Sondland to say he worked with Giuliani on Trump's orders
The economic calendar is scarce today and this impeachment hearing is grabbing some headlines. US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland is on the docket today and his opening statement has found its way into the press.
He will say that Trump directed his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to pursue a "quid pro quo."
"Mr. Giuliani's requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit" for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Sondland will say according to reports."Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President."
At this point, none of this is new but this is pretty much a direct accusation of an impeachable offense from a primary witness. I doubt it moves markets but there's always the outside chance it sets off the President with some kind of tweetstorm or something else. I'm not going to give the play-by-play on the impeachment hearings but there isn't much in the way of news to keep the market moving right now.
