Written by Gary
US service sector PMI slumps to record low in April (SPY +1.4%). After a third straight decline in weekly jobless claims raised hopes the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is over.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
North and South American markets are mixed today. The S&P 500 is up 1.02% while the Bovespa gains 0.07%. The IPC is off 0.08%. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Honda extends North America auto production halt through May 8Honda Motor Co said Thursday it will extend a shutdown of all of its North American auto plants through May 8 and extend unpaid leaves for many salaried workers. | |
South African Airways faces wind-down or liquidation as cash runs outSouth African Airways (SAA) faces a wind-down or liquidation after specialists appointed to try to save the state-owned airline said on Thursday they had run out of funds. | |
Eli Lilly lifts 2020 profit forecast; coronavirus fuels stockpiling of its medicinesEli Lilly and Co raised the top-end of its 2020 profit forecast on Thursday and reported better-than-expected quarterly results, as customers stocking up medicines such as diabetes drug Trulicity during the coronavirus pandemic boosted sales. | |
U.S. Treasury says will be hard for public companies to qualify for coronavirus relief loansA highly valued public company will have a hard time getting a coronavirus relief loan, the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday, just as Congress was poised to approve a new round of funding for the loans known as the Paycheck Protection Program. | |
Lufthansa reports first quarter operating loss of 1.2 billion eurosLufthansa , which has grounded almost all its aircraft due to the coronavirus pandemic, said its operating loss increased to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) during the first three months of the year and the loss would be considerably higher in the current quarter. | |
Repair, abandon, burn: Russia explores options for historic oil cutIn just a week, Russia has to find ways to cut a fifth of its oil output under a deal to tackle the market glut and is looking at all options, including putting wells on repair and maintenance to abandoning them entirely and even burning oil, four oil industry sources said. | |
Colombia’s Avianca says survival of the airline is in doubt due to coronavirus crisisThe financial auditors of Colombian airline Avianca Holdings have concluded that “substantial doubt” exists as to the company’s ability to stay in business due to the coronavirus crisis, the carrier said. | |
Wall Street jumps on hopes worst for labor market is overWall Street jumped 1% on Thursday as a third straight decline in weekly jobless claims raised hopes the worst of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the labor market was over, while energy stocks zoomed 5% on a rebound in oil prices. | |
Domino’s pulls long-term forecast, says international sales decliningDomino’s Pizza Inc on Thursday pulled its long-term forecast and said international comparable sales fell 3.2% in the first three weeks of the current quarter as stores remain shut due to the coronavirus pandemic, sending its shares down about 5%. | |
They’ll Wreck The Economy If They Have ToThey’ll Wreck The Economy If They Have To Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com, Nearly seven centuries ago in the mid-1300s, the first major outbreak of the Bubonic Plague forced Europeans into some of the harshest social distancing measures in history. As Boccacio wrote in The Decameron in 1353, the hysteria was so extreme that œbrother abandoned brother. . . fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs. When people sensed the worst was over, they slowly came out of their homes. There was no grand re-opening of the economy like some department store suddenly under new management. People remained highly mistrustful of one another, continuing to avoid even the most basic interactions with friends, family, and professional colleagues. Commerce was slow and the economy remained depressed for years. And just when it seemed that the situation was finally starting to improve, the plague struck again in 1360. And again in 1374. Medieval Europeans quickly realized that if there was just a single rat left on the planet carrying the disease, then another wave of the pandemic could begin anew. And that made it next to impossible for anything to return to normal. Only a handful of industries flourished after the plague. People still needed to eat, so agriculture did well. And as more people remained in relative isolation, science began to advance at a pace never seen in western E … | |
