On The Money: Senate votes to take up COVID-19 relief bill | Stocks sink after Powell fails to appease jittery traders | February jobs report to provide first measure of Biden economy

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THE BIG DEAL—Senate votes to take up COVID-19 relief bill: Senate Democrats voted on Thursday to take up a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill, teeing off what’s expected to be a marathon session to pass the legislation. 

The Senate voted 50-50 to proceed to the coronavirus relief legislation, with Vice President Harris breaking the tie to advance the bill. 

“The Senate is going to move forward with the bill. No matter how long it takes, the Senate is going to stay in session to finish the bill this week,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said from the Senate floor on Thursday ahead of the vote. The Hill’s Jordain Carney has the latest here.

The state of play: 

• Senators are currently “listening” to the entire 600+ page bill being read out loud in the chamber thanks to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who objected to the customary motion to stop the full reading.
• Johnson said the reading would give senators time to craft amendments and for Americans to learn the details of the legislation. The decision, however, probably has more to do with the fact that he doesn’t like the bill and doesn’t want it to pass.
• Senators estimate it will take anywhere between five and 10 hours for the Senate floor staff to read through the legislation, after which the full debate will begin.

What’s different from the House’s version: The Senate’s bill largely reflects the version passed by the House with a few exceptions: 

• The Senate’s version of the coronavirus bill strips out language increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour and lowers the cutoff for receiving stimulus checks to $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for couples.
• A Senate Democratic aide said on Thursday that the bill also provides $510 million for FEMA homeless shelter providers, increases the total amount of Amtrak relief funding by $200 million and places “new guardrails” on the $350 billion for state and local governments.

What happens next: After the reading, the Senate still faces up to 20 hours of debate before it could start a marathon session known as vote-a-rama, where any senator who wants to force a vote on an amendment will be able to. If you have a Senate reporter or staffer in your life, get them some coffee and snacks. 

The bill will eventually head to the House after it passes the Senate. While some progressives are peeved about changes to stimulus check levels, they say it won’t be a dealbreaker. The Hill’s Cristina Marcos tells us more about that dynamic here.

LEADING THE DAY

Stocks sink after Powell fails to appease jittery traders: Stocks took heavy losses Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank would not hike interest rates for only a temporary rise in inflation.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a loss of nearly 350 points Thursday, falling 1.1 percent. The Nasdaq composite fell 2.1 percent, wiping out its 2021 gains, and the S&P 500 fell 1.3 percent.
• The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond also rose to 1.54 percent Thursday, a sign of rising inflation fears on Wall Street.

So what happened? In a nutshell, Powell said what he’s been saying for months when Wall Street wanted to hear something different.

• The stock market has been volatile for several weeks amid growing concern among some traders about the Fed’s approach to inflation as the U.S. appears to be nearing the end of the coronavirus pandemic. 
• Inflation itself, however, remains well below the Fed’s target of 2 percent and Powell has welcomed the increase in rates as a sign of confidence in the U.S. economy’s eventual recovery from the coronavirus recession.

Despite pressure from markets, the Fed chief insisted Thursday that while inflation might rise temporarily, it would not be persistent enough to warrant an interest rate hike.

“We expect that as the economy reopens and hopefully picks up, we will see inflation move up through base effects,” Powell said during a Wall Street Journal virtual event. “That could create some upward pressure on prices.” I wrap it all up here.

Read more: Inflation debate heats up over Biden relief bill

February jobs report to provide first measure of Biden economy: The first monthly jobs report covering the Biden presidency will be released Friday morning as congressional Democrats race to pass a massive economic relief package.

Economists expect the February jobs report to show a modest rebound in hiring as progress against COVID-19 boosted confidence in a quicker end to the pandemic. Analysts estimate that U.S. employers added 180,000 jobs last month — a pace that’s not nearly fast enough to quickly fill the hole left by COVID-19, but better than January’s meager addition of 49,000 jobs.

“The scope for a brisk acceleration is clear, though we expect the biggest gains to come later in the spring as the reopening broadens,” wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, in a Thursday preview. I’ll tell you what to expect here.

ON TAP TOMORROW:

• The Labor Department releases the February jobs report at 8:30 a.m.

GOOD TO KNOW

• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Thursday it will form a task force to weed out misconduct involving environment, social and governance (ESG) regulations and investment products.
• White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that Shalanda Young could serve as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) once she is confirmed as deputy director while President Biden settles on a permanent occupant for the position.
• The nation’s debt burden is on track to surpass its historic high point in a decade, reaching 107 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2031, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). 
• The U.S. and United Kingdom have agreed to suspend some retaliatory tariffs regarding a long-standing Boeing and Airbus dispute for four months, effective Thursday.
• New applications for unemployment benefits rose to 745,000 in the final full week of February, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.

ODDS AND ENDS

• Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and a coalition of bipartisan senators on Thursday introduced legislation intended to help the U.S. create international partnerships on emerging technologies to better compete with China. 
• Amazon has added nine new delivery stations in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic as stay-at-home orders forced the company to meet a significantly higher number of online purchases.