03May2018 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street Futures Point To A Lower Opening, DOW Futures Down Over 100 Points, US Weekly Jobless Claims Total 211,000, Vs 225,000 Expected

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are lower today with shares in Germany off the most. The DAX is down 0.44% while France’s CAC 40 is off 0.33% and London’s FTSE 100 is lower by 0.19%.

Futures flat as U.S.-China trade tensions simmer

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were flat on Thursday as investors remained on edge about the U.S.-China trade talks, while the latest round of earnings added little cheer.

Trump praises China’s Xi as U.S. team arrives for trade talks

BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump praised his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping as a U.S. delegation arrived in Beijing on Thursday for talks on tariffs, with state media saying China will stand up to U.S. bullying.

Bombardier sells Toronto assembly site in major makeover

(Reuters) – Canadian plane and train maker Bombardier Inc has agreed to sell its Toronto aircraft assembly site to a pension fund as part of efforts to raise extra cash under a five-year recovery plan.

UBS CEO says investors may be expecting too much

ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS Group Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti warned on Thursday that investors may be expecting too much too soon from Switzerland’s biggest bank, noting heavy spending on technology would weigh on results in the short term.

Rolls-Royce interested in providing new engine for U.S. B-52s

DERBY, England (Reuters) – Rolls-Royce would be interested in bidding to provide a new engine for the United State’s B-52 bombers, said its CEO, should authorities proceed with a project to update the jets.

ECB making ‘substantial’ inflation progress: Praet

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Europe’s economic slowdown came sooner than expected and factors holding back growth may persist in the near term but the European Central Bank is still making “substantial” progress in lifting inflation, ECB Chief Economist Peter Praet said.

Trade worries keep world stocks subdued, dollar holds gains

LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks made little progress on Thursday as worries over global trade tensions weighed, while the U.S. dollar consolidated recent bumper gains after the Federal Reserve reaffirmed the outlook for more rate hikes.

SoftBank’s Son ‘not involved’ in Sprint, T-Mobile merger approvals

TOKYO (Reuters) – SoftBank Group Corp’s Chief Executive Masayoshi Son is not involved in trying to get the proposed merger of U.S. wireless carriers Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc approved, Sprint’s outgoing chief executive said on Thursday.

China’s Xiaomi picks Hong Kong for $10 billion IPO, lifts lid on financials

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese smartphone and connected device maker Xiaomi is bringing its blockbuster initial public offering to Hong Kong, where it could raise about $10 billion in the largest listing globally in almost four years.

Trump Defends “Hush” Payment After Giuliani Revelation, Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer “Speechless”

Late last night, Rudy Giuliani shocked viewerswhen he revealed during an interview with Sean Hannity that President Trump had, in fact, reimbursed his personal attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, saying the president “didn’t know about the specifics” but that he was aware “of the general arrangement.”

For a moment, the entire Washington political establishment held its breath. After all, it sounded as if Giuliani had just contradicted a statement that Cohen had made both during an interview with the New York Times and during court testimony – and could leave him exposed to a perjury charge. After flying into damage control mode, Giuliani later suggested that while Trump had repaid the $130,000, Cohen had made the payment to Daniels without Trump’s knowledge at the time.

The statement could also rebound on the president: Trump himself had also repeatedly denied having any knowledge of it, meaning that, in addition to possibly putting Cohen in legal jeopardy, Giuliani – Trump’s brand new lawyer – had seemingly risked ensnaring his boss in the controversy as well.

So this morning, President Trump himself weighed in to clarify Giuliani’s statement, providing some of his most detailed comments yet about the lawsuit brought against him and Cohen by Daniels.

Trump/Giuliani.
On April 5:
Q Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels? THE PRESIDENT: No. No. What else?
May 2:
Giuliani: “He didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know about the general arrangement,..”

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller)

Dow Futures Break Key Technical Support, Gold Jumps

Dow futures suddenly dropped at around 0745ET – led by a drop in the dollar and Treasury yields – breaking below its 200-day moving average…

There was no clear catalyst though some suggested an ‘old news’ headline that hit Bloomberg at 0740ET – GIULIANI SAYS COHEN `DEFINITELY’ WAS REIMBURSED – may not have helped. But as Dow futures broke the 200DMA, gold jumped…

And Treasury yields have been dropping all night…

Reddit Co-Founder Says Ethereum Price Will Reach $15,000 This Year

Submitted by Aaron Wood of CoinTelegraph

Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit, said that he predicts the price of Ethereum (ETH) will reach $15,000 in 2018, Fortune reports May 2.

Ohanian, who now works full-time at a venture capital (VC) firm Initialized Capital, said in an interview, “At the end of the year, Bitcoin will be at $20,000. And Ethereum will be at $15,000. Great, now people can call me out if I’m wrong.” He said that he’s bullish on ETH because “people are actually building on it.”

Should Ohanian’s prediction prove true, the ETH market cap would soar from $67 bln to nearly $2.5 trln, while Bitcoin would recover to last year’s record high price and market cap of $340 bln.

Ohanian’s firm In …

Pentagon Accelerates Testing Of New B61 Nuclear Gravity Bomb

President Donald Trump’s promises to rebuild the American nuclear arsenal are starting to bear fruit, and according to a US Air Force general update from May 1, the US has already conducted more than two dozen tests of its new B61-12 guided nuclear gravity bomb.

As Military.com reports, plans to spend over $1 trillion to modernize the US “nuclear triad” – nuclear bombers and missiles launched from land-based silos and submarines – have been fast-tracked thanks to the new Nuclear Posture Review, as well as increased military spending authorized during the Trump administration.

As discussed before, the new gravity nuke has been in development for years, but Trump’s orders have sped up testing to the point where most of the air force’s mainstay military planes have been approved to carry it. And it’s widely expected that the B-2 Spirit and the futuristic B-21 Raider will be approved to carry the B61 as well. In addition to testing the B61-12, the NPR also calls for modernizing the air-launched cruise missile and interco …

Apple’s iPhone Still Gushes Cash

Strong iPhone prices and services growth help Apple counter slowing unit sales.

What the Rising Dollar Says About Global Growth

Investors were happily betting on a synchronized global upswing, but that trade risks unwinding as economies appear to diverge.

Tesla Can’t Make Its Cash Problems Disappear

First-quarter results were grim, and conspicuously missing from its earnings release was a reference to how much cash Tesla burned.

Metals Stocks: Gold claws up from 2-month low after Fed largely sticks to script

Gold futures gain Thursday, maintaining a post-Fed meeting advance that lifted the precious metal from a two-month low.

Currencies: Dollar slips as Fed’s next rate moves are in question

The U.S. dollar edged down Thursday, on course to break a run of advances, as investors faced a new raft of economic data after the Federal Reserve offered little in the way of hints about the pace of rate hikes after policy makers pointed to a pickup in U.S. inflation.

Integrated Media Technology’s stock rockets 1,000% on heavy volume

Shares of Integrated Media Technology rocketed more than 1,000% gain Wednesday, on no apparent news, with the newly hired public relations agency unavailable to answer questions.