19Feb2019 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street To Open Lower, DOW Futures Down Double Digits, SP 500 Down -0.3%, WTI Crude At 56.98

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are lower today with shares in London off the most. The FTSE 100 is down 0.58% while France’s CAC 40 is off 0.44% and Germany’s DAX is lower by 0.18%.

HSBC warns on China, UK slowdowns as 2018 profit disappoints

HSBC warned it may have to delay some investments this year as Europe’s biggest bank missed 2018 profit forecasts due to slowing growth in its two home markets of China and Britain.

Honda to close British car plant as Brexit looms

Honda will close its only British car plant in 2021 with the loss of up to 3,500 jobs, a major departure of Japanese investment announced just over a month before the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union.

Tariff nerves wilt stocks, Swedish crown savaged by inflation slowdown

U.S. car tariff worries shunted Europe’s stocks off a four-month high on Tuesday, while Sweden’s crown was savaged by a slowdown in inflation less than two months after its central bank had dared to raise interest rates for the first time in seven years.

UK PM May told Honda president she was disappointed by plant closure: spokesman

British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to the president of Honda to express her disappointment after the car manufacturer’s decision to shut a plant in England, May’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

Walmart holiday quarter sales top estimates, shares jump

Walmart Inc reported an estimate-beating jump in holiday quarter comparable sales on Tuesday as a strong economy boosted consumer spending and fueled more e-commerce purchases, sending shares of the world’s larger retailer up almost 5 percent.

Oil hovers below 2019 highs on OPEC cuts, trade talks in focus

Oil was close to its 2019 high of almost $67 a barrel on Tuesday, supported by OPEC-led supply cuts although gains were capped by concerns about slowing economic growth that could hit demand.

Huawei founder says will not share data with China: CBS News

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s founder and chief executive pledged not to share any customer information with the Chinese government and said the company had never done so, in an interview with CBS News that aired on Tuesday.

German government unlikely to make quick decision on Huawei: source

The German government will probably not take a quick decision on whether to allow China’s Huawei to build Germany’s 5G network, a government source said on Tuesday.

Stock futures dip ahead of fresh U.S.-China trade talks

U.S. stock index futures dipped on Tuesday, as investors started a holiday-shortened week on a cautious note ahead of a fresh round of trade talks between the United States and China.

Trump Mocks AG Lawsuit Against National Emergency, Slams California For “Out Of Control Fast Train”

President Trump just delivered one epic “I told you so.”

In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump bashed the 16 mostly-Democratic (except for Maryland, which currently has a Republican governor) states which joined forces late Monday to file a lawsuit to try and stop his national emergency order on immigration.

As I predicted, 16 cities, led mostly by Open Border Democrats and the Radical Left, have filed a lawsuit in, of course, the 9th Circuit! California, the state that has wasted billions of dollars on their out of control Fast Train, with no hope of completion, seems in charge!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2019

Just as Trump predicted on Friday, the court challenge is being brought in the ninth circuit, which has opposed many of Trump’s policy initiatives …

Car Wars: Episode I

Submitted by Rabobank strategist, Michael Every

Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.

Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trump Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of EU.

While the congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict….

Source: Bloomberg

20 years after I sat down in a London cinema, saw the above trailer crawl (minus two small edits astute readers might notice), sighed and thought to myself “I watch Star Wars to get away from this kind of thing,” here we have life imitating George Lucas.

It’s impossible to ignore we are potentially close to several major conflicts. India is considering military retaliation against Pakistan for a recent terrorist outrage – that’s two nuclear powers; Iran and Israel have both warned the other that war is a rea …

An Obituary For California’s Bullet Train

California’s ill-fated statewide bullet train project – which has been reduced to a “train to nowhere” between Merced and Bakersfield so the state doesn’t have to return $3.5 billion in federal funds – took residents of the Golden State on a ride for over a decade.

While initially projected to cost $33.6 billion in 2008, former Gov. Jerry Brown’s “special legacy project” ballooned in estimated size to nearly $100 billion in 2018, with service beginning from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2033.

Opining on the demise of the bullet train in an “I told ya so” Op-Ed, the WSJ editorial board provides a post-mortem on yet another failed attempt towards a progressive utopia using taxpayer dollars.

***

Via the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board

Death of a California Dream
Gavin Newsom gives up on Jerry Brown’s bullet-train fiasco.

Like Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, Ca …

Walmart Soars After Reporting Best Holiday Quarter In A Decade

Walmart stock is soaring, brushing off December’s dreadful retail sales print, after reporting Q4 revenue and earnings that beat expectations, and same store sales that not only crushed forecasts, but were the best holiday quarter for Walmart in a decade.

America’s largest bricks and mortar retailer reported 4Q adjusted EPS of $1.41 vs est. $1.34 (range $1.29-$1.42), while Q4 revenue of $138.8b also beat estimates of $138.7b (range $135.7b-$140.8b).

More notably, Walmart reported comparable same store sales in the US of 4.2% for the fourth quarter which included Christmas, beating analysts’ estimates of 3.2%, by a full percentage point.

Surprisingly, higher prices – more than increased foot traffic – drove the revenue gains, with the average ticket up 2.3% even as traffic dropped 0.7%.

Currencies: Dollar attempts to end 2-day slide as U.S.-China trade talks resume

The U.S. dollar resumes its move higher on Tuesday, looking to snap a two-day losing streak that halted the recent up trend of the greenback.

Key Words: Trump says ‘stock market would be down 10,000 points by now’ had ‘the opposition’ won the election

President Donald Trump on Tuesday implied that the stock market would effectively have crashed had he lost the 2016 race for the White House.

Need to Know: Bears could be in for a ‘great few weeks’ as S&P 500 hits a wall

Our call of the day from Adam Kobeissi, founder and editor in chief of The Kobeissi Letter, sees near-term dark clouds gathering around the S&P 500, and taking a bearish position on the index may pay off. For now.