24Jan2020 Midday Update: Wall Street Falls Sharply, DOW Down 122 Points – Below 29K, WTI Crude Slips Into The 54 Handle

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

Intel’s blockbuster results lift shares to dotcom peak, fire up sector

Intel Corp’s shares hit their highest in nearly two decades on Friday after cloud computing demand fired up the chipmaker’s data center business and allayed concerns of market share loss to rival AMD, lifting stocks across the sector.

Oil drops more than 2%, heads for weekly loss on China virus fears

Crude prices fell more than 2% on Friday, heading toward $60 a barrel and a steep weekly decline over concerns that the coronavirus in the world’s second-largest oil consumer China will spread farther, curbing travel and oil demand.

Wall Street slides on coronavirus fears, Intel limits losses

U.S. stocks fell on Friday amid renewed concerns over the spreading of a coronavirus outbreak from China, offsetting strong gains for Intel.

Bombardier scrambles to craft rail merger with Alstom, Hitachi: sources

Bombardier has approached France’s Alstom and Japan’s Hitachi to find a merger partner for its rail business as it struggles to contain costs that have eaten into margins, sources told Reuters.

Wall Street Week Ahead: Hopes are high for tech stock ‘Cadillacs’; so are their prices

Wall Street is betting that the most popular U.S. technology and internet stocks can keep outshining the broader equities market but their latest rally leaves little room for error this earnings season.

Walmart testing higher minimum wage for some employees

Walmart Inc is testing a higher starting wage for certain newly created jobs in about 500 U.S. stores, as it looks to improve in-store experience for customers amid intense competition.

Nestle teams up with Canadian plant-based ingredient makers

Food group Nestle SA said on Friday it has teamed up with small Canadian plant-based food ingredient makers Burcon and Merit Functional Foods, the second such supply agreement this month that targets Canadian crops.

Financier doubts add to Boeing’s MAX headaches

To restore faith in the 737 MAX, Boeing needs to prove its flagship jet is not just airworthy but also a safe investment.

Boeing considers another cut in 787 Dreamliner production: Bloomberg

Boeing Co is contemplating another cut in 787 Dreamliner production, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Rabo: When Oil Traded Here Last, The World Was Convulsing Over An Imminent Recession

Rabo: When Oil Traded Here Last, The World Was Convulsing Over An Imminent Recession

Submitted by Michael Every of Rabobank

Although the WHO stopped short of calling its spread a ‘global health emergency’ (yet), the market largely took its cues from the news flow on 2019-nCoV and the mounting containment measures by Chinese authorities. A growing number of cities have been put in lockdown as the death toll reached 25. There were also an increasing number of reports of hospitals being overwhelmed with new suspected cases.

A key market which has sharply reversed following the geopolitical turbulence at the start of this year is the oil market. The nearest future for a barrel of Brent dropped to $60, down almost 4% from Wednesday [and back to the level from June 2019 when the world was terrified about an imminent recession].

Dow Loses 29k, Treasury Yields Hit 3-Mo Lows

Dow Loses 29k, Treasury Yields Hit 3-Mo Lows

Well that escalated quickly…

Will the dip-buyers return once again at the 29k level?

“This Time I’m Petrified”: Virologist Who Helped Discover SARS Offers Chilling Take On Coronavirus Outbreak

“This Time I’m Petrified”: Virologist Who Helped Discover SARS Offers Chilling Take On Coronavirus Outbreak

If you’ve been reading the news about the deadly coronavirus that is sweeping China (and nearly 10 additional countries), you’ve likely heard it being compared to the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS that killed over 800 people.

No problem, right? We survived SARS, so we’ll survive this new outbreak, right?

Not quite. One of the virologists who discovered SARS – which also originated from a coronavirus in China – paints a far more grim tale of the latest outbreak compared to what took place in 2003, according to Yahoo News.Â

After the virologist, Guan Yi of the University of Hong Kong’s State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, visited Wuhan, he says that he didn’t see “nearly enough” being done to fight off the new epidemic. He said that due to the new year, people were out at markets without masks and without any “sense of the epidemic”.Â

He also pointed out that airports were not being disinfected and that the local governments weren’t even “handing out quarantine guides to people who were leaving the city.”

Boeing Tumbles After Reports Of Further 787 Production Cuts

Boeing Tumbles After Reports Of Further 787 Production Cuts

After an exuberant opening – because coronavirus is ‘contained’ or some such bullshit – Boeing shares have tumbled back into the red after reports that the company is considering another cut to production of its marquee 787 Dreamliner.

India’s direct taxes may fall for the first time in two decades

India’s direct taxes may fall for the first time in two decadesThe govt had set a target of Rs 13.5 trillion as direct tax collection for the current year.

Walmart’s cash & carry biz may go to Flipkart

Walmart’s cash & carry biz may go to FlipkartThe move comes shortly after talks with the Tata Group made no headway.

Indian IT’s H-1B visa woes are set to worsen

Indian IT’s H-1B visa woes are set to worsenIT cos have failed to convince a US court that submitting detailed evidence for H-1B visa has caused them harm.

Key Words: Bill Gates says he’s happy to pay $20 billion in taxes, but Warren’s plan will make him ‘do a little math on what I have left over’

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, waded deep in to the hotly debated topic of taxing the wealthy to redistribute money to the have-nots ” a contentious issue that Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been at the forefront of as she bids to become the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

TaxWatch: America’s ‘financial satisfaction’ hits a 10-year high ” with one glaring exception

On average, Americans’ fiscal well-being has swung to a record high since the Great Recession, a new analysis finds.

Cannabis Watch: U.S. pot retailer MedMen says it’s trying to use stock to pay its bills amid cannabis industry’s cash crunch

U.S. marijuana retail chain MedMen Enterprises Inc. has been offering vendors shares in its company as payment for cannabis products amid a cash crunch in the industry.