22Jan2020 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street’s Stock Index Futures Are Pointing To Fresh Highs For The SP 500, DOW Up Almost 70 Points, WTI Slides To 57.76, US Dollar Fractionally Weaker

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are mixed today. The DAX is up 0.12% while the CAC 40 gains 0.04%. The FTSE 100 is off 0.30%.

Oil falls as surplus forecast overshadows Libya disruption

Oil prices fell on Wednesday as a market surplus forecast by the International Energy Agency (IEA) outweighed concern over disruptions to Libya’s crude output.

With record profits on Wall Street, small bonuses will annoy bankers: experts

Most Wall Street banks announced their fourth quarter profits beat industry expectations last week. But by the end of this week, bank sources and compensation experts told Reuters, most of their staff will be underwhelmed by their bonuses.

Exclusive: Eurazeo hires banks for $2.2 billion sale of payments firm Planet – sources

European buyout fund Eurazeo has hired Citigroup and Evercore to prepare the sale of its payments business Planet in a deal that could value the Irish firm at up to 2 billion euros ($2.22 billion), three sources told Reuters.

J&J forecasts weak annual profit, misses revenue estimates

Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday forecast full-year profit largely below expectations, after posting a rare miss on quarterly revenue as sales of some of its major drugs fell short of Wall Street expectations.

Daimler profits halve on diesel and restructuring charges

Daimler warned its earnings halved in 2019 and it faced further charges of up to 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion)related to diesel pollution, in the latest blow to the German luxury carmaker.

Diabetes, heart device sales fuel Abbott’s revenue beat

Abbott Laboratories Inc beat quarterly sales estimates on Wednesday, boosted by higher revenue from its diabetes and heart devices.

S&P 500 aims for record open on IBM support, fading China virus fears

U.S. stock index futures pointed to fresh highs for the S&P 500 on Wednesday, as investors took heart from China’s efforts to contain a deadly virus outbreak, while strong results from IBM and Netflix boosted earnings optimism.

Sainsbury’s turns to retail boss as CEO checks out

Sainsbury’s has picked retail and operations director Simon Roberts to succeed CEO Mike Coupe, the architect of the British supermarket group’s failed bid for rival Asda who will step down in May after six years at the helm.

Baker Hughes profit misses estimates as LNG equipment demand wanes

Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes Co missed analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit on Wednesday, hit by lower orders in its business that supplies turbines and compressors to liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers.

Tesla Now Valued More Than World’s Largest Automaker After Volkswagen-Like Short Squeeze

Tesla Now Valued More Than World’s Largest Automaker After Volkswagen-Like Short Squeeze

In a delightful turn of irony, the relentless short squeeze that has gripped Tesla shares ever since the Fed launched QE4 in October, a squeeze many have compared to the infamous Volkswagen short squeeze of 2008, sent TSLA shares another 5% higher in the process pushing the electric vehicle maker’s market cap above $100 billion for the first time ever, $103BN to be precise, rising above the world’s largest automaker Volkswagen (at $100BN), bigger than Toyota. It is now also bigger than GM ($50BN) and BMW ($51BN) combined, and is almost 3 times bigger than Ford ($36.5BN).

If Martians Teleported The Davos Crowd To A Distant Moon, Who Would Mourn And Who Would Cheer?

If Martians Teleported The Davos Crowd To A Distant Moon, Who Would Mourn And Who Would Cheer?

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The system that has so enriched the self-serving Davos Crowd is unraveling, and technocratic tweaks, carbon trading and philanthro-capitalism can’t fix what’s broken.

Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Climb To 481 As Outbreak Spreads To Macau, Hong Kong

Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Climb To 481 As Outbreak Spreads To Macau, Hong Kong

China’s National Health Commission has revised the total of coronavirus cases higher for at least the second time on Wednesday: there are now 473 confirmed patients infected in China alone, though the death toll remained at 9, Reuters reports.

Internationally, the total number of cases has climbed to 481, according to a running count by the SCMP:

Futures Hit Record High On Optimism That “Corona Is Contained”

Futures Hit Record High On Optimism That “Corona Is Contained”

Just yesterday we predicted that it is only a matter of time before we get a headline like “stocks surge on optimism China epidemic is contained”

You know it’s coming:
“Stocks surge on optimism China epidemic is contained”

” zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 21, 2020

And sure enough, less than 24 hours later, in an attempt to explain the return of overnight market euphoria Reuters writes that “world stock markets looked to be getting back to full strength on Wednesday, as updates from China about the spread of a new flu-like coronavirus raised hopes the outbreak would be contained” and Bloomberg doubled-down that “U.S. equity-index futures gained on Wednesday as China took steps to contain the spread of a deadly virus”, which is ironic since just moments ago China’s CCTV reported that there are now 473 confirmed Coronavirus cases in China, with many cases now observed internationally, and most recently, a Coronavirus case were confirmed in Hong Kong as the epidemic spreads. And yet, after dropping by 9 points yesterday, S&P futures have more than made up those losses and are up 14 points as of Wednesday morning.

GAIL has a Rs 45,000 cr plan to change the way India uses energy

GAIL has a Rs 45,000 cr plan to change the way India uses energyGAIL’s push for the creation of infrastructure is in line with Modi’s vision of creating a gas-based economy.

Tinker, tailor, solder, buy: What Budget can do for Modi’s $5 trn

Tinker, tailor, solder, buy: What Budget can do for Modi’s $5 trnFor perspective, it took us nearly a decade to go from about $1 trillion to $3 trillion.

Economy may rebound, but there’s a catch

Economy may rebound, but there’s a catchInd-Ra expects GDP to grow at 5.5% year-on-year in FY21, however, the downside risks persist.

Key Words: Legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones says market today is like early ’99, driven by ‘insane monetary policy’

He predicts the market will experience a ‘blow-off top’

Bond Report: Treasury yields tick higher as stocks shrug off coronavirus worries

U.S. Treasury yields edg up Wednesday with stocks likely to shake off fears around the coronavirus’s spread to other countries from China, which helped to pull equity indexes down from records on Tuesday on concerns about a possible pandemic slowing global economic growth

Outside the Box: As wage growth picks up, the Fed needs to be careful about overreacting

The risk of focusing on wage growth sets up the Federal Reserve to make the same mistake as it did with the unemployment rate.