Written by Gary
U.S. weekly jobless claims total 779,000 vs. 830,000 estimate (SPY +0.3%). Biggest premarket movers: Canada Goose, eBay, PayPal, Qualcomm.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
European markets are mixed. The DAX is higher by 0.26%, while London’s FTSE 100 is off 0.42%. Shares in France are unchanged with the CAC 40 at 5,563.05. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
How High Will Oil Prices Go This Year?Introduction This week we hit some milestones in the year-long recovery from the oil demand crash of 2020. West Texas Intermediate, (WTI) hit and moved past the $55.00 level, and Brent moved closer to $60. These are some important psychological barriers for the market, and if sustained, as we expect they will be, will push prices higher. What happened? The API announced a significant draw of ~4.3 mm barrels in crude stocks yesterday when a modest build was expected. Moves lower in gasoline and distillate stocks bolstered this price move, | |
These Stocks Could Soar As The U.S.-China Electric Vehicle War Heats UpElectric vehicles were the story of the year throughout 2020, but a battle in the EV industry could bust the market wide open in 2021. While Tesla was the one grabbing headlines in the United States, with over 700% gains in 2020 A Chinese competitor most folks have never heard of was already showing up Elon Musks EV juggernaut. Nio, the Chinese Tesla, has rolled out over 75,000 electric vehicles to date. And with their ET7 electric car boasting a record range of 621 miles on one charge, thats over 200 miles farther | |
U.S. Oil Production On Course To Hit Record Levels In 2023U.S. oil production fell sharply in 2020, but the Energy Information Administration is expecting it to pick back up and even set new records in just two years, it said in its much-anticipated annual energy outlook (AEO2021). According to the EIA, U.S. oil production will surpass in 2023 its previous annual average of 12.25 million barrels per day, achieved in 2019. In 2020, U.S. oil production had reached a high of 13.1 million bpd on average for week ending March 13. But the overall annual average for the pandemic year was much lower after oil | |
The Single Biggest Threat To Big OilAbout a week ago, alternative energy plays scored crucial wins seemingly at the expense of the oil and gas sector after President Biden ramped-up his radical climate agenda by announcing plans to halt new oil and gas leasing on federal territory in a bid to become carbon-neutral by 2050. Some of the biggest oil companies, including ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX), are actively drilling on federal lands in New Mexico. Biden has also touted a $2 trillion clean energy pledge, easily the biggest investment by the federal government | |
Understanding The True Cost Of Net Zero EmissionsThe journey to net-zero emissions will have a cost for everyone, and policymakers should clearly explain this to consumers, Totals chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyann told CNBCs Steve Sedgwick at the Baker Hughes 2021 annual meeting this week. What I am expecting from the government is not only to set the policies but also for them to take the responsibility and to explain to the citizens and the consumers that this journey will have a cost for everybody, Pouyann said at a panel during the meeting. | |
China Is Fueling The Global Crude Oil Demand RecoveryThe worlds top oil importer, China, significantly boosted its crude oil imports at the start of the year compared to the end of last year, helping to support global oil demand despite lockdowns in parts of China and many major European economies. Chinas oil imports are estimated to have jumped by more than 32 percent in January compared to relatively weak December imports on the back of strong buying from independent refiners who started to use their allocated import quotas for 2021. Buying from the so-called teapots, | |
Kohl’s sees holiday-quarter sales falling 10%, says sales strengthened toward end of quarterChief Executive Michelle Gass said digital sales represented more than 40% of net sales during the period, growing more than 20% year over year. | |
Taco Bell owner Yum Brands earnings top estimates, despite blow of international Covid restrictionsCovid-related dining room closures outside the U.S. weighed on same-store sales growth at KFC and Pizza Hut. | |
Merck’s Kenneth Frazier to retire as CEO effective June 30Merck CEO Ken Frazier will be succeeded by the chief financial officer Robert Davis, the company said. | |
Quest says high demand for Covid testing drove record revenues, increases dividend“Continued high demand for COVID-19 testing drove our performance through the second half of the year,” CEO Steve Rusckowski said. | |
Coach owner Tapestry sales fall 7% in holiday quarter, sees 2021 revenue up in high-single digitsTapestry posted holiday-quarter earnings and sales that topped analysts’ estimates, helped by a surge in demand for its handbags in China and online. | |
Dubai rejects ‘superspreader’ label as restrictions tighten and countries lay blameœWhat has happened in Dubai did not need to happen, an immunology professor told CNBC. œThey have brought the virus in. | |
UK launches ‘world first’ trial mixing different Covid vaccines for first and second dosesA trial is being launched in the U.K. to explore whether using different Covid-19 vaccines for the first and second doses works. | |
American warns 13,000 employees of furloughs as airlines prepare to lose federal aid next monthAmerican Airlines warned employees last week that another round of furlough notices could be coming. | |
NFL star Andrew Whitworth has big plans to help bridge education gapsLA Rams player Andrew Whitworth has been nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. He’s also committed to serving others. | |
5 things to know before the stock market opens ThursdayU.S. stock futures rose Thursday as the Dow and S&P 500 looked to add to their three-session winning streaks. | |
E.L.F. Beauty posts 10% revenue growth, raises guidance as CEO sees ‘pent-up demand’ ahead“Part of how we’ve delivered that sales growth is we continued to invest in the business for the long term,” E.L.F. Beauty CEO Tarang Amin said after posting double-digit revenue growth. | |
