Written by Gary
US stock index futures have risen this morning (SPY +0.2%) on signs of further progress in trade talks between the US and China pull back from the brink of a full-blown trade war.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
European markets are higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 0.58% while London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.19% and France’s CAC 40 is up 0.04%. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Stock futures rise as U.S.-China trade talks advance(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday on signs of further progress in trade talks between the United States and China as the world’s two largest economies pull back from the brink of a full-blown trade war. | |
Tesla’s Musk admits Model 3 braking issue, promises fix(Reuters) – Tesla Inc’s Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk admitted late on Monday there was a braking issue with the Model 3 sedan, pointed out by Consumer Reports, and said it can be fixed with a firmware update that the electric car maker will be rolling out in a few days. | |
China, U.S. near deal on ZTE reprieve; Beijing cuts auto tariffsBEIJING (Reuters) – Washington neared a deal to lift its ban on U.S. firms supplying Chinese telecoms gear maker ZTE Corp, sources said on Tuesday, and Beijing announced tariff cuts on car imports, further easing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. | |
Sony in $2.3 billion deal for EMI, becomes world’s biggest music publisherTOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp said on Tuesday it would pay about $2.3 billion to gain control of EMI, becoming the world’s largest music publisher in an industry that has found new life on the back of streaming services. | |
Russia and Japan warn U.S. of $1 billion in tariff retaliationGENEVA (Reuters) – Russia and Japan have warned they could retaliate against U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum by imposing sanctions worth almost $1 billion combined, filings published by the World Trade Organization showed on Tuesday. | |
Facebook’s Zuckerberg faces EU Parliament grillingBRUSSELS (Reuters) – Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will meet with leaders of the European Parliament on Tuesday to answer questions about how the data of millions of Facebook users ended up in the hands of a political consultancy. | |
Trump wants more from EU to lift tariffs: EU trade chiefBRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s proposals to open its markets wider to U.S. products including cars appear not to have persuaded Washington to lift the threat of import tariffs on EU steel and aluminum, the bloc’s trade chief said on Tuesday. | |
VW recalls 11,000 Audi cars in Russia: watchdogMOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s standards agency said on Tuesday it had been informed about the voluntary recall of 11,003 Audi cars sold since last year. | |
U.S. farmers plow ahead with plantings as China trade war fears ebbCHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. farmers said they would push ahead with plantings planned before U.S.-China trade tensions eased and, now that the two countries have resumed talks, take a wait-and-see approach to President Donald Trump’s promises for more sales to China. | |
Police Release Bodycam Footage From Shootout At Trump Golf ClubLocal police have released footage of last week’s bizarre shooting spree at Trump National Doral Miami, a Trump-owned golf club, where one deranged anti-Trumper likely earned himself a lengthy prison sentence after firing back at police and shooting up the club. Luckily, no club patrons were shot during the incident. The bodycam footage shows officers from Doral and from the Miami-Dade Police Department responding to reports of shots fired. As the footage shows, police quickly engaged 42-year-old Johnathan Oddi, who fired back – earning him a charge of attempted second degree murder on a law enforcement officer. Oddi is being held without bond, according to RT. Oddi reportedly “ranted about the president” during the shooting, which took place at roughly 1:30 am ET. No members of the Trump family were staying at Doral at the time. Oddi, who was shot in the leg during the gunfight, appeared in court Monday, where he was charged with armed criminal mischief, aggravated assault with a firearm, armed burglary with a firearm, armed burglary with assault and grand theft. One officer might have broken his wrist during the shootout. After being disarmed, Oddi was taken to Kendall Regional Trauma Center. Once treated, he was transferred to the homicide bureau for interrogation, before being taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
| |
