21Jan2021 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street To Open Higher, New Records Expected, DOW Up 52 Points, Nasdaq Up +0.5%, US Dollar Index Off 0.4% At 90.13, Gold Up Less Than 0.1% At $1,868

Written by Gary

Initial and continuing unemployment claims in US dip (SPY+0.2%). Nine million people forced to borrow more to cope. 900,000 Americans filed for first-time jobless benefits last week.

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money
	European markets are higher today with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 0.53% while Germany’s DAX is up 0.32% and London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.17%.

What Is Moving the Markets

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Can Shale Resist The Lure Of Another Output Surge? U.S. shale changed global oil markets. It shook the foundations of OPEC as the one single swing producer group. And last year, it crumbled under the weight of the pandemic that sent oil prices to all-time lows, including a short dip of WTI below zero. Now, shale is getting back on its feet, facing the temptation of production as prices rebound above $50. Wood Mackenzies Vice Chair for the Americas, Ed Crooks, called it a siren song in a recent analysis. The shale boom happened because producers were chasing constant growth. It was this chase
	The Biden Boom Is Coming And These Stocks Could Soar The worlds first trillionaire will be a green-tech entrepreneur. New York Times veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher boldly declared this a year ago–right before the outbreak of a pandemic that would hasten our transition to clean energy and that would exponentially increase the mountains of money piling into stocks that are in any way tied to a cleaner, better future. Governments the world over are pushing a green industrial revolution and even giant oil traders are scrambling to pour billions of dollars into renewables
	Biden Plans To Kill Keystone XL Oil Pipeline U.S. President Joe Biden is rescinding the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline project on his first day in office, raising concerns about Albertas oil industry and the potential increased dependence of U.S. Gulf Coast refineries on crude imports from OPEC nations. The day-one executive actions for President Biden include Revoking, revising, or replacing additional Executive Orders, Presidential Proclamations, Memoranda, and Permits signed over the past 4 years that do not serve the U.S. national interest, including
	Big Oil Is Buying Into The Solar Boom After a difficult year in the oil world, Total is planning to invest in heavily Indias solar sector going into the next decade. The French company plans to invest $2.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in Adani Green Energy Ltd., the worlds largest solar developer. While Total plans to continue investing heavily in fossil fuels, the shift to green energy responds to calls from regulators and governments to plan for a low-carbon future. The investment sees Total strengthen their partnership with Adani, planning for the future
	Oil Prices Steady On Small Inventory Build The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build in crude oil inventories of 2.562 million barrels for the week ending January 15. Analysts had predicted an inventory draw of 1.167 million barrels for the week. In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 5.821-million barrels, after analysts had predicted a draw of 2.266 million barrels. Oil prices were mixed on Wednesday ahead of the data release, with WTI up and Brent down. A widespread lockdown in China that has sequestered millions of residents
	Canada Is Cleaning Up Its Oil Sands Until very recently, nearly any news out of the Canadian oil sands was certain to be a tale of woe. While Albertas oil and gas industry didnt suffer from lack of demand nor lack of supply, a major pipeline shortage left the industry unable to connect the two. This deficit in transportation infrastructure led to a glut in oil supply, which forced Canadian oil companies to sell their oil at a severe discount. All of this has caused the Canadian oil industry to lose tens of billions of profits per year. But the worst was yet to
	President Joe Biden rejoins the Paris climate accord in first move to tackle global warming President Joe BidenÂ on Wednesday signed an executive order to rejoin the U.S. into the Paris climate agreement, his first major action on global warming.
	United’s losses mount but airline expects to surpass 2019 margins in 2023 United Airlines posted another quarterly loss and said it expects sales to continue to struggle in the first quarter.
	Belk’s top lenders, including KKR, looking to avoid taking department store through bankruptcy, WSJ says KKR and other major lenders to Belk are in talks with the department store chain to keep it out of bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
	Dr. Fauci to lead U.S. delegation at WHO meetings as Biden plans to reverse Trump withdrawal Dr. Anthony Fauci is scheduled to give remarks on Thursday as the United States’ head delegate for the WHO’s annual executive board meetings.
	Foxconn, Apple interest in EVs point to dramatically different future for automakers Apple, Foxconn and other technology companies are going to work with automakers in ways which will transform the global auto industry.
	American Eagle sees holiday-quarter sales dropping low-single digits amid weak mall traffic American Eagle expects fourth-quarter sales to decrease in the low-single digits, driven by a drop in store sales due to weak mall traffic during the pandemic.
	Someone hit the $731.1 million Powerball jackpot. Here are mistakes for the winner to avoid After growing for four months with no jackpot winner, the Powerball jackpot ” the sixth-largest in lottery history ” was snagged Wednesday night.
	England’s third lockdown sees ‘no evidence of decline’ in Covid rates, study says The findings of the preprint report come shortly after the U.K. recorded another all-time high of coronavirus deaths.
	5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday U.S. stock futures rose Thursday after the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs as President Joe Biden took office.
	Here are 7 of the biggest coronavirus vaccine myths busted by experts Vaccine skepticism and outright anti-vaccination sentiment have become rife in recent months but experts look to debunk the biggest coronavirus vaccine myths.
	Dr. Fauci says U.S. will remain a WHO member and join global Covid vaccine plan The U.S. will join a global alliance that aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to low-income countries, Dr. Anthony Fauci said told the WHO.
