Written by Gary
Second-biggest cryptocurrency ethereum breaks $4,000 to hit record high (SPY -1.0%). Conference Board Employment Index: Shows No Signs Of Slowing Job Growth.
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Soaring Petrochemical Demand Sparks Major ProfitsAs major oil companies released their first-quarter earnings, profits from their petrochemical units hit record highs and demand for petrochemicals is only set to grow. According to Bloomberg, this trend is worrying for consumers as construction and manufacturing staples such as PVC and ethylene have increased substantially in price due to pandemic-driven demand, supply disruptions, and the post-Covid economic recovery. There was a significant increase in demand for several products during the pandemic, most notably – packaging, medical goods, | |
Texas Freeze Led To Biggest Monthly Drop In U.S. Natural Gas OutputThe winter storms in February triggered the largest monthly drop in U.S. natural gas production on record, primarily due to freeze-offs in Texas, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Monday. During the cold snap in February, production across the United States, especially Texas, was disrupted, while natural gas consumption in the residential sector hit a record high, EIA data showed. U.S. natural gas production in February 2021measured by gross withdrawals averaged 104.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). This was 8.1 | |
Big Oil Is In Desperate Need Of New DiscoveriesThe year 2020 was a watershed moment for the fossil fuel sector. Faced with a global pandemic, severe demand shocks and a shift towards renewable energy, experts warned that nearly $900 billion worth of reserves–or about one-third of the value of big oil and gas companies–were at risk of becoming worthless. Even Big Oil mostly appeared resigned to its fate, with Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) CEO Ben van Beurden declaring that we had already hit peak oil demand while BP Plc. (NYSE:BP)a company that doubled down on its aggressive drilling | |
South Africas Emergency LNG-To-Power Deals Land In Hot WaterThe plan of South Africas government to lease LNG-to-power ships to solve its electricity crisis has drawn a lot of criticism because of alleged irregularities in the bidding process and the multi-billion cost for emergency supply for 20 years. Earlier this year, Karpowership, a company from Turkey, was announced as the Preferred Bidder for projects for the so-called powerships to be docked at the ports of Coega, Saldanha, and Richards Bay that will provide power to South Africas electricity grid under the Risk Mitigation Independent | |
Tesla Plans New Mystery Facility Near Texas GigafactoryTesla plans to build a new industrial building with a yet unknown function next to its Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, Austin Business Journal reported, citing documents the electric vehicle maker had filed with the citys planners. Tesla filed the site plan for a still mysterious project, dubbed Bobcat Project, on April 30, according to the documents Austin Business Journal has seen. Neither the site plan nor company or city representatives Austin Business Journal has reached for comment shed more light on the project. A video | |
OPECs Production Increases As Iran Ramps Up OutputOPECs crude oil production is estimated to have increased to a three-month high of 24.96 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, thanks to a major jump in Irans output, the latest survey by Argus showed. Other surveys of analysts and ship-tracking data also suggest that OPEC either boosted or maintained its crude oil production flat last month, ahead of the planned increase of 600,000 bpd from the OPEC+ coalition in May. OPEC will announce official data on the cartels production in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) on Tuesday, | |
Cloudflare seeing uptick in cyber incidents as hackers try ‘unleashing everything,’ CEO says“In the last six months, we’ve seen a dramatic uptick in attacks against our customers,” Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told CNBC. | |
NBC will not air 2022 Golden Globes as it presses for faster diversity reformsNBC will not air the Golden Globes awards in 2022, the network said Monday. | |
Restaurants are ‘sucking wind’ but fighting back to reopen amid a worker shortageProprietors faced closures, space restrictions and lingering uncertainty. They’re now facing a potentially crippling labor shortage as summer approaches. | |
Marriott CEO: Line between business and leisure travel is blurring ” that’s good news for hotels“Increasingly we’re seeing folks that say, ‘I can blend trip purposes,'” Marriott International CEO Tony Capuano told CNBC, calling that “really good news.” | |
Ford names new F-150 electric pickup Lightning with plans to reveal it May 19Ford’s upcoming all-electric F-150 pickup truck will be called Lightning, a name last used by the automaker for street performance trucks in the 1990s. | |
Hug with ‘care and common sense,’ Boris Johnson says as lockdown rules for England easeU.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday that England will be moving to the next stage of its coronavirus lockdown easing program on May 17. | |
Owner of pipeline shuttered by cyberattack aims to restore service by end of the weekGasoline futures were slightly higher Monday afternoon on Wall Street, after spiking to their highest level in around three years during overnight trading. | |
WHO classifies triple-mutant Covid variant from India as global health riskMaria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, said the agency will provide more details in its situation report Tuesday. | |
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. | |
Tech Wrecks, Ether Erupts, Commodities Crumble As Dollar Gives Up 2021 GainsTech Wrecks, Ether Erupts, Commodities Crumble As Dollar Gives Up 2021 Gains That was quite a day. The tech wreck continued, leading the drop in stocks. Commodities did the unthinkable and tumbled on the day but Gold and Cryptos gained as the dollar dumped into the red for the year… Source: Bloomberg Dallas Fed’s Kaplan warned that he was “cognizant of excess risk-taking in financial markets”. Maybe turn the taps off then?
