27Oct2016 Market Update: Wall Street Flat, Crude Prices Recovering, US Dollar At Resistance And Gold Struggling At Support

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are mixed today. The Bovespa is up 0.97% while the IPC gains 0.53%. The S&P 500 is off 0.06%.

57%

59%

57%

18.20

Qualcomm to buy NXP for $38 billion in biggest chip deal

(Reuters) – Smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc agreed to buy NXP Semiconductors NV for about $38 billion in the biggest-ever deal in the semiconductor industry, making it the leading supplier to the fast-growing automotive chips market.

Apple expected to refresh ageing computer line with new MacBook Pro

(Reuters) – Apple Inc is expected to unveil a revamped MacBook Pro on Thursday with a fingerprint reader and faster ports, returning to the product line it build the company on after updating smartphones with the iPhone 7.

S&P, Dow rise on health stocks; Nasdaq weighed by Comcast

(Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Dow were back in positive territory as healthcare stocks outdid a drag from consumer discretionary stocks.

U.S. business spending tepid; labor market firming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S. manufactured capital goods unexpectedly fell in September amid weak demand for computers and electronic products, which could temper expectations for an acceleration in business spending in the fourth quarter.

Twitter cuts jobs with eye on 2017 profit; Vine discontinued

(Reuters) – Twitter Inc said Thursday it would cut 9 percent of its global workforce to keep costs down even as quarterly results eclipsed Wall Street’s beaten-down expectations, lifting shares that had fallen after a failed effort to sell the company.

FCC will not say if agency will review AT&T purchase of Time Warner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday declined to say if he thinks the commission will review AT&T’s proposed $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc.

Belgium breaks deadlock over EU-Canada trade pact

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium’s regions agreed to a free trade pact with Canada on Thursday, ending weeks of uncertainty when internal divisions in just one country blocked the European Union of 500 million people sealing the landmark deal.

UPS CEO seeing greater commitment from Obama administration on TPP deal

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The top executive at United Parcel Service Inc said on Thursday he is seeing a greater commitment from President Barack Obama’s administration on getting the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal completed despite negative election campaign rhetoric about free trade agreements.

Ford idling Focus plant in Michigan extra two weeks on light demand

DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it will idle the Wayne, Michigan factory an extra two weeks by the end of the year, adjusting to light demand for the Focus compact and C-Max hybrid cars made there.

Venezuela Throws In The Towel On Hyperinflation: Will Print 200x Higher-Denominated Bills

While several years ago it was perhaps debatable in polite society that Venezuela’s socialist economy would collapse ultimately unleashing hyperinflation, any doubt was put to rest early this year when the IMF’s own inflationary forecast confirmed as much.

However, while the international community had long accepted the inevitable fate of Maduro’s socialist paradise, the local government sternly refused to admit reality and to avoid confirming what the local population already knew, it insisted on keeping the highest denomination bill in circulation at 100 bolivars, whose worth is approximately 8 cents on the black market, turning the most basic transactions into logistical nightmares and saddling banks with crippling money-handling costs. Economists and central bank employees say Mr. Maduro didn’t want to acknowledge the country’s inflation problem by printing bigger notes.

This has finally changed, and as the WSJ reports, Venezuela’s government, slammed by hyperinflation has finally thrown in the towel, and is planning to issue new bills in December with larger denominations—up to 200 times higher than the current biggest bill, according to people familiar with the plans. The move marks an implicit acknowledgment by the government that skyrocketing prices have slashed the value of the currency

The new coins and notes will go up to 20,000 bolivars, according to people close to the central bank, the finance ministry, the country’s banks and bill suppliers. This would make the biggest note worth $15 on the black market.

And since by doing so the government wil …

BaNaNa RePuBLiK…

Even The New York Times Is Bashing Obamacare – “It Has Not Worked All That Well”

Obamacare open enrollments for 2017 start next Tuesday and, being just 1 week prior to election day, that couldn’t be worse timing for the Clinton campaign. As we’ve written on numerous occasion, Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster…so much so that even Obama recently acknowledged its failures by referring to it as a “starter home.” Now, even the New York Times is admitting that Obamacare is a farce, pointing out that millions of healthy Americans would rather pay massive penalties to the IRS than buy health insurance policies with sky-high premiums.

The architects of the Affordable Care Act thought they had a blunt instrument to force people — even young and healthy ones — to buy insurance through the law’s online marketplaces: a tax penalty for those who remain uninsured.

It has not worked all that well, and that is at least partly to blame for soaring premiums next year on some of the health law’s insurance exchanges.

The full weight of the penalty will not be felt until April, when those who have avoided buying insurance will face penalties of around $700 a person or more. But even then that might not be enough: For the young and healthy who are badly needed to make the exchanges work, it is sometimes cheaper to pay the Internal Revenue Service than an insurance company charging large premiums, with huge deductibles.

< …

Our Landfill Economy

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

This “maximizing growth and profits is the highest good” mode of production is insane.

Correspondent Bart D. (Australia) captured the entire global economy in three words: The Landfill Economy. Stuff is manufactured, energy is consumed shipping it somewhere, consumers buy it and shortly thereafter it ends up as garbage in the landfill.

This is of course the definition of “economic growth”: waste, inefficiency, environmental destruction–none of these matter. Only two things matter: maximize “growth” by any means necessary, and maximize profits by any means necessary.

The Landfill Economy now encompasses the entire planet. The swirling gyre of plastic trash the size of Texas between Hawaii and California: it’s just one modest example of the planetary trash dump that “growth” and profit generate as byproducts/blowback.

The planet’s oceans are one giant trash dump. Everything from plastic water bottles to abandoned fishing nets to radiation to containers that fell off ships is floating around even the most distant corners of the seas. Seabirds nesting in remote islands die of starvation as their guts fill with plastic bits of “permanent growth.”

Globalization has turned the planet’s land masses and rivers into trash dumps. Want to make a quick profit along a tropical sea coast? Dig some big holes near the coast, dump in baby prawns, food and chemicals to suppress algae blooms and diseases and then harvest the prawns to ship to the insatiable markets of the developed world.

Once the prawn farms are poisoned wastelands, move on and despoil another coastline elsewhere.

Globalization has grea …

Tesla: The Bill Is Still Coming Due

Tesla Motors’ third-quarter results aren’t as strong as they seem. The key question for the stock remains whether Tesla can deliver its Model 3 sedan on time and on budget. The stock’s sky-high valuation leaves precious little room for a slipup.

Invesco Brings in the Cash

Invesco’s diversification makes it the rare asset manager to get cash from investors when most funds are flowing to giant index-fund firms.

U.S. Banks Still Eating Deutsche’s Trading Lunch

Deutsche Bank and Barclays results show stronger and less distracted U.S. banks continue to take market share from European rivals.

Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks choppy as defensive sectors sell off, earnings mixed

U.S. stocks fluctuated between slight gains and losses Thursday as an uptick in bond yields prompted a selloff in defensive sectors such as real estate and utilities as investors sifted through mixed earnings results and deal news between NXP Semiconductors and Qualcomm.

International maritime organization agrees to stringent sulfur emissions limits

In a landmark decision, the more than 170 member states of the International Maritime Organization, the global shipping regulator, on Thursday agreed in London to sharp limits on sulfur emissions.