17Jul2018 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street To Open Fractionally Lower And Expected To Follow Monday’s Mostly Sideways Trading, WTI Continues To Trade In The Low 67 Handle

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are lower today with shares in France off the most. The CAC 40 is down 0.34% while Germany’s DAX is off 0.13% and London’s FTSE 100 is lower by 0.03%.

Goldman Sachs names David Solomon as CEO to replace Blankfein

Goldman Sachs Group Inc named David Solomon as its next chief executive officer on Tuesday, replacing Lloyd Blankfein who will step down on Sept. 30.

Goldman Sachs names Solomon as CEO, putting a banker in charge

Goldman Sachs Group Inc named David Solomon as its next chief executive officer on Tuesday, ushering in a new era for the Wall Street bank as it expands into different businesses and revamps familiar ones.

Factbox: Timeline of Goldman Sachs leaders

Goldman Sachs Group Inc named David Solomon as its next chief executive officer on Tuesday, succeeding Lloyd Blankfein, who has been in the role since 2006.

World stocks slip on oil as focus turns to Fed

Global stocks fell on Tuesday as oil prices hit a three-month low, while the dollar edged lower and most other markets were subdued before Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was due to testify to the U.S. Congress.

Goldman Sachs beats on strength in bond trading, investment banking

Goldman Sachs Group Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, driven by growth in bond trading and investment banking.

Ryanair to cancel 24 flights on Friday due to Ireland pilots strike

Ryanair plans to cancel 24 flights between Ireland and Britain on Friday due to a strike by its Ireland-based pilots, the second of three planned for July, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers said on Tuesday.

Boeing lifts industry demand forecast as air show deals roll on

Boeing raised its rolling 20-year industry forecast for passenger and cargo aircraft on Tuesday, as a steady flow of deals on day two of the Farnborough Airshow underscored the industry’s resilience to rising global trade tensions.

Japan’s regional jet not flying so high after air show prang

Japan’s efforts to show off its new regional jet, the MRJ, were dealt another setback on Tuesday after a prang forced it to skip a flying display at the Farnborough Airshow.

Johnson & Johnson quarterly profit beats on higher pharma unit sales

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday topped analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit and revenue, driven by higher sales of rare-disease treatments from its acquisition of Actelion and cancer drugs Zytiga and Darzalex.

Ireland To Move All Its Oil Reserves Out Of The UK As Brexit Nears

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via Oilprice.com,

The Irish government is expected to agree this week on a plan to move all of the Republic’s oil reserves out of the UK as Ireland steps up its preparations for Brexit, Ireland’s Sunday Independent reported.

Under the plan, seen as one of the most significant Brexit decisions for Ireland so far, Ireland will transfer the nearly 200,000 tons of oil out of British refineries and back into Ireland or other EU member states, as the UK is preparing to leave the European Union bloc.

According to Sunday Independent, the oil would be moved out of the UK “for national security reasons.”

Goldman Announces Blankfein Out Oct 1 As It Reports Best Q2 In 9 Years But Equity Trading Disappoints

Compared to the other banks, Goldman’s earnings remain a breeze because despite the recent launch of Goldman’s deposit/loan operation, Marcus, a long time will pass before people start caring about its balance sheet and how much the bank makes through net interest margin. Which means the only thing that matters is the income statement, and here things are relatively simple: the company smashed both the top and bottom line, reporting Q2 revenue of $9.40BN, above the consensus expectations of $$8.74BN, and 19.2% higher compared to Q2 2017 if modestly lower than the bumper Q1. EPS of $5.98 was over a dollar higher than the $4.66 consensus estimate, and far above the $3.95 reported one year ago, with the effective tax rate of just 19.4% certainly helping.

Commenting on the result, outgoing CEO Lloyd Blankfein said:

“Solid performance across all of our major businesses drove the strongest first-half returns in nine years. With a healthy economic backdrop and deep client franchises, the firm is well-positioned to invest in attractive opportunities to meet the needs of our clients and continue to generate earnings growth.”

Digging into the various revenue segments, the biggest upside surprise came in FICC, which surged 45% Y/Y to $1.68BN, up from $1.16BN a year ago, and modestly better than the $1.65BN expected. Commenting on the result, Goldman said that “FICC Client Execution operated in an environment characterized by higher client activity and improved market-making conditions compared with a challenging second quarter of 2017, although market-making conditions were generally less favorable compared with the first quarter of 2018.”

Goldman’s Investment banking revenue was also a positive surprise, rising 18.2% to $2.045BN from $1.73BN, and above the $1.84BN expected. This was due to a 7$ increase in financial advisory revenues, which were $804MM, “reflecting an increase …

Cable Slides As UK’s May Faces Defeat In Key Brexit Vote

Cable is sliding and GBPEUR is at one-week lows following reports that UK’s opposition Labour Party will back a Tory rebel amendment to Theresa May’s trade bill, a key piece of Brexit legislation – leaving her at risk of defeat following last night’s razor thin majority.

As a reminder, last night saw Brexiteers narrowly defeat Tory rebels by just three votes on two amendments, and now the Labour Party has reportedly chosen to back a new amendment to the current Trade Bill, put forward by Tory MPs Stephen Hammond and Nicky Morgan that would force the Government to stay in the customs union if Brussels cannot be persuaded to allow Britain a free trade area by January 2019.

If all opposition lawmakers back the change it would only need seven Tories to rebel for May to be defeated.

The result is weakness in Sterling vs the dollar and Euro.

The rebellions are “a prelude to the big — and real — battle coming in the winter when the PM comes back with her deal and we know what the choice is. And whether she can continue,” Tory lawmaker George Freeman, who used to head May’s policy board, said in a posting on Instagram. “Brexit is coming home to roost. And it won’t be eas …

Companies Say Negative Impact From FX Outweighing Trade War

While the Q2 earnings season “unofficially” began Friday with JP Morgan’s beat on both the top and bottom-line estimates, roughly 5% of S&P 500 companies have already released their quarterly results. And a FactSet analysis of company earnings calls revealed that while American companies have made much more noise about the destabilizing impact of President Trump’s trade war, currency-related factors have been cited much more frequently as having had a negative impact on company performance. In its analysis, FactSet searched for specific terms related to a number of factors (“currency”, “China”, “trade” etc) in earnings call transcripts. The company then looked to see if the factor was said to have had a negative or a positive impact on earnings.

Of the 23 firms whose calls were analyzed, 12 said FX-related factors had a negative …

Big Tech’s Growth Comes With a Big Bill

Tech giants like Amazon, Apple and Google are delivering above-average growth, but the cost of staying competitive is rising more.

Netflix’s Intermission Was Long Overdue

The streaming company’s market value has become too rich, despite strong growth.

Why Tapping the U.S. Oil Reserve Is an Awful Idea

Using the reserve to curb summer pump prices at a time the economy is booming and midterm elections loom would be a strategic blunder, leaving the country exposed in the event of an actual oil shortage.

The Ratings Game: Still believers, Wall Street analysts stand behind Netflix despite shortfall

Stock tumble is a buying opportunity, analysts say

Netflix stock slammed after earnings, as subscriber growth and revenue fall short

Netflix Inc. posted weaker-than-expected second-quarter revenue and subscriber numbers Monday afternoon. It stock is down sharply in Tuesday’s premarket trading.

CryptoWatch: Bitcoin analyst says a major rally for the asset may be on the horizon

Bitcoin prices rise early Tuesday as the virtual unit extends the previous session’s sharp rally.