Written by Gary
US stocks traded mostly sideways, mixed, (SPY -0.04 flat). Wall Street slips on mixed data, looming tariffs ahead of market holiday.
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | General Motors cuts some 350 jobs in Thailand operationsGeneral Motors has cut about 350 jobs from its Thai subsidiary’s operations, a labor representative said on Friday, slashing more than 15% of the workforce for the U.S. automaker that has two factories in Thailand. |
| Wall Street slips on mixed data, looming tariffs ahead of market holidayU.S. stocks were in the red on Friday afternoon as investors were wary after mixed data and ahead of a holiday weekend in which a fresh round of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports were due to kick in. |
| Toxic chemical at PES refinery mostly cleared, aiding probe of June blazeMost of a highly toxic chemical stored at a fire-damaged Philadelphia oil refinery has been rendered inert, clearing the way for closer inspections of the site following a June blaze that led to the plant’s closure, officials said on Friday. |
| Argentine peso, bond prices fall further as S&P rating cut prompts sellingArgentina’s battered bonds were driven still lower on Friday after a credit rating cut from Standard & Poor’s triggered automatic selling mechanisms at big pension funds. |
| IMF board to meet for informal session about Argentina -spokespersonThe executive board of the International Monetary Fund will meet for an “informal information session” on Friday to discuss recent events in Argentina, an IMF spokesman said. |
| Stocks edge higher but yuan weakens as tariffs loomHopes for a thaw in the U.S.-China trade war helped a gauge of global stocks edge higher on Friday despite weakness on Wall Street, though caution over pending U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods put the yuan on track for its biggest monthly decline in 25 years. |
| Volkswagen overstated fuel economy on 98K U.S. vehicles, will reimburse consumersVolkswagen AG must forfeit greenhouse gas emissions credits and is lowering the fuel economy ratings on 98,000 vehicles after the Environmental Protection Agency said vehicle software overstated real-world performance. |
| Oil falls ahead of hurricane but posts weekly gain as U.S.-China trade war easesOil futures fell on Friday, with U.S. crude down nearly 3% ahead of a hurricane near the Florida coast that could dampen demand, but prices were still headed for the biggest weekly increase since early July, boosted by an easing of U.S.-China trade rhetoric. |
| Airbus pulls out of Canada fighter jet race, boosts Lockheed Martin’s chancesAirbus SE on Friday pulled out of a multibillion-dollar competition to supply Canada with 88 new fighter jets, a decision that boosts the chances of rival Lockheed Martin Corp . |
| Yuan Crashes Most In 25 Years As August Ends With Bonds & Bullion BidWell that was quite a month… High(Low)lights… China’s Renminbi suffered its biggest monthly loss since 1994 EM FX tumbled to a record low, worst month in a year US Treasury yields plunged in August by most since Sept 2011 (to record low yields at the long-end) US Yield Curve flattened most in August since Jan 2016 (to its flattest since 2007) Bund yields tumbled 26bps to record lows – the biggest monthly drop since June 2016 (Brexit vote) Treasury ‘VIX’ spiked most in August since May 2009 Iron Ore Futures (Singapore) suffered their worst month ever… Gold has the best August dollar gains since Feb 2016 Silver had best August percentage gain since June 2016 (Brexit vote) Â Stocks US and Chinese stocks are surprisingly aligned YTD (both up around 16/17%) with Europe lagging (+13%)… |
| Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Twitter Account HackedIt is probably not a good look for a company that claims it has its countless privacy issues under control, to have the twitter account of its CEO, Jack Dorsey, hacked as appears to have been the case this afternoon. |
| Here’s How Dependent Stocks Are On More Fed Rate-CutsVia Monday Morning Macro blog, As August comes to a close, one can’t help but wonder just how dependent risk assets have become on everything from tweets to rebalancing. The biggest form of life-support, however, still comes from the Fed: equities are in a world of total dependency. At a minimum, the S&P will require more than 2 rate cuts by the end of the year just to maintain current valuations. |
| “The IMF Is Guilty”: Argentina’s Next President Blames Lagarde For Country’s DefaultAlmost exactly two years ago, the 20-some year old millennials that make up the majority of the fixed income investment universe couldn’t get enough of a brand new, and quite ridiculous, security that was being offered by Argentina: 100 year bonds. Demand was so high, in fact, that the bond sale was 3.5x oversubscribed as we wrote at the time , when we also warned that this particular experiment will end in tears. The tears came earlier this month, when in a “shocking” outcome – because apparently it hadn’t dawned on anyone that a political regime that is forced to push for austerity as its IMF masters demand will be kicked out overnight – the “market-friendly” Macri regime was tossed out in a primary for the upcoming presidential election, sending the country’s currency and risk assets crashing. Oh, and those 100 year bonds which could be bought for 75 cents on the dollar just 3 weeks ago can now be purchased at half that price. |
| What a dismal 5% GDP growth rate means for you and meWhat a dismal 5% GDP growth rate means for you and meA decline in GDP takes toll on average income of the people and signals a squeeze on job opportunities. |
| Goyal feels RBI’s record payout isn’t enoughGoyal feels RBI’s record payout isn’t enough”Personally, this is grossly inadequate, the RBI is sitting on a large amount of unproductive capital,” Goyal said. |
| The ‘sheroes’ behind your India-made iPhoneThe ‘sheroes’ behind your India-made iPhoneFoxconn’s Sri city plant employs almost 15,000 workers ” about 90% of them women. |
| Documentary Of The Week: Is Technology Killing Capitalism?Written by John Lounsbury Three years ago this month, Eric Weinstein sat down with his wife, economist Pia Malaney, for a discussion of the future of capitalism. Weinstein is concerned that the conditions for the current capitalism system to be successful may have passed. He suggests that capitalism may have been an accident of the 19th and 20th centuries and flourished only because of the specific political and societal conditions existing during that time.
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| 30Aug2019 Midday Update: Wall Street Opened Higher, Then Went Negative, Currently At Noon It Is Mixed, DOW Up Almost 50 Points, Nasdaq Down -0.3%, Flattens Out Into Labor Day WeekendWritten by Gary Gains on Wall Street petered out earlier (SPY +0.05% flat), as an upbeat mood fueled by of upcoming US-China trade talks and solid domestic consumer spending data.
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| Bond Report: 10-year Treasury yield logs biggest monthly decline since 2011 in AugustU.S. Treasury yields fall Friday after investors bought bonds before the end of the month, with a key update on inflation showing price pressures remain muted. |
| FTC to settle with Google’s YouTube over children’s privacy for up to $200 million: reportsAlphabet Inc.’s Google has agreed to pay up to $200 million to resolve a Federal Trade Commission investigation into YouTube’s alleged violations of a children’s privacy law, according to published reports. |
| Futures Movers: Oil drops as Russia reportedly cuts output less than expected; U.S. prices lose 6% in AugustOil futures settled sharply lower Friday, contributing to a loss for the month, after reports that Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Russia’s oil output cuts in August will be slightly smaller those agreed to under the deal between OPEC and non-OPEC producers. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
Earnings Summary for Today
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