Written by Gary
March 2021 ISM and Markit Manufacturing surveys improve (SPY +1.1%). U.S. stocks close sharply higher to cap holiday-shortened week.
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Saudi Aramco’s Falling Profits Put Vision 2030 In JeopardySaudi Aramcos profits fell by nearly 50% in 2020 as the pandemic battered oil markets and an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia sent oil prices to record lows. Not even the worlds largest oil company could escape the devastation, although it did manage to remain profitable unlike many of its competitors. For Saudi Arabia, a country whose entire economy is virtually monopolized by the state-owned oil company, Aramcos 44.4% drop in profits meant a whopping 30.7% decline in oil revenues for the Saudi government. | |
Big Oil Beats NYC Appeal On Climate Change LawsuitA federal appeals court on Thursday ruled in favor of five of the worlds biggest oil companies in an appeal over a climate lawsuit that New York City was seeking re-opened. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that New York City cant hold the five firmsExxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Shellresponsible for damages caused by global warming under New York tort law. The city sued the five companies in 2018, and then a federal district judge also dismissed NYCs lawsuit arguing that | |
U.S. Oil Rig Count Posts Double Digit Gains As Oil Prices RiseBaker Hughes reported on Friday that the number of oil and gas rigs in the United States increased by 13 this week, adding another bearish element to the market after OPEC+ announced it would ease up on its production cut restrictions. Last week, the U.S. rig count increased by 6. The total number of active oil and gas rigs in the U.S. now stands at 430, which is 234 fewer than this time last year. The oil rig count increased by 13 this week to 337, and the number of gas rigs fell by 1 to 91. The number of miscellaneous rigs increased by 1. The | |
Could Bitcoin Solve The Oil Flaring Problem?As governments aim to curb carbon emissions from gas flaring, Bitcoin data centers offer a way to use this energy instead of letting it go to waste, in return for the digital currency. Gas flaring, a byproduct of fracked shale production, produces around 1 percent of global carbon emissions at present. Companies burn the gas off at the well site, rather than using it as an energy source, because of its unprofitable nature. The alternative option is simply to vent the gas into the atmosphere, releasing methane and adding to harmful greenhouse | |
ExxonMobil Set To Outperform As Oil And Gas Prices ClimbExxon could swing into profit this quarter after five consecutive quarters in the red thanks to higher oil and gas prices and recovering demand, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing also suggested that Exxon did not expect too great an impact on its first-quarter performance from the Texas Freeze in February, which led to oilfield shutdowns. According to the company, the Freeze could lead to losses of less than a billion dollars across upstream, downstream, and chemicals, while the increase in | |
OPEC Meeting: Saudis Look To Unwind Unilateral Output CutsOil prices gave up earlier gains and turned lower as of 11:39 a.m. EDT on Thursday, after reports emerged that Saudi Arabia was offering to gradually ease its additional unilateral cut of 1 million bpd, on top of the OPEC+ group also gradually easing the cuts in the next three months. The Saudis are proposing to ease the extra cut, beginning with lifting production by 250,000 bpd in each of May and June, on top of the OPEC+ group also easing the cuts, by 350,000 bpd in each of the next two months, Amena Bakr, Deputy Bureau Chief and Chief OPEC | |
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and hundreds of Asian American business leaders pledge $10 million to AAPI causesThe pledge comes amid national attention on anti-Asian violence in the U.S. and fundraising efforts following the fatal Atlanta shootings. | |
CarMax ads featuring basketball star Sue Bird go viral, call attention to gender bias in sportsA series of CarMax ads featuring WNBA standout Sue Bird uses humor and misdirection to elevate female athletes. | |
United Airlines tells staff it’s hiring hundreds of pilots next month as carrier plans for a travel recoveryUnited Airlines plans to resume pilot hiring next month in a pandemic turning point. | |
American Airlines to use nonunion pilots for some test flights, drawing criticismAmerican Airlines pilots’ union says the decision to use only company pilots for certain test flights will reduce independence of these reviews. | |
Songwriters’ group demands artists stop taking credit for hits they didn’t writeA group of songwriters who have worked with hit artists released an open letter on Tuesday calling out inequality in the music industry. | |
A hint of what’s to come for dying malls: Phoenix mall owner sells out as property is rezoned for other usesThe land surrounding the Paradise Valley Mall in Phoenix has been rezoned, to create a new development with homes and offices. | |
GM’s first-quarter sales up 3.9% on strong consumer demandGM reports its retail sales increased 19% in the first quarter, while fleet sales declined 35% from a year earlier. | |
‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ scores $9.6 million opening day, a record for a pandemic release“Godzilla vs. Kong” tallied $9.6 million during its opening night, marking the best debut for any movie released during the pandemic. | |
AMC stock slides after CEO discusses plans to seek approval to potentially issue more stockAMC Entertainment’s stock fell as much as 5% on Thursday after the company’s CEO told CNBC it has asked for shareholder approval to issue 500 million shares. | |
MLB discussing options for Atlanta All-Star game following Georgia voting lawMLB is gathering feedback from teams and executives about the status of its 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta. | |
