12Nov2015 Market Close: Markets Closed Down Significantly, WTI Closes Below Support And Further Decline Expected

Wall St. on track for worst day since September

(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes were on track for their steepest fall in over a month on Thursday as lower commodity prices weighed on energy and materials stocks and comments by a Federal Reserve policymaker hinted at an interest-rate rise next month.

Walmart workers group plans 15-day protest leading to Black Friday

(Reuters) – A Wal-Mart Stores Inc worker group that has pushed the retailer to raise pay and benefits is launching a 15-day protest leading up to Black Friday to rekindle the fight for a $15 per hour minimum wage and more opportunities to work full time.

Fed officials lay case for December liftoff

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Reserve officials lined up behind a likely December interest rate hike with one key central banker saying the risk of waiting too long was now roughly in balance with the risk of moving too soon to normalize rates after seven years near zero.

U.S. labor market data supportive of rate hike

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. applications for unemployment benefits last week held steady at levels consistent with a strengthening labor market and job openings rose in September, encouraging signs for the Federal Reserve as it contemplates raising interest rates next month.

Roche to take $1.6 billion charge to close sites in Europe, U.S.

ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche is to stop manufacturing at four sites in Europe and the United States in a move that could mean up to 1,200 job losses as it addresses “current underutilization” resulting from a changing portfolio of medications.

The Amazing Chart Showing What All The Debt Issued This Century Has Been Used For

Over the past three years, we have beaten the topic of soaring, record stock buybacks to a bloody pulp.

Starting in 2012, among countless other pieces on the topic, we wrote “How The Fed’s Visible Hand Is Forcing Corporate Cash Mismanagement” and “Where The Levered Corporate “Cash On The Sidelines” Is Truly Going”, i.e., buybacks”, then in 2013 with “$500 Billion In 2013 Corporate Buybacks: Half Of QE”, then again in 2014 in “Here Is The Mystery, And Completely Indiscriminate, Buyer Of Stocks In The First Quarter” and finally two days ago “It’s Not The Record High Debt That Is The Biggest Risk, It’s [the dropping cash flows]”, we have constantly explained that the primary source of stock buying over the past several years have been corporate management teams repurchasing their own shares using ever greater amounts of debt as a source of funds, in the process boosting not only their stock price but their equity-linked compensation and bonus pools.

This couldn’t go on for ever, and on Monday, Goldman which may or may not have read our prior piece “Why The Stock Buyback Spree Is Ending”, issued its own loud warning when it finally noticed that corporate debt has doubled in the past several years and said “so, does this mean the levered re-cap is dead? In our view, the answer is yes for the broad market.”< …

Oil Majors Don’t Share OPEC’s Optimism On Oil Prices In 2016

Submitted by Andy Tully via OilPrice.com,

OPEC’s meeting in Vienna is less than a month away, and oil producers – countries and companies alike – have been raising their concerns at an energy conference in the United Arab Emirates over the cartel’s strategy to keep prices low.

The issue arose on Monday when Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhy, the oil minister of Oman – not a member of OPEC – told the annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference that oil production is at “irresponsible” levels, leaving little latitude for variations in production.

“This is [a] man-made crisis in our industry we have created,” al-Rhumy said. “And I think all we’re doing is irresponsible.”

Al-Rhumy added, “This is a commodity that if you have 1 million barrels a day extra in the market, you just destroy the market. We are hurting, we are feeling the pain, and we’re taking it like a God-driven crisis. Sorry, I don’t buy this, I think we’ve created it ourselves.”

The next day, al-Rhumy’s concerns, if not his criticism, were shared by executives of leading international oil companies: ExxonMobil of the United States, BP of Britain and Total of France. All said they expect the current glut of oil, and the resultant depression in oil prices, to last longer than anyone expected – months longer, if not years longer.

“I’m not sure we will exit from low prices …

Global Stocks Slip as Investors Study Central Bank Clues

Global stock markets slipped as investors considered clues on the next moves by major central banks.

Glencore Stock Plunges as Copper Prices Decline

Glencore shares plunged as much as 12.6% as copper prices fell to six-year lows. The company’s share price has shed more than 68% this year as investors worry about its high levels of debt.

September 2015 JOLTS Job Openings Improve Predicting Improving Jobs Numbers

Written by Steven Hansen

The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) can be used as a predictor of future jobs growth, and the predictive elements show that the year-over-year growth rate of unadjusted private non-farm job openings improved significantly from last months poor numbers. The growth trends upward in the 3 month averages, downward in the 2015 averages, and upward in the year-over-year averages.

Futures Movers: Oil drops below $42 as U.S. supplies climb a 7th straight week

The U.S. government reports a seventh consecutive weekly increase in crude supplies, pushing oil prices to their worst settlement since late August.

Market Extra: Where long-term yields are heading after a Fed rate hike

The market views a December rate hike as pretty much a done deal. But the outlook for long-term rates, mainly the 10-year and 30-year benchmark Treasury yields, is far less certain.