13May2019 Pre-Market Commentary: May Be Another Bumpy Day For The Markets

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are lower today with shares in Germany off the most. The DAX is down 0.72% while France’s CAC 40 is off 0.51% and London’s FTSE 100 is lower by 0.07%.

Exclusive: Impossible Foods raises $300 million with investors eager for bite of meatless burgers

Impossible Foods, which makes a meatless plant-based burger and is backed by celebrities like Serena Williams and Katy Perry, said on Monday it has raised $300 million in the latest round of funding ahead of a possible initial public offering.

Exclusive: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs

Amazon.com Inc is rolling out machines to automate a job held by thousands of its workers: boxing up customer orders.

Bar rises for shale takeovers as Chevron bows out of Anadarko fight

Chevron Chief Executive Michael Wirth’s decision to opt out of a bidding war for Anadarko Petroleum Corp has raised the bar for deals, and dampened expectations that oil majors will drive a new wave of consolidation in U.S. shale.

Chinese group to delay bailout funding for Apple supplier Japan Display

A Chinese-Taiwanese group is delaying an up to 80 billion yen ($729.33 million) investment planned as part of a rescue deal for Apple Inc supplier Japan Display as it wants to reassess the target’s prospects, the Japanese firm said.

BlackRock pullout makes state role in Carige rescue more plausible: Moody’s

The decision of U.S. asset manager BlackRock to pull out of the rescue of Italian troubled bank Carige makes state intervention more plausible, Moody’s Investors Service said on Monday.

TV networks emerge as obstacles on YouTube’s hunt for ads

Three years ago, the beginning of the end of the U.S. television business looked certain when one of the largest ad buying agencies vowed to move a big chunk of its purchases to YouTube from TV budgets.

China says will ‘never surrender’ as U.S. trade row heats up

China will never surrender to external pressure, the government said on Monday, though stopped short of announcing how Beijing will hit back after Washington renewed its threat to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports in an escalating trade dispute.

Novartis vows to fight U.S. price-fixing claims against Sandoz unit

Novartis on Monday said claims of price fixing against its Sandoz generics unit amid a U.S. probe of 20 drugmakers are without merit, with the Swiss company vowing to fight allegations in a lawsuit filed last week.

EU trade chief sees possible extension to May 18 deadline for U.S. car tariffs: newspaper

European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem expects U.S. President Donald Trump to delay a May 18 deadline for U.S. tariffs on cars imported from the European Union, according to an interview published in the Sueddeutsche newspaper on Monday.

Sweden Seeks Extradition Of Assange To Face Trial On Rape Charges

It has been one month since UK police entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrested Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. the Wikileaks founder has already been slapped with a 50-week sentence for skipping his bail in the UK, and as the UK prepares to process an extradition request from US prosecutors, they now must also decide whether Sweden has a legitimate claim.

Swarms Of AI-Piloted Drones May Soon Patrol Europe’s Borders

Authored by Zach Campbell via The Intercept,

Imagine you’re hiking through the woods near a border. Suddenly, you hear a mechanical buzzing, like a gigantic bee. Two quadcopters have spotted you and swoop in for a closer look. Antennae on both drones and on a nearby autonomous ground vehicle pick up the radio frequencies coming from the cell phone in your pocket. They send the signals to a central server, which triangulates your exact location and feeds it back to the drones. The robots close in.

“Odds Point To A Worst-Case Scenario”: Shocked Traders Respond To Latest Trade War Twist

Friday’s euphoric reversal, which saw the Dow Jones first tumble some 400 points before staging a miraculous 500 points comeback on no news but a rebound in optimism that just because new US import tariffs were put in place that would make a trade deal/compromise between the US and China more likely, appears to have been… premature.

Following some soothing words from both the US and Chinese sides on Friday that while talks to avert a tariff hikes had failed, they were “constructive” and there was grounds for “cautious optimism” for the future, the standoff between the U.S. and China abruptly escalated over the weekend when China’s vice premier Liu He said that China is planning how to retaliate and listed three core concerns that must be addressed, and on which it wouldn’t make concessions, ahead of any deal including:

i) the complete removal of all trade-war related tariffs,

ii) set targets for Chinese purchases of goods in line with real demand and

iii) ensure that the text of the deal is “balanced” to ensure the “dignity” of both nations.

Commenting on this list, the Editor in Chief of the Global Times, Hu Xijin, who has become a real-time translator for Chinese unspoken intentions on twitter, explained that “from perspective of China’s politics, there is little room for compromises. They will insist.This political logic won’t be changed no matter how much additional tariffs the US will impose.”

China has made public 3 core concerns that must be addressed &it won’t make concessions on. From perspective of China’s politics, there is little room for compromises. They will insist.This political logic won’t be changed no matter how much additional tariffs the US will impose.

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT)

WHO Warns Ebola Outbreak Critical As Armed Militants Target Healthcare Workers

Armed attacks by militants, distrust of western medicine and a growing funding gap has been crippling the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which warned that the situation risks spiraling out of control.

Ford wants to keep calm & carry on in India’s shaky auto mkt

Ford wants to keep calm & carry on in India’s shaky auto mkt Ford is likely to make an additional investment of as much as $1 billion in Indian operations.

The cop who sat in Rajiv Gandhi’s chair

The cop who sat in Rajiv Gandhi’s chairIn 1985, the then SP – Rural, Gorakhpur, had examined Rajiv Gandhi’s special Air Force aircraft.

Modi’s possible UP haul has D-St nervous

Modi’s possible UP haul has D-St nervous. A brokerage has projected a base case where the BJP may end up winning 190-210 seats.

Housing Data Shows Rise In Rental Prices And Home Values In Tech-Rich Areas

from US Census

— this post authored by Earlene K.P. Dowell

You’ve heard of the “Amazon Effect.” Now you can see it.

By combining U.S. Census Bureau data and their own housing listings, economists from Zillow, an online real estate search engine, have been able to show just how much rental prices and home values have skyrocketed in areas across the country that are experiencing a tech boom.

Selected Deposits And The Overnight Bank Funding Rate

from Liberty Street Economics

— this post authored by Alyssa Cambron, Marco Cipriani, Joshua Jones, Romen Mookerjee, Scott Sherman, Brett Solimine, and Timothy Wessel

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently decided to revise the composition of the Overnight Bank Funding Rate (OBFR), a reference rate measuring the cost banks face to borrow overnight in unsecured U.S. dollar-denominated money markets.

Market Snapshot: Why the stock market is at the mercy of the U.S. consumer

Stock market bulls place their hopes on the strength of the U.S. consumer

The Tell: Why the tariff fight prompted a major wealth manager to change its U.S. portfolios

The escalating U.S.-China trade battle prompts UBS to alter its U.S. portfolios in a bid to reduce risk.

The Tell: Here’s how hard the escalating tariff fight will hit the global economy

The U.S.-China trade spat is set to intensify as the Trump administration plans to more than double tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports and extend levies to other goods from the country early Friday. Beijing promises to retaliate. Here’s one set of estimates on how an escalating battle could affect the economies of the U.S., China and the world.