Written by Gary
DOW closes flat near a record as the market’s February rally pauses (Again) (SPY +0.2%). Audi unveils an all-electric sports sedan to rival Tesla Model S.
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Argentina Narrowly Avoids Another Oil Industry CrisisCrisis-torn Argentina has managed to avert another disaster in its economically crucial hydrocarbon sector. Many institutional investors are unhappy with Buenos Aires sovereign debt restructuring undertaken last year, which allowed the government of President Alberto Fernndez to end Argentinas ninth debt default. That saw bondholders accept a significant reduction of income payments, collectively losing almost $40 billion between 2020 and 2024. Even after settling that deal, Argentinas public debt is a disconcerting | |
Australias Fuel Security Crisis Is Growing Increasingly DireAustralias fuel security is becoming an increasingly imminent challenge for the country as another refinery closes in Melbourne. With the countrys already high import bill climbing, experts are beginning to question the future of Australian fuel. ExxonMobil has taken the decision to close its 80,000 bpd refinery in Melbourne, leaving the country with just two plants to meet its fuel needs. The plant will be transformed into a fuel import terminal. This follows BPs decision to close its 146,000 bpd Kwinana plant | |
Audi Unveils All-Electric Sport Sedan To Rival Tesla Model SAudi unveiled this week its all-electric Audi e-tron GT with a starting price of $100,000, which will go on sale in the U.S. this summer and which industry observers say will be a competition to Teslas Model S. The Audi e-tron GT is the beginning of a new era for Audi. Our aim is to shape the future of electric premium mobility, Hildegard Wortmann, Board Member for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG, said at the online world premiere of the new vehicle. The manufacturer suggested retail pricing in the U.S. for the e-tron GT quattro | |
How Bad Is Big Oils Earning Season?The five integrated oil super majors closed their financial books for 2020 and their numbers looked dreadful. However it could have been worse. Their revenues fell an incredible 36%, from $1,218 billion to $778 billion, year over year due to a combination of lower commodity prices and lower volumes sold. Reported net income over the same period plunged from a positive $48 billion to a loss of $77 billion. While earnings losses are seldom a positive sign we believe the number are not as bad as they may appear. Not all financial losses are created | |
Qatar Scrambles To Reclaim LNG ThroneQatars move to sanction the $30 billion North Field Expansion project puts the country on track to return as the worlds largest LNG producer by 2030, a Rystad Energy report shows, based on operational and so far sanctioned projects. Qatars liquefaction capacity will rise to 110 million tonnes per annum (tpa), or 18% of the global total, which is for now estimated at 600 million tpa at the end of the decade. Still, more projects are expected to be sanctioned as LNG demand will grow faster than supply. Utilization rates will | |
Saudi Aramco Looks To Lure Buyers To Pipeline Unit With $10B LoanSaudi Aramco, the worlds biggest oil company, is discussing with banks the idea to offer the potential buyers of its pipeline business a staple financing package of up to US$10 billion, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing three sources. Saudi state-controlled giant Aramco is looking to monetize assets as its oil revenues and profitsand as an extension, Saudi Arabias income from oilhave drastically fallen over the past year, due to the crash in global oil demand and prices, and the OPEC+ production cut pact aimed at | |
How CVS and other retailers will dole out any surplus Covid vaccine dosesAs Covid-19 vaccination efforts get underway at major retailers and pharmacies, what to do with excess vaccine becomes a bigger question. | |
General Motors invests $100 million in two U.S. plants to boost transmission productionGeneral Motors said it’s allocating $93 million for its plant in Romulus, Michigan, and $7 million for its plant in Bedford, Indiana. | |
United returns Boeing 737 Max to commercial service after groundingUnited follows American Airlines in bringing the Boeing 737 Max back to service after a worldwide grounding. | |
Roche arthritis drug reduces death in hospitalized patients with severe Covid, Oxford researchers sayTocilizumab appears to reduce the risk of death in hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19, researchers at the University of Oxford said | |
WHO says it could be too early and too tricky for a ‘zero-Covid’ strategy in EuropeSome experts have called for a “zero Covid” strategy, advocating for very strict lockdowns. | |
How Covid led to a $60 billion global chip shortage for the auto industryAutomakers are expected to lose billions of dollars in earnings this year due to a shortage of highly important semiconductor chips. | |
3M is helping authorities stop scammers from selling counterfeit versions of its N95 masks“We have taken very strong steps around attacking the problems of counterfeiting or price gouging,” 3M’s Mike Vale told CNBC. | |
Taylor Swift will launch rerecorded music, starting with ‘Love Story’ and album ‘Fearless’Taylor Swift has rerecorded her song “Love Story” and album “Fearless.” | |
Kraft Heinz sells nuts business, including Planters, to Hormel for $3.35 billionThe business, which includes most Planters products and the Corn Nuts brand, contributed about $1.1 billion to Kraft Heinz’s 2020 sales. | |
Pepsi says revenue jumped 8.8%, sees 2021 results meeting long-term targetsPepsi is anticipating mid-single-digit growth in organic revenue for 2021 and high-single-digit growth in core earnings per share. | |
UK coronavirus variant on course ‘to sweep the world,’ leading scientist saysA variant of the coronavirus that first emerged in the U.K. could become the dominant form worldwide, the head of the U.K.’s virus surveillance program says. | |
AstraZeneca sales rise 10% in 2020, drugmaker sees revenue growth aheadAstraZeneca has featured prominently in 2020 because of its coronavirus vaccine, although it has said will not profit from the inoculations during the pandemic. | |
Bumble Fumble, Stoner Stocks Tumble As Bitcoin Rips & Dollar DipsBumble Fumble, Stoner Stocks Tumble As Bitcoin Rips & Dollar Dips Everyone and their (female) pet rabbit was excitedly anticipating the Bumble IPO today and while it opened up 77% from its IPO price, it ended the day well below the $76 open price… But it was pot stocks that really got smoked… Source: Bloomberg With TLRY crashing 50%… | |
Twitter Suspends Project Veritas For ‘Doxing’ Facebook ExecTwitter Suspends Project Veritas For ‘Doxing’ Facebook Exec Twitter continues its purge of conservative voices – this time banning conservative watchdog group Project Veritas, just hours after the social media giant locked founder James O’Keefe’s personal account.
