Written by Gary
US markets closed mixed with the SP 500 and Nasdaq falling as tech rally loses steam (SPY -0.02%). Dow rises 95 points, US crude surges 1.9%, Nasdaq closes 0.7% lower.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Chinese phone maker ZTE saved from brink after deal with U.S.(Reuters) – China’s No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker ZTE secured a lifeline from the Trump administration on Thursday after agreeing to pay a $1 billion fine and overhaul leadership in a deal that will lift a ban on its doing business with U.S. suppliers. |
| Exclusive: U.S. Justice Department probes T-Mobile-Sprint merger effect on smaller wireless companies – sourcesNEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice is examining how the proposed merger between T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp could affect prices for smaller wireless operators, according to two people familiar with the matter. |
| S&P, Nasdaq fall as tech rally loses steam, Dow risesNEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P and Nasdaq fell on Thursday with the technology sector snapping its recent rally while investors kept an eye on trade tensions and waited for U.S. and European central bank meetings. |
| Disney, Fox carved out assets ‘surgically’: U.S. antitrust chiefNEW YORK (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s $52.4 billion deal to acquire most of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s assets was “surgically” structured on good advice to be submitted to regulators, Makan Delrahim, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division, said on Thursday. |
| Elliott’s Singer agrees with Buffett, Dimon on profit guidance(Reuters) – Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp Chief Executive Paul Singer said on Thursday he agreed with billionaire investor Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon that companies should move away from providing quarterly earnings guidance. |
| Walmart sues to bar former tax executive from joining AmazonWILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) – Walmart Inc has asked a court to block a former top tax executive from joining Amazon.com Inc , saying the move would violate a non-compete agreement and “irreparably harm” Walmart’s business by potentially tipping off its rival to strategic plans including potential merger targets. |
| U.S. senator questions Alphabet, Twitter on Huawei relationshipWASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. senator on Thursday is seeking responses from Google parent Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc on whether the U.S. companies have any data sharing agreements with Chinese vendors, following a disclosure from Facebook Inc this week. |
| Yahoo’s EU regulator orders privacy changes over data breachDUBLIN (Reuters) – Yahoo’s European regulator has ordered it to make privacy changes following a probe into what it said was one of the largest ever data breaches to impact EU citizens. |
| Phony bank accounts not a ‘systemic’ issue: U.S. regulatorWASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. bank regulator said on Thursday that an industry-wide review prompted by Wells Fargo & Co’s sales practices scandal had uncovered some instances of phony accounts at other lenders but little evidence of a “systemic” problem. |
| Bond Bulls Battered In Yield Flash-Crash As Tech Stocks TumbleOnly one clip for today really… Well, instead of starting with stocks, Bonds and FX dominate the headlines today – a flash-crash across the Treasury yield curve and a collapse and failed intervention in the Brazilian Real. Treasury yields topped around 5amET this morning (with 10Y unable to reach 3.00% despite a good run at it in the last few days). The bid started in bonds, picked up through the US cash open, then accelerated dramatically at around midday ET, flash-crashing 10-12bps across the entire treasury market…
With massive volume flooded through futures – more volume than on the payrolls print… |
| The Tale Of Two Fat Tails: High Sigma Events In Real LifeVia Global Macro Monitor,
Fat Tails In Real Life If you have been following the Global Macro Monitor more than, say, a year, it should be clear by now we love living in the fat tails. That is we are natural contrarians, love to play devil’s advocate to and jackhammer the prevailing perma bullish narrative, and always looking for the next big move in the markets.
By fat tails, we mean more than a two standard deviation (sigma) move, which happens more often in the markets than they should in a normal distribution of returns. Ergo the “fat tails.” Hawaii < … |
| 14 Million Facebook Users May Have “Unknowingly” Shared Posts With The PublicFacebook has been at the center of a seemingly unending series of data-privacy scandals this year, and just days after the company was exposed for sharing data with 60 major device developers – contradicting testimony that Mark Zuckerberg gave to Congress – Recode is reporting that the company has copped to another colossal blunder: as many as 14 million Facebook users who believed they were posting items that only their friends or smaller groups could access instead may have shared that content publicly.
Facebook didn’t specify how many of these people actually posted things that were shared more widely than they would’ve liked. It’s also unclear how many people noticed the settings change. The company said Thursday it would begin to alert people who were impacted. As Recode points out: “Obviously this is another public relations and management disaster and it is unclear how widespread the problem is.” Facebook offered an apology:
Still, that doesn’t chang … |
| Household Wealth Rises Above $100 Trillion For The First Time Ever… There Is Just One CatchIn the Fed’s latest Flow of Funds report released at noon today, the Fed unveiled released the latest snapshot of the US “household” sector as of March 31 2018. What it revealed is that with $116.3 trillion in assets and a modest $15.6 trillion in liabilities, the net worth of US households rose above $100 trillion for the first time ever, hitting a new all time high of $100.8 trillion, increasing for 10 consecutive quarters and up $1.0 trillion as a result of an estimated $490 billion increase in real estate values, as well as a $511 billion increase in various stock-market linked financial assets like corporate equities, mutual and pension funds, and deposits as the market soared to new all time highs in the fist quarter, even if it ended Q1 on a slightly subdued note after the February VIXplosion and March rate spike. Total household assets in Q1 rose $1.1 trillion to $116.3 trillion, while at the same time, total liabilities, i.e., household borrowings, rose by only $44 billion from $15.5 trillion to $15.6 trillion, the bulk of which was $10.1 trillion in home mortgages. The breakdown of the total household balance sheet as of Q1 is shown below. |
| China Inc. Arms Up in Tech With Latest SoftBank DealThe sale of chip designer Arm Holdings’ China unit to a Chinese-led consortium illustrates the challenge the U.S. faces in pushing back against Beijing’s appetite for intellectual property. |
| Allergan Needs a New WrinkleActivist hedge funds are making a strong case to change Allergan’s corporate governance. |
| How Food Companies Can Buy Their Way to GrowthThe best advice for food company CEOs looking for growth: Buy what you know, don’t lean too much on cost-cutting and watch out for quickly changing consumer tastes. |
| April 2018 Headline Consumer Credit Growth Rate Continues to SlowWritten by Steven Hansen The headlines say consumer credit rate of annual growth significantly declined from last month. Our analysis sees a modest slowing of growth since last month.
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| Altaba’s offer to buy back stock includes selling about 100 million Alibaba sharesAltaba shares fell Thursday, reversing earlier gains that had them heading to an 18-year high, after the company formerly known as Yahoo said it commenced tender offer to buy 195 million of its shares, and plans to sell about 100 million Alibaba shares. |
| Tyson, fresh from lab-grown meat, is now investing in snacks made with recycled ingredientsTyson Ventures is investing in alternative proteins, like Yappah snacks made with recycled ingredients and lab-grown cultured meat produced by Future Meat Technologies. |
| The Ratings Game: This is how Five Below sets itself apart from AmazonFive Below, which targets teens and tweens with affordable merchandise across a variety of categories, has found a way to differentiate itself from e-commerce giant Amazon. |
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