26Apr2016 Market Close: DOW Up 13 Points, WTI Settled In Low 44’s, Investors Await Fed FOMC Decision Tomorrow

S&P buoyed by commodity sectors; eyes on Apple earnings

(Reuters) – The S&P 500 hovered near the unchanged mark on Tuesday, buoyed by gains in energy and materials as soft economic data weakened the dollar, giving commodities support.

Apple revenue to shrink but options traders unfazed

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc on Tuesday is likely to report its first decline in revenue in more than a decade, and analysts expect to hear bad news on iPhone sales, but traders in the options market are not running scared.

Mitsubishi Motors says cheated on mileage tests for 25 years

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Tuesday it used fuel economy testing methods that did not comply with Japanese regulations for 25 years, much longer than previously known.

Crude prices jump 3 percent on gasoline rally, weak dollar

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Crude oil prices rose about 3 percent on Tuesday on the back of a rally in the gasoline market and as a tumbling dollar boosted commodities denominated in the greenback after bets the Federal Reserve will hold U.S. interest rates where they are.

Earnings could mark end to rally in U.S. media stocks

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. fund managers’ newfound love of media stocks will soon be put to the test.

Weak U.S. factory, consumer confidence data cloud growth outlook

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rebounded far less than expected in March as demand for automobiles, computers and electrical goods slumped, suggesting the downturn in the factory sector was far from over.

Cheap oil smudges Exxon’s long-held sterling credit rating

(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp lost its top-tier credit rating from Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday – the first time in almost 70 years, as an oil price rout makes it tougher for the largest producer of crude to fund projects and return big amounts of cash to shareholders.

Boeing’s new chief faces concern over potential charges

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Dennis Muilenburg talks about Boeing Co’s quarterly results on Wednesday, his first as chief executive and chairman, he likely will face questions about two tough issues: making profits on the 787 Dreamliner and the KC-46 tanker.

Bankrupt SunEdison to sell part of its Chile assets to Colbun

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Solar developer SunEdison Inc , which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Apr. 21, has agreed to sell two energy projects in Chile to power company Colbun for an undisclosed amount, both companies said on Tuesday.

The “Fracklog Trigger”: Why 500,000 Barrels Of Shale Crude Could Hit The Market At Any Moment

Yesterday, when reading through Pioneer’s results we stumbled on something unexpected: not only was the company pumping more than its had previously guided, but announced it was waiting for $50/barrel to reactivate five to ten horizontal drilling rigs. To wit:

producing 222 thousand barrels oil equivalent per day (MBOEPD), of which 55% was oil; production grew by 7 MBOEPD, or 3%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2015, and was significantly above Pioneer’s first quarter production guidance range of 211 MBOEPD to 216 MBOEPD; oil production grew 10 thousand barrels oil per day during the quarter, or 9%, compared to the fourth quarter;

expecting to deliver production growth of 12%+ in 2016 compared to the Company’s previous production growth target of 10%; the higher forecasted growth rate reflects improving Spraberry/Wolfcamp well productivity;

expecting to add five to ten horizontal drilling rigs when the price of oil recovers to approximately $50 per barrel and the outlook for oil supply/demand fundamentals is positive

Whether this is due to aggressive hedging (as also explained previously) or simply because Pioneer and its peer companies have dramatically reduced their all-in costs of production is unclear, but what is clear is that with every dollar that the price of oil rises, the risk of US shale coming back to market in an aggressive fahion become ever greater.

Today, we turn our attention to another potentially disruptive source of oil supply, one also covered previously, namely Drilled, Uncompleted Wells, or DUCs.

As Bloomberg writes, drilled, uncompleted wells could return 500,000 barrels a day back to the market, according to Richard Westerdale, a director at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources. The inventory o …

Surviving Mission Creep – The Inglorious History Of Economic Central Planning

Submitted by Tim Price via SovereignMan.com,

“So there is another reason why Europe isn’t growing and it’s one the central bank can do nothing about. Namely, the 19 governments of the Eurozone and the super-state in Brussels have essentially outlawed it. If you want to know why growth is so tepid just examine the Eurozone’s massive barriers to enterprise and work in the form of taxes, regulation, welfare state extravagance, crony capitalist subsidies and privileges and labour law protectionism.

In a word, the problem is not that private sector credit is too niggardly; it’s that the leviathan state has crushed the ingredients of supply side enterprise and growth. When the state budget consumes 50% of GDP, and its tentacles of regulation and intrusion penetrate most of the rest, the central bank’s printing press is impotent.”

– David Stockman.

The history of economic central planning is not exactly glorious. The Soviet Union’s economy finally collapsed in the late 1980s, but not before over 20 million of its citizens had been murdered. The People’s Republic of China started implementing meaningful economic reforms in 1978, after having terminated the existence of over 45 million of its own people. Central planning in Nazi Germany was admittedly successful in bringing down the domestic unemployment rate, but the success of its wider economic legacy is debatable. Gu?nter Reiman in ‘The Vampire Economy: doing business under Fascism’ highlights the process involved in, for example, a German carmaker of the regime purchasing 5,000 rubber tyres:

Why Oil Isn’t Everything for Standard Chartered

The emerging markets bank is cleaning up its books, but has lost a lot of revenues permanently.

Oil Fallout: Husky’s Relief Comes at Somebody Else’s Expense

Husky Energy’s deal to sell assets to sibling companies also controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing leaves some investors without a say.

Bond Report: Treasury prices see longest losing streak since May

Treasury prices fell Tuesday for the seventh straight session “the longest losing streak since May 2015 “pushing yields to their highest level in over a month.

Market Extra: Why only the safest and riskiest assets are winning in this market

A compilation of flows in U.S. listed ETFs by State Street Global Advisors showed that over the past week investors poured $1 billion into equity funds “an indication of risk appetite “and another $1.2 billion into bond funds “traditionally viewed as an indication of risk aversion.

In One Chart: Prince may have made this estate mistake that most wealthy people don’t

You should have a will.