24Dec2020 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street Futures Expected To Open Moderately Higher In A Quiet, Holiday-Shortened Session, DOW Up 37 Points, Nasdaq Up +0.1%, Bitcoin At 23322

Written by Gary

US Treasury yields edge lower on Christmas Eve (SPY +0.2%). Russian crude oil exports drop 10% in January-October.

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money
	European markets finished broadly higher on Wednesday with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 1.26% while France’s CAC 40 is up 1.11% and London’s FTSE 100 is up 0.10%.

What Is Moving the Markets

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	8 New Energy Technologies That Will Blow Your Mind New energy tech is undergoing a metamorphosis at breakneck speed, whether its the stock-boosting driverless Apple car or even masks for cows. Sometimes its simply mind-blowing and other times its sheer comic relief. More often than not, its lucrative, either way because clean energy is the buzzword that keeps attracting all the big money. And the buzz–for better or worse–is around these top 8 new energy technologies of this year, and next: #1 Apples Driverless Vehicle The tech giants havent
	The Biggest Energy Bill In A Decade Was Just Passed After the novel coronavirus turned the entire energy industry on its head, much of the world took the hint and dove headlong into the global clean energy transition, some in the interest of avoiding catastrophic climate change by creating a decarbonized future and others in the interest of staying afloat in a decarbonized economy that is seeming more and more inevitable. The World Economic Forum has advocated as a new energy order and a great reset. Prominent international agencies such as the United Nations, the International
	Morgan Stanley Sees Apple As Major Threat To Teslas Dominance Just hours after Elon Musk took to Twitter toreveal to the worldthat Tim Cook wouldn’t take his phone calls when he was looking for a bailout,Morgan Stanley has now come out and admitted that Apple’s entrance into the self-driving market creates “a new Tesla bear case”. Tesla uber-bull Adam Jonas wrote in a note on Tuesday:Apples potential entry into autos represents perhaps the most credible/formidable bear case for Teslas stock that investors have had to consider for some time. If Apple
	U.S. Relations With Russia Could Crumble Under Biden Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has accused the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden of “Russophobia and says he expects relations with the United States to go “from bad to worse.” “It would be strange to expect good things from people, many of whom made their careers on Russophobia and throwing mud at my country,” Ryabkov said on December 23, less than a month ahead of Bidens inauguration. Relations between Moscow and Washington have deteriorated in recent years over issues including Russia’s seizure
	Russias Crude Oil Exports Drop 10% In January-October Due to lower demand and the OPEC+ deal, Russias crude oil exports declined by 10.4 percent in volume year over year in January to October, data from the Russian federal customs, cited by local cargo analytics outlet SeaNews, showed. The value of Russias crude oil exports plunged by more than 40 percent in the same period due to the lower oil prices compared to the average price of oil in the first ten months of 2019. The value of Russian crude oil exports plummeted by 40.6 percent between January and October 2020, and stood at US$60.326
	Oil, Gas Rigs Increase For Fifth Week In A Row Baker Hughes reported on Wednesday that the number of oil and gas rigs in the United States rose by 2 to 348. The oil and gas rig count has risen for five weeks in a row for a four-week gain of 38. The oil rig count increased by 1 this week, while the gas rig count rose by 2. Miscellaneous rigs fell 1. Total oil and gas rigs in the United States are now down by 457 compared to this time last year. The EIAs estimate for oil production in the United States fell during the week ending December 11 to 11.0 million barrels of oil per day, 2.1
	Covid changed shopping forever. Here’s what it means for your favorite stores For years, the rise of e-commerce signaled that stores would become obsolete, but the coronavirus pandemic has given brick-and-mortar a new purpose.
	Live virtual tours let travelers see the world from home this Christmas Virtual travelers can tour everything from the religious sites of Israel to the department store displays of New York City this holiday season.
	New warnings of a Covid ‘Christmas wave and New Year’s wave in January’ Dr. Stephen Parodi, director of Kaiser Permanente’s nationwide Covid response, warns of new Covid waves and explains why healthcare staff are frustrated.
	U.K. government confirms second strain of coronavirus The new variants, from South Africa and Britain, have not yet been identified in the United States.
	Covid vaccine distribution has been slower than U.S. officials thought it would be Coronavirus vaccine distribution has been slower than officials hoped, U.S. health officials said Wednesday, with 20 million December goal “unlikely to be met.”
	Watch live: Trump health officials discuss Covid vaccines after U.S. administers first 1 million shots Officials from the Health and Human Services Department and Pentagon are holding a joint briefing on Operation Warp Speed.
	Americans to stay home for the holidays ” or stick to cars if traveling Most Americans intend to stay home for the December holidays, with fewer than a quarter or so taking to the roads, rails or skies amid the pandemic.
	The U.S. has vaccinated just 1 million people out of a goal of 20 million for December The total number of vaccines administered is still a long way off from the federal government’s goal to inoculate 20 million Americans by the end of the year.
	Biden Covid advisor Dr.Â Atul Gawande details his experience in Moderna vaccine trial “That one knocked me down. Then about 24 hours later, I was back on my feet and doing OK,” Dr. Atul Gawande told CNBC.
	Student athletes worry the coronavirus pandemic could put their scholarships at risk College Voices: A lot of high school sports have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many student athletes worried about their scholarships.
