04Jun2018 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street Set To Add To Gains After Friday’s Strong Jobs Report, DOW Futures Up Triple Digits, WTI Crude Trading In The Mid 65 Handle, Trending Upward The Gold Index Hits 1300

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets finished broadly higher on Friday with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 1.24% while Germany’s DAX is up 0.95% and London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.31%.

Big Tesla investors look like firewall for Elon Musk

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk faces votes at Tuesday’s shareholder meeting that will challenge his grip on the electric carmaker, but he may be able to count on some powerful friends: big fund managers likely to be fans.

Global shares shrug off trade tensions as U.S. data reassures

LONDON (Reuters) – Global shares rose on Monday as worries over a trade war between the United States and other major economies took a back seat, with investors focusing on an easing of political risks in Europe and strong U.S. jobs data.

Saudi Aramco restructures non-oil assets ahead of IPO: sources

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia/DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Aramco has created a subsidiary to house its multibillion-dollar pension fund and could spin off its aviation division, sources said, as it restructures some assets not related to oil and gas ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO).

With deal to close this week, Bayer to retire Monsanto name

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Bayer will wrap up the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto on Thursday and also retire the U.S. seeds maker’s 117 year-old name.

Former State Street executive faces U.S. fraud trial

BOSTON (Reuters) – A former executive at State Street Corp is set to face trial on U.S. charges that he participated in a scheme to defraud the bank’s clients by charging them secret commissions on billions of dollars in trades.

China says in principle door is open to talks with U.S. on trade

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s door to talks is open in principle, the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday, a day after Beijing warned that any trade and business deals reached with Washington would be void if the United States implemented tariffs.

Global airlines slash profit outlook as fuel costs jump

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Global airlines on Monday slashed their forecast for industry profits in 2018 on a spike in fuel costs, while warning higher interest rates and a host of geopolitical tensions would add to operating risks.

Bain says will help Toshiba Memory pursue big acquisitions

TOKYO (Reuters) – Bain Capital, which led the $18 billion acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corp, said on Monday it plans to support the business in pursuing M&A in the chip industry, including potentially large deals.

Oil down as U.S. supply grows, OPEC considers higher output

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Monday as U.S. production hit a record high and OPEC members considered boosting supply.

In Latest Privacy Scandal, Facebook Gave Apple, Amazon And Others Unprecedented Access To User Data

Facebook has been giving user data to at least 60 major device manufacturers over the last decade – including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung – as part of a data-sharing partnership program which allowed the companies to integrate various features such as messaging and “like” buttons into their products.

The data-sharing agreement, reported Sunday evening by the New York Times, allowed manufacturers to access information on relationship status, calendar events, political affiliations and religion, among other things. An Apple spokesman, for example, said that the company relied on private access to Facebook data to allow users to post on the social network without opening the Facebook app, among other things.

“We’ve No Choice But To Run For Cover”: Gartman Covers His 10Y Short

One week after Gartman was officially stopped out of his 10Y short position, as the yield on the 10Y TSY tumbled far below his 2.92% stop when the latest Italian crisis hit last week (incidentally, for the second time, the first took place just after the April Payrolls report on May 4, but let’s pretend that never happened), the world-renowned commodity guru has finally acknowledged he busted on his latest letter to clients writes that “we’ll mince no words here: the bond market go away from us last week and the week before and so with the material weakness of the past four trading sessions we’ve no choice but to mitigate the damage wrought and run for cover!”

And this:

Wednesday, May 2nd we sold the ten-year note future. Then the ten-year note future was trading 119 11/32nds. It is 119 17/32nds presently and so, we are now behind by far less than 1% but we were behind by a good deal more than that and with the market moving back to reduce our loss as difficult as it is to do so we wish to take our small loss upon receipt of this commentary… about 0.2%… and get to the sideli …

Pre-Coup Planning: Kim “Replaces” Top Military Officials Ahead Of Historic US Summit

Suggesting that some North Korean government hardliners remain opposed to denuclearization, and may even have had political overhaul ambitions in Kim’s absence in one week, Yonhap and Reuters reported Monday morning that Kim Jong Un has removed the top three military officials from their posts ahead of the historic June 12 summit with Trump in Singapore.

While there has been no specific reason cited for the “replacement”, it is possible that Kim was worried about the military – which holds an immense amount of power in North Korean society – staging a coup in his absence one week from today.

Rumors about the officials’ removal were first reported by a Japanese newspaper early Monday local time, and Reuters later reported the rumors were indeed confirmed by a senior US official.

According to the Japanese source, the officials were replaced because …

“Glass Half Full” Markets Jump, Ignoring Renewed Global Trade War

Where previously the threat of renewed trade war between the US, also known as the “+1” in this weekend’s meeting of G6+1 nations, and EU, Canada, Mexico, and of course, China, would have been sufficient to pummel futures and stocks, today stocks are approaching life with a “glass half full” approach, and global markets and US equity futures are green across the board.

There were two key factors for today’s bout of optimism: i) the return of the US-North Korea summit on June 12 and ii) Friday’s strong (pre-tweeted) US payrolls report, which surprised to the upside and has put protectionist fears to the side, spurring Euro stocks and S&P futures to a gain after peers in Asia jumped. Treasuries slipped alongside the dollar, while the pound and euro rose.

Helping sentiment was the continued sharp drop in Italian yields, with both the Italian 2Y spread to German bunds..

Global Markets: A New, More Difficult Stage

If last year in markets was all about strong returns, this year is about rising risks: a brewing trade war, renewed political turmoil and concerns about growth.

The Next Threat to Oil Prices: China

It has been a bad week or two for oil investors, but most concerns have centered on supply. Next up: demand.

Deutsche Bank Is Sick but Not at Death’s Door

Deutsche Bank isn’t teetering on the brink of collapse. Despite Friday’s downgrade from Standard & Poor’s, Deutsche is stronger and has more stable funding than at any time in the past decade.

Metals Stocks: Gold churns below $1,300 even as dollar nicked

Gold futures eased Monday, keeping the metal pinned below the closely watched $1,300-an-ounce mark even as the dollar was pestered by ongoing global trade-war concerns.

Money Brain: Why winning investors know that stocks are money machines, not slot machines

The broad U.S. market historically has doubled in value every 10 years.

Jeff Reeves’s Strength in Numbers: Apple is the new Microsoft, and that’s bullish for the stock

Investors can expect steady, stable growth and income, writes Jeff Reeves.