Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said this morning he would offer higher testing expenditures in stimulus bill negotiations with Speaker Pelosi, as a concession from The White House, to get the talks moving.
“That issue is getting overblown,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’ve agreed to $178 billion overall for health. It’s an extraordinary amount of money. We’d agreed with the Democrats with $75 billion going to testing, contact tracing.”
“What we have been focused on is the language around testing,” he added. “When I speak to Pelosi today, I’m going to tell her that we’re not going to let the testing issue stand in the way. We’ll fundamentally agree with their testing language subject to some minor issues. This issue is being overblown.”
Markets were down on the open over the continuing delay in getting funds to American citizens during the lockdowns. Economic data released this morning was mixed. Initial jobless claims were higher but continuing claims dropped. Manufacturing showed regional differences in strength of recovery.
NY Empire State Manufacturing Index (Oct) printed at 10.5 vs 15 consensus estimate.
Import Price Index (MoM) (Sep) printed at the estimate of 0.3%.
Continuing Jobless Claims (Oct 2) 10.018M vs 10.7M estimate.
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey (Oct) printed at 32.3 vs 14 estimate.
Import Price Index (YoY) (Sep) printed at -1.1% vs -0.7% estimate.
Export Price Index (MoM) (Sep) printed at 0.6% vs 0.4% estimate.
Export Price Index (YoY) (Sep) printed at -1.8% vs -1% estimate.
Initial Jobless Claims (Oct 9) printed at 898k vs 825k estimate.
Initial Jobless Claims 4-week average (Oct 9) printed at 866.25k.
