Written by Gary
Dovish ECB stance pushes Wall Street to fourth day of losses (SPY -0.6%). SP 500 slips below the 200-day moving average, DOW holds above it.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
North and South American markets are mixed today. The IPC is up 0.06% while the Bovespa gains 0.02%. The S&P 500 is off 0.58%. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Dovish ECB stance pushes Wall Street to fourth day of lossesWall Street fell for the fourth straight session on Thursday, weighed down by financial and technology stocks, as investors were spooked by the European Central Bank’s (ECB) return to pump-priming loans to stimulate a struggling euro zone economy. | |
BNY Mellon puts brakes on changes in work-from-home rules for staffBank of New York Mellon Corp backed away on Thursday from changing rules relating to its staff working from home, after a call to reevaluate the option invited severe criticism from employees. | |
Kroger’s $3 billion splurge set to hit earnings, shares slideKroger Co projected annual profit below Wall Street estimates on Thursday, as the grocer spends billions of dollars on modernizing its stores and delivery to compete better with Walmart and Amazon. | |
BMW’s China electric car export plans on hold amid tariff uncertaintyBMW’s ambitions to establish China as a hub for exporting electric cars are in limbo because of uncertainty over potential trade tariffs between China and the United States, company executives told Reuters. | |
Marriott CEO apologizes for data breach, vows improvementsMarriott International Inc Chief Executive Arne Sorenson apologized on Thursday before a U.S. Senate panel for a massive data breach involving up to 383 million guests in its Starwood hotels reservation system and vowed to protect against future attacks. | |
ECB pushes out rate hike, offers cheap cash to banksThe European Central Bank changed tack on its tightening plan on Thursday, pushing out the timing of its first post-crisis rate hike until 2020 at the earliest and offering banks a new round of cheap loans to help revive the euro zone economy. | |
UK fraud office failed to get key Qatar documents for Barclays trialBritain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) failed to take “reasonable and appropriate” steps to get key documents from Qatar’s U.S. lawyers before a fraud trial of four former Barclays executives, a London criminal court heard on Thursday. | |
Bonds jump, stocks flop as ECB restarts cash pumpsEuropean stocks and Wall Street futures went from red to green and back again on Thursday while bond yields tumbled, as the ECB pushed back interest rate rises to 2020 and confirmed it will start doling out cheap cash again. | |
GE says its reserves are enough, seeking premium increasesGeneral Electric Co said on Thursday its current reserves for long-term care insurance policies were sufficient and it was looking to increase premiums to cover their rising cost. | |
“Totally Reasonable” For Huawei To Sue US For Playing “Judge, Jury And Executioner”, Beijing SaysAs we previewed earlier this week, Huawei filed a lawsuit late Wednesday evening against the US over a law banning government agencies and contractors from buying equipment made by Huawei and fellow Chinese telecoms firm ZTE Corp. The suit accused Congress of unconstitutionally punishing Huawei with Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which Huawei said had deprived it of business because the law not only restricted Huawei from serving US customers, but also some of its international customers as well (the law bars US government agencies from contracting with or awarding grants or loans to third parties who buy Huawei equipment and services). | |
Hertz Is One Recession Away From BankruptcyVia BlindersOffResearch.com, Operating income hasn’t covered interest expense since 2015 and the total debt continues to soar. The competition has been pressuring revenue since 2013 and is only getting stronger. 2018 used-vehicle values were as good as it’s going to get. Airline passenger volume falls during recessions and 68% of Hertz’s revenue comes from airport locations. In a recent interview with Real Vision, I identified Hertz as a good short target. Since the interview, Hertz reported Q4 and full-year earnings (or lack thereof) that were above analyst estimates causing the stock to rally. Most of the improvement that took analysts by surprise was due to the abnormally strong performance in used-vehicle values during 2018 which dropped Hertz’s used-vehicle depreciation per unit by 16% on a year-over-year basis. So is all of the pessimism surrounding Hertz overdone and should the 2018 results be the all-clear signal to buy? Let’s let’s take a closer look. Used-Vehicle Values Used-vehicle values play a very important role in the profitability of rental car companies. Put simply, the vehicle expense that rental car companies report is mostly based on the purchase price less the recovery value at disposition. As used-vehicle values increase, the gap between the purchase price and recovery value shrinks which translates into a smaller depreciation amount per vehicle and, under normal conditions, better margins. The opposite happens when used-vehicle values fall. As you can see in the chart below, used-vehicle values and Hertz’s operating income have a strong correlation. | |
Whole Foods Slashes Worker Hours Four Months After $15 Minimum Wage Increase: ReportJust four months after Amazon enacted a $15 minimum wage for all its employees on November 1, subsidiary Whole Foods is slashing worker hours, according to The Guardian. | |
QE – Then, Now, & Why It May Not Work AgainAuthored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Since the beginning of the year, the market has rallied sharply. That rally has been fueled by commentary from both the Trump Administration and the Federal Reserve of the removal of obstacles which plagued stocks in 2018. The chart below is an abbreviated, and a bit sarcastic, version of events. | |
4Q2018 Final: Headline Productivity Improved But Roughly The Same As Unit Labor Cost GrowthWritten by Steven Hansen A simple summary of the headlines for this release is that costs and productivity rose around the same amount in 4Q2018. | |
Credit.com: How to buy bitcoin with a credit cardYes, you can buy bitcoin with a credit card, but it’s not as simple as you think. | |
Next Avenue: This is what happened when we switched roles in retirementHe had always handled the finances, and she did the cooking. Then they traded places. | |
I need help with a Roth IRA conversionWatch out for the infamous ‘pro rata rule’ |
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