Written by Gary
US stock indexes hit record highs today and haven’t fallen from session highs (SPY +0.5%).
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
 | North and South American markets are broadly higher today with shares in Mexico leading the region. The IPC is up 1.28% while U.S.’s S&P 500 is up 0.57% and Brazil’s Bovespa is up 0.45%. |
What Is Moving the Markets
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
| European firms call for tougher EU approach to ChinaEuropean companies called on European Union policy-makers on Thursday to toughen their approach to China to secure a level playing field for European businesses. |
| U.S. clean energy investment hits new record despite Trump administration viewsClean energy investment in the United States surged to a fresh record of $55.5 billion last year, despite the government’s attempts to roll back supportive policies, a report showed on Thursday. |
| Morgan Stanley shares soar after Gorman boosts performance targetsMorgan Stanley lifted its performance goals on Thursday after beating Wall Street estimates by a wide margin, the latest sign that Chief Executive James Gorman’s strategic vision for the bank is bearing fruit. |
| VW CEO says carmaker faces same fate as Nokia without urgent reformsVolkswagen needs to accelerate the overhaul of its business to avoid becoming another Nokia , which lost its dominance in the handset market to Apple , the German carmaker’s chief executive said. |
| Tesla says it plans to open China design and research centerU.S. electric car maker Tesla plans to open a design and research center in China to make “Chinese-style” vehicles, the company said in a recruitment notice on its official WeChat account. |
| S&P 500 crosses 3,300 on Morgan Stanley earnings, tech rallyU.S. stock indexes hit record highs on Thursday, with the S&P 500 crossing the 3,300 mark for the first time, as upbeat earnings from Morgan Stanley and a tech rally added to optimism from an initial U.S.-China trade deal. |
| U.S. retail sales rise steadily; labor market tighteningU.S. retail sales increased for a third straight month in December, with households buying a range of goods even as they cut back on purchases of motor vehicles, suggesting the economy maintained a moderate growth pace at the end of 2019. |
| Oil gains on U.S.-China deal, but IEA forecast pressures pricesOil rose on Thursday as the long-awaited Phase 1 trade deal between the United States and China brought some relief to markets, but the gains were capped after the International 7Energy Agency said it expected oil production to outpace demand. |
| During Bezos visit, India minister says Amazon’s $1 billion investment is no big favourAmazon hasn’t done India any big favours by announcing a new $1 billion investment, its trade minister said on Thursday, laying bare tensions with the U.S. online retail giant during a visit to the country by its CEO Jeff Bezos. |
| Democrats’ “Blame America First” Ballad Won’t Play Well In 2020Democrats’ “Blame America First” Ballad Won’t Play Well In 2020 Authored by Bernard Goldberg, op-ed via TheHill.com, John Lennon’s œImagine is a seductive ballad that asks us to dream of a world at peace, a place where there’s œnothing to kill or die for. Nice sentiment if you live in San Francisco and still have flowers in your hair, but it makes for a terrible foreign policy. Someone needs to tell that to the Democrats running for president. |
| “Better Off”: Rouhani Boasts Iran Enriching More Uranium Than Before 2015 Deal“Better Off”: Rouhani Boasts Iran Enriching More Uranium Than Before 2015 Deal As many predicted while seeing the obvious writing on the wall after the Jan.3rd drone assassination of IRGC Quds Force Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the Iran nuclear deal is fast unraveling and perhaps is in reality already dead “ just few in Europe want to recognize it after essentially caving to Trump’s maximum pressure campaign. But Iran’s leaders themselves seem to accurately perceive where things actually stand, given President Hassan Rouhani announced during a television address on Thursday:
|
| Trump Goes After Bloomberg: Starting March 1, BLS Will Ban Lockup Computers, Hitting HFT RevenuesTrump Goes After Bloomberg: Starting March 1, BLS Will Ban Lockup Computers, Hitting HFT Revenues As first reported on Tuesday, moments ago the BLS confirmed that starting March 1, the Trump admin will ban all electronics including computers from the room where journalists receive early advance access to major economic reports, in an effort to ensure a level playing field, a U.S. official told the same wire services that stand to suffer the most from this major overhaul of how economic data is disseminated. As discussed on Tuesday, currently, the Labor Department hosts “lockups” for major reports lasting 30 to 60 minutes, where journalists receive the data in a secure room, write stories on computers disconnected from the internet, and transmit them when connections are restored at the release time. And confirming our speculation that this was a way for the Trump admin to hit Mike Bloomberg and his eponymous organization where it hurts, the U.S. official, speaking on a conference call with journalists, said “the change is being made because several news organizations that participate are able to profit by providing the numbers to algorithmic traders in a format that provides them an advantage.” Translation: Trump is now going after the source of Mike Bloomberg’s wealth – the selling of zero-latency market-moving information to HFTs. The overhaul will take effect March 1, the official said. Labor Department officials were asked if the change was specifically aimed at Bloomberg News, which participates in the lockups and whose founder and majority owner, Michael … |
| Senate Passes USMCA Trade Deal 89-10Senate Passes USMCA Trade Deal 89-10 It’s official: The Senate has passed President Trump’s USMCA trade accord that revamps the 1994 NAFTA agreement. The final count: 89 to 10, with several high-profile Democrats, including Cory Booker and Chuck Schumer, opposing the measure. By allowing Trump to sign USMCA into law on Thursday, the vote will enable his administration to celebrate two back-to-back wins on trade policy. The vote on H.R. 5430 is ongoing, but a majority of senators have voted to approve the deal. It was passed by the Democrat-controlled House nearly one month ago. The Commerce, Foreign Relations, Appropriations and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees all approved the deal on Wednesday, removing the final obstacle to a floor vote. The Senate’s approval will come more than a year after the underlying deal, which would replace the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, was reached between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. As Politico reminds us, passage of the deal fulfills Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to renegotiate NAFTA, a key part of his promise to rework international trade arrangements to the benefit of American workers. As the bill’s overwhelming passage suggests, Democrats also regard the deal as a win due to major changes they secured in negotiations with the Trump administration. But that didn’t stop 10 Democrats from voting against it. Dem leader Chuck Schumer, t … |
| Dear Sitharaman, please give tax relief for economy’s sakeDear Sitharaman, please give tax relief for economy’s sakeThe Indian economy is growing at around 5 per cent in FY 2019-20, which is the lowest in the past 11 years. |
| Why high inflation may not be all bad newsWhy high inflation may not be all bad newsOnce the vegetable prices cool down, the headline inflation figure will fall back within RBI’s comfort zone. |
| Uday Kotak tells what makes a good bankerUday Kotak tells what makes a good bankerThe Kotak Mahindra Bank MD credits his middle-class values for personal and professional growth. |
| December 2019 Import Year-over-Year Inflation Grows To 0.5%Written by Steven Hansen Year-over-year import price indices returned to growth but export prices remain in contraction year-over-year.
|
| Mortgage rates went up, but geopolitics could expand Americans’ home-buying powerThe ‘phase one’ trade deal between the U.S. and China didn’t significantly boost optimism among investors. |
| This is Signet Jewelers is having its best day in more than 27 yearsShares of Signet Jewelers Ltd. blasted off Thursday, toward their biggest one-day gain since the mid-1990s, after a strong holiday sales performance helped flip the fourth-quarter sales outlook to growth from a decline. |
| Capitol Report: USMCA heads to Trump’s desk for signature after Senate approves pactThe U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, sending the pact to President Donald Trump for signature just a day after he inked a separate high-profile trade deal with China. |
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:
