15Jan2021 Midday Update: Wall Street Opened Lower As Retail Sales Disappoint, DOW Down 150 Points At 12:30 ET, Nasdaq Down -0.6%, WTI Crude Slips To 52.35, Bitcoin At 36,020

Written by Gary

Holiday sales rose stronger-than-expected 8.3% as consumers bought gifts to lighten mood during pandemic (SPY -0.7%). Bitcoin ends a choppy week of trading with prices below $40,000.

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money
	North and South American markets are lower today with shares in U.S. off the most. The S&P 500 is down 0.60% while Brazil’s Bovespa is off 0.52% and Mexico’s IPC is lower by 0.45%.

What Is Moving the Markets

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Oil Prices Under Fire As Traders Cite Demand Concerns Oil prices dropped early on Friday, as expanding lockdowns in China weighed on market sentiment about immediate global oil demand, while a stronger U.S. dollar also dragged crude futures down. As of 9:47 a.m. ET on Friday, WTI Crude prices were down by 1.34 percent at $52.89 and Brent Crude was trading down 1.49 percent at $55.58. Brent prices were headed for their first weekly loss in three weeks, while the U.S. benchmark was poised for a tiny weekly gain early on Friday. According to Bloomberg estimates, WTI Crude was set for a weekly gain in
	ANZ Bank Sees Oil Stabilizing At $60 In H2 2021 Brent Crude prices are set to hit $60 a barrel in the second half of this year and then stabilize at those levels, thanks to inventory drawdowns also helped by the extra Saudi production cut in the first quarter, ANZ Bank said on Friday. The move by Saudi Arabia to cut output by 1mb/d has stabilised the oil market amid rising risks of ongoing weakness in demand. Air traffic remains subdued, while demand for road transportation fuel is falling again, analysts at ANZ Bank said. The near-term oil demand outlook is not constructive
	Big Oil Watches In Fear As SEC Probes Exxon’s Permian Valuation Having soared in recent days, rising 21% YTD on the back of thegamma squeeze discussed yesterday, and coupled with a barrage of analyst upgrades, most recently from Barclays and JPM, Exxon stock dropped as much as 4% this morning, after the WSJ reported that the SEC has launched a probe of the energy giant after an employee “filed a whistleblower complaint last fall alleging that the energy giant overvalued one of its most important oil and gas properties.” According to theWSJ, in the latest amusing “whistleblower complaint”, several
	Venezuela Opens Up To Foreign Oil Investment Venezuela is opening up to foreign investment in its oil industry, President Nicolas Maduro said this week, in a bid to reverse a catastrophic drop in its output under the weight of U.S. sanctions. Jorge Jraissati reported for Anadolu Agency this week that Maduro said in its annual accountability speech that Venezuela will aim to pump 1.5 million barrels of oil daily, which will need help from foreign partners. Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA already has foreign partners, in all fairness. However, foreign investments in Venezuela’s oil industry
	U.S. Shale Drillers Begin To Hedge Oil Price Production U.S. shale oil companies are hedging against future price drops as West Texas Intermediate enjoys a rebound above $50 a barrel, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources in the know. Crude oil prices had been recovering slowly during the final quarter of last year, and they jumped sharply earlier this month as vaccine rollout advanced, albeit slowly, in the United States and Europe. At the same time, Saudi Arabia served a pleasant surprise to oil markets by declaring it would cut an additional 1 million bpd from its production on top of cuts
	Why Oil Will Keep Rising In 2021 We have seen strong moves higher in the key crude oil benchmarks-WTI, and Brent, in the last several months. This was initiated by the advent of positive news on the Covid front that the vaccines in development were extremely efficacious, promising an endpoint to the spread of the virus. This upward trend in crude was boosted by the gradual decline in U.S. shale production and inventories over the same period. Data-EIA, Chart by Author Finally, the move in early January, by OPEC+ to restrain output into mid-2021, and an extra gift
	The 2020 box office was ruled by old movies, early blockbuster success Studios that were able to release films before the pandemic shut down cinemas in March, held onto their box office gains and remained top earners for the year;
	GM may expand Corvette lineup to include a crossover SUV GM is weighing whether to expand its Corvette lineup ” currently a two-seat sports car ” to add its first-ever crossover or SUV.
	Pfizer to temporarily reduce Covid vaccine deliveries to Europe Pfizer will temporarily reduce the number of doses of its coronavirus vaccine being delivered to Europe.
	Walmart’s e-commerce chief Marc Lore to leave after jumpstarting retailer’s digital business Lore joined Walmart in 2016 when the retailer acquired the start-up he co-founded, Jet.com, for $3.3 billion.
	Holiday sales rose stronger-than-expected 8.3% as consumers bought gifts to lighten mood during pandemic The major retail trade group predicted in November that 2020 holiday sales would rise between 3.6% and 5.2% year over year.
	How self-storage became a $22 billion business Public Storage has almost 2,500 locations across the U.S. and is the world’s largest operator and owner of self-storage facilities.
	A new Covid variant has been discovered in Brazil ” here’s what we know so far News of the variant in Brazil comes after two separate mutant strains of the virus were discovered in the U.K. and South Africa earlier this year.
	U.S. health officials push hospitals to administer unused Covid antibody drugs Top U.S. health officials said Covid antibody drugs are being underutilized, and they urged hospitals to prescribe the drugs much more frequently.
	Watch live: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds a press briefing on Covid pandemic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is holding a press briefing on the coronavirus Friday as the state continues to roll out coronavirus vaccines.
	Exxon reportedly investigated by the SEC over valuation of key asset Shares of Exxon slipped on Friday after a report from The Wall Street Journal said the SEC launched an investigation into the company.