	Watch live: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo updates the public as state rolls out Covid vaccines “Of course a shutdown in January is possible,” Cuomo said last week. “But there’s a big but,” he said, spelling the word out one letter at a time “B-U-T.”
	Dubai is offering the Pfizer vaccine to residents for free in addition to China’s Sinopharm shot The emirate’s first batch of the Pfizer vaccines landed at Dubai International Airport late Tuesday night from Brussels.
	Holiday sales have been hurt by pressure on shipping networks, says Fanatics chairman “As good as business is, it could have even been better,” Fanatics Executive Chairman Michael Rubin told CNBC.
	Fed’s New Paradigm Adds Helium To The Stock Bubble Fed’s New Paradigm Adds Helium To The Stock Bubble Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk, Valuations are not only high, they are among the highest on record. The Laws of Investing The Wall Street Journal asksÂ Has the Fed Rewritten the Laws of Investing? It has been an odd year with the Covid-19 crisis hammering the economy, but stocks recovering from sharp losses and then powering to new highs. As a result, standard measures show valuations are at rarely-seen levels that have typically ended in tears. The S&P 500 trades at 22 times analysts’ expected earnings “its most expensive level since the dot-c …
	Futures Flat In Quiet, Holiday-Shortened Session Futures Flat In Quiet, Holiday-Shortened Session Global stocks rallied and the British pound gained as Britain and the European Union closed in on a free-trade deal although S&P futures were flat in a very quiet session ahead of today’s shortened trading day. In China, Alibaba slumped after China launched an antitrust investigation into the e-commerce giant. The dollar and TSY yields were both slightly lower. Markets close at 1:00 PM ET today and will stay closed for Christmas holiday on Friday. Energy stocks, including Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, rose slightly in premarket trade, tracking strength in the crude market as a drop in U.S. stockpiles and hints of an imminent Brexit deal underpinned oil prices. The S&P 500 and the Dow ended higher on Wednesday as investors rotated to cyclical and small cap stocks that stand to benefit most during a recovery, encouraged by COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and passing of the coronavirus relief bill. The rotation weighed on the Nasdaq, which ended lower. Investors largely shrugged off comments by Donald Trump that a nearly $ …
	WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The American Institute for Economic Research, Maybe you have some sense that something fishy is going on? Same. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.Â Coronavirus lived on surfaces until it didn’t. Masks didn’t work until they did, then they did not. There is asymptomatic transmission, except there isn’t. Lockdowns work to control the virus except they do not. All these people are sick without symptoms until, whoops, PCR tests are wildly inaccurate because they were never intended to be diagnostic tools. Everyone is in danger of the virus except they aren’t. It spreads in schools except it doesn’t.Â On it goes. Daily. It’s no wonder that so many people have stopped believing anything t …
	Turkey Hikes By 200bps, More Than Expected Turkey Hikes By 200bps, More Than Expected The CBRT hiked its benchmark one-week repo rate by 200bps, more than the consensus economist forecast of 150bps, but in line with what some economists had argued was necessary with this year’s current account deficit heading over 5% of GDP amid elevated inflation pressures. The CBRT also hiked the overnight lending rate from 16.50% to 18.50%, the late liquidity window rate from 19.50% to 21.50% and the overnight borrowing rate from 13.5% to 15.5%. The bank pledged in its rates decision to maintain a tight stance until it sees œa permanent fall in inflation, citing risks from a weak lira, domestic demand and commodity prices including food costs. Key highlights (from Goldman): The TCMB raised the policy rate (one-week repo rate) from 15% to 17%, in line with our expectation but somewhat above the consensus expectation of 16.5%. We think that this is a meaningful upside surprise, not in terms of the size of the hike, but because the TCMB raised its policy rate above the market rate and delivered f …
	Stock markets and pound rise on Brexit deal hopes UK markets close for Christmas in upbeat mood amid signs that a Brexit trade deal could be imminent.
	Customers furious as E.On takes payments too early About 1.5 million customers are hit as direct debits are taken on Christmas Eve owing to an IT error.
	EU to allow post-Brexit UK farm produce exports While this is a “critical step forward”, seed potatoes are not included because of EU regulatory fears.
	L&T outperforms Sensex by 22% in 2 months. Will the recovery last? According to analyst estimates, it has grabbed orders worth Rs 47,000 crore in the third quarter till December 18 following two mega wins from the bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
	Nifty range for December at 13,471-13,929, with bias for upside The record high of 13777.5 was made on December 21, before the Nifty plunged to 13131.45 on fears of a more deadly Covid variant, which spooked global markets.
	Stellar show of stocks on debut pushes up grey market premiums Abhay Doshi, a Gujarat-based dealer of unlisted shares, believes the primary market has been on a roller-coaster ride of late. He said companies would reap the benefits of ecstatic primary and sound secondary market performances.
	MarketWatch Premium: Do record-low interest rates justify the stock market’s overvaluation? Here’s the answer Mark Hulbert subjects the bull case to historical scrutiny.
	Bond Report: U.S. Treasury yields edge lower on Christmas Eve U.S. Treasury yields fell slightly on early Thursday in holiday-thinned trading as investors cast their eyes to the brighter outlook for next year.
	Futures Movers: Oil prices slide as traders focus on U.S. fiscal package in Christmas Eve trade Crude-oil futures head lower on Thursday as light-trading volumes in the last trading session before Christmas left prices vulnerable to pullbacks amid concerns about whether a U.S. fiscal package will be signed into law by President Trump.