Written by Gary
The Iraqi airstrike and weaker than expected manufacturing reports helped U.S.markets pull back from record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) fell 235.48 points, or 0.82%, to 28,633.32, the S&P 500 (SPX) lost 23.2 points, or 0.71%, to 3,234.65 and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) dropped 71.42 points, or 0.79%, to 9,020.77. Oil surged, WTI closing above $63 and Brent rising 2.4% to $68.63. Gold closed at $1552.10, the highest price in 9 months. Bonds were crushed with the 10-year treasury rate at 1.79%, down almost 5%.
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The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Wall St. drops on Middle East tensions, weak U.S. economic dataWall Street’s major indexes fell from record highs on Friday after a U.S. air strike in Iraq ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East and a bigger-than-expected contraction in the U.S. manufacturing sector raised concerns of slowing economic growth. |
| Oil, safe havens surge after U.S. strikes kill Iran commanderOil prices surged as much as $3 a barrel as gold, the yen and safe-haven bonds all rallied on Friday after the U.S. killing of Iran’s top military commander in an air strike in Iraq ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Tehran. |
| Turkish court formally arrests five suspects over Ghosn’s transit: AnadoluA Turkish court ruled on Friday to formally arrest five suspects who were detained as part of an investigation into ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn’s transit through Turkey after fleeing Japan, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported. |
| Oil prices jump after U.S. air strike kills top Iranian commanderOil prices jumped to the highest level in more than three months on Friday after the United States killed a top Iranian military commander in Iraq, sparking fears that escalating conflict in the region could disrupt global oil supplies. |
| FCC says it will accept comments until February 3 on Huawei, ZTE security risksThe U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said on Friday it will accept public comments until Feb. 3 on its determination that China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp pose national security risks. |
| Story on Ghosn’s exit from Japan is withdrawnThis story, first published at 1243 GMT, has been withdrawn pending more reporting. |
| Ghosn used our jets illegally in escape from Japan, Turkish company saysA Turkish private jet operator said on Friday that ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn used two of its planes illegally in his escape from Japan, with an employee falsifying lease records to exclude his name from the documents. |
| Soleimani strike lifts safe-haven yen; grim U.S. data hits dollarInvestors rushed into safe-haven assets on Friday after U.S. air strikes in Iraq killed a senior Iranian military official, sending the Japanese yen to a three-month high, while the U.S. dollar index was knocked by the weakest domestic factory activity in a decade. |
| Musk defies skeptics, meets Tesla delivery goal; shares hit recordTesla Inc beat Wall Street estimates for annual vehicle deliveries and met the low-end of its own target, sending shares to a record high in a vindication for Chief Executive Elon Musk after a few turbulent years. |
| Stocks Shrug Off World War 3 Risk, But Bonds, Bullion, & Bitcoin Surge To Start The YearStocks Shrug Off World War 3 Risk, But Bonds, Bullion, & Bitcoin Surge To Start The Year World War 3 worries? Meh, we’ve got The Fed to handle that shit!! Weakness in early going in stocks – due to the potential for global war after Soleimani’s killing – were nothing but an opportunity to buy the f**king dip once again today…(as the machines used VWAP as support)… |
| NYT Floated Soleimani Assassination Scenario In Baghdad Hours Before StrikeNYT Floated Soleimani Assassination Scenario in Baghdad Hours Before Strike Hours before a US strike at Baghdad’s International Airport killed Iran’s top military leader, Qasem Soleimani, former Obama National Security Council (NSC) official Steven Simon posited in a New York Times Op-Ed that Soleimani could be assassinated using a hypersonic missile while visiting Baghdad. |
