“ ‘Mitch said to me he wants Trump gone.’ ” — Anonymous Republican member of Congress, as reported by CNN While Mitch McConnell is on record as open to casting a guilty vote in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, and has reportedly told colleagues he believed Trump had committed... Read more

The European Central Bank is to review the format of private calls its chief economist has held with financial market participants, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, to discuss its monetary policy decisions. Christine Lagarde, the ECB’s president, defended the calls in a letter to a Dutch member... Read more

Joe Biden’s administration has taken its first steps to revive the flagging US economy but warned the moves were “not a substitute” for another large stimulus package, as it increased the pressure on Congress to pass a $1.9tn Covid relief bill. The US president on Friday signed two executive... Read more

Plug Power Inc. disclosed stock trades made by Chief Executive Andrew Marsh earlier this week, in which he netted more than $36 million. Marsh purchased a total of 573,268 shares of Plug stock on Jan. 19 at a weighted average price of $2.8764, according to a MarketWatch analysis of... Read more

The US Senate confirmed retired general Lloyd Austin as defence secretary on Friday, making him the first black person to hold the position. Mr Austin, who was confirmed in a 93-2 vote, is the second of President Joe Biden’s cabinet officials to be confirmed. Avril Haines, Mr Biden’s new... Read more

Foreign stocks are the asset of choice if the U.S. dollar falls relative to other countries’ currencies. That’s useful to know, since the nearly universal opinion on Wall Street these days is that the dollar will decline in 2021. In fact, I can recall no other occasion in my... Read more

Nancy Pelosi will send the article of impeachment charging Donald Trump with inciting insurrection to the Senate on Monday, setting the stage for a trial to begin in the first full week of Joe Biden’s presidency. Chuck Schumer, the newly minted Democratic Senate majority leader, said on Friday morning... Read more

Brussels is resisting a push by some EU member states for the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered before it receives authorisation from the bloc’s medical regulator, as officials raise questions about the legal implications.  Four countries — Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Greece — wrote to the... Read more

Are you looking for a contrarian stock play? Try big energy — fossil fuels, to be specific. A combination of supply cuts and demand increases has helped crude oil prices soar over the past 2½ months. Meanwhile, redlining by banks — more on that later — points to what... Read more

Climate-action advocates are taking prominent roles in departments that will reset US energy policy under President Joe Biden, marking a sharp break from a Trump administration peppered with former industry lobbyists.  Mr Biden’s administration on Thursday announced 19 senior leaders for the energy department, a bureaucracy whose duties range... Read more