20Feb2019 Midday Update: Wall Street Trading At The Unchanged Line, DOW Up Less Than 10 Points, WTI Hits Resistance At 57.35, FOMC Meeting At 2:00 Pm ET

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are mixed today. The IPC is up 0.66% while the S&P 500 gains 0.11%. The Bovespa is off 0.19%.

UBS to appeal after fined 4.5 billion euros in French tax fraud case

A French court found Swiss bank UBS AG guilty of illegally soliciting clients and laundering the proceeds of tax evasion, ordering it to pay 4.5 billion euros ($5.1 billion) in penalties.

Danske Bank pulls out of Russia, Baltics after money-laundering backlash

Danske Bank will pull out of Russia and the neighboring Baltic states, the Danish lender said after Estonia ordered it to close the branch at the center of one of the largest-ever money laundering scandals.

Bombardier to deliver handful of Global 7500 jets in first half 2019

Bombardier Inc, the Canadian train and plane maker, will deliver a handful of its new flagship Global 7500 business jets to customers in the first half of 2019, with the remaining 10-15 deliveries expected in the second half, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday.

Sainsbury’s-Asda deal in jeopardy as UK regulator condemns plan

Britain’s competition regulator has dealt a potentially fatal blow to Sainsbury’s planned $9.5 billion takeover of Walmart’s Asda, saying the supermarket groups are unlikely to be able to address its “extensive” concerns about the deal.

Bristol-Myers says Starboard nominated five directors, bought shares

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said on Wednesday that activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP intends to nominate five directors to the U.S. drugmaker’s board, one month after it announced a $74 billion deal to acquire peer Celgene Corp.

Global stocks up on Asia push, muted Wall St. eyes Fed minutes

World stocks rose on Wednesday, hitting a four-month high on hopes for progress in trade talks between the United States and China, and a supportive backdrop from major central banks also helped push risk assets higher.

Volvo Cars raises over $200 million from new euro bond

Sweden’s Volvo Cars issued a bond worth 2 billion Swedish crowns ($214.65 million), it said on Wednesday, just five months after the Chinese-owned carmaker terminated plans to list itself blaming trade tensions and a downturn in automotive stocks.

Wall St. edges higher ahead of Fed minutes

U.S. stocks rose sluggishly on Wednesday, as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s minutes from its latest meeting, while assessing the latest developments in the U.S.-China trade talks.

Southwest probes cancellations, says shutdown cost $60 million

Southwest Airlines Co added a $60 million hit from the recent U.S. government shutdown to its list of headaches on Wednesday as it investigated whether a conflict with its mechanics union was adding to a rise in flight cancellations.

Illinois Doubles Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour

As if Illinois sky-high taxes, outsize cost of living and teetering public pension fund weren’t enough reasons for people and business to flee the state (it suffered record population loss in 2018, the fifth straight year of declines), newly inaugurated Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker – heir to the Pritzker fortune – signaled Thursday that he would sign a bill to double Illinois minimum wage from $8.25 to $15 by 2025 after it passed both houses of the state legislature.

As the Daily Caller reported, the bill will raise the state minimum wage incrementally to $9.25 on Jan. 1, 2020, then to $10 an hour the following July, and it will continue to increase by $1 a year until 2025.

JB Pritzker

“Phasing in the minimum wage over the next six years will put $6,300 a year into the pockets of nearly a quarter of our state’s workforce and billions of dollars into local economies in every …

What To Look For In Today’s FOMC Minutes

Last month, the Fed made dovish tweaks at its January meeting, and with the FOMC now firmly in “data-dependent” mode, discussion on the balance of risks will be key; additionally, markets will be keeping an eye out for any clues that there is a consensus on the FOMC to halt its balance sheet run-off this year.

Here is what traders will be looking for heading into today’s Fed minutes, courtesy of RanSquawk

MEETING RECAP: Heading into the FOMC’s rate decision and statement, the market was looking for an update on the balance sheet, whether the Fed would maintain a “gradual” pace of rate hikes, whether it judges the balance of risks as “roughly balanced” and whether it revises its assessment of the economy.

