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Welcome to Thursday, Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

• The Federal Reserve’s contribution to a very busy couple of days for central banks around the world turned out to be very much in line with what markets were expecting
  • Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank could begin scaling back asset purchases in November and complete the process by mid-2022, after officials revealed a growing inclination to raise interest rates next year
  • Powell, sending a message to progressives worried about his possible renomination, made clear that he won’t protect Wall Street from tough oversight if he gets a second term
  • The Fed’s so-called dot plot, which the U.S. central bank uses to signal its outlook for the path of interest rates, shows officials are now evenly split on whether or not it will be appropriate to begin raising the fed funds rate as soon as next year
• Norway just delivered the first post-crisis interest-rate increase among economies with the world’s 10 most-traded currencies
  • Meanwhile, Switzerland stuck with ultra-low rates. Philippines held steady too as did Taiwan, which tightened selective credit control measures
  • Coming up: Turkey, the U.K. and South Africa
• Brazil’s central bank pledged to deliver a third consecutive interest-rate hike of 100 basis points next month, saying such a pace of monetary tightening is convenient to bring inflation back to target
• Joe Biden has had to confront plenty of new problems since becoming president, from a Covid-19 pandemic that won’t go away to a botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Now he’s about to face an old one: the federal government is running out of money, and Republicans insist they’ll allow a debt default unless Biden abandons the $3.5 trillion spending bill
• PMI data from Europe showed the recovery has lost some steam this month, with Germany, France and the U.K. all reporting slower-than-expected growth
  • U.S. data are due this morning
• A year-long boom in global semiconductor demand that has supported key Asian exporters still has room to run, according to a set of indicators tracking the industry
  • The Biden administration is pressuring companies involved in the semiconductor supply chain to be more transparent
• Finally: What do Chinese regulators and Fed chief Powell have in common? The both warned against defaulting in the past 24 hours. Authorities in Beijing instructed China Evergrande Group to avoid a near-term default on its dollar bonds

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