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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department announced Tuesday it will open a new anti-dumping probe to determine whether fabricated structural steel from Canada, China and Mexico is being sold at below fair value.

The investigation comes as some U.S. lawmakers, car companies and Canada and Mexico have strongly urged the Trump administration to drop U.S. national security tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in the wake of a deal announced last year to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The fabricated structural steel under investigation is used major building projects, including commercial, office and residential buildings, arenas, convention centers, parking decks and ports.

LONDON (Reuters) – World shares took a breather on Tuesday having scaled a five-month high, while Britain’s pound charged to a one-month top on renewed speculation that UK Prime Minister Theresa May was being bundled towards delaying Brexit.

Asia’s rally on hopes of a U.S.-China trade deal had run into profit taking overnight and it was a bumpy start for Europe as the pound’s leap to $1.3150 [/FRX] and some poor company news shoved London’s FTSE down as much as 1 percent.

Oil markets were steadied after a blast from U.S. President Donald Trump at OPEC for “too high” prices had triggered the biggest tumble of the year. Bond yields were also drooping but it was the FX moves that dominated.

Pound bulls latched onto reports that May was considering delaying the March 29 deadline for Britain’s exit from the European Union, a day after the main Labour opposition party had shifted towards supporting a second referendum.

As well as its gains against the dollar, the pound was also up nearly half a percent against the euro to a one-month high at 86.31 pence.

The flip-side was a dollar near a one-week low against its main peers, as markets also waited for testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that should shine some light on why it has back away so sharply from further interest rate rises this year.

They will meet for a brief one-on-one conversation on Wednesday evening, followed by a dinner, at which they will each be accompanied by two guests and interpreters, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Air Force One.

The two leaders would meet again on Thursday, she said.

Their talks come eight months after their historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.

There is likely to be pressure on both sides to move beyond the vaguely worded commitment they made in Singapore to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Domestic critics have warned Trump against cutting a deal that would do little to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, urging specific, verifiable North Korean action to abandon the nuclear weapons that threaten the United States.

In return, Kim would expect significant U.S. concessions such as relief from punishing sanctions and a declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War is at last formally over.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell worked hard to strengthen ties with Congress during his first year as head of the U.S. central bank, doubling the pace of meetings with lawmakers over his predecessors and courting Democrats and Republicans alike.

The value of that effort will get a very public test this week when Powell heads to Capitol Hill for hearings in a political and economic environment that has shifted dramatically since he last appeared before Congress in July 2018.

Democrats won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the November elections, and some new lawmakers are pushing programs like a “Green New Deal” that could have long-term implications for the Fed; two members of the Senate Banking Committee and at least one member of the House Financial Services Committee may run for president in 2020; and President Donald Trump’s public criticism of the Fed has raised questions about whether its independence has been compromised.

On top of that, what appeared to be a blue-sky economy in July has become clouded by a global growth slowdown, weak inflation, and bouts of volatility in U.S. bond and stock markets that some have blamed on policy and communications missteps by Powell himself.

The Fed chief by law appears before separate Senate and House committees twice a year.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares lost steam on Tuesday after scaling a five-month high as investors waited to see if Washington and Beijing can clinch a trade deal, while the pound advanced on hopes UK Prime Minister Theresa May will delay a Brexit deadline.

Spreadbetters pointed to a weak start for Europe with futures for London’s FTSE off 0.6 percent even as fears of a no-deal Brexit faded. U.S. stock futures were down too, with E-Minis for the S&P 500 falling 0.4 percent.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5 percent from its highest since mid-September as U.S. and Chinese negotiators work to hammer out a deal that would end a protracted tit-for-tat tariff battle.

Australian shares lost 0.9 percent, weighed by energy stocks as oil prices tumbled overnight.

Chinese shares see-sawed between positive and negative territory after a sharp rally the previous day.

Japan’s Nikkei stumbled 0.4 percent as some selling pressure built ahead of the fiscal year-end.

Investors were also wary of weakening estimates for current quarter earnings, with Wall Street on Monday expecting a 0.9 percent decline in S&P first-quarter earnings per share compared with expectations for 5.3 percent growth on Jan. 1, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

In currency markets, sterling jumped to $1.3149, a near four-week high, in early Asian trade after Bloomberg reported May was expected to allow her cabinet to discuss extending the Brexit deadline beyond March 29 at a crunch meeting later in the day.

The news was a relief to investors who had feared Britain would crash out of the European Union without a deal. However, a delay could anger May’s pro-Brexit colleagues who might then support a vote of no confidence in the government, potentially triggering a general election.

The dollar fell against the safe-haven Japanese yen from its highest since late December. The greenback was last at 110.77.

The dollar index was mostly flat at 96.399 against a basket of currencies.

Markets are now awaiting testimony from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday, after the central bank last month shifted to a more cautious stance on further interest rate hikes.

Oil prices fell again after posting their largest daily percentage drop this year on Monday as Trump called on OPEC to ease its efforts to boost crude prices, which he said were “getting too high.”

U.S. crude was last down 32 cents at $55.16 a barrel while Brent eased 20 cents to $64.56.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian state television has listed U.S. military facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, and said that a hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit them in less than five minutes.

The targets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.

The report, unusual even by the sometimes bellicose standards of Russian state TV, was broadcast on Sunday evening, days after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a “Cuban Missile”-style crisis if the United States wanted one.

Kiselyov, who is close to the Kremlin, said the “Tsirkon” (‘Zircon’) hypersonic missile that Russia is developing could hit the targets in less than five minutes if launched from Russian submarines.

Hypersonic flight is generally taken to mean traveling through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound.

“For now, we’re not threatening anyone, but if such a deployment takes place, our response will be instant,” he said.

Kiselyov is one of the main conduits of state television’s strongly anti-American tone, once saying Moscow could turn the United States into radioactive ash.

Asked to comment on Kiselyov’s report, the Kremlin said on Monday it did not interfere in state TV’s editorial policy.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May faces a growing threat that she will be forced to delay Brexit, a move that risks a showdown with eurosceptics in her Conservative Party just weeks before Britain is due to leave the European Union.

With Britain’s Brexit crisis going down to the wire, May is struggling to get the kind of changes from the EU she says she needs to get her divorce deal through a deeply divided parliament and smooth the country’s biggest policy shift in more than 40 years.

In Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh for an EU/Arab League summit, she met the bloc’s leaders to try to win support for her efforts to make her deal more attractive to parliament, where frustrated lawmakers are gearing up to try to wrest control of Brexit from the government.

Her decision to push back a vote on her deal into March, just days before Britain is due to leave, has prompted lawmakers to step up attempts to stop a no-deal Brexit, a scenario many businesses say could damage the world’s fifth largest economy.

Several of their plans would involve extending Article 50, which triggered the two-year Brexit negotiating period, delaying Britain’s departure beyond March 29 – something May has said would only delay an inevitable decision.

The EU has said it will consider an extension to the Brexit process, but only if Britain can offer evidence that such a delay would break the deadlock in parliament, which resoundingly voted down the deal last month in the biggest government defeat in modern British history.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic state governors say their party needs to challenge President Donald Trump’s record on the economy as he seeks re-election next year, by focusing on middle-class Americans who have not seen the benefits of economic growth.

Trump believes he has a winning hand with the economy and frequently touts a low unemployment rate, strong growth and stock market gains since his 2016 election victory.

Democrats, who won ground in gubernatorial elections in 2018, are looking for ways to convert the messages that worked in those state contests into victory in the presidential election in 2020.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who defeated incumbent Republican Scott Walker in one of the biggest upsets last year, said the unemployment rate in his state did not reflect the struggles faced by voters.

New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, also elected last year, said Democrats needed to counter Trump’s message by talking about how low wages, expensive health insurance and rising costs are squeezing middle-class voters.

She said she was concerned about Democrats’ ability to articulate an effective message on the economy and show voters how their own policies encourage investment and well-paid jobs.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, who has endorsed U.S. Senator Cory Booker, also of his state, for president, said Democrats should not abandon their message about social issues to talk about the economy.

“We don’t make economic progress without social progress, and likewise, you don’t make social progress without economic progress,” Murphy said.

LONDON (Reuters) – “U.S. EASES CURBS ON EXPORTS TO CHINA” read a Reuters headline on March 1, 1989, when Washington lifted long-standing restrictions on technology shipments to China.

On that day 30 years ago, U.S. commerce officials talked warmly of improving ties with China and of the need to help its economy — then about half the size of Italy’s — to grow, despite the objections of military strategists at the Pentagon.

Next Friday not only marks the 30th anniversary of the decision, but it is also the deadline set by President Donald Trump for a deal to end the seven-month trade war between the United States and China, now its biggest economic rival.

A different kind of technology transfer is at the center of the trade tussle that is likely to play a big part in defining the path of the world economy in years to come.