* No speaker elected in House after second day
* Until a speaker is elected, normal House governing activity isn’t functioning
* Inflation has not “turned the corner yet,” says IMF official
* Amazon will layoff 18,000 workers, biggest cut in tech recently
* China economy continues contract, mildly, in December via PMI survey data
* China accused of “under-representing” severity of its Covid outbreak, says WHO
* US job openings remain high in November, highlighting tight labor market
* Fed officials expect higher rates for ‘some time’, according to minutes
* US ISM Mfg Index falls again in December, marking second month of contraction:

US payrolls recovery is expected to level out or reverse in 2023. “Some industries, which had already recovered to pre-pandemic levels, continued their strong momentum into 2022,” reports Bloomberg. “The transportation and warehousing sector employed nearly 6.5 million people as of November, compared to about 5.8 million at the start of the pandemic. However, as some Americans pulled back on spending and others shifted their dollars from goods to services, employment in the industry started to struggle.”