Written by Gary
US stock index futures have risen this morning (SPY +0.6%) as upbeat earnings from Lowe’s and Target easing concerns about slowing economic growth.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
European markets are sharply higher today with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 1.55% while Germany’s DAX is up 1.27% and London’s FTSE 100 is up 1.09%. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Philips, under investigation in U.S. and Brazil, fired whistleblower who warned of graftHealthcare giant Philips was warned of suspicious sales of its medical equipment to the Brazilian government, and failed to halt them, nearly a decade before an alleged bribery racket was exposed in the company’s Brazil operations last year, Reuters has learned. | |
Norway mulls alternatives to sluggish Europe for $1 trillion fundNorway’s $1-trillion-plus sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, may seek to shift the balance of its investments between Europe, the Americas and Asia, a senior official said on Wednesday. | |
Apple plans to tap China’s BOE Technology for advanced iPhone screens: NikkeiApple Inc is in the final stages of certifying advanced screens from Chinese display maker BOE Technology Group Co Ltd for its iPhones, as it attempts to reduce reliance on Samsung Electronics, the Nikkei reported on Wednesday. | |
Court grants Ryanair injunction to stop Irish pilot strikeThe Irish High Court on Wednesday granted Ryanair an injunction to prevent its Dublin-based pilots from going on strike later this week. | |
Target raises profit forecast as same-day services power quarterly beatTarget Corp raised its annual profit forecast on Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results as higher investments to remodel stores and beef up digital business drew in more shoppers, sending shares up nearly 15%. | |
Osram to clear way for AMS takeover offer tonight: sourcesOsram will most likely waive an agreement that currently prevents AMS from making a takeover bid, paving the way for the Austrian group to enter the ring against finance investors Bain Capital and Carlyle Group , sources told Reuters. | |
EU antitrust regulators raise concerns about Facebook’s Libra currency: sourcesEU antitrust regulators want to know whether Facebook’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency and its use of consumer data pose possible anti-competitive constraints, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. | |
Futures gain on upbeat Target, Lowe’s earnings; Fed minutes eyedU.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday as upbeat earnings reports from retailers Lowe’s and Target reflected robust consumer demand, helping ease some concerns around slowing economic growth. | |
Texas shale towns grapple with growth as oil-bust fears fadeIn west Texas, the center of the U.S. oil boom, about 3,800 students at Permian High School are crammed into a campus designed for 2,500, with 20 portable buildings to help with the overflow. | |
White House Preps GOP Elite For “Mild Recession” Before Election DayPresident Trump’s polls show that the issue that voters most trust him on is the economy. But on Wednesday, Politico reported that Trump and his team have been quietly prepping donors, other key Republican power brokers and members of the GOP elite for a mild downturn between now and the election, something that economists believe to be increasingly likely. | |
The Dog Whistle Heard Around The WorldAuthored by Michael Lebowitz and Jack Scott via RealInvestmentAdvice.,com, On August 15, 2019 the Washington Post led with a story entitled Markets sink on recession signal. The recession signal the Post refers to is the U.S. Treasury yield curve which had just inverted for the first time in over ten years. We have been highlighting the flattening yield curve for the past six months. As we have discussed, every time the ten-year Treasury yield has fallen below the two-year Treasury yield, thus inverting the yield curve, a recession has eventually developed. Blaming the yield curve for market losses because it inverted by a couple of basis points is a nonsensical narrative for talking heads on business television. This article is about a different concern, a second-order effect caused by headlines like the one shown below. The story in the Post and similar ones in many major publications have awoken the public to the real possibility that a recession may be coming. It is a dog whistle that may cause the public to alter their behavior, and even slight changes in consumption habits can produce outsized effects on economic activity. | |
Futures Rebound Amid New Burst Of Trader Optimism Ahead Of FOMC MinutesYesterday’s market selloff is a distant memory this morning, with US equity futures sharply higher tracking European stocks which rose as much as 1%, and ignoring earlier weakness in Asian markets as hopes for more monetary and fiscal stimulus helped ease fears about global recession, political turmoil in Italy and endless trade wars. Treasury yields ticked higher after retreating Tuesday, while the sharp move higher in German 30Y bonds resulted in the failure of a much anticipated 30Y bond auction with a negative yield, a historic first. | |
Germany Sells World’s First 30-Year Negative Yielding Bond… And It’s A FailureLast night, when we previewed Germany’s sale this morning of what would be the world’s first ultra-long (30 Year) auction with a negative yield, we said that “traders will closely following the oversubscription rate on the sale, which neared a record low in the July after falling for the last three auctions.” And sure enough that turned out to be a rather thorny issue as the bond sale was technically a failure. Here’s what happened: on Wednesday morning, with its entire yield curve below zero and the yield on the 30Y auction assured to be below zero, a reflection of dwindling expectations for inflation and growth over the coming years and ahead of the ECB’s relaunch of QE next month – Germany was hoping to sell some 2 billion in bonds maturing 2050. However, with bond yields rising sharply into the auction, with the yield on the German 30Y rising from -0.18% to as high as -0.10%, demand suddenly slumped. | |
Sebi makes life easier for foreign investors to plug outflowsSebi makes life easier for foreign investors to plug outflowsSebi decided that the FPIs will be re-categorised into 2 categories instead of 3 currently. | |
New Voda Idea CEO has his work cut outNew Voda Idea CEO has his work cut outTakkar has an uphill task in hand as Voda Idea is grappling with a bruising integration process. | |
Parle may be forced to fire 10,000 employeesParle may be forced to fire 10,000 employees18% GST and low demand in the FMCG sector has forced the company to hike prices; affecting their sales | |
Need to Know: Investors aren’t paying enough attention to this big risk lying in wait for stocks, says John Hancock strategistOur call of the day from Matthew Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, says he has spotted a big blind spot for U.S. investors. | |
Capitol Report: Here’s what a payroll tax cut would cost the governmentCutting payroll taxes might help stop an economic slowdown but would cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars at a time of rising fiscal deficits, according to one estimate. | |
Futures Movers: Oil prices climb as U.S. inventory report shows supply dropOil futures head higher Wednesday, with prices advancing after a report on U.S. inventories shows a sizable reduction in supplies. |
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