Blain: “Some Analysts Are Suggesting The Draghi Put May No Longer Exist”Submitted by Bill Blain of Mint Partners Blain’s Morning Porridge – May 22nd 2018 “Kid you good-a looking, but you don’t know what’s cooking till you Mambo Italiano…..” Yesterday saw about the least convincing massive upside rally ever – as stocks gapped higher on the open, buoyed by the outbreak of peace in the China/US trade war. Then they range traded through the day on tiny volumes. My chartists on the equity desks are utterly sceptical. There was nothing in yesterday’s action to suggest anything has really changed – and the cold trade war with China remains on. The jury is out on whether Trump just lost this round without landing any significant punches. Ding, ding, seconds out as China comes out swinging, and essentially untouched. Oil prices collapsed 60% from June 2014 ($100) to Jan 2016 ($41). Since then are up 94% to near $80 this morning – a 4-year high! Go figure what that might mean for global growth? Not so sure why the dollar stalled y’day. The critical rate to watch is the 10-year Treasury around 3.06% – the rules of financial gravity should mean every spare penny, cent and yen on the planet is being sucked into the only positive real yield in the bond markets, thus pushing the dollar higher as global investors are forced to buy the greenback. Maybe it’s the Trump effect again? Unconventional to see higher rates, rising fiscal policy and a tumbling currency – but it makes a curious kind of sense. Unlike Italy. The Italian 10-year bond yield has risen 31% in the last two weeks to 2.37% – that would normally be a sign of imminent disaster. But, maybe it’s an opportunity? Markets always overweight bad political news through a process of negative bias confirmation. Bad news gets headlines, headlines attract readers, readers believe what they r … | |
Trump Backs Down: Will Drop ZTE Sanctions If China Agrees To Management Shakeup, FineAfter China announced early Tuesday that it would slash its auto tariff, more terms of an as-yet-unfinished US-China trade deal are being revealed. Trade talks between the US and China are set to continue in Washington and Beijing, and a comprehensive deal remains elusive, but in a sign of the US’s growing commitment to compromise, the Trump administration has agreed on the “broad outline” of a deal that would save imperiled Chinese telecom giant ZTE Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported. The news bolstered NXP Semiconductors – whose purchase by Qualcomm now looks virtually assured, allowing hundreds of M&A arbs to finally exhale – which is up 1.8% in the pre-market, while ZTE sanctions benficiaries Ericsson and Nokia are down 2.2% and 0.9%, respectively. According to the WSJ, the US has promised to remove the ban on US companies selling components to ZTE – which it imposed last month, purportedly because ZTE failed to fire certain employees and cut bonuses according to the terms of a settlement after it was caught selling US goods to Iran. However, this is conditional on a final deal being reached. President Trump has said he’s working with the Chinese to put ZTE back in business, because it’s widely believed that the company will fail if the sanctions remain; on Friday, Larry Kudlow said the company would need to make changes to its management and board to qualify for US assistance. | |
US Futures Jump Amid Easing China Trade War; Dollar, Italian Yields SlideWith much of Europe coming back from Whit Monday holiday, the much more liquid market focused on the latest news in the easing US-China trade war and this morning’s announcement by Beijing to cut import duties on autos to 15%, with the resulting risk-on mood sending U.S. equity futures back to yesterday’s session highs, while Asian and European stocks were mixed. It wasn’t just China’s auto import tariffs however: as the WSJ reports, US and China also reached a broad outline for settling the lingering ZTE issue, in which the export ban could be removed, while the company would have to make board and management changes. Furthermore, other source reports noted that the side were nearing an agreement that would remove a ban on ZTE and would include China pledge to remove tariffs on, as well as increase imports of Yet despite the good trade news, broader European stocks were mixed, and turned modestly negative, driven by declines in the health care sector and utilities after both were downgraded by Deutsche Bank, pushing the Stoxx Europe 600 Index down 0.1% to session low, erasing earlier gains with 11 of 19 industry groups declining. Earlier, Deutsche B … | |
Is Tesla Abandoning the Mass Market?Tesla has given its first signals that it’s giving up on its ambition to become a mass-market car maker, when Chief Executive Elon Musk admitted that his promised $35,000 Model 3 vehicle would cause the company to “lose money and die” if built right away. | |
Would Cam Newton Buy Stocks Now?The TINA trade, in which there is no alternative to stocks, may be over as investors can finally earn something in cash-like securities. | |
Welcome to the U.S.-China Cold Soup WarChinese-U.S. trade relations are showing signs of warming again after this spring’s chill. Don’t mistake that for a resolution of the core issues—trade tensions increasingly look like a permanent feature of the investment environment. | |
This is the moment people suddenly realized they weren’t ‘poor’ anymoreTwitter users chimed in with their own stories of harsh calculations and empty stomachs. | |
It’s just become more difficult for employees to sue their employersOn Monday, the Supreme Court ruled on mandatory arbitration. | |
Women’s student debt will soon hit $1 trillionThe gap between male and female student debt nearly doubled in four years. |
Earnings Summary for Today
leading Stock Positions
Current Commodity Prices
Commodities are powered by Investing.com
Current Currency Crosses
The Forex Quotes are powered by Investing.com.
To contact me with questions, comments or constructive criticism is always encouraged and appreciated: