12May2015 Market Close: Averages Ended Lower As Global Bonds Yields Spooked Investors

Written by Gary

U.S. stocks ended lower today after a recent run-up in global bond yields unsettled investors already concerned about an eventual Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

As a rout in bonds rocks markets in Europe, the U.S. and much of Asia, China is an outlier. Prices of debt are standing firm, and foreign fund managers are piling in.

Oil prices maintained their gains today after two widely watched market forecasters raised their outlooks for oil-demand growth this year.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Ian Schrager Targets Luxury Hotels Boutique hotel pioneer Ian Schrager is taking aim at the market’s luxury end with his latest Edition hotel in New York, which aims to combine creative detail with top room rates.
	Raising the Warehouse Roof Prologis and other firms are going bigger in building to tap into the e-commerce boom, which is changing the way industrial properties like warehouses and fulfillment centers are built.
	Wall St. ends lower as bond concerns drag NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended lower on Tuesday after a recent run-up in global bond yields unsettled investors already concerned about an eventual Federal Reserve interest rate hike.
	Verizon to buy AOL in $4.4 billion mobile video push (Reuters) – Verizon Communications Inc is buying AOL Inc in a $4.4 billion bet that a push into mobile video and targeted advertising can help the biggest U.S. telecommunications company find new growth avenues.
	Boeing says efficiency supports strong outlook, despite hurdles NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citing steady demand from airlines, Boeing Co said on Tuesday it is capable of raising 737 jetliner output by 43 percent to 60 a month, as it gave a rosy outlook despite concerns about orders, overall production and defense spending.
	Chinese Debt Stands Tall As a rout in bonds rocks markets in Europe, the U.S. and much of Asia, China is an outlier. Prices of debt are standing firm, and foreign fund managers are piling in.
	Oil Prices Gain on Demand Forecasts Oil prices maintained their gains Tuesday after two widely watched market forecasters raised their outlooks for oil-demand growth this year.
	Getting A Job At McDonald’s Harder Than Getting Accepted To The Ivy League Submitted by Dark Bid In society, exclusivity creates desirability. Whether it’s that special country club or elite college, privilege is defined by the rejection rate. In the previous era, the Ivy League was one of those prized organizations, and McDonald’s was the exact opposite. Now, the New Normal has seized our social convention and turned it on its head. In 2011, McDonald’s announced it would hire 50,000 new employees on April 19 for its National Hiring Day. They eventually hired 62,000 people. Over 1 million people applied. This is noteworthy because many commentators have accused the unemployed of being lazy and unwilling to work. One Zero Hedge reader summarized it best: With 62,000 hired out of more than 1 million, that leaves the McDonald’s acceptance rate at 6.20%. Let’s see how that compares with the Ivy League acceptance rate in 2011. The results are not good. Of course, some commentator will inevitably scold me for comparing the two, as the difficulty of these two tasks are obviously very different. When I say it’s “harder” to get a job at McDonald’s, I mean it’s harder statistically spe …
	Soybean Prices Fall as USDA Forecasts Big Crop U.S. soybean prices sank to a one-month low Tuesday after federal forecasters projected a larger-than-expected harvest this autumn and a sharp increase in supplies of the oilseed next year.
	U.S. Treasury Bonds Rally U.S. Treasury bonds rallied Tuesday and eliminated an earlier selloff as buyers stepped in after the yield on the benchmark 10-year note hit a six-month high.
	Yelp’s Hardest Sell Yet The AOL-Verizon deal had some investors thinking that Yelp will be the next buyout candidate. A sale is far from assured.
	Southwest pilots announce strike preparation as contract talks lag (Reuters) – The pilots union at Southwest Airlines Co on Tuesday announced staffing and funding for a committee to prepare pilots and the flying public for a walkout, in case it cannot reach a contract deal with management in coming months.
	Some Fear Air Is Getting Thin in Luxury Condo Market It’s getting crowded at the top of Manhattan’s apartment market.
	U.S. Stocks Little Changed U.S. stocks pared steep losses to trade little changed Tuesday following a selloff in European equities and government bonds.
	Canaries In The Coal Mine, Part 1: Tech High-Flyers Fall To Earth Submitted by John Rubino via Dollar Collapse blog, While the “stock market” continues to flirt with new records, there’s turmoil under the surface. High-flying social media companies Twitter and LinkedIn fell hard in late April, and now recent IPO Etsy, an online marketplace for arts and crafts, is down 50% since going public (8% of that today). Bull markets don’t end all at once. Generally a few egregiously-overvalued sectors blow up first and are dismissed by most observers as aberrations. Instead, they turn out to be a sign of things to come. In the previous decade’s bubble it was subprime housing that led the way, while being initially characterized by experts as too small to matter. Click here for Ben Bernanke’s ongoing attempts to convince the world to relax and ignore housing’s problems. This time around we of course won’t know until after the fact which sector is the canary in the coal mine. But these epic fails in the bubbly social media/online marketplace region of tech certainly look like viable candidates. So… why these companies at this time? They are stock issuers rather than buyers. That is, they don’t have the ability or inclination to borrow huge amounts of …
	China-Japan Before China-Taiwan By EconMatters Some long time readers probably know I occasionally write about Asian geopolitics related to China and Taiwan. Since Taiwan typically goes under the radar of major news media, I usually google browse both Chinese and English news about Taiwan. Over the weekend, I came across one disturbing piece of article by Hugh White who’s a professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. Excerpt below: [T]he harsh reality is that no country is going to sacrifice its relations with China in order to help Taiwan…… China is simply too important economically, and too powerful militarily, for anyone to confront it on Taiwan’s behalf…….
	Union calls on New Jersey Attorney General to probe Herbalife BOSTON (Reuters) – A union representing workers in New Jersey gambling hub Atlantic City said on Tuesday it asked the state’s top prosecutor to investigate Herbalife Ltd, saying it is worried the nutrition supplements company could “prey” on unemployed workers in the casino industry.
	Wall St. Mostly Flat Amid Bond Volatility News that AOL would be acquired by Verizon sent its shares higher, but markets generally were lower as a global bond sell-off increased.
	Greek PM says time for action from lenders, IMF payment scrapes by ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday called on lenders to break an impasse in cash-for-reform talks after Athens had to resort to a temporary expedient to make a crucial payment to the IMF.
	Small-Business Owners Gained Confidence in April A National Federation of Independent Business survey on owner optimism coincided with a government survey showing that job openings slipped in March.
	Bringing Too-Big-to-Fail Banks to Heel Dealing with the question of too-big-to-fail banks is as much about regulatory will as it is about ability.
	Nomura, RBS face $805 million damages after U.S. ruling: lawyer NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge’s ruling that Nomura Holdings Inc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc made false statements selling mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could result in a judgment exceeding $805 million, a U.S. regulator’s lawyer said on Tuesday.
	AT&T-DirecTV deal unlikely to be blocked: WSJ (Reuters) – AT&T Inc’s $49-billion bid for DirecTV is unlikely to be blocked by U.S. authorities, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.