Written by Gary
Indecisive day for US stock markets (SPY +0.3%) as major averages waver with modest gains after low volume session.
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Wall St. steadies amid U.S.-China trade jittersU.S. stocks showed signs of stabilizing on Thursday, but gains were kept in check by conflicting comments on trade talks from President Donald Trump and Beijing that reinforced concerns about a potentially lengthy battle harming global growth. | |
WarnerMedia joins Disney, Netflix in reconsidering Georgia business over abortion lawWarnerMedia on Thursday became the third major U.S. media company to say it would reconsider working in Georgia if a new law banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected takes effect, following Walt Disney Co and Netflix. | |
NBCUniversal says abortion laws would ‘strongly impact’ decision on where it filmsComcast Corp’s NBCUniversal said if anti-abortion laws in various U.S. states are upheld, it would “strongly impact” where it produces films and television shows in the future. | |
GE’s CEO ‘stunned’ that factory efficiency drive only just startedGeneral Electric Co’s chief executive said on Thursday he was “really stunned” to learn that a major factory had only recently started using lean manufacturing techniques. | |
Oil falls to two-mth lows on small U.S. crude stock draw, trade war worriesOil prices fell almost 4% to their lowest in over two months on a smaller-than-expected decline in U.S. crude inventories and fears of a global economic slowdown due to the U.S.-China trade war. | |
Equities advance after week-long selloff, bond yields steadyWorld stock markets climbed for the first time this week on Thursday, giving pause to a multiday selloff on fears of an escalating trade war between the United States and China that has pushed investors into safe-haven bonds and the U.S. dollar. | |
Juul considers opening retail stores in United States: sourceJuul Labs Inc is considering opening retail stores in the United States, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, a move that would help the controversial company cash in on the booming popularity of its e-cigarettes. | |
T-Mobile, Sprint considering divesting wireless spectrum: sourcesU.S. wireless carriers T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp are considering divesting wireless spectrum, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as the companies work to gain regulatory approval for their merger. | |
CBS board plans merger talks with Viacom: CNBCShares of Viacom Inc jumped nearly 6% on Thursday on a report that CBS Corp’s board is preparing for merger talks with the media company. | |
Cryptos & Crude Crack As Credit & Yield Curve Collapse ContinuesPaging Steve Mnuchin… Chinese stocks were lower overnight as an afternoon bid failed to get back to even, but remain higher on the week thanks to PBOC’s panicky liquidity injection… | |
New Jersey Pensions Slash Hedge Fund Allocation For 2nd Time In 3 YearsAside from a handful of notable outliers, 2018 was another bruising year for the 2-and-20 crowd, as average returns sunk deep into the red and LPs yanked money at the fastest pace in years. The carnage was so bad, several venerable funds decided to return outside capital and pack it in, a sign that LPs had reached the limits of their patience with the so-called ‘smart money’ crowd. | |
Which Chinese Banks Will Fail Next?Yesterday we reported that in the aftermath of the failure of China’s Baoshang Bank (BSB), and its subsequent seizure by the government – the first takeover of a commercial bank since the Hainan Development Bank 20 years ago – the PBOC appeared to panic and injected a whopping 250 billion yuan via an open-market operation, the largest since January. | |
In Today’s Politics, Messages Are Sent But Rarely ReadAuthored by Tom Luongo, This weekend’s European Parliamentary elections sent a lot of messages around the continent. The Euroskeptics gained while at the same time, their threat was met with a similar show of support for the European project. The message was clear. The European Union isn’t working for many of the people in specific countries around Europe. From the U.K. to Hungary, Italy to Poland, there is a hardening of the dissatisfaction with the direction Brussels is going. But is anyone there listening? No. They are all so committed to their planned future Europe and their smarmy version of cheap communism that all they can do is see the positives. By gaming the outcomes through tying local elections to the European vote, for the first time in over 20 years voter turnout in Europhile countries was high enough to beat back the threat of the Euroskeptics and create the illusion of greater support than there actually is. Winning through tilting the table is what Brussels does. The EU has been built, inch by inch, over the past 70+ years on lie after lie after lie. Vote after re-vote until they got the desired outcome. When I call them cheap communists I mean it. Power is all they care about and the end, no matter what, justify the means. That the whole affair is covered in the thickest layer of smarm and virtue signaling makes it only that much more nauseating to watch. The votes were barely counted when chief smarm-master himself, Donald Tusk, came out and told the world that Brexit was the vaccine for euroskepticism. As if these election results, with inflated numbers for ALDE and the Greens, were a refutation of Euroskeptics; that the EU’s scare tactics in strong-arming the U.K. into submission actually work … | |
India could be losing fastest growing economy tag to ChinaIndia could be losing fastest growing economy tag to ChinaA survey forecast growth slipped to 6.3% annually in March quarter. If they are right, India would lag China. | |
Modi has a Rs 30-tn gift for India’s ailing infraModi has a Rs 30-tn gift for India’s ailing infraThe BJP in its manifesto proposed to construct 12,000 kms of national highways every year till 2024. | |
Why Modi has picked right team for 2nd termWhy Modi has picked right team for 2nd termHaving Shah onboard means calibrating politics according to its policy delivery rather than other way around. | |
April 2019 Pending Home Sales Decline?Written by Steven Hansen The National Association of Realtors (NAR) seasonally adjusted pending home sales index remains in contraction and declined. Our analysis is significantly better. The quote of the day from this NAR release:
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The Tell: Trade issues ‘won’t cause a bear market’ as U.S. economy is in ‘very good shape,’ says Blackstone’s Byron WienFamed market strategist Byron Wien says May’s pullback shouldn’t concern investors. | |
Personal Finance Daily: At Disneyland’s new ‘Stars Wars’ attraction, brace yourself for $200 lightsabers, $42 cocktails and 4 a.m. lines and Even in a strong economy, millions of hardworking Americans are being left behindAt Disneyland’s new ‘Stars Wars’ attraction, brace yourself for $200 lightsabers, $42 cocktails and 4 a.m. lines and Even in a strong economy, millions of hardworking Americans are being left behind | |
The U.S. owns the world’s most gold. Here’s who comes in secondThis map shows which countries own the most gold worldwide |
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