Boeing records $2.31 billion reach-forward losses on tanker program over 3 years

Boeing said on Friday it had recorded reach-forward losses of $2.31 billion related to the U.S. Air Force KC-46A tanker program over 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Persisting trade worries send Wall Street lower

The benchmark S&P 500 index fell for a third straight day on Friday as skepticism over the United States and China reaching a trade deal before a looming deadline added to concerns over slowing global growth.

National Enquirer owner defends reporting on Amazon’s Bezos

The owner of U.S. tabloid newspaper the National Enquirer pushed back on Friday against accusations of “extortion and blackmail” from Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, saying its reporting on an extramarital relationship involving the world’s richest man was lawful and it would investigate his claims.

World stocks poised for weekly loss; dollar firms again

World stocks fell for a third straight day on Friday on pessimism about global economic growth and trade tensions, putting them on track for their first weekly drop this year, while the U.S. dollar was on track for its biggest weekly gain since August.

Amazon reconsiders New York headquarters over local opposition: Washington Post

Amazon.com Inc is reconsidering locating part of its new headquarters in New York because of local opposition, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the retailer’s thinking.

U.S. prosecutors weigh if American Media violated immunity deal: Bloomberg

U.S. prosecutors are reviewing whether National Enquirer parent company American Media Inc violated an earlier agreement granting it legal immunity in exchange for cooperation given the tabloid’s handling of a story about Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Ryanair CEO’s new share option scheme targets doubling profit in 5 years

Ryanair’s Chief Executive Michael O’Leary could earn almost 100 million euros ($113 million) if he doubles either the profitability or share price of the carrier within five years, under a new share option scheme announced on Friday.

GM Canada’s Oshawa production stops due to Lear strike

Production at General Motors’ Oshawa assembly plant in Canada came to a stop at about 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT) on Friday, a spokesman said, after the U.S. automaker exhausted its supply of seats from Lear Corp, where workers are striking.

Trump official slams cartels as U.S. lawmakers push anti-OPEC bill

A senior administration official said on Friday that U.S. national security depends on affordable energy, and slammed cartels when asked if President Donald Trump would support a bill targeting the OPEC production group’s oil supply cuts.

Late-Day Panic-Buying Keeps Stock Win Streak Alive, Bond Yields Tumble To 13-Mo Lows

World GDP growth expectations are tumbling…

Earnings expectations are plunging…

And still stocks manage to hold gains…

Forget Face ID: Smartphones Will Monitor How Workers Walk, Type And “Spend Their Free Time”

Forget Face ID: a collaboration between the Defense Department and a NY-based company called TWOSENSE.AI, has birthed an artificial intelligence algorithm that could be embedded in smartphones and will be able to identify the device owner by the way they talk, type, walk and even by how “they spend their free time”.

TWOSENSE.AI is working with the Department of Defense to build a SaaS product that could eventually replace access cards currently used to verify the identities of DOD employees when logging onto the department’s networks.

The AI constantly monitors the user’s behavior, including how they carry the device, type on it and even walk. The system then automatically verifies the user’s identity using these parameters, enabling them to work seamlessly on their secure network without having to login each time.

Similar to privacy-stripping developments in China, the system updates a “trust score” as it tracks these metrics, based on the algorithm’s level of confidence that the correct person is using the device. Jeremy Corey, chief of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Cyber Innovation Division said in May: “The score is checked to ensure it meets the desired threshold. This threshold is predetermined by the organization we are piloting our prototype with …

Super-Junk Leads The 2019 Asset Revival

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

The stock market is unlikely to crack until speculation in junk bonds gets blown out of the water.

The high-yield index hit record highs on Powell’s dovish Fed outlook. The lowest-rated debt has led the charge with 6% returns this year.

Bloomberg reports Junk Bonds Rage as Clear Channel Sells Biggest CCC in Months.

High-yield debt has already proven to be one of the best-performing asset classes in fixed income this year, led by CCC rated bonds that have so far returned just over 6 percent, Bloomberg Barclays index data show.

Junk bonds and speculative risk taking go hand in hand with stock market gains. With that thought, let’s discuss take a look at bond ratings to see what’s delivering the gains.

CCC Debt Leads the Revival

Fed Bombshell: Central Bankers Discussing If QE Should Be Used “More Regularly”

Just a few days after the San Fran Fed, that incubator of profound economic insight and blatantly money-wasting research which recently found that record amounts in student loans, wait for it, prevent young people from buying homes, casually tossed a bomb in academia when it said that negative rates would have accelerated the recovery from the last recession setting up a strawman to use NIRP during the next recession, just dumped another bombshell.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Reuters reports that San Fran Fed President Mary Daly said that US central bankers are currently debating whether it should confine its controversial tool of bond buying to purely emergency situations or if it should turn to that tool more regularly.

“In the financial crisis, in the aftermath of that when we were trying to help the economy, we engaged in these quantitative easing policies, and an important question is, should those always be in the tool kit — should you always have those at your ready — or should you think about those are only tools you use when you really hit the zero lower bound and you have no other things you can do,” Daly said after a talk at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

So how would the Fed decided which “tool” to use when? Well, according to Daly the answer wasn’t clear: “you could imagine executing policy with your interest rate as your primary tool and the balance sheet as a secondary tool, but one that you would use more readily,” she added. “That’s not decided yet, but it’s part of what we are discussing now.”

So while it remains unclear what “more regularly” means, one proposal which we are confident will be adopted by the Fed is the following:

All the ways Gen X is financially wrecked

Though they’re struggling financially, they’re far less likely than millennials to plan to spend less and save more this year.

The Tell: Dow, S&P 500 bulls are facing the most important test of the new year, says analyst

The recent weakness that halted a 2019 rally for U.S. equity benchmarks, leaving them on track Friday for a three-day losing streak, may represent the most crucial test for the bulls so far this year, according to one market technician.

Bond Report: Treasury yields add to weekly slide as U.S.-China trade tensions weigh

Treasurys rally Friday as investors watch for fresh developments on trade negotiations between the U.S. and China.