Written by Gary
US equities trend lower in afternoon trade (SPY +0.04%), with major indexes declining in sea-sawing trades.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
North and South American markets are mixed. The S&P 500 is higher by 0.03%, while the Bovespa is leading the IPC lower. They are down 2.13% and 1.03% respectively. |
Traders Corner – Health of the Market
Stocks rise as energy shares jump more than 1%
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Asia oil thirst tab $1 trillion a year as crude rises to $80By Henning Gloystein, Rajendra Jadhav and Neil Jerome Morales | |
Walmart’s first quarter margins under pressure, e-commerce reboundsNEW YORK (Reuters) – Walmart Inc on Thursday said profit margins during the first quarter remained under pressure due to price cuts and higher freight costs, weighing on its shares even as sales and earnings came in stronger than expected. | |
Oil surge spurs Wall Street turnaround, sends Russell 2000 to record(Reuters) – Energy and industrial stocks led Wall Street higher on Thursday and the small-cap Russell 2000 hit a record, even as a rise in U.S. bond yields to fresh seven-year highs suggested more competition for equities and investors fretted over geopolitics. | |
U.S. labor market tightening; mid-Atlantic factory activity picks upWASHINGTON (Reuters) – New applications for U.S. jobless benefits increased more than expected last week, but the number of Americans on unemployment rolls fell to its lowest level since 1973, pointing to diminishing labor market slack. | |
NAFTA deal might be ready by end-May, could go past July 1 election: MexicoMEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Thursday that an agreement on a new NAFTA deal could be reached by the end of May, but added that if no agreement is reached the talks could extend beyond the July 1 Mexican presidential election. | |
Delaware judge rules for Redstone family in CBS disputeWILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) – A Delaware judge said on Thursday he would not block Shari Redstone from exerting control over the board of CBS Corp , which was considering stripping her voting power in defiance of her push to merge the media company with Viacom Inc . | |
Kroger inks Ocado grocery delivery deal to battle Amazon threatLONDON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. supermarket chain Kroger Co struck a deal with British online grocer Ocado to build and deliver from robot-staffed warehouses, upping the ante in Kroger’s battle with Amazon.com Inc and sending Ocado shares rocketing. | |
U.S. gunmaker Remington emerges from bankruptcy(Reuters) – Remington Outdoor Co Inc , one of the largest U.S. makers of firearms, has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy after completing a debt-cutting deal with creditors, the company said on Thursday. | |
U.S., China launch trade talks to avert tariff war, economic damageWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and China launch a second round of trade talks on Thursday to try to avert a damaging tariff war, with the Trump administration demanding a $200 billion cut in China’s U.S. trade surplus and greater protections for intellectual property. | |
Did CNN, NYT, ABC, & C-SPAN ‘Lie By Omission’? Falsely Claiming Trump Called Immigrants “Animals”Authored by Joseph Wulfsohn via Mediaite.com, President Donald Trump held a meeting on illegal immigration at the White House on Wednesday and one particular moment went viral… but for all the wrong reasons. Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims expressed her frustrations with the federal government to the president regarding the handling of criminal illegal immigrants and cited MS-13 gang members as an example. Responding directly to that, Trump said the following:
However, dozens of media outlets have only shared the response to Sheriff Mims, not including her question and comments that were directly about MS-13 and in the process purposefully mischaracterizing the president’s remarks to accuse him of referring to immigrants as “animals.” CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and C-SPAN shared the clip on Twitter leaving out the crucial context of Trump’s response.
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Kilauea Erupts “Explosively” From Summit, Sending Huge Plume Of Ash In The SkyHawaii’s Kilauea volcano has erupted from its summit, shooting a dusty plume of ash about 30,000 feet into the sky.
KTLA reports that people are being told to shelter in place… As AP reports, Mike Poland, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, confirmed the explosion on Thursday. | |
Inspector General Report On Clinton Email Probe About To Drop, Now In Final ReviewA long-awaited report by the Department of Justice’s internal watchdog has moved into its final phase – after the DOJ notified multiple subjects mentioned in the document that they can privately review it by week’s end, and will have a “few days” to craft any response to criticism contained within the report, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz told lawmakers in April that he expected to issue the report in May, however Tuesday’s notification indicates that he has largely completed his inquiry. Congressional investigators will get their hands on the report in coming weeks. A related report was released in April detailing the DOJ’s case against former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was found to have lied four times to the DOJ and FBI, including twice while under oath. McCabe, who was fired a day before he was set to collect his full pension, authorized a self-serving leak to the Wall St. Journal claiming that the FBI had not put the brakes on the Clinton Foundation investigation, during a period in which he was coming under fire over a $467,500 campaign donation his wife Jill took from Clinton pal Terry McAuliffe. To be clear, this report will have not … | |
Hong Kong Is Still Blowing Billions To Defend Its Currency PegIt has now been 28 days since the Hong Kong Dollar tumbled to the lower limit of its currency peg band and HKMA is still blowing billions every day to defend the currency… So far HKMA has spent over US$8 billion buying Hong Kong Dollars and achieved nothing… Having briefly achieved some lift of the pressure in mid-April, HKMA’s intervention has begun again this week… | |
Tencent Is Ready Again for Its Battle RoyaleChinese tech giant’s shares have tumbled in recent months, but first-quarter results should allay investor concerns. | |
In Emerging Turmoil, What Links Argentina and Turkey?Who’s next? The fear of contagion is stalking emerging markets again, but Argentina and Turkey have put themselves in the firing line while others have distanced themselves from it. | |
Investors, Brace Yourselves for More Drug-Price DramaThe next leg of the Trump administration’s plan to lower the cost of drug prices could get ugly for investors. | |
April 2018 Leading Economic Index Points To Moderated GrowthWritten by Steven Hansen The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the U.S improved this month – and the authors say “the LEI’s six-month growth rate has recently moderated somewhat, suggesting growth is unlikely to strongly accelerate”. | |
In One Chart: 20 stocks that big-time hedge funds love mostHere are the stocks that hedge funds loved most in the first quarter of 2018 based on regulatory filings. The list, compiled by RBC Capital, is dominated by tech, media and internet shares, with Facebook top of the heap. | |
Capitol Report: Here’s how much $3-per-gallon gas will offset the tax cutsIt’s a question on everyone’s minds, as gas price tip toward $3 a gallon nationally and campaigning for midterm elections heats up — will the rise in gas prices offset the benefit of the tax cuts? | |
Market Snapshot: Stock market fights to hold gain in afternoon trade as tech selling weighs on energy rallyU.S. stocks retreat slightly in afternoon trade Thursday, with major indexes declining slightly in up-and-down trade as a retrenchment in internet and technology shares more than offset gains in the energy sector. |
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