Comey says Trump lied – limited market reaction

In his opening remarks, Comey says “those were lies plain and simple”. The initial reaction is a small retreat of USD/JPY from the highs. Later on, further juicy revelations do not trigger a significant market movement.

Comey said that he understood that Trump’s “hope” for letting Flynn go was a directive, but Comey did not cooperate. He did not trust Trump to tell the truth and that’s why he documented his interactions with him. Asking all the others to leave the room and  asking about the Flynn investigation was more than weird.

After Trump asked Comey to stay twice, the president asked for loyalty and asked again about his job. Comey felt his job was contingent on loyalty.

Comey also documented the conversations in a declassified manner, in order to enable their future publication. He just didn’t trust the President.

Comey  left the “obstruction of justice” question open but offered a full documentation and Trump does not look good. The story will continue.

Comey Live Blog – as it happened

 

Comey testimony background

Former FBI Director James B. Comey testifies before the Senate about his interactions with Trump. The prepared  statement was already released yesterday. It was certainly disturbing regarding Trump’s behavior. However, it did not tell us anything we did not know, allowing USD/JPY to rise and gold to fall.

The US dollar  needs Trump to be cleared for his agenda to continue: infrastructure, tax cuts and more, leading to potentially higher growth, higher inflation and rate hikes.