The Dow topped 35k for the first time ever but was unable to hold gains and ended its win streak at 5 days. The US cash open sparked panic-selling in Small Caps and Big-Tech and they never really looked back. All major indices were hit to the downside around 1415ET (a … | |
NTSB Issues Preliminary Report On Fatal Tesla Wreck, Says “All Aspects” Remain Under InvestigationNTSB Issues Preliminary Report On Fatal Tesla Wreck, Says “All Aspects” Remain Under Investigation The NTSB has issued its preliminary report on the fatal Texas Tesla crash that took the lives of the vehicle’s two occupants last month. While the preliminary report notes that “all aspects of the crash remain under investigation as the NTSB determines the probable cause,” the report did touch on several key points. The report noted that: Footage from the vehicle’s owner’s home security system showed “the owner entering the car’s driver’s seat and the passenger entering the front passenger seat”. It has been called into question whether or not there was anyone in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash, so it appears to be too early to judge whether or not this means anything. It was shortly thereafter that the “car leaves and travels about 550 feet before departing the road on a curve, driving over the curb, and hitting a drainage culvert, a raised manhole, and a tree,” the report notes. The ensuing fire destroyed the car’s onboard data storage device. Yes, despite the fact that Elon Musk went “all in” in proclaiming that data logs œrecovered so far showed Autopilot was not enabled in the car last month, the NTSB is now reporting that they didn’t have access to stored data inside the vehicle The report reads: “The crash dama … | |
Amazon Bond Offering Upsized To $18.5BN, Its Largest Ever, Ahead Of Buyback FrenzyAmazon Bond Offering Upsized To $18.5BN, Its Largest Ever, Ahead Of Buyback Frenzy Update 3:15pm: earlier we said that Amazon’s first bond offering in almost a year “is expected to be in the $10-$20BN range and will be vastly oversubscribed”, and we were spot on: the original offering closed on the mid-point, $15 billion… before getting upsized to $18.5 billion. As a result of the strong demand, the longest portion, a 40-year security, will yield 95 basis points over Treasuries, after initial price talk around 115 basis points, Bloomberg reported. At $18.5 billion, it would be Amazon’s biggest bond sale ever, and the second-largest this year behind Verizon Communication Inc.’s $25 billion offering in March. It comes less than two weeks after Amazon reported record earnings for the first quarter and provided a sales forecast for the current period that was stronger than all analyst estimates. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities stood at $73 billion at the end of March, near an all-time high. Ironically, Bloomberg notes that Amazon, which has tens of billions in cash, doesn’t actually need the newly raised capital, but the “cheap borrowing costs prove too tempting to resist.” Curiously, despite the brand new massive war chest of “dry powder” that will be spent in the coming days on buying back its stock, AMZN shares are down almost 3%, trading just below $3,200 on the back of a broad selloff in the Nasdaq that has hammered all tech names. We expect the AMZN weakness will reverse in the coming days as Goldman’s buyback desk is tasked with VWAPing the stock price some $200 higher to allow Jeff Bezos to sell even more bi … | |
The Problem Of Pulling Forward Sales & RevenueThe Problem Of Pulling Forward Sales & Revenue Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, There is a problem of pulling forward sales and revenue when it comes to future outcomes. Currently, analysts are incredibly exuberant about earnings for the S&P 500 index. In just the last month, they sharply increased 2021 earnings. The chart below shows where 2021 estimates were in January 2020 versus the previous two months. The near $20 jump in EOY estimates for 2021 over the last month is highly optimistic. The increase was a function of expectations for a œsugar rush  of economic activity from the stimulus. Of course, after the surge, the growth rate of earnings quickly fade. | |
HSBC to pilot Zoom-free Friday afternoonsThe trial comes in an effort to tackle stress caused by working from home during the pandemic. | |
Digital bank Monzo offers paid leave after pregnancy lossMonzo and Channel 4 offer workers paid leave after pregnancy loss, such as miscarriage or abortion. | |
‘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. | |
Second-biggest cryptocurrency ethereum breaks $4,000 to hit record highEthereum, the second-largest coin by market capitalisation, jumped more than 6% to just below $4,175, and was last up around 2%. | |
Can Elon Musk’s SpaceX take Dogecoin ‘to the Moon’?SpaceX, Elon Musk’s commercial rocket firm, will embark on a Moon voyage in 2022 carrying a so-called cubesat — a mini-satellite used for space research — from Geometric Energy Corp. that’s been paid for entirely in Dogecoin. | |
How to beat depressed debt returns via market-linked debentures?“Wealthy investors are now looking short term as the interest rate cycle will likely turn after 12-18 months,” said Ajay Manglunia, head of debt capital market at JM Financial. œMLDs are gaining popularity in this environment as the absolute returns would be rewarding after factoring in the long-term capital gain tax.” | |
April 2021 Conference Board Employment Index: Shows No Signs Of Slowing Job GrowthWritten by Steven Hansen The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index – which forecasts employment for the next 6 months – significantly increased with the authors saying “Despite the disappointing April jobs report, the Employment Trends Index significantly increased in April”. | |
: NTSB report on Tesla fatal accident in Texas raises doubt Autopilot was fully onA preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board raises the possibility that one of two key components of Tesla Inc.’s Autopilot may not have been engaged during a fiery crash in Texas last month. | |
: Burger wars? Wendy’s is back in the U.K. after 20 years, ready to take on McDonald’s and Burger KingU.S. fast food chain Wendy’s, famous for its square burgers, is planning to return to the U.K. for the first time in more than two decades, amid a boom in fast food during the COVID-19 pandemic. | |
Commodities Corner: Here’s what the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack means for energy marketsColonial Pipeline is aiming to œsubstantially restore operations by the end of the week — a goal that analysts say could avert widespread panic at the pump and lasting repercussions for fuel markets after the largest pipeline in the U.S. was shut down over the weekend in response to a ransomware attack. |
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