Written by Gary
Stocks begin 2021 with a sell-off, Mortgage lending surges to 13-year high (SPY -1.4%). Indexes slide as virus spike, election uncertainty weigh on markets.
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Big Oils Renewables Push Will Come At A CostMajor cuts to oil production, an equally major boost to clean energy project development, and ambitious emissions reduction targets: this was Big Oils pledge for the future last year. Its worth acknowledging the effect the coronavirus pandemic had on oil demand, which motivated oil companies to diversify beyond their core business, but the motivation was already there as pressure from investors started growing for a more environmentally responsible way of doing energy business. The majors themselves are confident they have the means |
| Tesla Hit Target Of 500,000 Vehicle Deliveries In 2020Tesla delivered just 450 cars shy of the 500,000 vehicle delivery target in 2020, the electric vehicle maker said in its Q4 production and vehicle update over the weekend, sending its shares rallying by 5 percent to another all-time high on the NASDAQ early on Monday. The total 2020 deliveries of 499,550 vehicles are just 450 lower than the 500,000 target Elon Musk had set, and beat analyst expectations. In 2020, we produced and delivered half a million vehicles, in line with our most recent guidance. In addition, Model Y production |
| Western Oil Majors Are Key To Reviving Venezuelas Oil IndustryVenezuelas rapidly disintegrating oil industry, which is the backbone of its economy, is a mere shadow of what it once was, despite the founding OPEC member possessing the worlds largest proved oil reserves totaling 303 billion barrels at the start 0f 2020. Even the intervention of Russia, China, and Iran has done little to revive Venezuelas rapidly crumbling petroleum industry. There is an emerging opinion, in light of the failure of crippling U.S. sanctions to trigger regime change, that a different approach needs to be taken |
| Gold Rallies Into The New YearGold is off to a good start in 2021 after recording its best yearly gain in a decade. Prices surged above $1,900 an ounce on Monday to the highest in almost two months as lower US real yields and a weaker dollar kept the yellow metals momentum up. Spot gold advanced 2.1% to $1,939.41 an ounce by 11:40 a.m. EST. US gold futures were also up 2.6% to $1,945.10 per ounce. Real yields the difference between nominal benchmark bond yields and the rate of inflation fell close to last years lowest point on Friday, boosting |
| European Boosts Imports Of Russian Fuel OilWe have already written about one of the most paradoxical developments of the US-Russia energy relationship, namely that American refiners have become the number one buyer of Russias fuel oil production. With Venezuelan crude squeezed out from the American market, Iranian exports kept at bay by means of a similar set of sanctions, Mexico remaining in decline and even acquiescing to a OPEC+ production cut, Russian fuel oil remains one of the very few USGC feedstocks that is still not too pricey and available in sufficient volumes. However, |
| Chinas Oil Giants Face NYSE DelistingChinese crude oil companies listed in New York may soon be kicked out, after the New York Stock Exchange delisted three telecoms with headquarters in China, Bloomberg reports, due to alleged ties to the Chinese military. “More Chinese companies could get delisted in the U.S. and the oil majors could come as the next wave,”an executive director of a Hong Kong-based investment bank told Bloomberg. Steven Leung, however, added that for the telecoms, at least, the impact of the delisting would not be particularly serious as they weren’t traded |
| New York Gov. Cuomo to propose law making it a crime to skip the line for Covid vaccineNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would propose a law that would make it a crime to sell or administer Covid-19 vaccines to people trying to skip in line. |
| McDonald’s will launch 3 chicken sandwiches next month as it doubles down on chickenMcDonald’s will launch three chicken sandwiches on Feb. 24 as it tries to reach new customers with more poultry on its menu. |
| Moderna increases minimum 2021 Covid vaccine production by 20% to 600 million dosesThe U.S. is on track to secure 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine by the end of March and additional 100 million by June, the company said. |
| As Covid cases surge in California, Hollywood pauses TV productionSAG-AFTRA, the Joint Policy Committee and the Producers Guild of America recommended that TV production be temporarily halted. |
| How Walmart plans to take over health careAs consumers face rising health-care costs, Walmart is diving deeper into the business, opening a number of doctor-run clinics called Walmart Health. |
| British Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposes national lockdown on England to combat new Covid variantIf England doesn’t implement a new lockdown, the nation’s health system will become overwhelmed in 21 days, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. |
| Fiat Chrysler and PSA Groupe shareholders approve merger to create StellantisThe voting by shareholders was one of the last steps for the merger, which the companies expect to close by the end of the first quarter. |
| A year since Covid first emerged in China, the world battles its deadliest surge yetIt’s been one year since Chinese health authorities identified what would become a major global threat, killing millions of people and shattering economies. |
| Chipotle launches cauliflower rice nationwide as consumers cut grains from their dietsChipotle Mexican Grill is launching a cauliflower rice option to attract consumers trying to comply with their New Year’s resolutions. |
| Dr. Scott Gottlieb says Covid vaccine eligibility should be expanded now to deliver more shots“You need to stockpile something,” the former FDA chief told CNBC on Monday. “But putting away 50% of all the doses, I think, is denying more people access.” |
| Watch live: New York Gov. Cuomo briefs the press on Covid pandemic as outbreak worsensNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will hold a press briefing on the coronavirus Monday as Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the state begin to rise. |
| Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Quantumscape, Tesla, Boeing, McDonald’s & moreTesla shares hit a record high. Quantumscape shares plunged. |
| Stocks Suffer Worst Start To A Year Since The Dot-Com CrashStocks Suffer Worst Start To A Year Since The Dot-Com Crash The re-awakening of “Blue Wave” risk…
Source: Bloomberg …along with escalating pandemic-related lockdowns/restrictions (worse than expected vaccination roll-out and hospitalization panic-mongering like we saw in 2018 due to the flu) sparked the worst start to a year for the S&P since 2001…
The entire market was hit with a selling wave at the cash open after some hopeful buying overnight. NOTE, the markets a … |
| Why There Is Literally No “Cash On The Sidelines”Why There Is Literally No “Cash On The Sidelines” Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, In the later stages of a bull market advance, the financial media and Wall Street analysts start seeking out rationalizations to support their bullish views. One common refrain is œthere are trillions of dollars in cash sitting on the sidelines just waiting to come into the market.  For example, Barron’s recently penned the following:
Yahoo! Finance also jumped on the claim:
McKinsey & Co also published the following graphic. |
| “Look Out Below”: Carl Icahn Issues Major Warning On Markets, Warns Rally Will End In “Painful Correction”“Look Out Below”: Carl Icahn Issues Major Warning On Markets, Warns Rally Will End In “Painful Correction” It has been a difficult year – and decade – for billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who despite making $1.3 billion by shorting malls via CMBX 6, a trade we first pitched several years ago as the Big Short 2.0, failed to make waves with any other prominent investments and in fact has been anecdotally net short during the market’s historic surge in the past two years. Yet despite a spotty recent investing track record, the 84-year-old legendary corporate raider remains bearish on the fence about the market’s ludicrous ascent, as he made clear in an interview with CNBC’s Scott Wapner in which Icahn warned of the possibility of a significant decline for stocks, and predicted that “wild rallies” in the market always meet a dramatic end. œIn my day I’ve seen a lot of wild rallies with a lot of mispriced stocks, but there is one thing they all have in common. Eventually they hit a wall and go into a major painful correction. Nobody can predict when it will happen, but when that does happen, look out below, Icahn warned ominously adding that “another thing they have in common is it’s always said, it’s different this time. But it never turns out to be the truth.” |
| What’s Behind Today’s Sudden Selloff: The Answer Lies In GeorgiaWhat’s Behind Today’s Sudden Selloff: The Answer Lies In Georgia There has been some confusion about the catalyst behind this morning’s sudden market selloff which followed promptly after the S&P hit a fresh all time high. While there has been no single, definitive news catalyst, the answer for the risk weakness is to be found in Georgia, which goes to the polls in special run-off elections for its U.S. Senate seats. As a reminder, if Democrats win both, then the Senate will be split 50-50, and they will control it thanks to the vice president’s casting vote.
So why is Georgia suddenly a concern? As Bloomberg’s John Authers explains overnight, while there have been few polls over the last two months, and with so much depending on getting people out to vote in the middle of winter during a pandemic, much must be left to conjecture, “but the prices on the Predictit prediction market show it is close.” First, this is the race between the Democrats’ Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler: |
| EU firms refuse UK deliveries over Brexit tax changesSome EU specialist firms stop delivering to the UK because of tax changes that took effect on 1 January. |
| UK expats prevented from returning home to SpainUK nationals resident in Spain say they were wrongly turned back when their flight landed in Barcelona. |
| Mortgage lending surges to 13-year highA stamp duty holiday, which expires in March, sparked a flurry of homebuying activity. |
| Bond ETFs survived 2020 liquidity scare. But just barely.In the week ended March 18, investors pulled $35.6 billion from U.S. investment-grade funds, an unprecedented sum that vastly exceeded the previous record of $7.27 billion, set just a week earlier. |
| Sequoia Capital-backed Indigo Paints gets Sebi nod to float IPOIndigo Paints, which filed its preliminary IPO papers with Sebi in November, obtained its observation on December 31, an update with the capital markets watchdog showed on Monday. |
| Up 43% in 3 months, can this midcap stock sustain the momentum?Apart from deleveraging, rising prices of CPC and CTP which together contribute nearly two-third to the revenue, is another positive for the company. |
| The Ratings Game: Airbnb stock sinks as analysts mostly avoid calling shares a ‘buy’Airbnb Inc. shares fell Monday after a cluster of analysts largely avoided suggested that investors purchase the stock after it landed on Wall Street in the biggest initial public offering of 2020. |
| The Wall Street Journal: ‘This is the biggest breakthrough we’ve had to date’: Qatar and Saudi Arabia are set to end a feud that hampered U.S. interestsQatar and Saudi Arabia and its allies are expected to sign a deal on Tuesday designed to end a protracted feud that has split the Middle East and hampered U.S. efforts to isolate Iran, senior Trump administration officials said on Monday. |
| : Extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the U.S. blocked by British judge over mental health concernsA U.K. judge ruled on Monday that Julian Assange, the founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, should not be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges over concerns for his mental health. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
Earnings Summary for Today
leading Stock Positions
Current Commodity Prices
Commodities are powered by Investing.com
Current Currency Crosses
The Forex Quotes are powered by Investing.com.
To contact me with questions, comments or constructive criticism is always encouraged and appreciated:
