28Feb2020 Market Close: Wall Street Losses Broaden With No Clarity On COVID-19 Impact, DOW Closes Off Session Lows At -357 Or -1.4%, Nasdaq Closes Up, But Flat, Selling Volume Very High, Does It Signal The Bottom Of The Correction?

Cooling consumer spending, inflation put spotlight on Fed amid coronavirus

U.S. consumer spending slowed in January and could lose further momentum as the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, which has sparked a stock market sell-off and revived fears of a recession, causes households to tighten their purse strings.

Wall Street losses broaden with no clarity on coronavirus impact

Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled for the seventh straight day and were on track for their biggest weekly dip since the 2008 global financial crisis on worries the fast-spreading coronavirus could lead to a recession.

Stock markets melt on coronavirus fears, U.S. Treasury yields hit fresh lows

Coronavirus panic sent world stock markets tumbling again on Friday, putting them on course for their largest weekly fall since the 2008 global financial crisis, with over $5 trillion wiped from global market value so far this week.

Think the S&P 500 is in bad shape? Its components look worse

Wall Street’s worst week since 2008, sparked by fears about the fast-spreading coronavirus, has left almost half of the S&P 500’s stocks in bear market territory, just nine days after the leading benchmark closed at a record high.

Madoff customer payout nears $14 billion, as dying swindler seeks freedom

Bernard Madoff’s former customers will soon see their total recovery approach $14 billion, a court-appointed trustee said on Friday, as the dying swindler awaits a decision on whether the U.S. government will support his request to leave prison early.

Volkswagen, accordo da 830 mln euro con consumatori per scandalo diesel

Volkswagen e una delle maggiori organizzazioni tedesche di consumatori hanno annunciato di aver raggiunto un accordo da 830 milioni di euro nell’ambito della class action per i test sulle emissioni diesel truccati.

Ex-Barclays bankers cleared over 2008 Qatar fees in blow to UK fraud office

Three former Barclays executives were unanimously acquitted on Friday of charges they helped funnel 322 million pounds ($418 million) in secret fees to Qatar in return for rescue financing during the credit crisis.

Factbox: Barclays bosses cleared of credit crisis-era fraud

Three former Barclays executives were cleared of credit-crisis era fraud charges by a jury on Friday after a landmark London trial over undisclosed payments to Qatar in 2008.

‘Big Dog’ and the ‘omnipotent sheikh’ – how Qatar saved Barclays

When Roger Jenkins was asked to help Barclays avoid a state bailout at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, he was expecting a bonus not a prosecution for his efforts.

Corona-Crash Sparks Fastest ‘Correction’ In History On Record-Breaking Volume

Corona-Crash Sparks Fastest ‘Correction’ In History On Record-Breaking Volume

It was a historic week…

S&P crashed from peak to correction at the fastest pace in history…

Crispin Odey’s Flagship Fund Nets 5% Weekly Gain As ‘Leveraged-Long’ Hedge Funds Pummeled By Record Pullback

Crispin Odey’s Flagship Fund Nets 5% Weekly Gain As ‘Leveraged-Long’ Hedge Funds Pummeled By Record Pullback

Crispin Odey, one of the most well-known permabears in the hedge-fund industry, has been vindicated this week as stocks cemented their worst run since the financial crisis.

As the Financial Times reports, Odey, who has bet against everything from Tesla to the British pound in recent years, posted a 5% gain in his European fund this week thanks to the short-seller’s bets against Tesla and shale stocks.

Trump Admin Considering Tax Cuts, Pressuring Powell To Cut Rates In Hopes Of Containing Coronavirus Fallout

Trump Admin Considering Tax Cuts, Pressuring Powell To Cut Rates In Hopes Of Containing Coronavirus Fallout

It appears that every response offered by the Trump administration to contain the coronavirus pandemic, is wrong.

In a late Friday article, the WaPo reported that the Trump administration officials are holding preliminary conversations about economic responses to the coronavirus, and with stocks suffering their worst week since the collapse of AIG, “among the options considered are pursuing a targeted tax cut package”. Additionally, Trump cronies are also discussing whether the White House should lean even harder on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, even though in a surprise announcement on Friday afternoon, Fed Chair Powell the central bank on Friday afternoon said it would step in if necessary.

While the explanation is hardly necessary, the WaPo also points out that “these ideas would not be designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but they would seek to arrest the economic fears spreading through the economy. And some of the ideas would need cooperation from Congress or the Fed, as the White House has limited powers to unilaterally rewrite tax policy or direct the central bank to act.”

And yet the reason why the market barely even glanced at this report from WaPo, is that if a business revenue has collapsed as global supply chains implode and as consumer demand tumbles as Americans opt to stay locked up inside until the pandemic passes, there is no pre-tax income, and thus no taxes to pay, so cutting the tax rate has zero effect on anything.

…

Hey, It’s Not Just Coronavirus!

Hey, It’s Not Just Coronavirus!

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Whatever the Democratic Party is infected with may be worse than covid-19. The symptoms presented point to a rare illness known as kuru. By now, we all understand that diseases easily jump between continents in this era of incessant air travel. The National Institute of Health’s MedlinePlus bulletin has this to say about it:

Kuru is found among people from New Guinea who practiced a form of cannibalism in which they ate the brains of dead people as part of a funeral ritual. This practice stopped [allegedly] in 1960, but cases of kuru were reported for many years afterward because the disease has a long incubation period ¦. Kuru causes brain and nervous system changes similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ¦ bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also called mad cow disease. The main risk factor for kuru is eating human brain tissue, which can contain the infectious particles.

Does this account for the public’s preoccupation with Zombies? Is something deeply sinister roiling in the dark interstices of American life?

Samsung has lost its pace in Indian market, can it bounce back?

Samsung has lost its pace in Indian market, can it bounce back?Samsung is struggling to keep pace with or beat back competition from Chinese rivals in the Indian market.

What Sitharaman said about Q3 GDP numbers

What Sitharaman said about Q3 GDP numbersThe FM said “steadiness” in economy is a good sign, soon after the official data showed Q3 GDP at 4.7%.

WHO raises virus threat to ‘very high’

WHO raises virus threat to ‘very high’The risk was being raised to “very high” because of the continued increase in cases , the WHO chief said.

Market Extra: Here are 5 reasons the stock market booked its worst decline since 2008, and only one of them is the coronavirus

The virus has virtually crippled swaths of manufacturing in China, the second-largest economy in the world, and the country is a big buyer of products and services from other countries. U.S. technology companies such as Apple depend on Chinese supplies.

The Tell: Stock-market expert says what many are thinking as Dow sheds 3,600 points in a week: ‘This market is not normal’

The breadth and intensity of this coronavirus-fueled stock market selloff has some strategists scratching their heads. Thomas Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors, has some ideas why the market is acting oddly.

Bond Report: 2-year Treasury yield sees biggest weekly drop since 9/11 as interest rate cut bets gain ground

U.S. Treasury yields are falling for a seventh straight session on Friday, extending a relentless slide that has taken government bond yields to new record lows amid expectations that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates.