Written by Gary
Covid reinfection is rare but you’re more at risk if you’re over 65 (SPY -0.7%). Jobless claims show unexpected increase despite relaxed economic restrictions.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
 | European markets are mixed. The DAX is higher by 0.89%, while the FTSE 100 is leading the CAC 40 lower. They are down 0.26% and 0.01% respectively. |
What Is Moving the Markets
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Big Oils Hottest Prospects In 2021Judging by the first 3 months of 2021 it seems that this year has gone off into a wrong start, instead of economic rebounds we face a third rendition of a market slump. Nevertheless, 2021 is bound to become much more prolific in oil discoveries than 2020 was many of the wildcats initially planned for 2020 were moved to the next year for financial or health security reasons, all the while some new frontier areas were opened up only very recently and 2021 will see its natural continuation there. Several wells have already been spudded, for |
| EIA: OPEC+ Cuts To Lift Oil Prices Through AprilOil prices will likely remain at the current high levels in March and April, with Brent Crude prices averaging between $65 and $70 per barrel, after the OPEC+ group unexpectedly decided to maintain their production cuts into April, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. In its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) for March, the EIA expects Brent prices to average $65 to $70 per barrel in March and April, more than $10 a barrel above the forecast from February, primarily due to OPEC+ keeping a tight rein on production in |
| U.S. Consumers Will Pay The Bill For Higher Crude PricesOil producers around the world are sticking to their guns and keeping oil production capped even as oil prices continue to rise. Historically, the highly cyclical and predictable pattern of oil production would mean that oil producers would all be rushing to the pumps right now in order to capitalize on high oil prices before flooding the market with oil, depressing prices, instating caps, and starting the pattern all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat. But this time, the United States, OPEC, and even OPEC+ ally Russia are staying strong and resisting |
| Three Commodities Set To Boom As The Global Economy RecoversDespite the ongoing vaccine rollout snafu, including supply chain constraints, delayed approvals andmore worryinglydozens of countries banning the cheapest and most widely available Covid-19 vaccine, theres growing optimism that the global economy is gradually marching towards a full reopening. A year after the WHO declared the Covid crisis a pandemic, all the worlds biggest economies are on a rebound trajectory and slated to record significant growth in the current year after major slumps in 2020. After shrinking by |
| Iraq Denies UAE Firms Claim U.S-Seized Iranian Oil Cargo Was From BaghdadIraqs state oil marketing firm SOMO denied a claim by Fujairah International Oil & Gas Corp of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that an oil cargo, which the United States seized alleging that it carried Iranian crude in violation of sanctions, was bought from Iraq. Fujairah International Oil & Gas Corp has told a federal court in the District of Columbia that the 2 million barrels of crude oil that the U.S. seized earlier this year originally came from Iraq. However, it did not disclose the supplier. The Emirati company, which is owned |
| Will Libya Crush OPECs Plans For A Tighter Oil Market?Libya has a unified government for the first time in more than a decade of civil war. It is also pumping 1.3 million barrels of oil daily and plans to increase this to 2.1 million bpd within four years. Libya has been the odd man out in OPEC production cut agreements, exempt from any because of its political turmoil. Now, it is in a position to undermine the cartels price control efforts. The new interim government of the country that holds the largest oil reserves in Africa was sworn in on Monday. With this came hopes that Libya could finally |
| Peloton and Adidas are working together on an exclusive apparel linePeloton and Adidas announced they’re working together to create a new line of athletic apparel and lifestyle gear, in inclusive sizes and unisex styles. |
| FAA to inspect several Boeing Dreamliners due to production issuesThe FAA said Wednesday that it will inspect four of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner planes itself after production issues surfaced last year. |
| Border openings and vaccine passes are essential for hotel recovery, says CEO of luxury hotel groupEasing border restrictions, introducing vaccine passes will be essential to help revive the hard-hit hotel industry, says CEO of Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. |
| Anheuser-Busch CEO says Travis Scott-backed Cacti hard seltzer sold out after debut this weekAnheuser-Busch’s CEO told CNBC that the Travis Scott-backed Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer sold out after it debuted this week. |
| Indonesia will restart AstraZeneca vaccines when regulators give the go ahead, health minister saysThe country halted the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine after more than a dozen countries in Europe suspended the vaccine due to blood clot concerns. |
| BP is working on a huge ‘blue hydrogen’ facility in the UKBP is one of many firms looking to develop projects connected to hydrogen production. |
| 5 things to know before the stock market opens ThursdayNasdaq and S&P 500 futures fell Thursday as the 10-year Treasury yield surged to a 14-month high. |
| UK vaccine supplies could be shaken in the coming weeks, threatening to slow rolloutThe U.K.’s so-far successful vaccination program could be upended amid expected supply disruption. |
| Williams-Sonoma shares rise as stay-at-home trends fuel better-than-expected salesWilliams-Sonoma posted fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations as consumers shop for home products during the coronavirus pandemic. |
| Covid reinfection is rare ” but you’re more at risk if you’re over 65, study findsMost people who have had Covid-19 are protected from catching it again for at least six months, but the elderly are more prone to reinfection, a new study found. |
| U.S. health experts try to ease Covid vaccine fears as AstraZeneca’s shot faces review in EuropeU.S. medical experts are trying to assuage fears that Covid-19 vaccines may be unsafe after several European countries suspended AstraZeneca’s shot. |
| Covid-19 worsened the single-use plastics problem. Here’s why it could also fuel solutionsThe pandemic fueled demand for single-use plastic and packaging, but advocates say it has also only underscored the need for sustainability. |
| Starbucks sets goal of making its green coffee carbon neutral by 2030Starbucks said at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday that it plans to make its green coffee carbon neutral by 2030. |
| It’s The Debt, Stupid!It’s The Debt, Stupid! Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns, Nearly thirty years ago Bill Clinton won the presidency with four simple words which summed up the failures of Bush the Elder’s administration ¦ œIt’s the economy, stupid. In January, Joe Biden took office in the wake of a ‘pandemic’ which devastated the global economy. And to the best of my ability to parse, Biden believes COVID-19 more dangerous to America than the damage to its economy our response created. It’s hard to parse anything Biden says because on the best of days he’s mostly incoherent. But the divide along partisan lines engendered by COVID-19 are deep. It emboldens him and the Democrats to extend the narrative that COVID is more dangerous than a broken economy for as long as possible, using it to exercise unprecedented power in U.S. history. Biden has asked for a national mask mandate as a kind of Works Project Administration for the 21st century. Let’s all come together in fear to beat the virus by destroying what’s left of the middle class and the Constitution. Nowhere is that divide more pronounced now than in seeing which states have followed Florida and North Dakota’s lead in refusing to go along with the fear.  In the past week important states like Texas and Missouri have seen their governors lift occupancy restrictions on buildings. They have opened their states while openly defying Biden and the media’s continued insistence on being afraid of the virus. There’s an i … |
| Pound Slides After BOE Says Won’t Tighten Until “Clear Evidence Of Significant Progress On Inflation”Pound Slides After BOE Says Won’t Tighten Until “Clear Evidence Of Significant Progress On Inflation” The barrage of central bank announcement continued, with the BOE the latest bank to keep policy on hold, voting unanimously to keep the rate at 0.1% and QE at 875BN pounds
While that was not a surprise, what the market was focusing on was whether the BOE would continue its recent hawkish pivot that together with the recent good news on the UK’s vaccine front had helped send cable sharply higher in recent months. So following in the Fed’s footsteps, and unwilling to risk its own taper, the BOE addressed that question head on, writing in its statement that “the MPC will continue to monitor the situation closely. If the outlook for inflation weakens, the Committee stands ready to take whatever additional action is necessary to achieve its remit. The Committee does not intend to tighten monetary policy at least until there is clear evidence that significant progress is being made in eliminating spare capacity and achieving the 2% … |
