Written by Gary
Intel stock plunges 10% after earnings show bigger sales drop than expected (SPY +0.6%). Goldman Sachs to pay $3bn over 1MDB corruption scandal.
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Could Oil Drillers Make Geothermal Energy Go Mainstream?With so much talk about offshore wind and utility-scale solar, it is easy to forget about one other abundant, emission-free energy source. Geothermal has garnered a lot less attention than the more established forms of renewable energy generation, but this is slowly changing as parts of the world increasingly focus on replacing fossil fuels with cleaner alternatives. Alberta, for example, will be promoting the development of geothermal energy as a means of diversifying its heavily oil-dependent economy. This week the provinces legislators |
| Canadas Oil Prices To Rise As Mexican Heavy Crude Supply FallsThe benchmark price of Canadas oil sands is expected to strengthen next year amid lower supplies of Mexican heavy crude oil to the United States, BMO Capital Markets said in a report carried by Bloomberg. Western Canadian Select (WCS)the benchmark price of oil from Canadas oil sands delivered at Hardisty, Albertahas seen its discount to WTI Crude at around US$10 a barrel in recent months, even after Canadian oil producers restored most of the production they had curtailed in April and May, when oil demand and oil prices |
| World Bank Sees Oil Average $44 in 2021Energy prices suffered the most among commodities in the pandemicespecially oil pricesand they wont be rising much next year either, averaging just $44 a barrel, the World Bank said in its semi-annual Commodity Markets Outlook report on Thursday. While agricultural and metal commodities have already recouped losses from COVID-19, oil prices will not recover to pre-pandemic levels at least until 2022, according to the World Bank. Notwithstanding steep production cuts, the recovery in oil prices has stalled recently amid |
| Goldman Expects A Structural Bull Market For Commodities In 2021A weaker U.S. dollar, rising inflation risks and demand driven by additional fiscal and monetary stimulus from major central banks will spur a bull market for commodities in 2021, Goldman’s chief commodity strategist Jeffrey Currie said on Thursday, also predicting that “all commodity markets are in, or moving toward, a deficit with inventories drawing in all but cocoa, coffee and iron ore.” The bank, which notes that markets are increasingly concerned about the return of inflation,forecast a return of 28% over a 12-month period on the S&P/Goldman |
| Iraqs Kurdistan Region Says It Is Committed To OPEC+ CutsThe semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq has agreed to reduce the regions crude oil production as part of the ongoing OPEC+ agreement, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Thursday. The statement came after Iraqs Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said earlier this week at an online petroleum conference that the Kurdistan Region has not been contributing to OPEC+ cuts. Iraq, the least compliant member of the OPEC+ production cut pact, has promised for months to reduce its oil production and fall in line with |
| This $40 Billion Pipeline Project Risks Becoming A Stranded AssetEuropes relationship with Russia has soured over the years due to diverging political views and crises such as Ukraines reorientation towards the West. Also, energy dependency has become a politically contentious issue. Natural gas demand in the EU was approximately 564 bcm in 2019 of which Russia provided 35 percent. The Southern Gas Corridor, which is almost completed after 4,5 years, is seen as an essential piece of infrastructure for diversification purposes. However, this article will argue that the costs, both political and |
| Gap shares hit 52-week high on plans to close stores, focus on e-commerce and off-mall retailGap Inc. shares rose nearly 14% Thursday after the retailer revealed to shrink its store footprint by about 350 stores and switch to a business model that’s driven by e-commerce and off-mall locations. |
| Warner Bros. says ‘Tenet’ wasn’t a ‘home run,’ ‘not optimistic’ about movie theaters reboundingThe coronavirus pandemic has not been easy to navigate for studios or movie theaters. AT&T chief John Stankey said he foresees a “choppy” recovery ahead for the film industry, one that might force WarnerMedia to devise new ways of releasing its content. |
| Hamptons real estate prices break records as New York City wealthy flee to the beachThe average sales price in the Hamptons soared 46% in the quarter to just over $2 million, according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel. |
| Southwest CEO: It may be 10 years before business travel returns so we’re focusing on leisure fliers“I do think there is a need for business people to travel and I think that that will get back to ‘normal’ at some point. I’ll bet you it’s a long time from now,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC. |
| Airlines experiment with new routes in ‘game of musical chairs’ to stem billions in pandemic lossesAirlines are reshaping their networks to capitalize on once-congested airports quieted by the pandemic. |
| Why Joe Biden’s presidential debate prep may include artisan ice creamJeni Britton Baeur failed in in her first ice cream venture before hitting it big with Jeni’s Splendid and winning fans like Joe Biden. And like a politician seeking votes, she learned a valuable lesson about how people make decisions. |
| Arby’s enters Mexico, and pandemic pushes new U.S. customers to try its sandwichesThe new Arby’s in Guadalajara is its first restaurant in Latin America. |
| Coronavirus second wave is hitting Europe in very different ways. JPMorgan has a theory on itThere’s no doubt that Europe is seeing a second wave of coronavirus infections, but the surge is not affecting its major economies in the same way, and JP Morgan has a theory why that may be. |
| ‘Learn to live with the pandemic’: Physicians warn that a vaccine may not prevent Covid from becoming endemicThe virus, like other coronaviruses, may eventually become present in communities at all times, scientists said. |
| Coca-Cola earnings top estimates, despite 9% decline in revenueCoca-Cola reported a 6% decline in organic sales for its third quarter. |
| Target says it will hold your spot in line as it looks to make holiday shopping safer during Covid pandemicThe big-box retailer is adding more features, such as allowing shoppers to check if there’s a line outside of their store and dedicating more parking spots to curbside pickup. |