	Israel is launching Covid immunity passports. Here’s what they allow you to do The booklet would offer vaccinated individuals significant freedom from Covid-19 safety restrictions.
	‘WandaVision’ debuts Friday, kicking off a new era for Marvel on Disney+ “WandaVision, Marvel’s first scripted series for Disney+, arrives on Friday, kicking off a stacked slate of interconnected superhero content.
	Mandating Covid vaccine passports may scare people away from getting a shot, says ex-CDC chief “I think a vaccination certificate is something that you should have the right to have, but not be forced to have,” ex-CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden told CNBC.
	World Nears 2MM COVID Deaths As Hospitalizations Start To Slow: Live Updates World Nears 2MM COVID Deaths As Hospitalizations Start To Slow: Live Updates Summary: US hospitalizations start to slow Norway’s health institute nears hospital lockdown Italy needs to reimpose strict lockdown measures across the country as the current system of on-again/off-again curbs US & Germany and Italy are looking to expand Update (1135ET): After former FDA head Dr Scott Gottlieb and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will run out of vaccines by next week due to supply constraints. * * * Update (1100ET): Both Germany and Italy are looking to tighten and expand restrictions further as both countries battle a resurgence in the coronavirus. China’s northeastern Covid clusters are growing as an outbreak expands to at least eight other provinces. * * * * The world is about to hit a frightening new COVID-19 benchmark, with 2MM people dead and no end of infections in sight. Though there has been one encouraging sign lately: hospitalizations have been declining. < …
	Biden’s ‘Day One’ Promises Could Take Months To Fulfill Biden’s ‘Day One’ Promises Could Take Months To Fulfill While President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to take action ‘on Day One” regarding a wide range of campaign promises, the reality is that most of them will take weeks, if not months, to fulfill. Bloomberg frames it as “largely a rhetorical flourish, meant to underscore a readiness to take office than an actual to-do list” (before pointing out that Trump’s “Day One” promises took between four and 112 days to fulfill). While some of Biden’s promises can be accomplished with the stroke of a pen, others will require him to prod the b …
	Microsoft, Big-Tech Coalition Developing Rockefeller-Funded COVID Passports Microsoft, Big-Tech Coalition Developing Rockefeller-Funded COVID Passports Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News, A coalition of big tech companies, including Microsoft isÂ developing a COVID passport, with the expectation that a digital document linked to vaccination status will be required to travel and get access to basic services. The group is calling itself theÂ Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), and includesÂ Microsoft,Â SalesforceÂ andÂ Oracle. The US health provider Mayo Clinic is also involved in the project, which is being described as œthe most significant vaccination effort in the history of the United States.
	Market Turmoil Exacerbated By Record Gamma, Option “Pins” Market Turmoil Exacerbated By Record Gamma, Option “Pins” As we showed recently, single stock open-interest has increased to all-time-high levels, which is why today’s expiry is important for stocks, especially for names with large open interest in at-the-money (ATM) 15-Jan options, because as Goldman notes, market makers delta-hedging their unusually large options portfolios are likely to be very active (see the odd report on Exxon from the WSJ which has crashed the stock just as call open interest exploded, leaving countless investors suddenly out of the money). This flow is exacerbating stock price moves in an already jittery market. As an aside, and as we pointed out as recently as yesterday for energy names, the furious buying of calls has led to gamma exposure soaring to an all time high as the following chart from Sundial Research shows.
	Insurers must pay many small firms for Covid lockdown losses A Supreme Court ruling provides a lifeline for many firms that had business interruption insurance.
	UK economy shrank by 2.6% in November as services suffered Coronavirus restrictions in England affected services, with pubs and hairdressers badly hit.
	Brexit: No plans to dilute workers’ rights, minister says It comes after reports that protections including the 48-hour work week could be dropped.
	Why HCL Tech will remain on investors’ radar The company increased the operating margin guidance for FY21 to 21-21.5% from the earlier 20-21%.
	Bitcoin ends a choppy week of trading with prices below $40,000 After starting the year with a surge that took Wall Street by surprise, the volatile cryptocurrency has been range bound in recent days. Bitcoin was trading around $38,280 as of 11:45 a.m. in London, set for a 4.4% drop on the week, the biggest since November.
	India gold demand set to climb as buyers unleash pent-up demand Some of the weddings and festive buying that had been postponed because of the pandemic will come back in 2021, and this pent-up demand will boost sales, P.R. Somasundaram, managing director for India at the London-based council
	Preliminary January 2021 Michigan Consumer Sentiment Declines Written by Steven Hansen The final University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment for January came in at 79.2, down from December’s of 80.7, and up from November’s 76.9
	November 2020 Business Inventories Grew Written by Steven Hansen Headlines say final business sales data (retail plus wholesale plus manufacturing) declined month-over-month. The rolling averages improved. Inventories are slightly elevated.
	Need to Know: Value stocks are about to come out of their coma, says index fund powerhouse Vanguard Now may be the time for value stocks to outperform, says Vanguard Group.
	: Germany’s ruling party chooses successor to Merkel ” who’s in the running and what that might mean for the direction of the EU Three candidates are running to take over the CDU party in a race that is too close to call.
	Mark Hulbert: Here’s what you really should know about the ‘First 5 Days of January’ indicator One week or even one month does not make a year for stock investors.