Written by Gary
Stock-index futures trade near unchanged ahead of the next-to-last session of a blockbuster year for equities (SPY flat +0.01%). US fighter jet strikes, Middle East unrest puss up oil prices.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
European markets are lower today as French and British shares fall. The French CAC 40 is off 0.24% while the London FTSE 100 is down 0.30%. The German DAX is not trading. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
U.S. sanctions block hurry-up work on Russian gas pipeline: officialsAny companies that rush to finish building a Russian natural gas export pipeline to Germany that came under U.S. sanctions this month risk being penalized, senior U.S. officials said on Sunday. | |
Oil rises to three-month high on upbeat data, Middle East tensionOil prices rose to three-month highs on Monday, underpinned by optimism over an expected China-U.S. trade deal and upbeat industrial data, while traders kept a close watch on the Middle East following U.S. air strikes in Iraq and Syria. | |
‘Do Not Sell My Info’: U.S. retailers rush to comply with California’s new privacy lawU.S. retailers including Walmart Inc will add “Do Not Sell My Info” links to their websites and signage in stores starting Jan. 1, allowing California shoppers to understand for the first time what personal and other data the retailers collect, sources said. | |
MTN reviewing allegations after being named in U.S. complaintSouth African telecoms firm MTN on Monday said it was reviewing allegations raised in a U.S. complaint which accuses several firms of paying protection money to extremist groups in Afghanistan. | |
World stocks hold onto gains, dollar under pressureWorld stocks clung to recent gains on Monday following healthy advances in Asia on hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal, a more optimistic growth outlook and a softer dollar, while the euro climbed to a 4-1/2 month high. | |
EU seeks reset in trade talks with U.S. – trade chief HoganThe European Union’s new trade commissioner, Irishman Phil Hogan, was quoted on Monday as saying he would seek a reset of EU/US trade relations on a number of contentious issues when he meets his U.S. counterpart for the first time next month. | |
More than 150 flights canceled in Germany as Lufthansa’s Germanwings hit by strikesAround 180 flights in Germany were canceled on Monday due to cabin crew strikes at Lufthansa’s budget airline Germanwings, in a bid to put pressure on management in wage talks. | |
China’s December factory activity set to expand for a second month: Reuters pollChina’s factory activity likely expanded again in December on stronger external demand and an infrastructure push at home, but the pace of growth is set to ease as markets await more certainty on a U.S.-China trade truce, a Reuters poll showed. | |
BoE’s Carney says finance must act faster on climate changeFinancial services have been too slow to cut investment in fossil fuels, a delay that could lead to a sharp increase in global temperatures, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in an interview broadcast on Monday. | |
US Goods Trade Deficit Shrinks To Smallest Since Trump ElectedUS Goods Trade Deficit Shrinks To Smallest Since Trump Elected According to advance good trade balance data from the Census Bureau, November saw the smallest goods trade deficit since before President Trump was elected. | |
Violence Continues As Baltimore City Reaches Record Number Of MurdersViolence Continues As Baltimore City Reaches Record Number Of Murders Baltimore City slides further into chaos and just broke its highest ever per-capita homicide rate after recording its 342nd murder on Friday, reported AP News. With about 602,000 residents, Baltimore City’s homicide rate breached 57 per 100,000 residents after eight people were murdered since last Friday, pushing the total amount of homicides to the all-time high of 342. | |
The Hour Is Getting LateThe Hour Is Getting Late Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, After 11 years of “the Fed is the market” expansion, the Fed has now reduced its bloated balance sheet by 6.7%. This is normal, right? So here we are in Year 11 of the longest economic expansion/ stock market bubble in recent history, and by any measure, the hour is getting late, to quote Mr. Dylan:
The question is: what would happen if we stop talking falsely? What would happen if we started talking about end-of-cycle rumblings, extreme disconnects between stocks and the real economy, the fact that “the Fed is the market” for 11 years running, that diminishing returns are setting in, as the Fed had to panic-print $400 billion in a few weeks to keep this sucker from going down, and that trees don’t grow to the troposphere, no matter how much the Fed fertilizes them? When do we stop talking falsely about expansions that never end, and stock melt-ups that never end? Just as there is a beginning, there is always an ending, and yet here we are in Year Eleven, talking as if the expansion and the stock market bubble can keep going another eleven years because “the Fed has our backs.” Take a quick glance at the chart below of the Fed balance sheet and tell me this is just the usual plain-vanilla, ho-hum, nothing out of the ordinary Year 11 of … | |
“Don’t Touch Kids You Pervert!”: Biden Middle School Gymnasium Rally Melts Down Into Chaos“Don’t Touch Kids You Pervert!”: Biden Middle School Gymnasium Rally Melts Down Into Chaos A Joe Biden event on Sunday at a New Hampshire Middle School gymnasium was interrupted by two protesters, who assailed ‘quid pro Joe’ with accusations of being a ‘pervert’ and making money in Ukraine. | |
Air India has only six months left to fly, unless it finds a buyerAir India has only six months left to fly, unless it finds a buyerThe airline has debt of Rs 60,000 cr and the govt is still working on the modalities for the disinvestment. | |
India’s banks are eyeing better days in 2020India’s banks are eyeing better days in 2020The government unveiled measures over the past few months aimed at improving liquidity in the system. | |
AGR may block telcos’ road to recoveryAGR may block telcos’ road to recovery Recent mobile tariff hike by telcos are pointing towards greenshoots of recovery in the sector. | |
Outside the Box: 10 bad ideas this year include the Green New Deal, Trump’s protectionism and Warren’s central planningFree-market ideas are getting squeezed out by the left and the right, says Max Gulker. | |
Bond Report: Treasury yields follow Germany higher as global headwinds dissipateTreasury yields moved up on Monday, to begin trading in the holiday-truncated week, as a selloff in European government debt spilled over into U.S. bond markets. | |
Market Snapshot: Stock futures flat as Wall Street looks to take a breather after run to recordsStock-index futures trade near unchanged ahead of the next-to-last session of a blockbuster year for equities. |
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: