Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday the Trump administration plans to steer clear of an outright ban on diesel exports as prices soar during wars abroad — rejecting a Politico report saying the White House is preparing a 90-day prohibition that could be announced within days.

Speaking Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Wright said he favors voluntary limits on diesel exports, instead.

“We’re trying to avoid a blunt hammer of a government policy, understanding the complexity of refining,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

(Continue Reading – NY Post)

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a defiant speech to the United Nations on Wednesday blamed the the U.S. and Israel for stoking global instability while accusing them of launching illegal attacks on his country’s civilians and infrastructure.

The address to the UN General Assembly in New York City came as a fiery rebuke to President Donald Trump, who told the UN a day earlier that he was weighing whether to “annihilate” Iran after nearly seven months at war.

It also contradicted Trump’s insistent narrative that Iran desperately seeks a peace deal, and that one is likely to come right after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

(Continue Reading – CNBC)

An October interest rate hike is very much on the table after a top Federal Reserve official Wednesday expressed support for one, and as fresh economic readings showed intensifying inflation pressures.

In remarks prepared for a housing conference in Chicago, Fed Governor Michael Barr said he thinks policymakers still have more work to do even after last week’s quarter percentage point increase.

“In my base case, further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensure inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion,” he said. “We want to support sustainable, durable growth in support of maximum employment, and price stability is crucial to that.”

The remarks came the same day that S&P Global said its flash gauges on both the manufacturing and services industries hit their highest levels in more than four years.

(Continue Reading – CNBC)

The agreement between the US, Denmark and Greenland is important as it appears to remove a key source of risks in the US-EU relationship, Fitch Ratings says. However, the likelihood of renewed bilateral tariff increases in the near term remains significant, and uncertainty over the security relationship between the US and its European allies has not been resolved.

The agreement signed on 22 September reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and that the people of Greenland have a right to self-determination, permits enhanced US security activity in Greenland and tightens restrictions around the activities of non-NATO, non-EU states there. If it holds, it should substantially reduce the risk of the Greenland dispute leading to an escalation in trade tariffs. However, the possibility of implementation complications, or renewed US demands for more direct control over the island remains open.

(Continue Reading – Fitch)

Policymakers at the Swiss National Bank are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday, with analysts seeing little prospect of a move well into next year, at the earliest.

An economists’ poll predicts the SNB to leave its policy rate at zero in what should be a relatively straightforward decision. (Continue Reading - LiveSquawk)