Written by Gary
Under-25s hit worst as unemployment rises again (SPY -1.1%). Jerome Powell signals Fed to keep buying bonds even as outlook improves.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
 | North and South American markets are mixed today. The Bovespa is up 1.41% while the IPC gains 0.23%. The S&P 500 is off 0.96%. |
What Is Moving the Markets
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
| Canada May Become Global Leader In Booming Battery Metals MarketCanada has a sizeable opportunity to become one of the worlds leaders in the lithium-ion battery market, but that potential needs to be recognized and nurtured by regulators and miners,Benchmark Mineral Intelligencedirector Simon Moorestold the House of Commons on Monday. Moores, who joined a parliamentary discussion on Canadas role in building a domestic and global lithium-ion battery ecosystem, said the combination of natural resources and a highly-skilled workforce should make it easy for the country to create |
| Battery Start-up To Build Gigafactory In NorwayMorrow Batteries, founded in Norway last year, is taking the first steps to building a gigafactory in Norway with plans to start construction of the industrialization center for battery technology later this year. Morrow Industrialization Centre will be crucial to our success in product development and scaling up our activity to the level of our planned Gigafactory, Terje Andersen, chief executive of privately held Morrow Batteries, said in a statement this week. Earlier this year, Morrow Batteries entered into a letter of intent |
| Oil Major Total Makes Big Bet On Green HydrogenFrench supermajor Total looks to become a large producer of clean hydrogen one day, chairman and chief executive Patrick Pouyann said on Tuesday during the virtual IP Week conference run by the Energy Institute. We have huge interest in hydrogen… We want to be a large producer at scale of clean hydrogen, the top executive of one of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world said, reiterating the firms ambition to become a broad energy company that is not just pumping oil and gas. There are challenges in lowering |
| Petrobras CEO Ousting Triggers $13B Stock LossThe decision of Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro to replace the chief executive of oil major Petrobras triggered investor panic and a selloff that led to a slump in the company’s shares yesterday that can be measured in billions. Bolsonaro ousted Roberto Castello Blanco after less than three years at the Petrobras helm and replaced him with former defense minister and army general Joaquim Silva e Luna. As a result, banks and analyst agencies rushed to downgrade the company’s credit ratings and shares in Petrobras took a 22-percent plunge on Monday |
| How Hard Did The Texas Freeze Hit U.S. Shale Production?U.S. shale oil production in the first quarter will be lower than previously expected because of the sub-zero temperatures and snowstorms that put Texas in the spotlight last week and pushed oil prices higher. Reuters cites several shale oil producers, including Occidental and Diamondback Energy, which expect a slow recovery in production as frozen pipelines and well equipment removed some 2 million bpd from the U.S. total. Whats more, some of the lost production may never return because it would be too expensive to restart some smaller |
| Lithium Prices Soar As Tesla, Apple And Google Fight For SupplyThe electric vehicle (EV) revolution is gaining serious momentum. According to experts projections, demand for electric vehicles should rise at a 21.1% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) until 2026. The extraordinary demand that is forecast for EVs over the next five years has now begun to trigger a massive disruption in the global energy markets. As demand for EVs continues to move higher, the demand for lithium the critical component needed for the batteries that power all those EVs is also projected to climb higher. According |
| Best Buy gives pandemic-related bonuses to employees amid company layoffsThe consumer electronics retailer has not said how many store employees will lose their jobs as part of a reorganization. |
| Former Tesla exec inks new recycling deal as battery costs soarÂThe booming EV plans may mean the industry has to look at recycling batteries as a new source for key minerals. |
| Hillary Clinton is co-writing a thriller novel that reckons with a post-Trump worldHillary Clinton is teaming up with award-winning author Louise Penny to pen her first non-fiction book. |
| From escape mutations to wild strains: Here’s everything you need to know about Covid variantsHere’s why the coronavirus mutates, why some variants are more problemtic than others and what that means for life-saving vaccines. |
| ‘Sun, sea, sand and Soberana 02’: Cuba open to inoculating tourists with homegrown Covid vaccineCuba aims to be one of the first countries in the world to vaccinate its entire population in 2021. |
| Macy’s holiday sales top estimates, lifting company to its first profitable quarter in a yearMacy’s reported its first quarterly profit in a year, as its efforts to slash inventories during the holiday quarter and rely less on deep discounting paid off. |
| Home Depot tops estimates as sales surge 25%, but shares fall on worries pandemic gains won’t lastThe home improvement retailer said it does not know how long the pandemic will last and what that will mean for consumer spending. |
| U.S. supply of Covid vaccine to substantially increase next month, manufacturers tell CongressThe remarks indicate that the U.S. is on track to have received 240 million doses of vaccine by the end of March, enough to vaccinate about 130 million people. |
| TikTok is cutting deals with pro sports leagues, and now men’s and women’s soccer clubs are signing onThe ByteDance-owned company will have a patch on the MLS Portland Timbers and its sister club, Thorns FC of the National Women’s Soccer League. |
| Lucid Motors deal sends shares of Michael Klein’s SPAC tumbling 46%Lucid plans to go public through a reverse merger with a blank-check company started by veteran investment banker Michael Klein. |
| European travel stocks surge after UK announces its end-to-lockdown planEuropean travel stocks soared on Tuesday morning as customers rushed to make new bookings after the U.K. announced its plan to end coronavirus restrictions. |
