Written by Gary
Markets closed down on a sour note as expected after starting the afternoon session in the green. The last 5 minutes saw the bottom fall out taking some investors completely by surprise as the DOW closed down 92 points and the Nasdaq only down 0.4%. Overall, the markets posted the best month since October 2011.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Stocks inch lower, still track to best month in four years (Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes edged lower on Friday as investors sorted through mixed earnings reports, but were still poised to finish with their best monthly performances in four years. | |
Chevron slashes jobs and spending to weather low oil prices (Reuters) – Chevron Corp is slashing 10 percent of its workforce and sharply paring back its budget, with Chief Executive Officer John Watson giving a downbeat view on Friday of an industry beleaguered by low oil prices. | |
Largest U.S. banks face $120 billion shortfall under new rule (Reuters) – Six of the eight globally systemically important U.S. banks need to raise an additional $120 billion to comply with a regulatory requirement proposed Friday by the Federal Reserve. | |
UniCredit’s new business plan envisages 12,000 layoffs: source MILAN (Reuters) – UniCredit’s new business plan envisages 12,000 job cuts worldwide, a source close to the matter said on Friday, indicating a larger reduction compared with 10,000 layoffs that had been expected. | |
Weak U.S. data clouds December rate hike possibility WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending in September recorded its smallest gain in eight months as personal income barely rose, suggesting some cooling in domestic demand after recent hefty increases. | |
Exxon third-quarter profit falls 47 percent but beats expectations (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp said on Friday third-quarter profit fell 47 percent on low crude prices but results were better than expected, helped by higher profit in the oil company’s refining business. | |
‘Happy’ Halloween Kids!Trick… No Treat! Source: Investors.com
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MOMO Rules: In A “World Of Disappointments” Trade Like An Idiot, Citi RecommendsIn a “world of disappointments”, where beta is king and where alpha has become a joke (or, now that equity is a risk-free asset and debt is risky, is outright punished) where growth no longer exists, drowning under the weight of $200 trillion in debt, and where value strategies have been all but forgotten replaced instead with “stories” about companies that have no cash flows but just might be “the next big thing” (one day), what should one to do? Why, engage in the most idiotic of strategies: chase momentum. At least that is Citi’s recommendation, and – we are very sad to say – in this broken “market”, it works. Here is the summary from the note by Citi’s Jonathan Stubbs
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S&P Downgrades Saudi Arabia On Slumping Crude, Ballooning Fiscal DeficitOver the course of the last several months, the consequences for Saudi Arabia of deliberately keeping crude prices suppressed in an effort to, i) bankrupt uneconomic producers in the US, and ii) pressure Moscow into giving up Bashar al-Assad have begun to make themselves abundantly clear. Not only has the kingdom been forced into liquidating its SAMA reserves… … but the pressure from simultaneously maintaining the riyal peg and preserving the standard of living for everyday Saudis has driven Riyadh back into the debt market in an effort to offset some of the pressure on the country’s vast store of USD-denominated petrodollar assets (see second pane below). Meanwhile, the war in Yemen is also weighing on the budget and now, the Saudis are staring down a fiscal deficit that amounts to some 20% of GDP and the first current account deficit in years. All of the above have caused to market to lose faith in Riyadhâ … | |
Mother Yellen’s Little Helper – The Rate-Hike Placebo EffectVia ConvergEx’s Nicholas Colas,
I keep a mental list of underappreciated scientific developments of the 20th century, and near the top is the placebo. While you can argue that the roots and herbs of ancient societies were the first faith-based medicines, modern placebo research dates to a relatively recent 1955. That was the year Harvard research Henry … | |
Futures Movers: Oil ends higher, scores 3.3% monthly gainOil futures settle higher for the session after Baker Hughes reports a weekly decline in the number of active rigs drilling for oil. Prices also post gains for the week and month. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
Earnings Summary for Today
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