Cuomo Says First Antibody Study Finds 21% Of New Yorkers Test Positive For COVID-19 Antibodies: Live UpdatesCuomo Says First Antibody Study Finds 21% Of New Yorkers Test Positive For COVID-19 Antibodies: Live Updates Summary: Russia reports thousands of new cases Indonesia reports dozens of new deaths UK sees deaths slow for 2nd day Merkel warns “we’re still at the beginning” of the outbreak German leader told fellow EU leaders that fiscal package must be “huge” Cuomo says 14% of random sample of NYers tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies NY deaths continue to slow Trump says he “strongly disagrees” with Georgia’s plan to reopen Pompeo demands China permanently close all wet markets Lagarde says relief fund needed fast Vietnam, Greece announce plans to start reopening Data shows nearly 90% of patients placed on ventilator never recover Some Wuhan doctors see virus reemerge in patients 70 days after negative test Malaysia extends lockdown for 3rd time *Â Â Â Â Â Â *Â Â Â Â Â Â * Update (1155ET): Offering his rundown of the latest stats, Cuomo said that deaths have come down (the state reported 438 on Thursday vs 474 yesterday), though not by as much as state officials would like. Cuomo also noted that the number of people ‘walking in the door’ at NY State hospitals with COVID-19 has remained “about even” at roughly 1,300 per day. But by far the most interesting piece of information shared by Cuomo on Thursday was the outcome of a random surveillance test – the first of what’s expected to be many rounds of random testing that the state will be conducting to help aid the response. Cuomo sa … | |
First BNP, Now SocGen: French Banks Suffer Huge Losses As Derivative Trade Blows UpFirst BNP, Now SocGen: French Banks Suffer Huge Losses As Derivative Trade Blows Up Three things are guaranteed: death, taxes and French banks, the world’s so-called “derivative gurus”, losing boatloads of money any time the VIX spikes. As a reminder, two weeks ago we reported that BNP Paribas, the largest French bank, lost hundreds of millions of dollars on complex stock trades as markets crashed in March. To exactly nobody’s surprise, traders at the Paris-based bank, which together with its biggest competitor SocGen, had long carved out a niche in “sophisticated” derivative trades – which work great as long as the market levitates unperturbed and suffer massive losses once the VIX spikes – lost an estimated ‚¬200 on equity derivatives once the market tumbled. According to Bloomberg, the trades that went awry included dividend futures and structured products. As we noted, BNP lost about 100 million euros on structured products, ostensibly by taking the other side of trades they sold to retail investors across Japan and South Korea; the trades were linked to baskets of stocks and other assets. The bank also lost about 100 million euros on dividend futures, with losses surging at one point to about 300 million euros before improving. Fast forward to today, when the axiom that French banks always blow up when volatility jumps, was confirmed again, after Bloomberg reported that the “other” French bank, Societe Generale, also lost hundreds of millions of euros on stock trades during the market turmoil triggered b … | |
The Chinese Health Organization?The Chinese Health Organization? Authored by Brahma Chellaney via Project Syndicate, The COVID-19 pandemic, much like a major war, is a defining moment for the world ” one that demands major reforms of international institutions. The World Health Organization, whose credibility has taken a severe beating of late, is a good place to start. The WHO is the only institution that can provide global health leadership. But, at a time when such leadership is urgently needed, the body has failed miserably. Before belatedly declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, the WHO provided conflicting and confusing guidance. More damaging, it helped China, where the crisis originated, to cover its tracks. It is now widely recognized that China’s political culture of secrecy helped to turn a local viral outbreak into the greatest global disaster of our time. Far from sounding the alarm when the new coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, the Communist Party of China (CPC) concealed the outbreak, allowing it to spread far and wide. Months later, China continues to sow doubt about the pandemic’s origins and withhold potentially life-saving data. The WHO has been complicit in this deception. | |
How to get India back into working mode post Covid lockdownHow to get India back into working mode post Covid lockdownA lockdown of economy for so long a period is unviable. So how do we lead any semblance of a normal life? | |
Mukesh Ambani reclaims Asia’s richest crownMukesh Ambani reclaims Asia’s richest crown ‹Ambani’s fortune rose about $4.7 billion to $49.2 billion on Wednesday. | |
Fashion firms make masks to survive CovidFashion firms make masks to survive CovidThe Covid crisis has dealt a severe blow to the apparel industry, which is looking at zero offline retail sales. | |
Economic Report: U.S. service sector PMI slumps to record low in AprilThe IHS Market flash purchasing managers index for the service sector fell to a record low in April, while the manufacturing PMI weakened to the lowest level in 11 years, as business activity has slumped due to the lockdowns to combat the coronavirus pandemic. | |
Economic Report: Millions of workers who applied for jobless benefits due to coronavirus still not getting moneyPerhaps as many as 30% of people across the country who lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic have not been approved for unemployment benefits, either because of processing delays, outright rejection or the chance they have been called back to work. | |
NewsWatch: Trader who scored big on oil-price crash says more pain in store as crude glut continues to buildThere’s no easy way out of the global oil glut that’s caused a historic, and occasionally bizarre, collapse in crude prices this spring, according to a long-time commodity-focused hedge-fund manager who has scored big gains during the market’s slide. |
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