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The Senate Budget Committee voted along party lines to advance Republicans’ tax bill on Tuesday. The vote was 12-11, with Sens. Bob Corker and Ron Johnson joining their fellow Republicans as “yes” votes. The two GOP senators had previously expressed reservations about the bill, which would among other things cut the corporate rate to 20% from 35%. A full Senate vote could be as early as Thursday.

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Sens. Bob Corker and Ron Johnson will vote “yes” for the Republican tax bill in the budget committee Tuesday afternoon, reports said. Corker, a Tennessee Republican, and Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, have been among those in the GOP wavering on the tax bill. Johnson has sought increased benefits for so-called pass-through businesses in the bill, and Corker wants a trigger to bring in revenue if tax cuts don’t pay for themselves. Even if it passes the committee, the bill would need to go before the full Senate for a vote.

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CBS Corp. has decided to put the kibosh on Jeremy Piven’s TV show “Wisdom of the Crowd” after the show wraps its 13-episode run. The news comes on the heels of multiple sexual misconduct allegations lodged against the actor. Piven, who has adamantly denied the allegations, suggested that the show would end in a tweet late Monday. Producers for the show were made aware that CBS would not pick up additional episodes. “Wisdom of the Crowd’s” premiere episode had scored the highest ratings among scripted TV on the Sunday night it aired. Shares of CBS were down more than 2% in intraday trade on Tuesday, and have declined more than 14% in the year to date. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up more than 17% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 19%.

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General Electric Co.’s credit was downgraded at Fitch Ratings, which cited the “deterioration” in the industrial conglomerate’s financial performance. Fitch cut the long-term issuer default rating (IDR) one notch to A+ from AA-, and the short-term IDR to F1 from F1+. The rating outlook is negative, which means the rating is at threat of another downgrade, given concerns over the pace at which GE returns to stronger free cash flow, the extents of the restructuring required to cut costs and structural changes at GE’s power business. The long-term IDR is now six notches above junk status. “GE’s performance is being affected by secular changes in the Power segment’s gas turbine business that has reduced long term prospects for growth,” Fitch stated. Fitch became the second major credit rating agency to recently downgrade GE, following Moody’s Investors Service’s downgrade on Nov. 16. Standard & Poor’s credit rating remains at AA-, but the outlook is negative. GE’s stock was up 1.4% in afternoon trade, but it has plunged 41.9% year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has run up 20.2%.

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Merck & Co. Inc. announced on Tuesday a $10 billion share buyback program. The company also said that it has increased the quarterly dividend to 48 cents per outstanding share, up one cent from the prior quarter. The dividend, the company’s first increase since Nov. 2016, is to be paid to stockholders of record at end of day on Dec. 15. Merck shares were up 0.6% in Tuesday afternoon trade. Shares have dropped 13.4% over the last three months, compared with a 7% rise in the S&P 500 and a 8.4% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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The largest exchange-traded fund to track the South Korea equity market rose on Tuesday, despite media reports that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile. The iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF rose 1.4% in afternoon trading. While the fund fell from its highs of the session after the reports, it remained in solidly positive territory. The missile was reported by South Korean media outlets, which said the missile flew eastward. It was unclear how far it flew. Earlier this year, North Korea fired a missile that flew over Japan. Thus far this year, the South Korea ETF has shrugged off all manner of tensions with North Korea, and is up more than 40% on the year. The S&P 500 is up 16.7% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 20%.

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A U.K. government official said he did “not recognize this account of the negotiations” laid out in a previous report by The Telegraph, saying that a so-called Brexit-divorce bill had been agreed on by London and Brussels, according to Reuters. The British pound , which had rallied in response to the initial report, pared gains on the back of the news. One pound last bought $1.3344, up 0.2% from Monday.

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Uber Technologies Inc. operated a clandestine unit dedicated to stealing trade secrets, which used secret servers and communicated through self-destructing messaging platforms, according to media reports. The existence of the unit surfaced at a hearing Tuesday in the litigation between Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. , and Uber over trade secrets an ex-Uber employee allegedly stole while he worked for Alphabet. Federal magistrate William Alsup turned over a letter from another ex-Uber employee to Uber’s general counsel, which was heavily redacted in court filings over the Thanksgiving weekend, and the ex-Uber employee who wrote the letter, Richard Jacobs, took the stand Tuesday to testify about its contents. According to the reports, Jacobs worked for the now-renamed Uber corporate surveillance team and told Alsup that stealing trade secrets was part of the unit’s mission, among other tasks. The unit used technologies and processes that ensured internal communications in the unit either self-destructed or were shielded from litigation. Since Uber had not turned over the Jacobs letter from Waymo’s lawyers, Alsup delayed the trial, which was set to begin next week. Alphabet class A stock is down a fraction to $1,066.18 in early afternoon trading. Alphabet class A shares are up 35% this year, as the S&P 500 index is up 16%.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday they won’t attend meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, following his tweet that he doesn’t see a deal to keep the government operating. In a joint statement, they said they asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan to meet them instead. “We’re going to continue to negotiate with Republican leaders who may be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement,” they said. The government is funded through Dec. 8. Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, “I don’t see a deal!”

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