Written by Gary
Gasoline futures jump to highest in nearly 3 years on pipeline cyberattack (SPY +0.1%). U.S. Covid cases down 30% over past two weeks and the dollar is sliding after the ‘horrible’ April jobs report.
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 Future Of U.S. LNG: Only The Biggest Will SurviveLiquefied natural gas was a big thing a couple of years ago in the United States. With so much cheap gas coming out of the ground thanks to hydraulic fracturing, the U.S. had more than enough not just for its domestic needs but also for gas-thirsty neighbors and far-off buyers such s China and South Korea. LNG was to be one of the weapons of U.S. energy dominance during the Trump administration, and indeed, Washington did what it could to motivate more export capacity. Planned LNG terminals dotted the map of the Gulf Coast and moved fast to final |
| Traders Scramble To Buy Gasoline From Europe After U.S. Pipeline OutageCommodity traders have booked at least six tankersprovisionallyto start shipping gasoline from Europe to the United States in the wake of the outage of the Colonial Pipeline network, Reuters reports, citing data from Refinitiv. The United States has declared a state of emergency. Colonial Pipeline Co. shut down its network, which supplies close to half of the gasoline and diesel the East Coast consumes, on Friday following a ransomware attack on the infrastructure. This prompted fears of fuel shortages and price spikes at the pump. |
| Hedge Funds Increase Bullish Bets On OilMoney managers have accelerated buying in the most important petroleum futures and options contracts, betting that oil prices will increase later this year as economies reopen and travel and fuel demand rise. In the week to May 4, hedge funds bought the equivalent of 40 million barrels in the most important contracts, led by increased bullish bets on WTI Crude and Brent Crude, according to data from exchanges compiled by Reuters columnist John Kemp. This was the fourth week in a row in which portfolio managers have added long positions in oil futures. |
| European Oil Imports Surge In AprilCrude oil imports into Europe surged by close to 1 million bpd last month, Bloomberg reports, citing a sharp rise in Brent crude prices. Nigeria, the United States, and Brazil were among the exporters that benefited from the price trend caused by maintenance at several large producing fields in the North Sea and a recovery, albeit weak, in oil demand on the continent. The arbitrage to Europe has opened up, and that should encourage higher inflows particularly from the U.S. and perhaps also Nigeria whilst Indian demand remains in doubt, |
| Cyberattack Shuts Down Major U.S. Gasoline PipelineA cyberattack during the weekend caused the shutdown of the Colonial pipeline, which carries some 45 percent of the gasoline and diesel fuel the East Coast of the U.S. consumes, media have reported, noting that the attack could threaten the security of gasoline supply and push up prices. Gasoline futures immediately jumped on the news of the attack, adding 2 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, Colonial Pipeline Co. learned on Friday that it had become the target of a cyberattack and that it took certain systems offline to contain |
| Big Oil Eyes Wave Of Buybacks After Blowout EarningsCrude 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 |
| Indian Premier League cannot be completed in country due to Covid, says BCCI chief Sourav GangulyThe remainder of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) cannot be completed in the country, says Sourav Ganguly, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). |
| Roku is offering a ‘pretty good entry point’ after blowout earnings, trader saysRoku’s riveting earnings report has some traders doubling down on the streaming stock. |
| U.S. Covid cases down 30% over past two weeks as country averages 2 million shots per dayAverage daily U.S. infections fell to below 41,000 over the weekend, down 30% from two weeks ago, as the country averages 2 million shots per day. |
| Chipotle to hike wages, debut referral bonuses in attempt to hire 20,000 workersChipotle 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 realityStigmatized 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 patentsEU 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 saysMedina 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 headquartersThe 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 nowHybrid 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 complacencyVivian Balakrishnan, a medical doctor before entering politics, said subsequent waves of coronavirus infections will be a usual occurrence in the coming years. |
| Merkel’s bloc hits historic low in polls just as Covid rules start to loosenThe Green Party remained in the lead in one poll with 26%, albeit with its rating also down 1 point from the previous week. |
