31Oct2018 Midday Update: Wall Street Stocks Still Headed For Big October Losses, Gold Slides To 3-week Low As Dollar Soars, US Crude-oil Supplies Rise

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are broadly higher today with shares in U.S. leading the region. The S&P 500 is up 1.19% while Mexico’s IPC is up 1.17% and Brazil’s Bovespa is up 0.26%.

EU makes new offer to reluctant states on digital tax: document

European Union finance ministers will discuss next week a watered down proposal on an EU-wide digital tax, a document seen by Reuters shows, trying to persuade reticent governments to agree on the plan by the end of the year.

Taco Bell, KFC power Yum Brands quarterly results

Yum Brands Inc beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit on Wednesday, as strong sales at KFC and Taco Bell more than made up for further weakness at Pizza Hut, sending its shares up as much as 5 percent.

Anthem predicts better 2019 than Wall Street forecast, shares rise

Anthem Inc on Wednesday said its own expectations for 2019 earnings are ahead of current Wall Street estimates and the health insurer also raised its 2018 profit forecast, and its shares rose as much as 5 percent.

Airbus says tougher to meet jet delivery goal after snags

European planemaker Airbus softened its key target for jet deliveries on Wednesday and warned that reaching it would be a “greater stretch” after a sequence of industrial problems.

Airbus in talks to unjam some HNA, Emirates deliveries: sources

Airbus faces new headaches delivering A330s to airlines tied to China’s cash-strapped HNA Group and is in separate talks with Emirates over the timing of undelivered A380 superjumbos.

Barrick, Randgold sweeten dividend ahead of takeover deal vote

Canada’s Barrick Gold and takeover target Randgold Resources are boosting their dividend payouts ahead of shareholder votes next week on their $6.1 billion deal, the miners said Wednesday.

U.S. Federal Reserve unveils proposal to ease regulations for larger banks

The U.S. Federal Reserve unveiled a proposal on Wednesday that would ease regulations for banks with less than $700 billion in assets.

Robust earnings boost equity markets after brutal month

Robust corporate results helped world stock markets surge on Wednesday, bringing some relief to jittery investors after a brutal October that saw equities suffer one of their worst drops since the financial crisis ten years ago.

Private payrolls rise in October; wages surge in third quarter

U.S. private sector payrolls increased by the most in eight months in October, suggesting overall job growth accelerated this month after Hurricane Florence weighed on restaurant and retail employment in September.

Treasury Announces Record Debt Sale In Upcoming Refunding Auction

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is about to surpass Timothy Geithner’s achievement of selling a record amount of notes and bonds as he seeks to finance America’s soaring budget deficit.

According to the latest quarterly refunding statement, the US Treasury is about to sell a record amount of debt, surpassing levels seen both in the aftermath of the Great Depression and the Global Financial Crisis.

On Wednesday, the US Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee unveiled that it will increase the amount of debt to be sold at the upcoming quarterly refunding auctions to $83 billion from $78 billion three months earlier. This will be the fourth straight quarter of increasing refunding auction sizes and is driven by the soaring US deficit shortfall, which in 2018 hit $779 billion the highest since 2012, as well as the Fed’s ongoing balance sheet shrinkage.

Here are the details of the TBAC’s proposal:

Auctions for 2-, 3- and 5-year notes will increase by $1 billion in both of the next two months; last qu …

“High Anxiety Markets” – Doug Kass Warns “We Live In Mel Brook’s Mad Mad Mad World Now”

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

“Brophy: I got it. I got it. I got it.

[thump]

Brophy: I ain’t got it.” – Mel Brooks, High Anxiety

Arriving at Los Angeles International Airport, Dr. Richard Thorndyke has several odd encounters (such as a flasher impersonating a police officer, and a passing bus with a full orchestra playing inside it). Dr. Thorndyke remarks:

“What a dramatic airport!”

He is taken by his driver, Brophy, to the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, where he has been hired as a replacement for Dr. Ashley, who died mysteriously. Brophy has a condition of nervousness, and he takes pictures when he gets nervous. Upon his arrival, Thorndyke is greeted by the staff, Dr. Charles Montague, Dr. Philip Wentworth, and Nurse Charlotte Diesel. When he goes to his room, a large rock is thrown through the window, with a message of welcome from the violent ward.

During the movie, Thorndyke suffers from a neural disorder called “High Anxiety”, a mix of acrophobia and vertigo, and tries to overcome the infliction.

Turkey Says Saudis Strangled Khashoggi Immediately On Entering Consulate, Dismembered Body

Hours after the Washington Post published an anonymously sourced story claiming that Saudi Arabia is still refusing to cooperate with Turkish investigators looking into the murder of insider-turned-dissident Jamal Khashoggi, Istanbul’s head prosecutor has delivered a statement revealing more incriminating details about the circumstances surrounding the journalist’s murder at the hands of a 15-man “hit squad” inside the Kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

In a revelation that supports the theory, advanced by a steady stream of leaks to Western and Turkish media from the prosecutor’s office, that Khashoggi’s murder was a premeditated act ordered by senior intelligence officials and possibly Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman himself, Istanbul’s head prosecutor said Wednesday that Khashoggi was strangled to death as soon as he entered the consulate in a murder that was likely pre-planned. His body was then “cut into piece …

Fed To Ease Liquidity Requirements For Regional Banks As Brainard Warns Of More Bailouts

On Wednesday the Federal Reserve is set to vote on proposals that would further ease capital requirements for banks with assets of $700 billion or lower, expanding on Trump’s promise to deregulate Wall Street.

The biggest benefits will come to banks with between $100 billion and $250 billion of assets – or the bulk of regional banks – who would no longer have to adhere to liquidity coverage ratio and proposed net stable funding ratio, according to prepared remarks by Fed Vice Chairman of Supervision Randal Quarles. Firms between $100 billion and $250 billion would also face stress tests every two years, instead of annually

“A reduction of this magnitude is appropriate because most U.S. banking firms in this group are not engaged in complex activities and have more stable funding than systemic banks given their relatively traditional business models,” said Quarles.

At the same time, Non-Wall Street banks that have more than $250 billion of assets would move to a “calibrated” liquidity coverage ratio that is in the range of 70% to 85% of full LCR, Bloomberg notes.

Meanwhile, large banks will generally see little benefits from today’s deregulation: Quarles said that large bank holding companies now have about $1.3 trillion of capital, and the Fed proposals would reduce that by only $8 billion.

Curiously, Fed Governor Lael Brainard said she plans to vote against proposals, arguing they would raise “the risk that American taxpayers again will be on the hook” to bail out banks.

“I see little benefit to the institutions or the system from the proposed reduction in core resilience that could justify the increased risk to financial stability and the taxpayer,” Brainard says in prepared remarks.

Her caution is warranted in light of the recent earnings shock unveiled by Bank OZK which unveiled a deeply …

Deep Dive: Here are the good and bad numbers at Tesla, Ford, GM and Fiat Chrysler

Investors are looking at surprisingly good results for the car companies.

Project Syndicate: The hidden debt bomb that the Chinese have funded in emerging markets

China has been lending billions to low-income countries, but almost no one knows how much debt is on the books of emerging-market countries, writes Carmen Reinhart.

Economic Report: U.S. creates 227,000 private-sector jobs in October, ADP says

Large businesses, meaning those with about 500 employees or more, appeared to lead the way, as they added 102,000 jobs.