All of those factors saw dovish tweaks in the latest statement:

on the balance sheet, the FOMC indicated that it was prepared to adjust the pace of the balance sheet run-off, it dumped language on “gradual” rate hikes, adding in that the Committee will be “patient” on future hikes.

The language around “roughly balanced” risks was also dumped, and it downgraded its view of the economy slightly, now characterising it as “solid” from “strong”.

The Fed also changed its view on inflation, which it now sees as “muted”.

There were some fears among traders that the Fed might not be as dovish as hoped for; that fear was jettisoned with the release of the statement, and the dovish Fed saw risk assets bounce higher.

POWELL PRESS CONFERENCE: In the press conference, Chair Powell sounded upbeat on the economy, reiterating his now familiar message of data-dependence and patience. He did note cross-current headwinds from the slowdown in Chinese and European growth.

On rates, Powell said the case for raising rates has weakened somewhat. On the balance sheet, Powell said the policy will be driven …

Border Clash Imminent As Maduro Deploys Military To Borders To Block ‘Aid’

Venezuela has shut a key maritime border and grounded flights as the Washington-backed coup-leader Juan Guaido has said that foreign aid will enter Venezuela from neighboring countries by land and sea on Saturday.

CNN reports that a government representative confirmed Venezuela has closed its maritime border with Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire and, in the Western state of Falcon, prevented flights leaving from or departing to those islands.

President Maduro has rejected offers of foreign food and medicine, denying there are widespread shortages and accusing Guaido of using aid to undermine his government in a U.S.-orchestrated bid to oust him.

In comments broadcast on state TV, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the opposition would have to pass over “our dead bodies” to impose a new government. Guaido, who has invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, denounces Maduro as illegitimate and has received backing from some 50 countries.

Padrino said it was unacceptable for the military to receive threats from Trump, and said officers and so …

Why Today’s Fed’s Minutes Release May Result In Brief Market Chaos

Traditionally, when the Fed releases the Minutes for its most recent FOMC meeting, the sequence of events is that Bloomberg, Reuters and a handful of other news service blast flashing red headlines with the key highlights and soundbites, which are delivered to markets precisely at 2:00pm which then sets the market mood for the rest of the day, allowing algos to trade in kneejerk response to the initial information disclosure, and forcing analysts and strategists to goalseek their narrative to the market’s reaction: if stocks spike, the minutes are more dovish than expected, conversely if stocks slide, the Fed snuck in a few extra hawkish points, and so on. In fact, by the time people actually finish reading the full minutes which takes, well, a few minutes (the December release was 28 pages, but of these only 3-4 truly matter), sentiment has already been set, ironically by just a couple of headlines and how the headline-scanning algos react to them.

Which means that initial handful of headlines is critical; and what is just as important, is that the initial narrative is compiled by several members of the financial press as the Fed provides members of accredited news organizations access to the minutes shortly ahead of the public release time at a central-bank facility, allowing the journalists time to prepare headlines and articles reporting the content also at 2 p.m. local time when the general embargo is lifted.

Today, however, there will be no headlines at 2pm.

The reason: as a result of today’s U.S. government closure due to a snowstorm, the central bank will not release the minutes of its Jan. 29-30 meeting to the media lockup ahead of their normal release, preventing news organizations from reviewing the document before it becomes publicly available, and also preventing pre-written stories and headlines from hitting the tape at that very moment.

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Karl Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette could inherit part of his fortune

The late designer’s beloved cat isn’t the only trust fund pet — here’s how other people are including their fur babies in their estate planning.

Futures Movers: U.S. oil benchmark on track for 6-day win streak

U.S. oil futures shake off earlier weakness Wednesday to move higher, putting prices on track to extend their streak of gains to a sixth consecutive session as signs of tighter global crude supplies outweigh pressure from a continued rise in U.S. production.

Key Words: Elon Musk: Bitcoin is brilliant but it’s not for Tesla

Not one to shy away from controversy, Elon Musk has weighed in on one of, if not the most, divisive topics in finance today: Bitcoin.