| Top EU Regulator Shares Results Of AstraZeneca Jab ‘Safety Review’ After Blood-Clot ClaimsTop EU Regulator Shares Results Of AstraZeneca Jab ‘Safety Review’ After Blood-Clot Claims European leaders have insisted they are ready to re-start the distribution of AstraZeneca jabs (assuming their citizens are still willing to accept them) following a safety review by the bloc’s top regulator. Well, that “review” has just ended, and the EMA is preparing to release the findings about the vaccine safety in just a few hours, as the WHO and AstraZeneca continue to insist that the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh any rare side-effects (even if those side effects might be deadly for some). According to media reports, the EMA’s committee of experts is due to release its findings later on Thursday. Earlier this week, some two dozen countries including Europe’s three largest economies – Germany, France, Spain and Italy – suspended immunizations using the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab following myriad reports of unusual blood clots in a small number of people. Some regulators are suspicious of a link between the clots and patients with low blood-platelet counts. Though the EMA and WHO have insisted that more than 17MM people have received the AstraZeneva jab, with the vast majority of them exhibiting few, if any, side effects. |
| Lira Soars After Turkey Shocks Markets With Whopping 200bps Rate HikeLira Soars After Turkey Shocks Markets With Whopping 200bps Rate Hike While the Fed is caught in a fiasco of its own making, predicting a golden age for the US while keeping rates at zero for at least another two years because – you see – the soaring inflation that has swept across the country is only temporary, Turkey has no such problems and with the country facing its own inflationary conflagration, moments ago the Turkish central bank (CBRT) resumed raising interest rates after surging oil prices and lira volatility sent inflationary risks climbing pushing the lira in a tailspin. Not surprisingly, the lira surged in kneejerk response. The Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Naci Agbal – who was appointed not too long ago after Erdogan voiced displeasure with his predecessor for hiking rates, lifted the one-week repo rate to 19% from 17% on Thursday, smashing the 100-basis-points hike predicted in a Bloomberg survey of 24 analysts.
Considering the upside risks to inflation expectations, the bank has decided œto imp … |
| Economic outlook ‘unusually uncertain’ despite ‘rapid’ vaccine rolloutBank of England says recovery depends on the ‘evolution of the pandemic’ despite the vaccine rollout. |
| Grants to buy electric cars to be cut to £2,500A government decision to reduce subsidies ‘sends the wrong message’, says the motor industry. |
| Liberty Steel: Government must step in to save steel jobs, says Ed MilibandThe shadow business secretary tells the BBC the company is too vital for the UK to collapse. |
| Looking for multibaggers among the IPOs? Be ready to be disappointedA dataset compiled by Mumbai-based brokerage KR Choksey Investment Managers suggests barely 8 per cent, or one in every 13, IPOs launched since 2001 have grown more than five times till February 2021. |
| 2 reasons why this midcap cement stock may sustain rallyThe company will benefit from the capacity addition during the rising demand cycle and presence in the eastern region where prices have risen recently. |
| 22 Big Bull bets that emerged multibaggers in the Covid yearAt least three of his bets (excluding Tata Communications) delivered over 300 per cent returns and two others surged over 200 per cent. |
| Metals Stocks: Gold slightly higher, but pulls back from post-Fed high as Treasury yields riseGold futures trade slightly higher Thursday morning, but pull back from the two-week high seen a day earlier when the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell struck a dovish tone. |
| IPO Report: ThredUp IPO: 5 things to know about the secondhand e-commerce site before it goes publicLike most of retail, ThredUp has taken a hit from COVID-19, but expects young shoppers to embrace resale going forward. |
| Bond Report: U.S. 10-year Treasury yield jumps to above 1.75%U.S. Treasury yields surge Thursday as investors dump government bonds even after the Federal Reserve doubled down on its dovish monetary policy messaging at its meeting on Wednesday. |
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