| Morgan Stanley expects SpaceX will be a $100 billion company thanks to Starlink and StarshipMorgan Stanley doubled its long-term valuation estimate for Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday to more than $100 billion. |
| Everything Is StagedEverything Is Staged Tyler Durden Thu, 10/22/2020 – 16:20 Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, All the staging is a means to an end, and everyone in America is nothing more than a means to an end: close the sale so the few can continue exploiting the many. You know how realtors stage a house to increase its marketability: first, they remove all evidence that people actually live there. (Of course a vacant house is ideal for staging because there’s none of the messy real-life stuff to deal with.) All the clutter of everyday life must be moved elsewhere so the house can look like a bloodless furniture showroom. In other words, fake. Then various tricks /cues are employed to activate the sense of “home”: induce the “smell of fresh bread” in the kitchen, adorn rooms with vases of fresh flowers, and have a few fake “family” photos set on bookshelves. We all understand homes for sale are staged for marketing, as are showrooms and any other space devoted to selling. The raison d’etre of the space is to close the sale, so exacting care is given to every signal, cue and nuance. (It doesn’t always work as intended. Apple Stores make me want … |
| Pelosi Optimism Triggers Massive Value Rotating Short SqueezePelosi Optimism Triggers Massive Value Rotating Short Squeeze Tyler Durden Thu, 10/22/2020 – 16:04 Markets continue to be transfixed by every twist and turn in the stimulus sage, whose latest installment today came form Nancy Pelosi who said that we are “just about there” on resolving a key piece of a coronavirus relief package, even as she again admitted that there are significant differences still being negotiated. ANd in what was otherwise a boring day for stocks, the real action was below the surface with the most shorted names surging higher by 2.5%. |
| Top Wall Street Analyst Says Goldman Paid “A Premium” To Settle 1MDB Case Before ElectionTop Wall Street Analyst Says Goldman Paid “A Premium” To Settle 1MDB Case Before Election Tyler Durden Thu, 10/22/2020 – 15:52 Update (1540ET): Wells Fargo’s Mike Mayo alleged on Thursday that Goldman Sachs paid “a premium” in its latest nearly $3 billion settlement (which also includes payents to regulators in Hong Kong, the UK and Singapore), which followed a $2 billion-plus settlement with Malaysian authorities earlier this year. “It took five years and $5 billion to resolve this,” Mayo told Bloomberg in a phone interview. Mayo said that was more than he expected the bank to pay, and suspects that Goldman was eager to settle the issue before Nov. 3, for fear that a Biden DoJ wouldn’t be nearly as forgiving. “The government did its job” in getting more out of Goldman than expected, Mayo concluded. “Now we look forward”. * * * Update (1300ET): Goldman has just confirmed that the clawbacks and comp reductions stemming from its settlement over 1MDB will equal $174 million. That’s much larger than we had suspected. The DoJ confirmed the settlement in a statement.
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| Fort Bragg Deletes Twitter Account After Posting Sexually Explicit MessagesFort Bragg Deletes Twitter Account After Posting Sexually Explicit Messages Tyler Durden Thu, 10/22/2020 – 15:40 As of early Thursday morning Fort Bragg’s verified Twitter account has been deactivated after what the famous and sprawling US Army base in North Carolina initially said was a hack. Just before the account was deleted (presumably temporarily), the base posted a message saying that sexually explicit messages posted Wednesday were œnot the work of our admins. The statement said, œAs many of you may know, there were a string of explicit Tweets from our account this afternoon… Â
œOur account was hacked. We apologize to our followers, it claimed, though many were immediat … |
| Coronavirus: Canary Islands added to UK’s safe travel listUK tourists will also no longer need to quarantine after visiting Mykonos, the Maldives and Denmark. |
| Goldman Sachs to pay $3bn over 1MDB corruption scandalThe investment bank will pay a record sum for violating bribery laws in the 1MDB corruption affair. |
| New government Covid scheme to pay up to half of wagesChancellor Rishi Sunak increases support for firms and workers as lockdown restrictions spread. |
| Barclays sees VIX plunging to pre-Covid level in clear Biden winThe November VIX future, which expires two weeks after the vote, is trading at 29, around current levels of the spot index. A level of 30 implies the S&P 500 Index will move around 9 per cent over the next 30 days, according to analytics service SpotGamma. |
| The Fed has trained bond traders not to push yields up too farIn the world’s most important debt market, yields are stuck in a range so tight it has few precedents, even after rates reached a four-month high Wednesday on hints that a U.S. coronavirus-relief package could be taking shape. |
| Burger King files IPO papers; plans to raise Rs 542 cr via fresh issue of sharesNet proceeds from the fresh issue are proposed to be utilised for funding the rollout of new company-owned Burger King Restaurants and for general corporate purposes. |
| September 2020 Leading Economic Index Somewhat ImprovesWritten by Steven Hansen The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the U.S. increased 0.7 percent in September to 107.2 (2016 = 100), following a 1.4 percent increase in August and a 2.0 percent increase in July. – and the authors say “the decelerating pace of improvement suggests the US economy could be losing momentum heading into the final quarter of 2020”.
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| Earnings Results: Intel stock plunges 10% after earnings show bigger sales drop than expectedIntel Corp. revenue sank more than expected in the third quarter as the company’s sales of server chips suffered, sending shares down 10% in after-hours trading Thursday. |
| : Goldman’s current, past executive officers to pay nearly $100 million for the 1MDB scandal, despite no knowledgeGoldman Sachs Group Inc. disclosed Thursday that it will pay a total of $5.1 billion as part of settlement agreements with government regulators for its part in the 1MDB scandal. |
| Realtor.com: ‘Windy City Rehab’ star Alison Victoria is selling her $2.3 million Chicago brownstoneThe “Windy City Rehab” star Alison Victoria is now selling her Chicago home for $2,295,000, People magazine reported. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
Earnings Summary for Today
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