Written by Gary
RV sales hit record in February, on pace for blowout 2021 (SPY +0.1%). Bernie Madoff disgraced financier dies in prison. Biggest midday movers: Goldman Sachs, Bed Bath & Beyond, Moderna.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
North and South American markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Bovespa gained 1.21%, while the IPC led the S&P 500 lower. They fell 1.14% and 0.06% respectively. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
The Story Behind The Worlds Longest Electrically Heated Oil PipelineUganda has signed a landmark deal with Tanzania for the construction of the worlds longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline, working in partnership with French oil supermajor Total. The 1440km export pipeline, expected to be completed within three years, has an anticipated cost of $3.5 billion. It will run from western Uganda to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania. The deal between Uganda and Tanzania on Sunday marks the start of greater economic partnerships between the two countries in the energy sector and beyond. The | |
High Battery Metal Prices Could Derail The EV RevolutionRecent rallies in the prices of key battery metals such as lithium and cobalt could slow down the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) as higher input costs could mean that battery pack prices may not continue to fall as steeply as analysts have predicted. So far this year, the growing demand for EVs and the numerous statements from major legacy automakers about focusing on electric mobility have sent the prices of the key metals lithium and cobalt soaring. In recent months, the lithium market has shown signs of reversing the slump of the | |
Oil Prices Jump As EIA Reports A Crude DrawCrude oil prices climbed on Wednesday morning after the Energy Information Administration reported crude oil inventories had shed 5.9 million barrels in the week to April 9. This compared with an inventory draw of 3.5 million barrels for the previous week. The EIAs inventory estimate comes a day after the American Petroleum Institute reported a 3.6-million-barrel inventory draw in crude oil for the same period but a 5.565-million-barrel build in gasoline stocks, which prevented oil prices from swinging significantly up or down. For gasoline, | |
Russia Begins Black Sea Drilling As Tensions Rise With UkraineRussias Navy began drills in the Black Sea on Wednesday amid growing tensions with Ukraine and ahead of the expected arrival of two U.S. warships in the area. In recent weeks, tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated and so have those between Russia and NATO and the United States over the build-up of Russian troops in Crimea and along its border with Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, raising the tensions between Russia and Ukraine and Russia and the West. The annexation led to the United States and the European Union imposing | |
Fracking Survives In California As Senate Blocks BillA bill that would have banned hydraulic fracturing in California along with most other ways of extracting crude oil failed to pass the state Senates Natural Resources and Water Committee by one vote. The sponsors of the bill that enjoyed strong support from environmentalist organizations said, as quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle, they were extremely disappointed. While popular among environmentalists and climate change advocates, however, the anti-fracking bill was the opposite of popular among other groups, including | |
The King Of Oilfield Services Is Back In A Big WayIt is no secret that the reflation in oil prices, WTI and Brent, above $50.00/bbl in the last six months has been a boon to the companies that service oil and gas wells. This price reflation in the underlying commodities has driven increases in upstream activity as shown in the graphic below. Data- PrimaryVision, chart by author In this article, we will review the improved financial metrics of one of the biggest Oilfield Service companies (OFS), Schlumberger, (NYSE:SLB), and some things it | |
Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Goldman Sachs, Bed Bath & Beyond, Moderna and moreThese are the stocks posting the largest moves in midday trading. | |
The Cheesecake Factory tries to bounce back from Covid-19With Covid-wary consumers pivoting to takeout and delivery, casual-dining restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory have struggled with falling sales. | |
Restaurants see diners return, but feel a labor crunch as hiring becomes a top priority“There is a dearth of labor in the restaurant business and in the service business like we have never seen,” said Charles Watson, Tropical Smoothie Cafe CEO. | |
India becomes 60th country to authorize use of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccineThe authorization comes as India faces a devastating new surge of Covid infections. | |
For anyone watching Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Mark Tritton’s turnaround, patience is going to be keyInvestors were looking for more green shoots in Bed Bath & Beyond’s latest earnings. | |
IRS is probing the dark web to look for cryptocurrency, NFT tax evasion, says IRS commissionerIRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said the U.S. fails to collect as much as $1 trillion in taxes owed each year, in part due to the explosion in cryptocurrencies. | |
CDC panel to debate use of J&J Covid vaccine after rare blood clot issue affects 6 womenThe Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will review data on the women who developed a rare blood-clotting disorder. | |
Kohl’s strikes deal with activists, plans to name three new directors to its boardKohl’s said Wednesday it has come to an agreement with the group of activist investors who have been pushing to seize control of the retailer’s board. | |
Hundreds of corporations, business leaders, celebs sign statement against voting restrictionsSignatories include corporations like Amazon, BlackRock and General Motors, and individuals including Warren Buffett. | |
Moderna hopes to have Covid booster shot for its vaccine ready by the fall, CEO saysModerna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC the biotech firm hopes to have a booster shot for its Covid vaccine to protect against variants ready by the fall. | |
Leading off-roader maker Polaris is booming and going electricPolaris owns large chunks of the off-road, ATVs, motorcycles and boats. The company’s move to add electrics could open new markets and attract new investors. | |
EU medicines regulator says benefits of J&J vaccine outweigh risks as it reviews rare blood clotsEurope’s medicines regulator on Wednesday said it still believes the benefits of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine outweigh the risks of side effects. | |