| Robertson: The Fed’s Monetary MagicRobertson: The Fed’s Monetary Magic Authored by David Robertson via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Given the strong performance of stocks over the past year and the past decade, investors might be forgiven for enjoying a sense of calm. Regardless of what one might believe about underlying fundamentals and valuation, it is hard to dispute that whenever markets have run into trouble, central banks have provided ample liquidity to get them back on track. Although maintaining exposure to risk assets in such an environment can hardly be called investing in any conventional sense, it has been profitable to do so. The main problem with such a benign outlook is that it rests on the assumption that central bankers will be both willing and able to protect markets by way of monetary policy. The bad news is that when all the ongoing challenges are considered together, it becomes clear just how complicated and difficult the task will be to keep markets afloat with monetary magic. The good news is that it is easy to identify those challenges by just reflecting on the last year and a half or so. One big challenge that shows up on the radar is China. In September 2018 I wrote that Chinese residential real estate is The most important asset class in the world. � Much like in the US in the mid-2000s, a housing boom in China has been fueled by cheap and easily available credit. The only major difference is that the excesses in China’s real estate market have not yet been resolved. While the pattern of resol … |
| Trump Says US Not Seeking Iran Regime Change, Or To Start A WarTrump Says US Not Seeking Iran Regime Change, Or To Start A War President Trump on Friday said that America does not seek “regime change” in Iran, and that the United States “took action last night to stop a war” by killing Iran’s #2 commander, Qasem Soleimani, on Thursday. Speaking from Mar-a-Lago one day after the strike, the president said that Soleimani “made the death of innocent people his sick passion.” “We caught him in the act and terminated him,” said Trump, adding that The US is “ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary.” “We took action last night to stop a war.” Watch: *TRUMP: SOLEIMANI PLOTTED IMMINENT ATTACKS ON U.S. DIPLOMATS A *TRUMP SAYS U.S. WILL FIND, ELIMINATE TERRORISTS |
| Budget 2020: Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee has an advice for FMBudget 2020: Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee has an advice for FM”No more cuts in corporate taxes…the corporate sector (is) sitting on cash, it is not investing, ” he said. |
| Why the US-Iran flare-up should worry IndiaWhy the US-Iran flare-up should worry IndiaIndia may see its oil import bill rising, putting pressure on CAD amid escalating tensions between US and Iran. |
| Niti has a Rs 22,500-cr plan for private trainsNiti has a Rs 22,500-cr plan for private trainsNiti & Railways have come out with a discussion paper for running 150 trains on 100 routes by private players. |
| January 2020 Economic Forecast Index Continues to Decline And Remains In ContractionWritten by Steven Hansen Econintersect’s Economic Index forecast fell again this month and continues to show the lowest level of growth since the economic slowdown in 2016. The current reading is now marginally below the 2016 minimum. The ongoing weakness of manufacturing, transport, and imports continues to weigh on our economic forecast. It is interesting that other economic forecasts are all over the map on the direction of the economy.
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| Documentary Of The Week: Orbits And Ice Ages: The History Of ClimateWritten by John Lounsbury Climate change has become a major political issue, but few understand how climate has changed in the past and the forces that drive climate. Most people don’t know that fifty million years ago there were breadfruit trees and crocodiles on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, or that 18,000 years ago there was a mile-thick glacier on Manhattan and a continuous belt of winter sea ice extending south to Cape Hatteras. The History of Climate provides context of our current climate debate and fundamental insight how the climate works. This week we learn about this area of research from Prof. Daniel Britt.
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| Market Extra: Who was Qassem Soleimani, and why is his death a major development in U.S.-Middle East relations?Qassem Soleimani, leader of the foreign wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport Friday domestic time, likely escalating long-brewing animosities between Tehran and Washington. |
| The Tell: It now costs the average worker a record 114 hours’ pay to buy the S&P 500Stocks lurch toward fresh records to commence the first trading day in 2020, but those gains have raised some questions about the run-up in values for broad-market U.S. equity benchmarks. |
| Capitol Report: McConnell, Democrats signal they’re still at impasse on Trump’s impeachment trial in SenateSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and top Democrats indicate Friday that they remain at an impasse on President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. |
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