Written by Gary
US stocks backed away from record highs today (SPY +0.2%) as investors to an interest rate cut from the Fed and for signs of progress of U.S.-China trade negotiations.
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Citi combines its stock trading and prime brokerage businessCitigroup Inc is combining its stock trading business with its prime brokerage unit, which caters to hedge funds, private equity firms and other investors. | |
Uber lays off 400 employees in marketing teamRide-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc said on Monday it laid off 400 people globally from its marketing team. | |
Pfizer to spinoff, merge off-patent drugs unit with MylanPfizer Inc has agreed to spin off its off-patent branded drugs business and combine it with generic drugmaker Mylan NV , a move that leaves Pfizer with its more profitable innovative drugs, including cancer treatment Ibrance and pneumonia vaccine Prevnar. | |
Wall Street mixed as Amazon, Facebook weighU.S. stocks backed away from record highs on Monday as investors looked forward to an interest rate cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve and for signs of progress from Shanghai, where U.S.-China trade negotiations are underway. | |
Oil edges up on prospect of U.S. interest rate cutOil prices rose on Monday as the prospect of an expected interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve overshadowed pessimism over U.S.-China trade talks and worries about slower global economic growth. | |
Germany’s Bayer dealt new legal blow as more Brazil farmers challenge soy patentGermany’s Bayer AG , which completed the takeover of U.S.-based Monsanto last year, has been dealt a legal blow in Brazil as more farmers joined a lawsuit challenging the protection of a key soy seed patent. | |
Exclusive: India’s SBI tightens lending terms for auto dealers – source, internal memoState Bank of India (SBI) has tightened lending terms dramatically for auto dealerships, according to a source and an internal memo seen by Reuters, seeking to reduce its exposure to risk from a sector in the midst of a sharp downturn. | |
Brexit worries knock sterling; stocks slipThe British pound touched its lowest against the dollar in over two years after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a hard divorce from the EU was in the cards, while stocks dipped globally on Monday after last week hitting their highest in five months. | |
Takeaway.com lands $10 billion Just Eat deal in food delivery raceAmsterdam-based Takeaway.com has agreed to buy Just Eat in an 8.2 billion pound ($10.1 billion) deal to create the world’s largest online food delivery firm outside China in a race to rule the $100 billion market. | |
Bonds & Bullion Bid But Stocks Slide As Firms Slash Earnings OutlooksA quiet day for sure but the trends remain – dollar and gold higher together, bond yields fading, and stocks clinging near record highs… Powell better not let the world down!! Chinese stocks trod water overnight… | |
Citi To Fire Hundreds Of Traders As Revenue TumblesIt’s not just the melting ice cube known as Deutsche Bank that that is laying off recession-level numbers of traders: according to Bloomberg, Citigroup is also preparing hundreds of job cuts at its slumping trading division as more of the world’s largest firms respond to dormant clients and the rise of the robots with across the board layoffs. According to the report, Citi – which plans to slash jobs across both its fixed-income and stock trading business over the course of 2019 – will let go at least 100 jobs in its equities unit, or almost 10% of that division. The mass terminations are not a surprise in light of the chronic decline in Wall Street trading revenues as numerous clients simply refuse to allocate capital to stocks at current levels and pursue the S&P bubble beyond 3,000, certain it’s only a matter of time before the market crashes. As we noted two weeks ago when the big moneycenter banks reported Q2 earnings, the biggest Wall Street banks are facing an identity crisis, pressured by the lowest first-half trading revenue in more than a decade as they contend with reticent clients spooked by a global trade war even as volatility in asset prices hovering around record lows. In other words, despite near perfect trading conditions, bank trading revenues are plunging. One can only imagine what happens if and when trading conditions are even modestly “impaired.” According to Bloomberg, Citi’s revenue from equity trading tumbled 17% to $1.6 billion for the first half of 2019, driving a 5% drop in total trading. That was lowest equity total among major U.S. firms, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Meanwhile, Citigroup executives said this month they would continue to cut costs in the second half of the year after trimming more than analysts expected last quarter. “We’re going to do everything within our power” to meet a goal of a 12% return on tangible equity this year, … | |
Why Is What Was Once-Affordable-To-Many Now Only-Affordable-To-The-Wealthy?Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, With these speculative and risk management skills accessible only to the wealthy, no wonder only the wealthy have gained purchasing power in the 21st century. Let’s start with an excerpt from a recent personal account by the insightful energy/systems analyst Ugo Bardi, who is Italian but writes his blog Cassandra’s Legacy in English: Becoming Poor in Italy. The Effects of the Twilight of the Age of Oil.
| |
JPMorgan Finds Stocks Are Massively Overbought Ahead Of The Fed’s Rate CutOne of the constantly repeated mantras of this stock market, which keeps rising no matter how much bad news is lobbed at it, is that it is climbing a wall of worry as investors refuse to participate in the “most hated bull market of all time”. This has been, at its core, the primary reason why JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic has been bullish on stocks for the past several hundred points. There is just one problem with this conventional wisdom: as often happens, it is dead wrong, and as JPMorgan’s “bad cop” strategist, and now chronic foil to Koalnovic’s unbridled permabullishness, Nick Panigirtzoglou wrote on Friday, not only are investors very much long risk, but most asset classes have now been massively “overbought”, with some positioning levels in record territory. Case in point, the combined asset-manager and leverage fund positioning in U.S. equity futures the most extended in years this decade, if not ever. | |
Ex-RBI governor has a word of caution for govt on super-rich taxEx-RBI governor has a word of caution for govt on super-rich tax Bimal Jalan said the higher income taxes could lead to a flight of funds from the country. | |
Banks could make things worse for auto cosBanks could make things worse for auto cosSBI said it is revising the lending terms because of “growing stress” in the carmaker’s portfolio. | |
India could be staring at a fresh NPA scareIndia could be staring at a fresh NPA scareMoody’s also said it expects growth to be “weaker” in the next 12-18 months. | |
Bond Report: Treasury yields slip as traders gear up for Fed decisionTreasury yields fall Monday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s midweek meeting that is expected to result in a rate cut of at least 25 basis points. | |
The Ratings Game: UPS stock falls after analyst says post-earnings surge raises concern about 12-month upsideShares of United Parcel Service sank Monday, after Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Ross essentially said they already rallied too much after earnings to remain bullish. | |
Jeffrey Epstein’s sinister PR strategy was a ‘classic tactic of spamming the internet’A reputation-repair program for a prominent person convicted of criminal wrongdoing can easily cost more than $100,000. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
Earnings Summary for Today
leading Stock Positions
Current Commodity Prices
Commodities are powered by Investing.com
Current Currency Crosses
The Forex Quotes are powered by Investing.com.
To contact me with questions, comments or constructive criticism is always encouraged and appreciated: