to consider Jelena McWilliams' nomination to be chairperson and a member of the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., among other nominations. McWilliams is the chief legal officer of Fifth Third Bancorp.
Equifax Inc. disputes the accusation of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that the credit reporting agency failed to disclose that the 2017 cyberattack exposed consumers' passport numbers to hackers, The Wall Street Journal reports. The accusation was made in Warren's 15-page report that discussed the findings of her office's four-month investigation into the breach. A spokesperson for Equifax said that the agency investigated several possible data elements, including passport numbers, that might have been accessed, but the results showed that "passport numbers were not included in the information accessed by the hackers," according to the Journal.
In regulatory news, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued guidance to prevent market manipulation and other forms of wrongdoing. The guidance applies to virtual currency business entities under New York banking law, including companies holding money transmitter licenses.
In an event in Washington, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim expressed doubts about the legitimacy of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg News reports. The head of the development lender compared cryptocurrencies to Ponzi schemes and added that "it's still not really clear" how they will work, according to the report.
Citigroup Inc. expects rapid growth in its investment banking business in the Middle East and Africa this 2018, Reuters reports, citing Miguel Azevedo, head of Citi's investment banking for the region. The senior executive pegged Saudi Arabia, where it was recently cleared to launch investment banking in January, to lead the business' growth in the region. Nigeria, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are also expected to drive growth as bond sales, M&As and IPOs pick up in the Middle East and Africa, according to the report.
BlackRock Inc. is looking to raise more than $10 billion from sovereign-wealth funds, pensions and other big investors for a new vehicle, known as BlackRock Long-Term Private Capital, that will allow the asset manager to directly invest in companies, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
Nearly six months after TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. launched an artificial intelligence-driven chat bot for Facebook Messenger, the online brokerage firm is now allowing customers to initialize trades over Twitter, The Wall Street Journal reports. Twitter users with a TD Ameritrade account can execute a trade through TD Ameritrade's Twitter chat bot, the report adds.
In Canada, asset management firm Greenbank Capital Inc. is buying a 19.62% interest in Minfocus Exploration Corp. via an off-market transaction. Also, Canadian private-equity firm Temperance Partners Ltd has acquired a minority stake in Los Angeles-based Westmount Asset Management LLC from Rosemont Investment Partners LLC.
In other parts of the world
Asia-Pacific: India, New Zealand maintain policy rates; NAB Q1 profit inches up
Europe: SoftBank in talks for Swiss Re stake; Commerzbank, SocGen report Q4 results
Middle East & Africa: QNB secures $3.5B syndicated loan; Moody's places Angola on review for downgrade
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng rose 0.42% to 30,451.27, and the Nikkei 225 climbed 1.13% to 21,890.86.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 fell 0.87% to 7,215.73, and the Euronext 100 was down 1.21% to 1,009.32.
On the macro front
The jobless claims report, the EIA natural gas report, the Fed balance sheet and money supply report are due out today.
The Daily Dose is updated as of 7:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.