| Expensive, massive and lethal: The future of the aircraft carrierThe aircraft carrier has been the cornerstone of American security for close to a century, but will it remain on top? |
| These taxpayers will get until June 15 to file their 2020 returnsWhile the IRS had said it has no plans to extend the standard April 15 filing deadline, taxpayers in declared disaster areas will get a reprieve. |
| Biden Readies His First Major Sanctions On Russia For Navalny CrackdownBiden Readies His First Major Sanctions On Russia For Navalny Crackdown Early this month cities across Russia were hit by large, well organized and closely reported mass demonstrations in support of jailed Kremlin critic and anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny. Over recent weekends, however, both the rallies and international media interest in them appear to have lost momentum and waned. But not wanting to let a political opportunity to punish Russia go to waste, the Biden administration is said to be preparing major economic penalties over Navalny’s 2.5+ year jail sentence recently handed down by a Moscow court for probation violation. The US is also poised to slap penalties on the Russian government over allegations that intelligence poisoned Navalny with nerve agent back in August, which kicked off the whole saga, bringing his name from relative obscurity into the international mainstream. A new report in |
| When Short-Selling Is Done RightWhen Short-Selling Is Done Right Authored by Doug Kass via Seabreeze Partners, Short selling is risky Most individual investors would be better off to avoid short selling The academic evidence on the effects of short selling on our capital markets is overwhelmingly positive Short selling improves the efficiency of security prices, increases liquidity, and positively impacts corporate governance * * * “We don’t like trading agony for money” Charlie Munger (in his response to my question when I was the “credential bear” at the 2013 Berkshire Annual Meeting) Short selling is a risky investment strategy where the investor profits if the stock price drops. Let’s start with the reasons why most retail investors should not sell short as an offensive (and non arbitrage) strategy:
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| 500,000 Jobs At Risk As Instacart Mulls Robot-Driven Warehouses500,000 Jobs At Risk As Instacart Mulls Robot-Driven Warehouses For the more than 500,000 Instacart gig workers fulfilling grocery orders at supermarket chains such as Giant, Food Lion, Costco, among others, the delivery service is exploring ways it can eliminate human workers by employing robots at warehouses, according to a new report via Financial Times. Anyone who straps on a mask, or now maybe two or three, and has shopped at a major grocery chain this year have noticed, many of whom, young millennials, running around the stores in green Instacart shirts, fulfilling orders.Â
While this innovative delivery service has been nothing but stellar during the virus pandemic, the San Francisco-based startup has been researching ways to automate the picking process.Â
Sources said, ” … |
| David Rosenberg: “We’re Getting Closer To A Breaking Point”David Rosenberg: “We’re Getting Closer To A Breaking Point” Submitted by Christoph Gisiger of TheMarket.Ch David Rosenberg, Chief Economist & Strategist of Rosenberg Research, worries that the surge in bond yields threatens the economic recovery. He warns of the consequences of today’s massive debt volumes and explains why he spots investment opportunities in the commodity sector and in Asia. * * * The temperature is rising. In the US, yields on long-term government bonds have jumped to the highest level since early 2020. Oil prices are rising, and copper is more expensive than it has been in almost ten years ” clear signals that markets are bracing for a strong economic recovery. “Not so fast,” says David Rosenberg. The internationally renowned economist and strategist from Toronto has no doubt that the pandemic will subside. But he also thinks that the post-opening growth spurt in the economy will soon lose steam and structural problems will resurface and reality sets in. “And then, we have to assess how these massive deficits and debts are going to be regressed,” he’s warning. |
| Under-25s hit worst as unemployment rises againUK unemployment has risen to 5.1% – its highest level in almost five years, official figures show. |
| Holiday bookings surge after lockdown exit plansTravel firms serving the UK and overseas report a huge jump in bookings and website traffic since Monday. |
| Coronavirus: Gender pay gap enforcement delayed by a further six monthsThe equalities watchdog says it is the right move amidst the pandemic, but Labour calls it “unacceptable”. |
| RBI may raise rates only in FY23: BofA Securities“We expect the RBI MPC to remain on hold in FY’22, with oil prices rising, and hike rates by 100bps in FY’23” said Indranil Sengupta, chief India economist, BofA Securities. |
| Jerome Powell signals Fed to keep buying bonds even as outlook improvesThe economy is a long way from our employment and inflation goals, and it is likely to take some time for substantial further progress to be achieved. |
| India continues to attract FPIs amidst global sell-offIndia received portfolio flows worth $6 billion since the beginning of the calendar, and ETIG compilation of Bloomberg data showed. |
| The Technical Indicator: Charting a market divergence, Nasdaq violates the breakout pointTechnically speaking, the major U.S. benchmarks have extended a downturn from recent record highs, pressured amid increasingly uneven price action, writes Michael Ashbaugh. |
| The Ratings Game: Home Depot is focused on eco-friendly cordless power tools for springHome Depot executives say customers continue to add to their list of home projects. |
| London Markets: Tech selloff hits these London-listed stocks as a Tesla-heavy fund tumblesThe selloff in tech stocks hit the London market on Tuesday, with the sector dragging down the U.K.’s benchmark index as investors exit companies that have been among the biggest winners through the COVID-19 pandemic. |
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