30Mar2020 Market Close: Wall Street Jumps 3%, DOW Closes Up 691 Points, Oil Sinks To 18-year Low But Holds $20 Level, Market Focusing On Efforts To Slow Coronavirus Spread

JPMorgan plans to raise up to $10 billion for alternative investments: source

JPMorgan Chase & Co’s alternative investments unit is looking to raise up to $10 billion to boost its spending power in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

AmEx to avoid job cuts as it rides out coronavirus storm

American Express Co will avoid job cuts in 2020 as the credit card issuer “rides out the storm” brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Chief Executive Officer Steve Squeri said in a video message to employees on LinkedIn.

U.S. markets watchdog Clayton says SEC should not ban short-selling of shares

The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday that it should not ban short-selling of shares, amid speculation on further measures the agency might take to arrest a market rout that stems from fears the coronavirus will spark a global recession.

Explainer: The transatlantic divide on how banks handle coronavirus loans

The United States has given banks a two-year break from provisions for loans soured by the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to keep credit flowing while borrowers struggle to stay afloat as economic activity grinds to a halt.

BP will not cut jobs over next three months: CEO Looney

Oil major BP PLC will not cut jobs over the next three months, Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney said, even as the company seeks to reduce spending following an oil price crash.

J&J, Moderna sign deals with U.S. to produce possible coronavirus vaccines

The U.S. government has cut deals with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna Inc and said it is in talks with at least two other companies to expand manufacturing capacity within the United States for vaccines to prevent the new coronavirus even before safe and effective ones become available.

Kohl’s extends store closure, draws down $1 billion credit facility amid coronavirus outbreak

Kohl’s Corp said on Monday it would extend the duration of store closure, and fully draw down on its $1 billion revolving credit facility to control damages from the coronavirus pandemic.

Bostic: Fed programs could be broadened if they have missed important parts of economy

As U.S. officials role out trillions of dollars in new economic support, a Federal Reserve policymaker on Monday said focus will now shift to whether those programs prove adequate or need to be expanded even further.

Coronavirus drives U.S. March auto sales off a cliff

U.S. new vehicle sales likely drove off a cliff in March as the coronavirus pandemic pounded consumer confidence and shuttered dealerships across much of the country, and sales are likely to take a further beating in April as social distancing guidelines remain in place.

Stocks Bid Into Month-End Despite Americans’ Unprecedented Scramble For Cash

Stocks Bid Into Month-End Despite Americans’ Unprecedented Scramble For Cash

Amid an ever-escalating guess at the size of pension fund re-allocations funds (latest we saw was $150 billion) into month-end, both bonds and stocks were bid early on today, but as the day wore on, bonds weakened as stocks gained (driven by record IG issuance-driven rate-locks)…

Texas Or Canada: Where Will Oil Hit $0 First

Texas Or Canada: Where Will Oil Hit $0 First

Looking at the future of oil prices, Goldman was downright apocalyptic in its short-term forecast, when in a note published this morning, the bank’s chief commodity strategist Jeffrey Currie speculated that as the current production glut “shock” cripples the crude transportation networks, “a producer would be willing to pay someone to dispose of a barrel, implying negative pricing in landlocked areas.” To wit:

The global economy is a complex physical system with physical frictions, and energy sits near the top of that complexity. It is impossible to shut down that much demand without large and persistent ramifications to supply. The one thing that separates energy from other commodities is that it must be contained within its production infrastructure, which for oil includes pipelines, ships, terminals, storage facilities, refineries, and distribution networks. All of which have relatively small and limited spare capacity. We estimate that the world has around a billion barrels of spare storage capacity, but much of that will never be accessed as the velocity of the current shock will breach crude transportation networks first, which we are already seeing evidence of around the world. Indeed, given the cost of shutting down a well, a producer would be willing to pay someone to dispose of a barrel, implying negative pricing in landlocked areas.

A quick look at two of the most popular landlocked oil producing areas demonstrate that Goldman is precisely right, and as the following chart shows, as of this moment Texas Midland WTI was trading at just baove $10/barrell, while the price of oil produced in t …

Fed Shifts Start Time Of Tomorrow’s Overnight Repo 15 Mintues Earlier As Dealer Usage Plummets

Fed Shifts Start Time Of Tomorrow’s Overnight Repo 15 Mintues Earlier As Dealer Usage Plummets

Shortly before the close on Monday, the New York Fed issued a surprise announcement according to which it pushed forward the start time of tomorrow’s month and quarter-end Overnight Reverse Repo operation to 12:30 PM ET from 12:45 PM ET, while keeping the end time of the operation at 1:15 PM ET, effectively increasing the operation time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

Why? The Fed explains:

This change has been made to ensure the Desk has sufficient time to obtain all bids from eligible counterparties on quarter end in light of remote working arrangements of eligible counterparties.

Yeah right, because those 15 minutes will “make or break” the quarter end repo.

The real reason? As we showed last week, in a “stunning development”, Dealers had either run out of securities to pledge to the Fed, or simply chose to hold on to their TSYs and MBS (and especially the latter in light of the ongoing MBS shortage which has sparked a visious margin call spiral among mortgage servicers), perhaps with the expectation of selling these securities to the Fed at much more economic conditions.

This can be seen in the chart below, which demonstrates the collapse in TSY submissions to the Fed’s repo operations ever since QE Unlimited was launched, which also meant that instead of parking their bonds at the Fed for up to 3 turbulent months, with an avalanche of new debt co …

Junk Bond Market Reopens With 6x Oversubscribed Offering From YUM! Brands

Junk Bond Market Reopens With 6x Oversubscribed Offering From YUM! Brands

For nearly a month, the high yield market was understandably frozen without a single junk bond deal pricing as yields exploded higher, forcing the Fed to step in with an unprecedented intervention to prop up investment grade debt, going so far as to buy the LQD ETF.

Arvind Panagariya on how India can rise to the Covid challenge

Arvind Panagariya on how India can rise to the Covid challengeIndia is in the middle of a calamity. An extraordinary challenge requires an extraordinary response.

India steps up efforts to prepare for the worse

India steps up efforts to prepare for the worseThe panel will outline strategies to prevent Covid spread depending on how the situation emerges in coming days.

Taxmen, working from home, chase big fish

Taxmen, working from home, chase big fishI-T dept has asked field formations to contact large taxpayers to follow up on pending collections.

April 2020 Economic Forecast Was Hit By A Black Swan

Written by Steven Hansen

Econintersect’s Economic Index forecast improved this month, but most of the data which forms the basis of our index has yet to capture any impact of the coronavirus pandemic. There is some data which is giving a slight indication but none of the data is showing anything significant. However, it does not take an economist to know that the economy has likely entered a recession. This forecast includes our best guess of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

New York City expands morgue capacity by 75% ” can now handle 3,600 corpses at a time

It has added mobile morgues and trucks because of the number of coronavirus casualties.

There’s scant evidence for chloroquine so far as a COVID-19 drug. But there’s already a shortage

The millions of doses of chloroquine donated to the federal stockpile can now be used to treat COVID-19 patients. At the same time, pharmacists are concerned that prescribing the drug for the novel coronavirus has created shortages of the medication for patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and raises questions about safety.

Market Snapshot: Dow gains more than 500 points as market focuses on efforts to slow coronavirus spread

Gains for the Dow firm Monday, supported by shares of health-care related companies like Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth Group, as investors assess efforts to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and cushion the economy against the impact of a near lockdown of activity across much of the U.S.