| Welcome to your morning markets update, delivered every weekday before the European open. Good morning. A missile strike may have downed the Ukrainian passenger jet, a Brexit bill cleared the House of Commons and Boeing's Max woes continue. Here's what's moving markets. Missile Strike? Leaders of three countries said that a Ukrainian jet that crashed Wednesday near Tehran was probably brought down by an Iranian missile, albeit possibly unintentionally, and called for an international probe of the disaster. The head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization said it wasn't possible that an Iranian rocket hit the plane and Iran and Ukraine have formed a task force to investigate. In the meantime, Lufthansa said an aircraft bound for Tehran had returned to Frankfurt due to a "changing assessment'' of the security situation. Meanwhile, read here for the tell-tale signs a missile strike would leave. Brexit Bill Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit legislation cleared its final hurdle in the House of Commons, meaning the Withdrawal Agreement Bill now passes to the House of Lords. Johnson wants that done before the end of the month so the U.K. can leave the European Union on the current Jan. 31 deadline. After Johnson swept up an 80-seat majority in last month's election, ending deadlock that prevented the U.K. from getting to this point, the split this month is nearly a formality with both sides already turning their attention to negotiating a trade deal. Boeing Boeing shares rose in U.S. trading after the comments about a possible missile strike causing the Iranian incident, which could rule out a mechanical failure that would affect other Boeing aircraft. But new internal messages released about the company's troubled 737 Max may bring more discomfort. With one company pilot saying the airplane was designed by "clowns" who were supervised by "monkeys," the messages threaten to upend Boeing's efforts to rebuild public trust in the plane, which has been grounded since March after two deadly crashes. U.S. Jobs The final U.S. jobs report for 2019 arrives Friday. It's forecast to show employers added 160,000 jobs in December, which would bring gains for the year to more than 2 million and higher than what economists had expected a year ago. Still, it would also be the slowest growth since 2011 and down from the year before. Forecasters also expect a further moderation this year, with uncertainty over the trade war, persisting Middle East tension and slowing global demand threatening to curb corporate investment. And all in an election year. Coming Up… Asian stocks are mixed and U.S. futures are slightly up ahead of the jobs report. On the corporate side, we will get updates from two U.K. retailers, JD Sports Fashion and B&M European Value Retail, giving investors more information on the spending habits of British consumers after disappointing updates Thursday from Marks & Spencer and Tesco. Next week will see the first round of U.S. bank earnings reports as the full-year earnings season kicks off. What We've Been Reading This is what's caught our eye over the past 24 hours. And finally, here's what Cormac Mullen is interested in this morning The dollar is key to many a 2020 investment call and its short-term fate could soon be decided, at least in the eyes of chart watchers. The Dollar Index has risen to test three key technical levels — its 50-day moving average, 200-day equivalent and upper boundary of the downtrend it's been in since early October. A break through the technical resistance would give ammunition to dollar bulls, while a failure would likely entrench the views of bears that the U.S. currency is set to weaken. The greenback has had a good start to this year, rising about 1% thanks in part to a haven bid from the increased tensions in the Middle East. Yet a growing number of fund managers and strategists including those at M&G Investments, Brandywine and ABN Amro expect December's weakness to return. Billionaire money manager Jeffrey Gundlach said his strongest market conviction is that the still-resilient currency will weaken in his annual webcast this week. The dollar has so far largely defied expectations for its demise — a break above the trifecta of resistance levels would be another short-term setback for its detractors.  Cormac Mullen is a cross-asset reporter and editor for Bloomberg News in Tokyo. Like Bloomberg's Five Things? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more. | 
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