21Jan2016 Market Close: Stocks End Higher, Crude Settles Higher Investors And Soros Are Concerned With China's Financial Issues

Written by Gary

US markets closed higher at 0.5% down from the 1% higher opening. Crude oil surges 4%-plus on oversold conditions as the sharp rally in oil prices helped the main indexes rebound from yesterday’s rout, which had pushed them below their August lows. Investors remain cautious as to wonder if this is the bottom or the start of a bull run.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	George Soros says he expects hard landing for China economy: Bloomberg NEW YORK (Reuters) – Billionaire investor George Soros told Bloomberg TV on Thursday he sees a hard landing for China’s economy contributing to global deflation.
	Ally Financial taps J.P. Morgan to advise on activist fight (Reuters) – Ally Financial Inc has hired J.P. Morgan to advise the largest U.S. auto lender as it fends off activist hedge fund Lion Point Capital’s campaign for changes at the company, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
	Verizon adds 1.5 million new monthly users; revenue beats estimates (Reuters) – Verizon Communications Inc on Thursday reported higher-than-expected revenue for the fourth quarter as heavy promotions helped it counter aggressive offers and discounts from rivals and win new users.
	Monsanto sues to keep herbicide off California list of carcinogens CHICAGO (Reuters) – Monsanto Co said it filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to prevent glyphosate, the main ingredient in its weed killer Roundup, from being added to California’s list of known carcinogens, stepping up its defense of the widely used herbicide.
	Drug exec Shkreli will not answer questions at hearing: letter NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former drug executive Martin Shkreli plans to assert his right against self-incrimination and remain silent if he is forced to appear next week at a congressional hearing about drug prices, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
	Oil rebound offers respite to badly bruised Wall Street (Reuters) – Wall Street staged a modest rally on Thursday as oil prices recorded their biggest gain this year and ECB President Mario Draghi raised hopes of further stimulus.
	United, Southwest buy 73 Boeing jets in blow to Bombardier (Reuters) – United Airlines said on Thursday it will buy 40 small planes from Boeing Co , dealing a $3.2 billion blow to Bombardier Inc’s hopes of landing a major customer for its fledgling CSeries program.
	Coca-Cola to invest $1 billion in Argentina over next four years BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Coca-Cola Co will invest $1 billion over four years in its bottling and distribution operations in Argentina, the company said on Thursday, and leave the door open to further acquisitions in the South American country.
	American Apparel ex-CEO tells court of ‘character assassination’ WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) – Dov Charney, the founder of American Apparel, told a U.S. judge on Thursday the board threatened “character assassination” if he fought his removal as chief executive in 2014, in testimony that could determine control of the bankrupt teen retailer.
	“Is That It?”- Global Jawbone & Crude Pump Fails To Ignite Equity Exuberance BoJ Jawboning, ECB jawboning, PBOC rumors, and an artificial ETN-driven crude ramp… and we end up with this? And despite the largest liquidty injection in 3 years, Chinese stcoks tumbled… Seems like the central planners are losing their grip… The Short Squeeze-driven rally is over – “Most Shorted” stocks extended their squeeze from yesterday thanks to Draghi into the European close and then everything started to fade… Stocks managed to hold yesterday’s bounce gains but traded in a very rangebound (admittdly wide) manner all day… < …
	Soros Reveals He Is Short The S&P 500: Warns China Will Have A Hard-Landing, Says “Fed Hike Was A Mistake” There’s been no shortage of commentary from market heavyweights this week thanks to the World Economic Forum in Davos, but for anyone who hasn’t yet gotten their fill of billionaire talking heads, George Soros gave a sweeping interview to Bloomberg TV on Thursday, touching on everything from China to Fed policy to Vladimir Putin to Europe’s worsening refugee crisis. As for China, Soros says he œexpects a hard landing, a contention we won’t argue with considering said hard landing probably arrived a year ago. “A hard landing is practically unavoidable,” he said. “I’m not expecting it, I’m observing it. China can manage it. It has resources and greater latitude in policies, with $3 trillion in reserves.” $3 trillion in reserves which, we might add, are rapidly evaporating. As for the Fed, Soros is on the policy mistake bandwagon, saying Yellen may have mistimed liftoff. That echoes sentiments voiced by Marc Faber among other prominent investors and speaks to what we’ve been saying since September, namely that December’s hike might go down as the worst-timed rate hike in history. “The investor said he would be surprised if the Federal Reserve raised interest rates again after hiking them in December for the first time in almost a decade,” Bloomberg writes. He, like Ray Dalio, says the FOMC is more likely to cut than hike going forward. Draghi, Soros thinks, will ease further. No surprise there. This morning we got a bit of dovish jawboning out of …
	Losing The ‘3 Commas’: Unicorns Heading For More Difficult “Down Rounds” Jack Dorsey, thanks to the implosions in Twitter and Square stock, lost the illustrious ‘three commas’ billionaire title yesterday, proving, as ValueWalk’s Clayton Browne reports, it’s not been easy being a unicorn recently… With the financial markets crashing, global consumers retrenching and competition heating up, quite a few so-called “unicorns” (high-flying, new economy tech firms) are likely to be facing difficult decisions in the coming months. As a January 20th article in the New York Times highlights, the ongoing (and rapidly getting ugly) downturn in the financial markets is almost certain to force a number of unicorns to raise money to support growth at valuations far under their earlier levels. These later, lower-valuation capital raise …
	“Investors Should Sell Any Bounce Back” Top Investors See More To Come Investment managers are warning that markets probably have further to fall as China’s growth slows, oil prices plunge and central bankers lack tools to prop up economies. As Bloomberg reports, from the largest asset manager in the world to the most niche investment expert, many of the best known ‘gurus’ are warning there is more to come just as Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman warned this morning “the size of the correction suggests it’s not temporary,” adding that “it might be too soon to step back into the market.” “I expect a protracted decline in the S&P 500,” Jeffrey Gundlach, co-founder of DoubleLine Capital, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “Investors should sell the bounce-back rally which could come at any time.” “Excessive risk exposure is adding to the selling pressure,” Gundlach said. “You need to have some stabilization of fundamentals to give people conviction this has gone too far,” Koesterich, whose firm is the world’s largest money manager, said in an interview. “Certainly you are getting closer to capitulation. The magnitude of the drop suggests that.” Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio said global markets face risks to the downside as economies near t …
	Stocks Rise as Draghi Signals Further Stimulus U.S. stocks rallied, offering a reprieve from this week’s rout, after the European Central Bank suggested it was willing to offer more stimulus at its next meeting in March.
	Oil Prices Notch Biggest Gains Since October Oil prices surged to their biggest gains in months, briefly peaking over $30 a barrel, after traders learned that oil supplies failed to rise as quickly as the most extreme estimates had suggested.
	Regional Bank Executives Call Market Selloff Overdone The market volatility that has kicked off 2016 with a sharp selloff doesn’t correspond with the relative strength of the broader U.S. economy, a number of bank chief executives said.
	Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks end higher, fueled by rally in oil U.S. stocks finish higher Thursday, as a sharp rally in oil prices helped the main indexes rebound from Wednesday’s rout, which had pushed them below their August lows.
	Bond Report: Treasury yields post largest 1-day jump in 3 weeks Treasury yields posted Thursday their largest single-day jump since late December, as a rebound in stocks following rising oil prices, led investors to sell Treasurys in favor of riskier assets, like stocks.