12Sep2019 Midday Update: Wall Street Moves Higher, DOW Up 161 Points, Gold Falls Below 1500 Again, SP 500 20 Points Away From Historical High

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are mixed today. The Bovespa is up 1.03% while the S&P 500 gains 0.62%. The IPC is off 0.04%.

Draghi ties Lagarde’s hands with promise of indefinite stimulus

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi pledged indefinite stimulus on Thursday to revive an ailing euro zone economy, tying the hands of his successor for years to come and sparking an immediate conflict with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kroger’s doubts about turnaround targets cloud quarterly profit beat

Kroger Co on Thursday raised doubts about its profit targets from an ongoing turnaround plan, even as the supermarket chain operator posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by its investments in delivery and online operations.

Three U.S. senators urge Amazon’s Bezos to check driver abuse

Three U.S. senators on Thursday said Amazon.com Inc should stop working with delivery contractors that violate labor laws by imposing unfair conditions on drivers delivering packages for the e-commerce company.

U.S. core inflation firming, but Fed still seen cutting rates

U.S. underlying consumer prices increased solidly in August, leading to the largest annual gain in a year, but rising inflation is unlikely to deter the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates again next week to support a slowing economy.

IMF says it remains engaged in Argentina, focuses on stabilizing economy

The International Monetary Fund is continuing talks with Argentina as authorities there try to stem spiraling economic problems in Latin America’s third-largest economy, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters on Thursday.

Ahead of renewed talks, Washington, Beijing prepare ground for trade deal

The United States on Thursday welcomed China’s promise to buy agricultural goods while maintaining the threat of U.S. tariff hikes as the world’s two largest economies sought to prepare the ground for upcoming in-person talks.

ECB’s Draghi faced pushback from heavyweights on new bond buys: sources

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi faced pushback from the representatives of Germany and France as well as at least one of his own board members on Thursday when he pushed for resuming the ECB’s bond-buying program, three sources told Reuters.

ECB’s tiered rate is cold comfort for euro zone banks

The European Central Bank is giving euro zone banks a small reprieve from a penalty charge on their idle cash but this is likely to prove too little, too late for a sector hurt by years of low interest rates.

U.S. flags Huawei 5G network security concerns to Gulf allies

The United States has raised its concerns with Gulf allies over a possible security risk in using Huawei’s technology for their 5G mobile infrastructure, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The SmileDirectClub IPO Did Something Not Seen Since The Financial Crisis

The SmileDirectClub IPO Did Something Not Seen Since The Financial Crisis

Has the unprecedented greed and stupidity of WeWork and its CEO Adam Neumann burst the IPO bubble?

One look at the just IPOed stock of SmileDirectClub would suggest that the answer is yes: after going public at a price of $23/share, pricing above range, the stock has tumbled 12% on its first day of trading, after it sold 58.5 million Class A shares on Wednesday for $23 each, above the $19 to $22 offering range, valuing the company at $8.9 billion.

Goldman Warns ‘Quant Quake’ Marks The End Of Momentum Rally, Not A Buying Opportunity

Goldman Warns ‘Quant Quake’ Marks The End Of Momentum Rally, Not A Buying Opportunity

In the wake of the sharpest Momentum reversal in a decade, Goldman Sachs addresses some common investor questions on the equity market rotation and discuss what we expect going forward.

Q1: What just happened?

In the last two weeks, high momentum stocks have sharply underperformed what had been the equity market’s biggest laggards.

Our Momentum factor tracks the equal-weighted performance of the top 20% vs. bottom 20% of S&P 500 stocks ranked on trailing 12-month returns. The factor has declined by 14% since August 27, which marks the worst two-week return for Momentum since 2009 and ranks in the 1st percentile of historical returns since 1980.

Shale Boom Cools As Employment In Oil And Gas Jobs Tumbles

Shale Boom Cools As Employment In Oil And Gas Jobs Tumbles

The US economy is rapidly deteriorating and currently experiencing a growth rate cycle downturn in employment, industrials, and inflation. One reason for the slowdown could be due to the oil and gas industry.Â

Reuters reports oil and gas employment has declined as producers and service firms quickly cut back on operations due to a sharp decline in spot prices since 4Q18.Â

Mining support activity jobs, a category that includes oil and gas drilling, as well as site preparation and well completion services, have been trending lower since Oct. 2018.

Latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show Aug. employment fell 2% YoY, and down 4% from the peak.Â

About 11,000 oil and gas jobs have been slashed from the prior year. These jobs were mostly in the “oil and gas support activities.”

As shown in a series of charts provided by John Kemp, senior market analyst of commodities at Reuters, the shale boom is cooling, and weakness will persist through 2020.Â

The first chart shows US employment in mining activities, peaked on Oct. 2018 and has been trending lower ever since.Â

Draghi Lied Again: In “Unprecedented Revolt”, Europe’s Top Central Bankers Dissented Over QE

Draghi Lied Again: In “Unprecedented Revolt”, Europe’s Top Central Bankers Dissented Over QE

To push through QE and to preserve his legacy, Mario Draghi just started the countdown on central banking.

Apparently ripping a page out of Jean-Claude Juncker’s play book – “When it’s serious, you have to lie” – outgoing ECB President appears to have been caught in a big fat fib.

Ambani, Facebook’s view on data are like oil and water, literally

Ambani, Facebook’s view on data are like oil and water, literally”Data isn’t oil, but a better liquid to liken it to is water,” Facebook’s Nick Clegg said, countering Ambani’s view.

Why GST cut on cars is not a good idea

Why GST cut on cars is not a good ideaOfficials said lowering GST could leave a hole of Rs 55,000-60,000 cr if the tax is lowered from 28% to 18%.

Big Bull feels markets have bottomed out

Big Bull feels markets have bottomed outBig Bull said that the indicators were pointing towards a turnaround, but that will be slow.

August 2019 CPI: Year-over-Year Inflation Rate Marginally Declines to 1.7%

Written by Steven Hansen

According to the BLS, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) year-over-year inflation rate was 1.7 % year-over-year (lower than the reported 1.8 % last month). The year-over-year core inflation (excludes energy and food) rate grew from 2.2 % to 2.4 % and is above the target set by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed: Senate confirms Bowman to 14-year term on Fed’s board

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Fed Gov Michelle Bowman to a full 14-year term on the central bank’s board of governors.

ECB cuts key rate, relaunches QE in sweeping stimulus effort to shore up eurozone economy

The European Central Bank delves deep into its toolbox, cutting its deposit rate further into negative territory, launching a new round of monthly bond purchases and taking other steps to stimulate a flagging eurozone economy.

Best New Ideas in Money: Silicon Valley’s final frontier for mobile payments ” ‘the neoliberal takeover of the human body’

Ditching credit cards for facial recognition removes the last physical barrier between our bodies and Corporate America.