Written by Gary
US stock index futures have fallen sharply this morning (SPY -1.7%), as disappointing economic data from China hampered global risk appetite.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Tesla produced 61,394 Model 3s in fourth quarterTesla Inc said on Wednesday it produced 61,394 Model 3s and delivered nearly 1,000 vehicles per day in the fourth quarter. | |
After brutal 2018, world stocks nurse New Year’s hangoverWorld shares began 2019 on a downbeat note, oil prices and bond yields skidded lower and the Japanese yen strengthened on Wednesday as data from China to France confirmed investors’ fears of a global economic slowdown. | |
Futures slide at start of year on concerns of global slowdownU.S. stock index futures sank on Wednesday, offering no respite as Wall Street comes off its worst year in a decade, as weak data in Asia and Europe confirmed fears of a global economic slowdown, while the U.S. government shutdown dragged on. | |
UK minister defends giving Brexit ferry contract to company with no shipsBritain’s transport minister has defended awarding a 14 million-pound ($18 million) contract for shipping goods after Brexit to a new ferry company that owns no ships. | |
Bill Gates’ nuclear venture hits snag amid U.S. restrictions on China deals: WSJTerraPower LLC, a nuclear energy venture chaired by Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, is seeking a new partner for early-stage trials of its technology after new U.S. rules forced it to abandon an agreement with China, company officials told the Wall Street Journal. | |
Big claims strain senior living market for U.S. insurersLast March, a 103-year-old resident of a Sunrise Senior Living facility in Willowbrook, Illinois, went on a field trip to the movies. Ruth Smith, who used a walker, fell down two concrete steps in the theater and died about six weeks later. Now Smith’s estate is suing Sunrise, saying that aides did not properly watch her. | |
China’s Didi launches credit, crowdfunding services in diversification pushChina’s Didi Chuxing has launched a suite of financial products, including crowdfunding and lending, as it continues to diversify outside the ride-hailing business following a year of safety scandals. | |
U.S.-China trade war takes toll on global manufacturingFactory activity weakened across much of Europe and Asia in December as the U.S.-led trade war and a slowdown in demand hit production in many economies, offering little reason for optimism as the new year begins. | |
Angry Gartman: “We Are Supposed To Believe The Bull Market Is Still Intact? Utter And Complete Nonsense”“World-renowned” commodity guru Dennis Gartman has published his first Gartman letter note for 2019, and not only is he more bearish than at any time in recent year, he is also angry. Very angry, specifically at the stupidity of “television business channels” which have “all touted the fact that the market’s rally last week came just as stocks here in the US as measured by the S&P had not fallen below the -20% point and thus had “Not yet entered bear market territory.” What sort of nonsense was and is that?” There is much more in the must-read rant excerpted below: STOCKS HAVE BEGUN THE YEAR ON A HORRIBLE NOTE, as Asian shares and particularly Chinese shares have fallen sharply on the news that the Chinese purchasing manager’s report has fallen below 50 indicating that the economy in China is in recession already and thus dragging the Australian and New Zealand markets lower. US stock index futures opened sharply higher with the Dow futures having traced 150-200 “points” higher in early trade and with the S&P futures having traded 15-20 “handles” higher earlier today. The Dow futures are now nearly 300 lower than Monday’s close, or nearly 500 below the earlier highs, while the S&P futures are 25 “handles” below Monday’s close or approximately 45 “handles” below their earlier highs. This is terribly dismaying for the first day or the year and the first day of most months see large inflows of money into the US markets for pension fund and 401k purposes, with the stock index futures rising in anticipation of those inflows. Since the year has only just begun it is futile… and perhaps utterly stupid… to note the change for the year-to-date; indeed, we’ll not mark that change until this coming Monday when we’ve had three days of market movement to take into consideration. However, marking prices from their highs made in late January, stocks in … | |
“I Won And He Lost”: Trump Slams Romney Over Scathing WaPo EditorialAfter criticizing then-candidate Trump during a scripted TV appearance back in 2016, Mitt Romney largely kept quiet as he ran for – and won – his senate seat in Utah (with the help of the president’s endorsement). But now, just two days before his swearing-in, Romney is seeking to burnish his reputation as the leader of the Republican “#Resistance” to the president. In a Washington Post op-ed published in Wednesday’s paper, Romney revived many of his favorite criticisms of the president, citing his failure to “do the right thing” and “inspire and unite” the American people. Romney had hoped Trump would dispense with the taunting and name-calling embraced by Trump during the campaign once he had won the election, yet “he did not.” And while some of Trump’s early staffing picks proved encouraging, Romney accused the president of the cardinal sin of American politics: Being profoundly and aggressively unpresidential. Or as Romney puts it, the president’s “Character falls short.”
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Buchanan: How The War Party Lost The Middle EastAuthored by Patrick Buchanan, op-ed via Townhall.com,
So read the headline in The Washington Post, Aug. 18, 2011. The story quoted President Barack Obama directly:
France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain’s David Cameron signed on to the Obama ultimatum: Assad must go! Seven years and 500,000 dead Syrians later, it is Obama, Sarkozy, and Cameron who are gone. Assad still rules in Damascus, and the 2,000 Americans in Syria are coming home. Soon, says President Donald Trump. But we cannot “leave now,” insists Sen. Lindsey Graham, or “the Kurds are going to get slaughtered.” Question: Who plunged us into a Syrian civil war, and so managed the intervention that were we to … | |
ECB Takes “Unprecedented” Step Of Putting Italy’s Banca Carige In AdministrationInvestors who had hoped that the resolution of Italy’s budget showdown with the EU would mark an end to a volatile period for Italian bonds and stocks were disappointed Wednesday when fears about an Italian banking crisis reemerged after the ECB appointed a slate of temporary administrators to oversee troubled Italian lender Banca Carige after nearly its entire board resigned. Earlier on Wednesday, Consob, Italy’s market watchdog, said it had suspended trading in shares of Banca Carige for the session following a request by the bank, according to Reuters. European bank stocks dropped while bonds rallied as fears about softer-than-expected factory orders across the Continent were compounded by the developments in Italy (which proved an exception to the trend of weak PMIs). | |
Market Extra: The euro is 20 years old — here’s a look back at its tumultuous historyThe euro is celebrating its 20th anniversary on New Year’s Day. Here’s a look back at its often tumultuous history. | |
Key Words: Senate newcomer Mitt Romney says Trump presidency saw ‘deep descent’ in DecemberA Washington Post op-ed in which Romney writes that “the president has not risen to the mantle of the office” serves as evidence that the Trump-skeptic Romney, rather than the one who sought to become Trump’s secretary of state, is the one who’ll be sworn in this week. | |
Currencies: Dollar firmer as skidding stocks, weak Chinese data rattle marketsThe dollar firms modestly against leading rivals early Wednesday, a rebound from a soft finish to an otherwise strong 2018. |
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