10May2021 Pre-Market Commentary: Wall Street To Open Mixed As Soaring Commodities Depress Tech Stocks, DOW Up 125 Points, Nasdaq Down 0.2%, WTI Crude 65.38, Gold 1842, Dogecoin Slips To 0.51

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

European markets are mixed. The DAX is higher by 0.06%, while the CAC 40 is leading the FTSE 100 lower. They are down 0.43% and 0.07% respectively.

Big Oil Eyes Wave Of Buybacks After Blowout Earnings

Crude oil futures have rallied to their highest finish in months, with WTI price climbing above $65 for the first time in two months after OPEC+ stuck with plans to gradually ease production curbs, signaling confidence in the demand outlook. The optimism has coincided with a breakout season for the S&P 500, with the Energy Sector (XLE) being particularly impressive. Indeed, the fossil fuel sector is enjoying a rare blowout season. The majority of companies in the energy sector have beat Wall Street earnings estimates, while more than 80% have

One Junior Miner May Have Sparked A New Gold Rush In Canada

This is the type of story that investors only dream about. It all began about a year ago after a monster gold discovery was made..and then a savvy junior mining company scooped up the adjoining land plus one of the largest past-producing mines in Quebecs history, looking for a repeat discovery. But when this junior mining company started drilling, the results were bigger than some anticipated. It now appears that they have drilled into what could be the mother lode that other companies have been looking for in this area for

Can Oil Firms Win Over ESG Investors?

As institutional investors grow increasingly picky in where they put their money amid the global Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) push, North America’s oil sector has started to look at ways to attract those investors who have been shunning fossil fuels by default. In recent weeks, two Canadian firms became the first North American oil companies to link their credit facilities to sustainability targets, willingly signing up for potentially higher borrowing costs if they miss those targets. The sustainability-linked loans

Tesla Admits It Wont Have A Fully Self-Driving Car In 2021

Elon Musk said in January of this year that he was “highly confident [a Tesla] will be able to drive itself with reliability in excess of human this year.” To many of us, we knew it was nonsense. Musk has been crowing about Full Self Driving in Tesla vehicles – a feature that neither exists, per what its name claims, nor has been proven to be reliably safe – for years. On top of that, Tesla has sold billions of dollars in vehicles and taken deposits for years based on the idea that Full Self Driving technology would come to fruition at some point

Iran Nuclear Deal Talks Are Finally Progressing

Russia, China, and the European signatories to the so-called Iran nuclear deal agreed on Friday to intensify talks on bringing the United States and Iran back into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the diplomat leading the Russian delegation at the talks said. The Joint Commission of #JCPOA at its meeting today opened a new round of the talks on full restoration of the nuclear deal. The participants agreed on the need to intensify the process. The delegations seem to be ready to stay in Vienna as long as necessary

Leaked EU Report Reveals Ambitious Renewables Agenda

The European Commission intends to ask EU Member States to make an additional effort to increase their share of renewable energy in the power mix, according to a leaked draft of an official document revealed by Euractiv on May 4th. Brussels wants to upgrade its current 32% renewable energy target for 2030 to at least 38%, the document says. By the same deadline, the Commission aims to have 55% less greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels, and a 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency. Hence, increasing the renewable energy target

Chipotle to hike wages, debut referral bonuses in attempt to hire 20,000 workers

Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said the current labor market is among the most challenging he’s seen in his career in the restaurant industry.

A psychedelic drug boom in mental health treatment comes closer to reality

Stigmatized drugs like psychedelic mushrooms and MDMA are key to a new era of mental illness treatment for conditions like depression and PTSD.

EU leaders raise doubts over U.S. plan to waive Covid vaccine patents

EU leaders have doubts that waiving intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines is the way to go.

Medina Spirit’s Kentucky Derby win invalidated if failed drug test upheld, Churchill Downs says

Medina Spirit’s trainer Bob Baffert will be immediately suspended from entering any horses in races at Churchill Downs track, Churchill Downs said.

BioNTech to produce vaccines in Singapore, its new regional headquarters

The new manufacturing site would be able to produce several hundred of million doses of mRNA-based vaccines per year, depending on the type, BioNTech said.

The time to negotiate an annual month of remote work may be now

Hybrid work is the future, but it doesn’t allow for one of the greatest perks of working from home: the extended “workcation.”

Singapore’s foreign minister says Covid won’t go away completely, warns against complacency

Vivian Balakrishnan, a medical doctor before entering politics, said subsequent waves of coronavirus infections will be a usual occurrence in the coming years.

Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Marriott, Coty, BioNTech, Tyson Foods & more

These are the stocks posting the largest moves before the bell.

Merkel’s bloc hits historic low in polls just as Covid rules start to loosen

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservative alliance has seen its popularity ratings hit an all-time low, deepening a shift in voter trends in Germany.

Gasoline futures rise after cyberattack shuts down much of vital U.S. pipeline

Colonial Pipeline said it’s restoring service to lateral lines “and will bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe.”

SpaceX accepts Dogecoin as payment to launch ‘DOGE-1 mission to the Moon’ next year

Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” in the first quarter of 2022, accepting the meme-inspired cryptocurrency as payment.

Fauci says face masks could become seasonal after Covid pandemic

The CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people can exercise and attend small gatherings outside without wearing a face mask.

Largest U.S. fuel pipeline remains mostly closed days after cyberattack with no timeline for reopening

Colonial Pipeline said it learned Friday that it “was the victim of a cybersecurity attack” and has since shut down 5,500 miles of pipeline.

Here’s How “Everything Bubbles” Pop

Here’s How “Everything Bubbles” Pop

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

But weirdly, and irrationally, bubbles pop anyway.

