Last night President Donald Trump backed off his demand that any deal to fund the federal government include money to start construction on The Wall. At an event with conservative journalists, Trump said he’s okay waiting until September to have this fight. Which would seem to indicate that the President would sign a funding bill that doesn’t include money for The Wall.
Earlier in the day press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that money to start construction on The Wall was never really a demand, but instead a “priority.”
It now looks like White House aides and Congressional Republicans are working to see if they can get an increase in funding for more border agents and improved border technology into the bill. That, sources have told The Washington Post, would let them claim a victory in the immigration battle.
As of Tuesday, however, no Republican members of  House of Representatives had yet actually seen the text of the bill they might be called on to vote for as early as Thursday. (Spending authority expires on Friday, April 28.) Which means no one is sure whether or not there is any language in the bill that might make it difficult to get it past conservative or moderate factions of the Republican caucus .
U.S. stocks continued their post-French election rally. The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed up 0.61% for the day, firmly above the 50-day moving average that the market had recently experience so much trouble in penetrating. The NASDAQ Composite closed above 6,000 for the first time ever at 6025.49. Oil rebounded from yesterday’s weakness with U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate closing up 0.95% to $49.70. Safe haven assets fell with gold giving up 1% to $1264.70 an ounce. The yen fell against the dollar to 111.20 from yesterday’s close art 109. The VIX volatility index stabilized after yesterday’s 26% plunge. The VIX closed at 10.76, down just 0.74% for the day.