| Rabobank: You Really Couldn’t Make This Stuff Up… And Who Is Having The Last LaughRabobank: You Really Couldn’t Make This Stuff Up… And Who Is Having The Last Laugh By Michael Every of Rabobank Not Just American Hustle US oil prices are soaring due to a cyber-attack Friday on a key pipeline, which has disabled it with no fixed date to restart operations. The ‘good’ news is this is the work of a criminal group called Darkside, who just want money. Quite the American hustle. The bad news is it shows how vulnerable economies are to this kind of sabotage at a time when we are hardly short of state actors willing and able to perpetrate it due to heightened geopolitical tensions. On which, China’s Global Times has threatened China could attack Australia with ICBMs should it get involved in a conflict in the South China Sea, a risk featured prominently in the Aussie media of late. The paper’s editor argues: “Given that Australian hawks keep hyping or hinting that Australia will assist the US military and participate in war once a military conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Straits [NB This is not an ‘if’ conflict breaks out], and the Australian media outlets have been actively promoting the sentiment, I suggest China make a plan to impose retaliatory punishment against Australia. The plan should include long-range strikes on the military facilities and relevant key facilities on Australian soil if it really sends its troops to China’s offshore areas and combats against the PLA. In addition to making the plan, … |
| “To The Moon”, Literally: SpaceX Says It’ll Accept Dogecoin As Payment For Lunar Mission“To The Moon”, Literally: SpaceX Says It’ll Accept Dogecoin As Payment For Lunar Mission Just when you thought this past weekend’s admission on Saturday Night Live that dogecoin was a “hustle” by one of its biggest advocates, Elon Musk, may have marked the top, Musk has out-pumped himself on the meme cryptocurrency yet again. It broke this weekend that SpaceX will launch the the œDOGE-1 Mission to the Moon in the first quarter of next year, Reuters reported. SpaceX will accept dogecoin as payment, it said. “SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year ” Mission paid for in Doge ” 1st crypto in space ” 1st meme in space,” Musk tweeted over the weekend.Â
Back in April, Musk had said SpaceX would put a “literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”. The crypto saw its value routed after Elon Musk’s highly anticipated Saturday Night Live appearance this weekend. Prior to … |
| GOP Governors Slash Unemployment Benefits As Businesses Plead For WorkersGOP Governors Slash Unemployment Benefits As Businesses Plead For Workers Authored by Isabel van Brugen via The Epoch Times, Expanded federal unemployment benefits that were implemented during last year’s pandemic relief efforts are ending earlier than scheduled in Arkansas, Montana, and South Carolina “and Florida is expected to follow suit as Republican governors nationwide respond to pleas from businesses to encourage Americans to return to work.
œWe absolutely can put more people to work, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told reporters during a press conference Wednesday, announcing that Floridians receiving the $300 weekly extra payments will soon have to provide proof that they’re actively looking for … |
| Ethereum Soars Above $4000, Nears Market-Cap Of JPMorgan As Bitcoin Dominance FadesEthereum Soars Above $4000, Nears Market-Cap Of JPMorgan As Bitcoin Dominance Fades Cryptocurrencies crossed a key threshold in the last week, surpassing the value of all physical US dollars in circulation…
Source: WSJ This latest surge in the total value of all cryptos comes more on the heels of altcoins than bitcoin as Bitcoin ‘dominance’ has dropped to 45% of the crypto market – its lowest since June 2018. |
| HSBC to pilot Zoom-free Friday afternoonsThe 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 AprilAverage 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 levelsThe bakery chain reports a strong recovery in sales since the easing of UK lockdown restrictions. |
| Why this two-wheeler stock is poised to do well despite pressure on volumesThe operating margin before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA margin) of India’s largest two-wheeler maker expanded by 100 basis points year-on-year to 13.9% in the March quarter. |
| View: Markets are in for an interest-rate surpriseFed has made it abundantly clear that it won’t start raising rates until inflation is expected to exceed its 2% target for some time ” which, in my view, means it will probably have pushed the economy past maximum employment, and then will need to make monetary policy tight to cool the economy down. |
| Major edible oil firm Gemini Edibles plans Rs 1,800 crore IPOFour investment banks – Nomura, Axis, Credit Suisse and Kotak have been hired to run the process. A draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for the Rs1500-1800 crore IPO will be filed by next month, said multiple people aware of the development. |
| : Different strokes for different folks as Europe eases out of lockdownsU.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. |
| NewsWatch: This is the ‘greatest threat’ to Big Tech’s S&P 500 dominance, Goldman saysWhile the prospect of decelerating U.S. economic activity supports Big Tech’s outperformance and the group’s œremarkable growth looks set to persist, Goldman analysts, noted several headwinds around the corner. |
| : Demand for vacation homes soars ” even as people prepare to return to officesRate locks have risen 178% for second homes over the past year as of April, according to an analysis by Redfin. |
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