According to O’Keefe (via Gab), the accounts were suspended for “reporting on Facebook VP Guy Rosen and his statements that Facebook œfreezes comments in places that algorithms think there œmay be hate speech.” | |
HFT Giant Virtu Threatens To Leave NY If “Foolish” Transaction Tax PassedHFT Giant Virtu Threatens To Leave NY If “Foolish” Transaction Tax Passed First it was the NYSE, or rather the “New Jersey Stock Exchange Located In Mahwah” that threatened to flee New York if a transaction tax seeking to scalp fractions of a penny for every trade is passed. Now it’s the turn of the firm whose entire business model is based on high frequency trading: Virtu. According to Bloomberg, the company which has made billions in risk-free “market making” by seeing orderflow nanoseconds ahead of everyone else and trading accordingly, er “making markets”, is ready to quit New York lawmakers implement a financial-transaction tax which would enact a surcharge on stock trades to help close a projected four-year revenue loss, estimated at $39 billion. Lawmakers argue that reinstating the tax would raise about $13 billion annually, helping to avert cuts to services such as education and health care during the pandemic. A similar financial-tax proposal in New Jersey has also been met with strong opposition from the finance industry whose entire business model has been reduced to scalping the same penny fractions that local governments are now seeking to pocket.
And go where? Florida? Good luck “making a market” if you have to suffer a several millisecond delay by having to route orders from Florida … | |
Salesforce Says The 9-To-5 Workday Is DeadSalesforce Says The 9-To-5 Workday Is Dead Submitted by Market Crumbs, There’s no denying that the pandemic has changed the way people work. Plenty has been written about what the future of work may look like. Countless companies have said working from home will be permanent, others expect employees to return to the office and others will adopt a mixture of both. While a company’s work environment plans aren’t exactly interesting, cloud-based software giant Salesforce made a bold statement earlier this week when providing an update on how the company plans to create a better workplace.
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Bumble: Female-founded dating app tops $13bn in market debutThe listing of Bumble, which also owns Badoo, makes a billionaire of 31-year-old founder Whitney Wolfe Herd. | |
Holiday bookings jump despite ‘confusion over rules’Official calls for people to pause summer holiday plans have made no difference, UK holiday providers say. | |
HS2: Next phase of controversial rail network gets green lightLegislation needed to clear the next stage of the controversial project has passed through Parliament. | |
Bitcoin hits record as Mastercard, BNY Mellon embrace cryptocurrencyBank of New York Mellon Corp. said Thursday it will hold, transfer and issue Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for institutional customers. | |
How did RBI pull bond yields below the crucial 6% mark?The benchmark bond yield on Thursday dipped as much as 7 basis points to 5.94 per cent, pushing prices up. | |
Sun Pharma settles fund diversion case with Sebi, stock may see a relief rallyThe move could be a booster for Sun Pharma shares as corporate governance issues have weighed investor sentiment for the past two years. | |
Australian Economist Sean Turnell Detained By Myanmar Militaryby Steve Keen, Patreon.com/Steve Keen Wonderful humanitarian Sean Turnell is collateral damage in Burmese politics. Please help get him released. I’ve just heard that the Australian economist Sean Turnell has been detained in Burma by the military. He had been working as an advisor to the now deposed government. I don’t want to get into the politics of this conflict now, for one simple reason: if there is any human being I have met who transcends politics, it’s Sean. He is an angelic presence on this planet, someone who is motivated not by self-interest or power, but by the desire to help others. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this conflict, Sean should not be a victim of it. | |
Documentary Of The Week: The Trouble With Human Capital TheoryWritten by John Lounsbury There is a widely accepted concept in economics that employee compensation is related to productivity. The idea started with a 1899 book by neoclassical economist John Bates Clark, “The Distribuion of Wealth” which formulated the theory of marginal productivity founded on the hypothesis that every agent of production would receive the amount of wealth that agent produces (absent any “friction”). This can be restated as The Marginal Theory of Productivity: In a competitive market everyone earns what they produce. | |
: Biden raises human rights and Taiwan in his first call with China’s XiPresident Joe Biden confirms the U.S. policy toward China is likely to remain on the hard-line side on most issues at hand. | |
: Holidaymakers face 10 years in jail for travel lies when visiting U.K.Travelers from some countries will also be placed in quarantine hotels and charged $2,423. | |
The Conversation: The public option in Biden’s plan could make health care more accessible, more affordable and more equitableWith a public option for health insurance, the government would become the Sam’s Club of health care, which would drive prices down. And it would remove some enduring legacies of Jim Crow. |
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