Written by Gary
U.S. markets are set to open higher on today’s shortened trading day. Major world markets are in the red.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
European markets are mixed today. The DAX is up 0.10% while the CAC 40 gains 0.09%. The FTSE 100 is off 0.24%. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Beer suds to soap suds: waste alcohol finds use in green detergentThe next time you wash your dishes, you could find yourself up to your elbows in soap suds spiked with leftover alcohol, if the world’s largest brewer and a environmentally friendly detergent firm have their way. | |
Saudi Aramco IPO’s retail tranche attracts $12.6 billion: lead managerSaudi Aramco sold 1,481,613,280 shares worth 47.4 billion Saudi riyals ($12.64 billion) to retail investors, while institutional orders amounted to 118.86 billion riyals in the first 12 days of the book-building period, lead manager Samba Capital said. | |
Global stocks dip on trade worries as record high stays elusiveWorld shares slipped on Friday as a leading index strained for a record high, with investor nerves from Asia to Europe gnawing away over how or when the United States and China can agree a truce in their damaging trade war. | |
Daimler to cut thousands of jobs worldwide by end of 2022Daimler on Friday announced at least 10,000 job cuts across the globe over the next three years after reaching an agreement on its plans with labor unions. | |
Block Friday: French activists try to disrupt discount shopping dayActivists staged protests against online retailer Amazon around France on Friday and tried to blockade a shopping mall in Paris, denouncing as rampant consumerism the U.S. Black Friday shopping frenzy that has spread to European shores. | |
U.S. shoppers stay away from stores, spend online as Black Friday beginsU.S. consumers splurged more than $2 billion online in the first hours of Thanksgiving shopping on Thursday, while crowds were largely thin at retailers on the eve of Black Friday, reflecting the broader trend away from shopping at brick-and-mortar stores. | |
Oil to be stuck in a rut in 2020 as slowing demand fuels glut: Reuters pollOil prices will remain subdued in 2020 as growth concerns weigh on demand and fuel a glut of crude, a Reuters poll showed on Friday ahead of production-policy talks among OPEC and its allies next week. | |
Brent oil prices weaken ahead of OPEC+ meetingOil prices dipped on Friday in muted activity because of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday while OPEC watchers expect an extension to a pact to throttle oil output but no deeper cuts to be agreed by the producer group and its allies next week. | |
Euro zone inflation rises quicker than expected in NovemberEuro zone inflation accelerated faster than expected in November on a rise in food and services prices, likely comforting European Central Bank policymakers even if some factors pushing up prices may be only temporary. | |
Morgan Stanley Fires FX Traders Overt $140 Million LossMorgan Stanley Fires FX Traders Overt $140 Million Loss 2019 has been a ‘volatile’ year for traders in the foreign exchange markets, if not for actual currencies. After early year chaos amid trade wars, global recession fears, and sanctions threats, FX volatility tumbled, spiked, and then collapsed (along with every other asset class vol) as central banks stomped their boots on the throat of uncertainty. | |
Dennis Gartman To Stop Writing “The Gartman Letter”Dennis Gartman To Stop Writing “The Gartman Letter” “There was a great disturbance in the 3x inverse Gartman ETF, as if millions of human, algo, quant and HFT trader voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.” It appears that the Gartman Letter, the world’s most valuable letter for market contrarians, is sadly coming to an end.
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There Are Not Enough Pigs In The World To Fill China’s Pork HoleThere Are Not Enough Pigs In The World To Fill China’s Pork Hole African swine fever has wiped out herds of pigs all over China – by some estimates more than half – and it now appears the global supply of pork might not be able to satisfy the country’s demand in early 2020, reported Bloomberg. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs published new data on Friday that shows the number of hogs in China dropped 40% in Oct. YoY. The decline is mostly due to the African swine fever and farmers culling their herds to prevent further transmission of the dangerous disease. | |
China Folds: For All Its Bluster, Beijing Does Nothing After Trump Signs HK BillJust a few hours after Trump called China’s bluff on the Hong Kong bill, it appears the US president won the pot. After launching a stern verbal protest overnight in which China’s Foreign Ministry said that it would take strong countermeasures if the US continues to undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy after Trump signed the Bill that supports HK protesters, adding that US attempts to interfere in HK are doomed to fail, Beijing has done nothing really, and instead left the door open for a trade deal with the U.S., confirming again that China needs the trade deal with the US just as much as Trump, if not more. The build up certainly was dramatic: for days after Congress almost unanimously passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act last week, China repeatedly vowed it would take unspecified countermeasures if Trump signed the bill, fueling concerns that President Xi Jinping would scuttle the trade talks to appear tough on the U.S. In the end, China did nothing: Wednesday’s bill signing by Mr. Trump came and went without any real action. Instead, as the WSJ notes, “Chinese officials shifted their focus to whether the U.S. president would implement any of the bill’s measures, according to officials involved in economic policy-making.” Specifically, to save face, Beijing … | |
India’s GDP growth stumbles to over 6-yr low of 4.5% in Q2India’s GDP growth stumbles to over 6-yr low of 4.5% in Q2The slump was mainly on account of a weak manufacturing and a drop in exports due to a global slowdown. | |
Core sector output contracts 5.8% in OctCore sector output contracts 5.8% in OctThe index was dragged down by electricity which reported a de-growth of 12.4% vs -3.7% in Sept. | |
Fiscal gap through the roof in fresh concernFiscal gap through the roof in fresh concernThe revenue gap for the April-October period stood at Rs 5.46 lk cr showing the weakness in tax collection. | |
Documentary Of The Week: Debt Deflation And HelicoptersWritten by John Lounsbury Ray Dalio returms for a second week in a row. This week is a 2016 interview of the founder of Bridgewater Associates in which he describes the end game for the current debt cycle as he sees it. He missed forecasting the attempt of the Fed to raise rates in 2018 which now appears to have been a failure. So we are back on his predicted trend. | |
Market Extra: Dow futures head lower as investors worry over U.S.-China trade talksStock-market futures are trading lower on Friday in holiday-thinned trading as investors continue to worry about the deterioration of U.S.-China trade relations after a bill supporting Hong Kong protesters was signed by President Trump late on Wednesday. | |
MarketWatch First Take: Intel sticks some coal in Dell and HP’s Christmas stockingsIntel Corp. may become the Grinch who stole Christmas from large PC makers. |
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