Impeachment is moving beyond the hearing room. House committee members are debating and voting on articles of impeachment Thursday against President Donald Trump. At issue are two articles of impeachment charging Trump with obstructing Congress and abusing power, stemming from his pressure on Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden's family.

The options-based Black Swan index may be signaling surging demand from investors for protection against a stock market crash, but Wall Street analysts see little reason to panic. It tracks the implied volatility of deep out-of-the-money options - that is, contracts that need a large move in the market before they come into play - on the S&P 500 <.SPX>. The gauge is also known as the Black Swan index, a reference to the book "Black Swan" by former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb that looks at the potentially catastrophic effects of unpredictable events.

Liquidity levels will be tested as early as Monday, when Wall Street firms have to shell over cash to the U.S. Treasury for this week's government bond sales and businesses draw down reserves to make quarterly tax payments - events that could drain more than $100 billion in liquidity from the banking system. Some large banks may scale back lending in the repo market in an effort to shrink their balance sheets to avoid regulatory penalties, which would add to the funding stress. The Fed's recent efforts to boost liquidity in cash lending markets - which were not in place in September - could ease some of the pressure.

MACAU/HONG KONG, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Macau next week to announce a raft of new policies aimed at diversifying the city's casino-dependent economy into a financial centre, according to over a dozen interviews with officials and corporate executives. The move is seen by officials and executives in Macau as a reward for having avoided the anti-government protests that have gripped nearby Hong Kong over the past six months. The policies include the establishment of a yuan-denominated stock exchange and the acceleration of a renminbi settlement centre already in the works, as well as the allocation of land for Macau to develop in neighbouring mainland China, they said.

India moved thousands of troops into the northeastern state of Assam on Thursday after violent protests overnight against a new law that would make it easier for non-Muslim minorities from some neighbouring countries to seek Indian citizenship. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has said the so-called Citizenship Amendment Bill that was approved by parliament on Wednesday was meant to protect besieged minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Asian stocks rose on Thursday to the highest in a month after the Federal Reserve signalled rate settings were likely to remain accommodative, but the imminent UK election and a deadline for Sino-U.S. trade talks kept investors cautious. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged, as expected, at its policy meeting on Wednesday but indicated interest rates would remain on hold, which nudged Wall Street stocks higher. Japan's Nikkei stock index rose 0.22% and U.S. stock futures edged up 0.1%.