03Apr2018 Market Close: Wall Street Closes Over 1 Percent Higher, SP 500 Teeters On 200-day Average, WTI Crude Rises 50 Cents, Settling At $63.51

Spotify makes record-setting direct listing; shares jump, then slide

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Spotify Technology SA on Tuesday completed the largest-ever direct listing, valuing the world’s leading streaming music service at as much as $30 billion, but its shares stalled after an early spike.

Tesla says no need for capital raise as Model 3 output rises

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc sought to squash any speculation it might need to raise more capital this year on Tuesday, driving the company’s battered shares higher as it announced it built 2,020 of its cheaper Model 3 sedans in the last seven days.

Amazon shares swing as Trump threatens higher shipping rates

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Shares of Amazon.com Inc pared earlier gains on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his unsubstantiated claim that deliveries for the world’s biggest online retailer cost the U.S. Postal Service money and threatened to raise rates.

Apple discloses gender pay gap at UK operations

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said on Tuesday that men earned 5 percent more on average than women at its UK operations, although the median pay gap was 2 percent in favor of women.

Exclusive: EPA gives giant refiner a ‘hardship’ waiver from regulation

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Environmental Protection Agency has exempted one of the nation’s largest oil refining companies, Andeavor , from complying with U.S. biofuels regulations – a waiver historically reserved for tiny operations in danger of going belly up, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Indian court orders tax dept to lift freeze on Cognizant’s funds

(Reuters) – IT services company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp said on Tuesday an Indian court had granted the company’s application to lift the Indian income tax department’s freeze on its bank accounts.

Exclusive: Gazprom set to gain EU antitrust approval with concessions – sources

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union and Gazprom are poised to settle a long-running antitrust case after the Russian gas company agreed to price reforms and to allow rivals to gain a foothold in eastern Europe, people familiar with the matter said.

Elliott Advisors says it holds more than $1 billion of stock in Hyundai Motor Group

SEOUL (Reuters) – Elliott Advisors (HK) Limited, an arm of the activist hedge fund, said on Wednesday that it holds more than $1 billion of shares in South Korea’s Hyundai Mobis , Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors .

Active Shooter Reported At Youtube Headquarters

There are reports of an active shooter at Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, Calif.

My friend at @Google @YouTube in San Bruno says there’s an active shooter on campus.

Really hoping this is somewhat of a hoax or blown out of proportion. 😕 pic.twitter.com/dkKbjHGEUj

— Will Hudson (@MrWillToLive) April 3, 2018

Police activity has been reported at 901 Cherry Ave., the location of YouTube HQ.

This is a developing story…

Stocks Soar After Bloomberg Report Unleashes Amazon Buying Panic

It was generally a quiet day, with no macro news and equities range-bound, seemingly spooked by the ongoing verbal war between Trump and Jeff Bezos, where first in a tweet then a White House press conference, the president warned that US taxpayers will no longer subsidize Amazon “by the billions.” And, as has been the case recently, every time Trump spoke or tweeted, Amazon turned negative.

And then, just around 2:45pm, a Bloomberg headline hit, according to which President Trump is not formally looking at options to address his concerns with Amazon, which immediately unleashed a buying panic first in Amazon and then across the broader market:

*NO ONGOING WHITE HOUSE TALKS ABOUT ACTION ON AMAZON: SOURCES

As Bloomberg clarified, despite the constant Trump jawboning, inside the White House, there have been no discussions about turning the power of the federal government against the company. Bloomberg’s five sources said that they were not aware of any ongoing discussion about turning Trump’s tweets into action against Amazon, not on the legal or regulatory fronts, or even regarding the U.S. Postal Service.

This was enough for the headline scanning algos, and as shown in the chart below, the Bloomberg story sparked a furious buying spree that sent AMZN stock more than $50 higher in the span of just 30 minutes.

And The Fastest Growing Bank Asset in 2017 Was… Subprime

Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man

They say that goldfish have the shortest memory in the Animal Kingdom… something like 3-seconds. But it turns out this isn’t actually true. Researchers at the Israeli Technion Institute of Technology conducted an experiment in 2009 proving that even the tiniest fish could be trained to recall certain sounds after as long as FIVE MONTHS.

According to another study from the University of Chicago, Dolphins ostensibly have the best memories in the Animal Kingdom, and in an experiment were able to recall a distinct whistle after 20 YEARS.

Then there are bankers… financius dumbassus, a curious species not fully related to the Animal Kingdom, somewhat descended from protozoa, who display truly bizarre behavior when it comes to memory function.

Case in point: Throughout the mid-2000s, bankers engaged in woefully short-sighted, self-destructive behavior by loaning their depositors’ money to risky borrowers who put no money down to buy overpriced houses.

These loans called ‘subprime mortgages’. And before long, some even more self-destructive bankers began packing thousands of these subprime mortgages together into gigantic bonds, which bankers would trade among themselves.

Everybody in the financial system was in on it.

Sprott’s Rule: Trade War Will Drive Gold Over $1,400

Rick Rule, CEO of Sprott U.S. Holdings, and a commodity veteran who has been in the market for over 40 years, thinks a trade war could finally push gold over the $1,400/oz. level, Bloomberg reported this morning.

One of the biggest surprises throughout the last couple months of stock market volatility has been the lack of a serious and consistent bid underneath the spot price of gold. Traditionally, investors will flock to gold as a hedge against the system or hedge against inflation but, even as the VIX has spiked several times over since the beginning of 2018, gold has yet to find a serious inconsistent bid.

Experts in precious metals like Peter Schiff have predicted that $1400/oz for gold will catalyze a breakout. For gold spot, it has certainly been a struggle to gather any momentum on a consistent basis over the last couple of months.

However, Bloomberg published a report early this morning citing Rick Rule, who believes that $1400 per ounce could easily happen if the US is put into a trade …

Tesla’s Model 3 Is no Model T

Tesla made 2,020 Model 3 sedans in the final week of the first quarter. Yet even that final, frantic week’s production fell short of the electric-car marker’s own guidance—a familiar pattern.

Disney vs. Comcast: Stay Tuned for Sky Bidding

Antitrust remedies proposed by 21st Century Fox should put it on an equal regulatory footing to Comcast in the battle for pay-TV giant Sky.

Why Consumer Spending Growth Is Slowing

Banks are becoming more cautious lending to Americans despite a strong labor market and rising incomes.

Worried about the stock market dropping? Here’s how to protect your nest egg

Keep equities as core holdings, but make changes around the edges, says Nigam Arora.

The Tell: This volatility ratio offers stock-market bulls a reason to be cheerful

U.S. stock-market volatility remains elevated while Treasury yield volatility is declining—a relationship that’s historically been a positive sign for equity returns, says UBS.

The Tell: Here’s how a ‘trade skirmish’ could become a global ‘trade war’

Global stocks took a hit as U.S.-China trade tensions escalated, but so far the potential economic impact remains limited. Here’s what one economist says it would take to turn a “trade skirmish” into a full-blown global “trade war.”