	Biden to sign 10 executive orders and invoke Defense Production Act to combat Covid pandemic As the new administration implements the federal initiatives, it will also emphasize the safe reopening of schools and businesses, the plan says.
	Tesla Model 3 reportedly explodes in Shanghai parking garage A Tesla Model 3 exploded in an underground residential parking garage in Shanghai on Tuesday, Chinese media reported.
	900,000 Americans Filed For First-Time Jobless Benefits Last Week 900,000 Americans Filed For First-Time Jobless Benefits Last Week Initial jobless claims were expected to remain depressingly high last week, after spiking the week before, and they did (though slightly better than expected). 900,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week (less than the 935k expected and slightly lower than the 926k revised level of the week before), but still up near 4 month highs… Source: Bloomberg The ‘good’ news is that the continuing pandemic claims has fallen notably …
	Alibaba Shares Tumble As PBOC Makes Clear: Ant Group May Be “Torn Apart” Alibaba Shares Tumble As PBOC Makes Clear: Ant Group May Be “Torn Apart” While Jack Ma’s return to public view yesterday (following a roughly 3-month absence) was briefly reassuring for Alibaba shareholders, reality apparently set in on Thursday as the company’s shares tumbled again in Hong Kong, falling roughly 3%, after the People’s Bank of China published a batch of new draft antitrust rules which seemed to play at investors’ worst fears. For those who haven’t followed the story, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, until recently the richest man in China, kicked off what has morphed into a multi-front war by the CCP on China’s biggest tech giants when he offered a handful of seemingly innocuous criticisms of Beijing’s tech regulatory structure during a late-October tech conference. Ten days later, Beijing abruptly canceled Ant Group’s $37BN Shanghai Stock Market debut. The spinoff of what is essentially Alibaba’s consumer payments and financial services wing was expected to be the biggest IPO on record. Only then did the world begin to realize that Ma’s transgressions wouldn’t simply b …
	‹ ‹ ‹ ‹ ‹ ‹ ‹Black Hawk Down – Three National Guardsmen Dead After Helicopter Crash In Upstate New York ‹ ‹ ‹ ‹ ‹ ‹ ‹Black Hawk Down – Three National Guardsmen Dead After Helicopter Crash In Upstate New York A tragic accident overnight claimed three National Guard members’ lives when their helicopter crashed in New York Wednesday night, according to CNY Central. The state’s Division of Military and Naval Affairs said the New York Army National Guard Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk based at the Army Aviation Support Facility at Greater Rochester International Airport crashed while on a training mission shortly after 1830 ET. “This is a heavy, heavy burden upon all of us,” Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter told reporters. “These are our freedom providers… just showing again that freedom is not free. We lost three great Americans today in the service of our country.” Baxter said 911 reports of residents in the surrounding area heard “sputtering sounds of an engine, and that the aircraft was flying very low, more low than normal” before the crash.Â He said the incident scene is n …
	ECB Keeps Policy Unchanged, Affirms Size Of Pandemic Program Despite Growing Lockdowns ECB Keeps Policy Unchanged, Affirms Size Of Pandemic Program Despite Growing Lockdowns As previewed earlier, and as expected, the ECB kept its stimulus steady after the December boost to asset purchases. The central bank kept it rates (deposit rates unch at -0.50%), rate guidance, and PEPP program size unchanged as developments since the last ECB meeting – like the extension of lockdowns – didn’t prove dramatic enough to prompt any change of course. The central bank affirmed the size of the total PEPP envelope at ‚¬1.85tn, but in a possible concession to hawks, noted that œIf favourable financing conditions can be maintained with asset purchase flows that do not exhaust the envelope over the net purchase horizon of the PEPP, the envelope need not be used in full. œ The key highlights were a repeat of what the ECB said last month: ECB Affirms Size of Pandemic Purchase Program at ‚¬1.85 trillion Rates at Present or Lower Levels Until Inflation Goal Near ECB Leaves Marginal Lending Facility Unchanged at 0.25% And some more now familiar details: PEPP Will Run at Least Through End of March 2022 ECB to Reinvest QE Debt for Extended Time After First Rate Hike ECB to Reinvest Maturing PEPP Bonds at Least Through End-2023 There were no mentions of the exchange rate in the press release, and no dovish surprises so far, so the EUR barely moved, continuing its earlier rise, while European stocks held their gains:
	Covid: Nine million people forced to borrow more to cope There is a “widening financial gap” between households because of the pandemic, says the ONS.
	Plans to cap fees charged by claims companies It follows criticism that firms take a large proportion of compensation for mis-sold financial products.
	Retail pressure: ‘You can see the struggle and strain’ Shop owners describe the pressure they are under as a survey predicts more store closures this year.
	Govt keen to offer ‘direct’ GSec play to retail investors œWe are considering such a structure as the Centre believes in retail participation in the government bond market. The proposed instrument is also expected to increase liquidity in sovereign debt, said a senior government source.
	Double in 3 months! Is it time to sell Tata Motors stock now? Analysts expect Tata Motors to report a volume of 2.8 lakh and 3.3 lakh units for FY22 and FY23 in the PV segment.
	Home First Finance IPO opens on Thursday. Should you subscribe? The company’s assets under management (AUM) increased by 63.4% annually between FY18 and FY20 to Rs 3,618.3 crore. Revenue rose by 73.8% to Rs 398.6 crore while net profit surged five-times to Rs 79.2 crore during the period.
	Sustainable Investing: If you support green energy, you should buy utilities and oil stocks ” here’s why Some ESG investors say divestiture doesn’t get companies to change.
	The Wall Street Journal: Biden seeks to jump-start COVID-19 response with a series of executive orders President Biden’s success in achieving some of his biggest policy objectives “curbing climate change, expanding health coverage and overhauling immigration laws “will depend in large part on his success in combating the coronavirus pandemic, which he sought to jump-start Thursday with a national road map and a series of executive orders.
	The Conversation: The economy ” and the stock market ” tends to do better under Democrats Here’s what the data shows going back to Eisenhower.