Fauci says ‘no red flags’ seen in 10,000 pregnant women who’ve received Covid shots so farSince the authorization of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in December, over 10,000 pregnant women have gotten the shots, Fauci said. | |
McDonald’s enters next phase of testing a U.S. loyalty program ahead of nationwide launchMcDonald’s on Wednesday said that it has entered the next phase of testing a U.S. loyalty program before it launches nationwide later this year. | |
A Reflationary Shockwave Is Literally Spreading Across The World’s OceansA Reflationary Shockwave Is Literally Spreading Across The World’s Oceans Are central banks about to reap the soaring price whirlwind of the inflation genie they’ve been sowing for the past decadesown? Earlier today we saw the highest Euro Area core inflation print for 5 years (granted, mostly driven by one-time factors ) in a week where US prices paid in the manufacturing ISM were at 10-year highs. And, as Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid writes today – picking up on something we have been pounding the table on in the past two months – “the pandemic has created many economic side effects and one of the less-reported news items in recent weeks has been the massive surge in shipping rates”, although to be fair, while others may indeed not be reporting on it, we have been all over it as seen in “New World Record Set For Shipping Rates: $350,000 Per Day”, “ | |
Bitcoin Dips, Dogecoin Rips After Musk Breaks Brief Twitter SilenceBitcoin Dips, Dogecoin Rips After Musk Breaks Brief Twitter Silence Having given the SEC a ‘virtual’ middle finger during the ‘TSLA 430’, ‘funding secured’ debacle, the world’s richest man is back after a brief haitus on Twitter to pump (and perhaps dump) cryptocurrencies. image courtesy of CoinTelegraph Just days after saying he would be taking a break from Twitter “for a while,” Musk began his morning tweetfest with a one-word message: “Doge” and an image of a rocket heading to the moon…
And then the tweetfest continued…
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Stock Rally Fizzles Amid Growing Reflation Concerns, Rising DollarStock Rally Fizzles Amid Growing Reflation Concerns, Rising Dollar Global markets were flat, and European stocks and US equity futures unchanged, struggling to eek out a fourth day of gains on Thursday as a rising USD and rising bond yields refocused attention on inflation and normalising economies. At 7:30 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 4 points, S&P 500 e-minis were up 3.75points, or 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 40.5 points, or 0.29%. With the WallStreetBets/Reddit retail short squeeze tumult having eased this week, markets were back in their comfort zone of corporate earnings, economic data and central bank meetings. US stocks closed slightly higher on Wednesday, with Google shares hitting a record high following strong quarterly results. All the three major indexes have bounced back sharply this week as investors monitored talks over the next round of fiscal stimulus and as a recent buying frenzy driven by social media appeared to stall following a bout of market volatility last week. Meme names rose, with GameStop up 3.9%, while AMC added 2.6% in premarket … | |
BoE Keeps Policy Unchanged, Tells Banks To Start Preparing For Negative Rates “If Necessary” But Sees Spike In InflationBoE Keeps Policy Unchanged, Tells Banks To Start Preparing For Negative Rates “If Necessary” But Sees Spike In Inflation The Bank of England kept its stimulus program unchanged on Thursday. The BoE maintained its Bank Rate at 0.1% and left the size of its total asset purchase programme at 895 billion pounds in a unanimous decision, as expected.
Growth and Inflation On QE, the BOE said that “if needed, there was scope for the Bank of England to re-evaluate the existing technical parameters of the gilt purchase programme” but that is unlikely since the BOE’s growth forecast was far stronger than previously: UK GDP is expected to have risen a little in 2020 Q4 to a level around 8% lower than in 2019 Q4. This is materially stronger than expected in the Novembe … | |
Bank of England: Economy to rebound strongly due to vaccinePolicy makers expect a rebound in the spring as people become more confident about spending. | |
Teletext Holidays investigated over missing Covid refundsThe competition watchdog is looking into complaints the firm failed to refund trips cancelled by Covid. | |
Royal Dutch Shell sees huge loss as pandemic hits oil demandThe oil giant reported a net loss of £16bn for 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused demand to slump. | |
Market cap of BSE companies hits Rs 200 lakh cr mark. Can it double in 2-3 years?As of Thursday closing, 4,722 companies listed on the BSE were worth Rs 2,00,47,191.31 crore, as per data available on the exchange. It should be noted that only about 3,000 of these stocks are traded regularly. | |
After hitting record high in 2020, PE deals to hit $84 billion by 2025Majority of the deal activity in 2020 was driven by seed funding and venture capital investment, while private equity deal volume fared poorly. | |
Market Movers: ITC, SBI lead gains; over 140 stocks give buy signalIn an indication of the bullish sentiment in the market, over 200 stocks listed on the National Stock Exchange hit their 52-week highs in today’s session, including prominent names like Thermax, IndiaMART Intermesh and Sun TV Network. | |
Paul Brandus: Like Rockefeller and Gates, Bezos rides off into the sunset just as the lawyers take away the funPerhaps Jeff Bezos, just 57 and with plenty of things on his plate, is getting out when the getting is good. | |
Coronavirus Update: U.S. COVID cases continue to fall, even with one-day death rate still above 3,000The number of global confirmed cases of the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 headed closer to 104 million on Wednesday with the U.S. accounting for 26.4 million of that tally, as it recorded another grim day of more than 3,000 fatalities. | |
Market Snapshot: Dow, S&P set for slight gains in the busiest day of earnings seasonU.S. stock futures on Thursday edge tentatively higher as investors brace for the busiest day of the fourth-quarter earnings season and a weekly update on the number of people seeking unemployment benefits amid the COVID-19 pandemic. |
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