Energy firm outlines plans for major hydrogen project that will use UK’s largest electrolyzerIf approved, the facility could start supplying the commercial market before the year 2023. | |
Watch Powell Live: Will The Fed Chair Delink Tapering From A 75% Vaccine ThresholdWatch Powell Live: Will The Fed Chair Delink Tapering From A 75% Vaccine Threshold Earlier this week, St Louis Fed President James Bullard made a big tactical mistake when he converted the Fed’s open-ended guidance into event-based, when he told Bloomberg TV that getting 75% of Americans vaccinated would be a signal that the Covid-19 crisis was ending, a necessary condition for the central bank to consider tapering its bond-buying program. “We want to stay with our very easy monetary policy while we are still in the pandemic tunnel, Bullard told Bloomberg TV. If we get to the end of the tunnel, it will be time to start assessing where we want to go next…When you start to get to 75% vaccinated, 80% vaccinated and CDC starts to give more hopeful messages that we are bringing this under better control and starts relaxing some of their guidelines, then I think the whole economy will gain confidence from that. This, as we quantified, was a big error because if one simply extrapolated current trends, all else being equal (which of course it won’t be as much of the population that is left to be vaccinated is likely the group that will actively refuse jabs), we could see the Fed’s 75% bogey be hit in just two short months, some time in June. | |
“Things Are Out Of Control”: Supply Chain Collapse Leads To Lumber Frenzy, Soaring Home Prices“Things Are Out Of Control”: Supply Chain Collapse Leads To Lumber Frenzy, Soaring Home Prices With median prices for both existing and new homes at all time highs, and soaring at a record annualized rate of almost 20%… … increasingly more Americans find themselves priced out of homeownership, while still cautious banks refuse to lend them the mortgages they so desperately need to live the American Dream (on credit). And unfortunately, since most US houses are made out of wood, we have even more bad news: home prices are about to get even more expensive if for no other reason than the frenzy sweeping the lumber market is set to keep going through the summer peak of US home building as labor shortages and depleted inventories mean that supplies can’t keep up with skyrocketing demand. As Bloomberg summarizes what we have observed across the past few months of torrid, sometimes panicked, ISM Survey Responses | |
Rabo: The World’s Awash With A “Strange, Contagious Epidemic Of Mass Hysteria”Rabo: The World’s Awash With A “Strange, Contagious Epidemic Of Mass Hysteria” Authored by Michael Every via Rabobank, Invasion (of the Inflation Snatchers) Yesterday’s US CPI report was slightly stronger than expected; and yet the day ended with US bond yields substantially lower, 10s down some 8bp intraday from over 1.70% to below 1.62%. So something and yet nothing. For once one doesn’t need to point a finger at the Fed not pointing its finger at inflation like Donald Sutherland at the end of the 1970’s version of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’. Yes, there was a good 30-year Treasury auction, with a heavy indirect bid. Yet more important, the US paused the use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine, which has played a huge role in its rapid roll-out efforts, because of blood clots affecting 1 in a million people who have taken it so far. The bond market saw that no shots mean no shot in the arm for the economy. Indeed, that’s now three global vaccines with question-marks over them from some sources: Astra-Zeneca and J&J for blood clots, and Sinovac for not working effectively (in a now-retracted statement from a key Chinese health official). The US NFIB small business optimism index meanwhile rose 2.4 points in March to 98.2, its first return to average levels since last November. However, business uncertainty increased too, about whether it is a good time to make capital expenditures, and 42% reported job openings that cou … | |
“Unprecedented Demand”: RV Sales Hit Record In February, On Pace For Blowout 2021“Unprecedented Demand”: RV Sales Hit Record In February, On Pace For Blowout 2021 With median prices for both existing and new homes at all-time highs, and soaring at a record annualized rate of almost 20%… … increasingly more Americans find themselves priced out of homeownership and, unwilling to rent shoeboxes in those liberal bicoastal, record tax incubators, are instead opting to not purchase expensive (and stationary) homes altogether, and are picking a far cheaper (and mobile) option. According to the RV Industry A … | |
Bernie Madoff: Disgraced financier dies in prisonBernie Madoff admitted he had conned investors out of billions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme. | |
Hundreds of British Gas staff set to reject new contractsHundreds of British Gas staff are set to reject new contracts that they say offer inferior terms. | |
Sainsbury’s recalls Medjool dates over Hepatitis A fearsThe supermarket is recalling its ‘Taste the Difference’ Medjool dates amid fears they are contaminated. | |
Infosys Q4 PAT falls 2.6% QoQ, misses estimate; firm to buy back shares at 25% premiumInfosys reported a 2.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth in consolidated revenues for the quarter to Rs. 26,311 crore, which was slightly lower than analysts’ estimate of Rs. 26,701.8 crore. | |
Sebi’s new margin norms hurting commodities more than equitiesLast year, Sebi decided to make upfront margin collection mandatory to discourage brokers from providing excessive discretionary leverage to their clients. | |
A bank in the wallet? RBI has just taken Indian banking to next stageOver the last decade, the digital wallet payment system has not only captured a significant market share but also completely revolutionised the payment system. | |
March 2021 Import Year-over-Year Inflation Grows To +6.9%Written by Steven Hansen Year-over-year import price indices inflation grew from +1.4 % to +3.0 %. | |
Market Snapshot: Dow rises to hit intraday record, Nasdaq lower, as big banks show better-than-expected earningsU.S. stocks are slightly higher Wednesday morning as earnings of big banks kick off the first quarter reporting season, beginning with results from JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. | |
The Margin: Woman arrested for refusing to return $1.2 million she received from Charles Schwab via ‘accounting error’Charles Schwab transferred $1.2 million into her account when it was only meant to deposit $82. | |
NewsWatch: Coinbase IPO: Everything you need to know about the ‘watershed moment’ in cryptoHere’s what you need to know about the coming Coinbase direct listing. |
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