At long last, the moment you’ve been hoping for has arrived: you’re pitching your screenplay to a producer. Your agent is cautious but you’re confident nobody else has concocted a story as outlandish as yours. Your agent gives you the nod and you’re off and running:

Writer: Two guys start a cryptocurrency as a joke to parody the crypto craze, and they name it KittyCoin. It goes nowhere but then the greatest speculative bubble of all time takes off, it’s the dot-com and housing bubble times 100 but in everything, and within a couple months the entire economy is dependent on this bubble, and the bubble is dependent on KittyCoin, which has shot up 15,000 percent in a few weeks. A celebrity CEO who’s been promoting KittyCoin is invited to host a failing TV variety show, and now the whole economy depends on KittyCoin soaring even higher.

Producer: So it’s ‘The Big Short’ plus ‘Network’.

Writer: Something like that, only zanier.

Producer: I get the zaniness but it’s so implausible — it’s preposterous.

Writer: It’s an absurdist comedy.

Producer: But it ends with everyone being wiped out.

Writer: OK, a tragi-comedy.

And here we are, in the Greatest Bubble of All Time (GBOAT) hanging on the thin thread of speculators rotating out of one bubble into another even more improbable bubble. I …

Futures Flat As Soaring Commodities Depress Tech Stocks

Futures Flat As Soaring Commodities Depress Tech Stocks

S&P futures started the weak flat with Nasdaq futures falling offset by surging commodity stocks as a new record in copper and iron ore prices stoked concern about whether inflation will derail a growth rebound in the world’s largest economy and spoil a record stock rally. Metal producers were among the biggest gainers in premarket trading, with Freeport-McMoRan, Cleveland-Cliffs and the United States Steel all up at least 3%. At 715 am ET, Dow e-minis were up 109 points, or 0.31%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 3.25 points, or 0.08%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 35.5 points, or 0.26%. The tech-heavy index has been whipsawed by the prospect of inflation which threatens longer-term profit expectations typical of the industry A downgrade by Citi of Internet stocks such as GOOGL did not help. Treasury yields steadied as traders brace for a busy week of auctions.

Some notable premarket movers:

Copper miner Freeport-McMoran rose 3.5% premarket, while aluminum giant Alcoa gained 3.6% and steelmaker United States Steel Corp was up 3.1% as coppe …

Court Battle With Amazon May Force Pentagon To Scrap ‘JEDI’ Cloud-Computing Program

Court Battle With Amazon May Force Pentagon To Scrap ‘JEDI’ Cloud-Computing Program

Has Jeff Bezos overpowered the Pentagon with legal firepower?

Amazon’s legal battle with the Pentagon over its decision to grant its $10 billion JEDI cloud-computing contract to rival Microsoft may finally succeed in scuppering the program altogether.

WSJ reports that Pentagon officials are considering scuttling the program, possibly in favor of a different model that will involve parceling out pieces of the contract to various companies, something that would lower the legal risks associated with the project.

JEDI, or the ‘Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure’ contract, was awarded to Microsoft in 2019 over Amazon, which has contested the award in court ever since, claiming that then-President Donald Trump interfered to sway the award to Microsoft over Amazon over Jeff Bezos’ ownership of the Washington Post.

The Pentagon first suggested that it might cancel the program after a federal judge refused to dismiss Amazon’s challenge.

In order to …

JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank Sued By 1MDB As Malaysia Looks To Recover $23 Billion

JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank Sued By 1MDB As Malaysia Looks To Recover $23 Billion

Malaysia’s quest to recover the billions of dollars looted from 1MDB, the sovereign wealth fund that was coopted as a political slush fund then ransacked by an enterprising young banker-turned-mogul-turned-fugitive named Jho Low, appears to be ensnaring more American banks.

Months after Goldman Sachs finally admitted to its role in enabling Low to steal government assets by raising money in a series of bond offerings for 1MDB, ignoring the red flags raised by its own compliance department about the risk of fraud and corruption, local Malaysian newspaper the Edge – which led much of the original reporting on the 1MDB fraud – has reported that the Malaysian government has filed lawsuits against JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank.

The Malaysian Finance Ministery, according to

HSBC to pilot Zoom-free Friday afternoons

The trial comes in an effort to tackle stress caused by working from home during the pandemic.

‘Fear of missing out’ fuels record house prices in April

Average house prices have climbed almost £20,000 in the last year, hitting a record high in April.

Greggs profits set to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels

The bakery chain reports a strong recovery in sales since the easing of UK lockdown restrictions.

Rupee gets defiant, may put RBI in a tight spot: SBI Research

Currently, the rupee has been trading with an appreciating bias in the spot market while rising premia in the forwards markets are signaling a weaker currency in the future. RBI’s intervention in the forwards markets could also be pushing up the premia.

SBI Card raises Rs 455 cr by issuing bonds

Under this, the company will issue bonds (NCDs) of the face value of Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 455 crore on a private placement basis.

Crisil upgrades Indel Money’s credit rating

The rating of Indel Money on the short-term scale has also been upgraded to ‘A3 Plus’ from ‘A3 minus’.

Market Snapshot: Stock futures mostly higher after Dow, S&P 500 set records

Stock-index futures trade mostly higher Monday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 ended last week at records following a disappointing jobs report that was seen keeping the Federal Reserve from tightening policy.

: Different strokes for different folks as Europe eases out of lockdowns

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to confirm on Monday that the country is on track to fully reopen and lift all restrictions by the end of June. France and Germany are also trying to ease their economies out of lockdowns.

Bond Report: U.S. government bond yields see muted moves, but Germany’s bund yield hits 1-week high

U.S. Treasury yields steady Monday morning as markets for government debt wrestled with the outlook for the economy inside and outside the U.S. after a A 266,000 April nonfarm-payrolls gain marked a big missed forecast for economists’ predictions for those data since the 1990s.