19Sep2018 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street To Open Lower, DOW Flat, Housing Starts Down At 1.282 Million, US Dollar And Gold Index Rising

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are higher today with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 0.20% while London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.16% and Germany’s DAX is up 0.13%.

EU says McDonald’s, Luxembourg tax deal not illegal

McDonald’s tax deal with Luxembourg did not breach EU state aid rules, EU antitrust regulators ruled on Wednesday, saying the reason the U.S. fast food chain did not pay some taxes was due to the mismatch between U.S. and Luxembourg laws.

Luxembourg welcomes EU ruling on McDonald’s taxes

Luxembourg welcomed on Wednesday the European Commission’s ruling that its tax deal with McDonald’s was not illegal after a three-year long investigation.

AutoNation’s Mike Jackson to step down as CEO next year

AutoNation Inc’s longtime Chief Executive Officer Mike Jackson will step down from the role next year but remain executive chairman until 2021, the largest U.S. auto retail chain said on Wednesday.

World stocks bat aside trade war fears, rally for second day

Global equities rallied for a second straight day on Wednesday while safe-haven assets such as U.S. bonds and the Japanese yen slipped to multi-week lows as investors bet the escalating U.S.-China trade spat would inflict less damage than feared.

China says won’t weaken currency to boost exports, as U.S. tariffs mount

China will not stoop to competitive devaluation of its currency, Premier Li Keqiang stressed, hours after China hit back, with a softer punch than the one landed by the United States, in an escalating tariff war between the world’s largest economies.

Futures flat, 10-year yields head back above 3 percent

U.S. stock markets headed for a flat open on Wednesday, holding just off three-week highs after brushing aside the latest blows in Washington and Beijing’s trade war.

Mars aims to tackle ‘broken’ cocoa model with new sustainability scheme

Mars Wrigley Confectionery launched a new sustainability strategy on Wednesday with the aim of combating deforestation, child labor and poverty in what it called the “broken” cocoa supply chain.

Renault-Nissan adopts Android in coup for Google

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi carmaking alliance said on Tuesday it will adopt Alphabet’s Google Android operating system, handing a victory to the U.S. tech giant as it pushes for a bigger share of the infotainment market.

Toshiba Memory chief shrugs off price concerns, sticks with IPO plans

The chief executive of Toshiba Memory Corp, the world’s No. 2 producer of NAND flash memory chips, on Wednesday brushed aside concerns about falling memory chip prices and reaffirmed the company’s plan to go public in two to three years.

Grassley Says He Won’t Delay Kavanaugh Hearing As Moderate Republicans Fall In Line

Democrats’ Hail Mary play to stymie the confirmation of Trump SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh is beginning to fizzle out. As angry Dems demanded that a Monday hearing on the allegations against Kavanaugh be delayed until the FBI has a chance to investigate, turncoat Republicans (on whom the Dems had been depending for votes) instead withdrew their support and fell in line after Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley declared that he would not honor Democrats’ request. Grassley revealed his intention to stand firm late Tuesday after lawyers for Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey, who is claiming that Kavanaugh attempted to sexually assault her 35 years ago when the two were 17-year-old high school students, said their client wouldn’t be wiling to appear at Monday’s hearing.

According to the Hill, Grassley said Tuesday that there was “no reason” to delay the hearing now that Republicans have invited both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, his accuser, to testify publicly. However, while Ford’s attorneys have insisted that their client has taken a polygraph test and “deserves to be heard”, Ford has bizarrely insisted that the FBI sh …

Tilray Goes Parabolic: Stock Soars 40% Premarket, Market Cap Hits $20 Billion

Less than a year ago, traders watched in dumbfounded amazement as bitcoin soared every day as momentum chasers were hooked. Now, it’s all about pot stock Tilray, which is up another 40% on Wednesday morning, soaring to $218 in premarket trading, its third straight day of relentless gains after CEO Brendan Kennedy pithced the company’s growth prospects in an interview with Jim Cramer on Tuesday.

And with its market cap north of $20 billion as of this morning, the company’s implied value is just over $83 million for each of its 243 employees. Incidentally, the company’s most recent revenue was $28 million, or some 714x less than its market cap.

Today’s spike follows a 29% surge on Tuesday after the company announced the DEA approved plans for it to import medical marijuana to supply a clinical trial in California; until this morning, the stock has gained 42% this week and a whopping 800% since its $17/share IPO in July according to Bloomberg.

Kennedy told Cramer that there’s a clear global growth opportunity for medical cannabis and he expects to see another country follow in Canada’s footsteps by legalizing marijuana in the next yea …

Nine “Fascinating” Stats About Inflation

In a report on the history (and future) of inflation from Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid, the credit strategist notes that while it may not feel like it, but we live in inflationary times relative to long-term history.

Before the start of the twentieth century prices generally crept higher only very slowly over time and were indeed often flat for very long periods. For example in the UK the overall price level was broadly unchanged between 1800 and 1938. However, inflation moved higher everywhere across the globe at numerous points in the twentieth century. UK prices since 1938 have increased by a multiple of 50 (+4885%) and of the 25 countries with continuous inflation data back to 1900, the UK is one of only 5 countries in the sample not to experience extreme inflation (defined as >25% YoY) in a given year. Of these 25 countries only Holland (3.0%), Canada (3.0%), the US (3.0%) and Switzerland (2.1%) have seen average annual inflation at 3% or below.

As shown in the chart below, while inflation was virtually non-existent until the 20th century, all of that changed once the Federal Reserve was created…

And while we will discuss in a follow up post Reid’s observations on just “what chan …

North Korea Pledges To Dismantle Nuclear Reactor, Shutter Missile Launchers

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has proven in the past that he would be willing to say anything to keep South Korea and the US at the bargaining table, even if he doesn’t intend to follow through. And just a few weeks after President Trump canceled a planned visit to North Korea by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Kim on Wednesday announced that he would allow international monitors to enter the country and observe the dismantling of the North’s nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, its primary source of nuclear fuel, amid a raft of other bilateral promises including plans for the North and South to field a joint team at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020 while seeking a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

While Moon heralded this announcement as an important breakthrough in attaining a “nuclear-free” North Korea,it’s worth noting that the North has promised to close down Yongbyon before – going as far back as 2007, according to NPR.

In addition to Yongbyon, the North promised observed shutdowns of its missile engine testing site and launch pad in the Northwestern town of Dongchang-ri. However, the significance of shuttering these two facilities is not clear, according to …

Florence Is a Tragedy for Homeowners, Not Insurers

People in the Carolinas are about to rediscover the difference between the damage a storm causes and what is covered by insurance. While wind damage is well covered by insurers, flood damage is absent from most policies.

Marvel Gets a Leading Woman

The coming ‘Captain Marvel’ marks an overdue milestone in the Marvel universe.

Coca-Cola Goes Back to the Future

Many were surprised to see that Coca-Cola, the world’s largest beverage company, is considering dipping its toes into the cannabis market.

Currencies: Dollar drifts lower as Brexit talks, data make for volatile British pound

The U.S. dollar trades slightly weaker versus many of its rivals on Wednesday, as investors focus on turmoil surrounding the British pound, as well as China’s reiteration that it wouldn’t use its yuan as a trade war tool.

Key Words: Bert and Ernie aren’t a couple, Sesame Workshop reveals in statement you didn’t see coming

Bert and Ernie were trending Tuesday afternoon on Twitter, and, it might be noted, they were doing so in a consciously decoupled fashion.

Howard Gold’s No-Nonsense Investing: This is the biggest lesson investors should learn from the 2008 financial crisis

The “dumb” plodders who held on have had the last laugh over the “gurus.”