• House Democrats won votes to end the partial government shutdown, however, has not brought Congress any closer to resolve Trumps demand for $5billion for a wall. 
• Apple stocks fell on Thursday to $142.19, its lowest price level since July 2017. This pushed its market valuation behind the market cap of Alphabet, as it drops $450billion in market value
• China and US announced plans to hold trade talks on 7-8 Jan, at a Vice ministerial level in hopes of ending the trade war which has affected both economies and financial markets
• Asia markets trade at mixed levels; Nikkei 225 falling 2.68% in comparison to a rise of 1.3% for the Hang Seng index, 1.81% for the Shanghai Composite, 2.24% and 2.409% for Shenzhen Composite and Component, respectively
• US Stocks continued to fall on Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average declining 660.02 points, or 2.8%, S&P 500 by 2.47% and the Nasdaq Composite decreasing by 3%, following on from Apples revenue warning, Apples worst session since 2013
• Qualcomm posted 1.34billion Euros of security bonds to implement a court order in relation to banning sales of some Apple iPhones in Germany
• Global merger and acquisition deals fall to the lowest since 2010, including the Chinese purchase of US firms which declined by 94.6% to $3billion
• Brazil President broadcasts a plan to privatise 12 airports and 4 sea ports in order to raise initial investments of around $1.85billion  

UK, US and Europe: One bill which passed by House Democrats will ‘fund eight closed US departments through 30^th September and to reopen the Department of Homeland Security through the beginning of February, however, have still not come to a conclusion on Trumps demand for the wall. As the measures do not agree to his demand, Trump has refused to sign as they believe it is a waste of time; "The President cannot accept legislation that provides unnecessary funding for wasteful programs while ignoring the Nation’s border security needs,” the Trump administration responded.

Looking ahead, US non-farm payrolls is to be announced on Friday at 13:30 GMT, which expects the NFP to increase by 177,000 in December, in comparison to November’s 155,000, however, still under the six month average. Unemployment rate is predicted to be unchanged, and therefore remain at 3.7%

Economic calendar - key events and forecast (times in GMT)

Source: Daily FX Economic Calendar

Corporate News, Upgrades and Downgrades

• Luckin to try and overtake Starbucks in China, to become the largest coffee chain by amount of global outlets, as they plan to open 2500 new stores this year
• Bristol-Myers Squibb plans to purchase Celgene at a value of $74billion

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