Boston Red Sox chairman hopes Covid game cancellations will be a ‘rare event’ this MLB seasonOn opening day, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner told CNBC, “I certainly think that we’ve gone beyond where we were six months ago.” | |
Funko shares soar after toymaker strikes deal to enter NFT marketShares of Funko surged after the pop culture collectible maker said it acquired a majority stake in TokenWave, putting it into the NFT market. | |
Frontier Airlines raises $570 million in IPO, starts trading todayThe budget carrier is the latest U.S. airline to go public as the industry recovers from the Covid pandemic. | |
Stocks, Bonds, Bullion, & Black Gold Bid As Q2 Starts With Dollar DumpStocks, Bonds, Bullion, & Black Gold Bid As Q2 Starts With Dollar Dump Another few trillion in spending malarkey… …and the dollar dumps to start the quarter… Source: Bloomberg Which makes many wonder if this is the start of something bigger… | |
Oil Surges: Here’s Why Goldman Is Delighted By The OPEC+ DealOil Surges: Here’s Why Goldman Is Delighted By The OPEC+ Deal While oil initially fluctuated heading into today’s OPEC+ summit, and seemed unsure how to trade initially as leaks of the deal emerged, WTI and Brent have since jumped by $2/bbl, trading near session highs and unwinding yesterday’s sharp losses. The reason for this, as Goldman’s commodity analyst Damien Courvalin explains, is that while OPEC+ agreed to ramp-up production gradually in coming months, and the increase coming a month sooner than Goldman had expected (May vs. June)… | |
Will Biden’s Spending Spree Shake Confidence In The World’s Reserve CurrencyWill Biden’s Spending Spree Shake Confidence In The World’s Reserve Currency By Laura Cooper, macro strategist who writes for Bloomberg U.S. Exceptionalism Comes With a Cost to the Dollar While the greenback may look forward to supercharged U.S. growth, the spending that’s being unleashed to drive American exceptionalism comes with an eventual cost “- and a big dollar sign in front of it. A U.S. economy set to accelerate at a near four-decade-high rate of growth is upending the 2021 consensus trade for dollar declines. Aggregate net-short bets have tumbled by roughly three-quarters, or more than $20 billion, since January, with the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index coming off its best quarter in a year. A fiscal push amounting to more than 20% of GDP, towering over those of peers, adds to tailwinds for relative U.S. growth. And a resumption of strong U.S. data can bolster near-term upside, with a robust March non-farm payrolls print kicking it off. That’s as the U … | |
Sign Of The Top? Miley Cyrus Partners With Cashapp To Give Away $1MM In SharesSign Of The Top? Miley Cyrus Partners With Cashapp To Give Away $1MM In Shares Investing conventional wisdom dictates that when your taxi driver or hairdresser starts talking stocks, it’s time to sell. But in the post-Trump era, it might be time to modify this just a little to include celebrities hawking stocks – or simply giving them away – on Instagram. Yesterday, pop singer Miley Cyrus celebrated the 15th anniversary of the debut of her hit Disney television series Hannah Montana – which launched her to instant megastardom – by partnering with the Cash App to give away $1MM worth of stocks. To enter, fans can simply comment on her Twitter or Instagram pages. Cyrus followed up the announcement by sharing a link and urging followers to “learn more about stocks” – or “stonks”, as the kids are calling them. For those who prefer Robinhood or another discount online brokerage to buy and sell stocks, the Cash App has gained notoriety for allowing customers to buy fractional shares of some of the hottest US-listed companies (like Tesla and Amazon) for as little as $5. | |
Every customer must sign in when pubs reopenNew rules to help venues reopen outdoors safely this month have sparked anger from industry groups. | |
‘What do I cut to fund minimum wage rise?’Businesses are concerned they might not be able to afford the compulsory pay rise this year. | |
Liberty Steel boss: Plants won’t shut on my watchMetal tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is racing to refinance his business after his financial backer collapsed. | |
Unlisted companies attract 97% of FDI in FY20India attracted a total of Rs 7.06 lakh crore foreign direct investment in FY20. As many as 24,580 firms have raised equity from foreign investors. | |
OPEC+ agrees on gradually easing oil output cuts from MayThe group, which has been implementing deep cuts since oil prices collapsed in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis, agreed to ease production cuts by 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May, another 350,000 bpd in June and further 400,000 bpd or so in July. | |
Global equities could receive April boost after a pause in rally“April tends to be a strong month for risk assets, with monthly returns statistically significant across major markets, said Andrew Sheets, a strategist at Morgan Stanley, adding that higher dividend payments could be a reason behind this rise in shares in the month. | |
March 2021 ISM and Markit Manufacturing Surveys ImproveWritten by Steven Hansen The ISM Manufacturing survey improved and remains in expansion. The Markit PMI manufacturing index also improved and remains in expansion. | |
February 2021 Construction Spending DeclinesWritten by Steven Hansen The headlines say construction spending declined month-over-month. Our analysis shows the rolling averages declined. | |
In One Chart: ‘Increasingly euphoric’ stock-market sentiment on verge of sending ‘sell’ signalWall Street’s finest are so bullish on stocks that a contrarian sentiment gauge is on the verge of sending a sell signal, says BofA. | |
Market Extra: Reddit trading guru Keith Gill looks to have made over $25 million on his GameStop betThe man known as Roaring Kitty on social media posted a screenshot of his portfolio to Reddit that shows a massive position and a 938% return. | |
: Gang of international Lego thieves arrested in Paris heistValuable collectibles targeted by criminals who had traveled from Poland ” three arrested. |
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