Finance
As budget vote continues, Smotrich 'won't surrender to last minute extortion'
Voting on a controversial update of the national 2024 budget is ongoing despite reports of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s announcing that it would be delayed in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday after a number of coalition members threatened not to vote in favor of the budget if last-minute changes were not implemented.
The first to threaten not to support the budget was Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud), over a provision to cut an important agricultural research organization, the Volcani Institute, by 25%. Likud MK David Bitan reportedly joined Dichter for the same reason. According to Ynet, a third Likud MK, Amit Halevi, conditioned his vote in favor of the budget on a pledge to pass a bill proposal of his regarding education ministry oversight of schools in east Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Dichter’s demand and pledged to resolve the crisis in the agriculture budget by Passover.
Budget on the line
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein is not present in the Knesset, as he is in mourning over the death of his mother. The budget needs 61 votes to pass, and National Unity’s 12 Knesset members, who joined the coalition after the war broke out on October 7, announced that they will oppose the budget. Therefore, the absence of four MKs from the 64-member pre-war coalition is enough for the budget not to pass.
Voting was supposed to commence at 12:0 p.m. on Wednesday after a conclusion of the marathon debate by Finance Minister Smotrich. However, instead of Smotrich, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi took the dais and spoke for over an hour in an attempt to delay voting.
In the meanwhile, Smotrich gave a statement to the media outside the Knesset plenum.
“We will soon bring to the plenum a good war budget. I have no intention of surrendering to all kinds of special interest extortionists, and the budget will not be opened at the last moment. This is my budgetary responsibility. I call on the prime minister to announce that he too intends not to surrender to political extortion, and bring the budget to a vote as is.”
It’s the last full trading day of 2024 and Wall Street has its eyes peeled for the slightest signs of a Santa Claus rally. Seana Smith and Madison Mills observe some of the biggest market stories while speaking with top analysts on today’s episode of The Morning Brief.
Former President Jimmy Carter passed away over the weekend at the age of 100. To talk more about the US leader’s legacy and role in significant peace talks, the program welcomes American University professor Allan Lichtman and Marc Ginsberg, the former White House Deputy Senior Advisor for Middle East Policy under former President Carter.
As US stocks (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) continue to see declines at the start of Monday’s session, the Morning Brief team looks back on the best and worst performing sectors of 2024.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.
Other top trending stocks on the Yahoo Finance platform include Boeing (BA), American Airlines (AAL), Nissan (NSANY, 8291.T)
This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
The major indexes (^DJI,^GSPC, ^IXIC) are trading lower on Monday. It follows a sharp sell-off on Friday when the Nasdaq shed 1.5%. One stock on the move is Boeing (BA). Its shares are falling after South Korean officials ordered all Boeing 737-800 planes to be inspected after a Jeju Air crash killed 179 of the 181 people on board.
Key guests include:
9:10 a.m. ET – Josh Wein, Hennessy Funds Portfolio Manager
9:45 a.m. ET – Justin Patterson, KeyBanc Managing Director
10:20 a.m. ET – Gregory Kuhl, Janus Henderson Investors, Portfolio Manager, Global Real Estate
11:00 a.m. ET – Roosevelt Bowman, Bernstein Private Wealth Management Senior Investment Strategist
(Bloomberg) — Singapore Post Ltd. named a group chief financial officer and said the search for a chief executive continues after it fired a number of senior executives over allegations of misconduct.
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Isaac Mah, currently the CFO of the company’s Australia business, Freight Management Holdings Pty, will return home to take up the group CFO post, the Temasek Holdings Pte-backed firm said in a filing on Sunday. It also appointed Gan Heng, who currently heads the South District International Business Unit, as acting CEO of IBU.
The appointments follow the dismissal of three senior executives on disciplinary grounds, following a whistleblower’s report on lapses at its international e-commerce logistics parcel business. Singapore Post’s investigations into the report allegedly found several employees in the IBU made manual entries of some delivery status codes with the intent of avoiding contractual penalties with one of the firm’s largest customers.
Shares of the firm, which slid the most intraday since March 2020 after the dismissals last week, were trading unchanged as of 9:30 a.m. in Singapore on Monday.
Singapore Post said the sale of its Australia business, announced earlier this month, remains on track.
The company also paid a settlement to the unidentified customer, besides renewing its contract with the customer in August.
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