Written by Gary
Markets look to open mixed in the U.S. and around the world.
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. |
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
The Conflict Within OPEC Is Far From OverAs expected, OPEC leaders Saudi Arabia and UAE have reached a so-called solution to the current export quota conflict. For two weeks, the global oil market was shocked by the strong position taken by Abu Dhabi’s power brokers, which demanded a higher baseline production quota. OPEC sources now have stated that both countries have reached a compromise on production. Even that the first reactions to the so-called agreement which includes a higher baseline production level for the UAE are positive, the deal, in reality, is nothing more than | |
The Future Of Transportation: EV Stocks Could Fly This SummerWhile the EV boom has been growing for years, 2021 could be the year electric starts to take over everything. And it could happen much sooner than most people realize, as some of the biggest names are already hopping on board. Amazon has already started making deliveries with electric vans in Los Angeles, as theyve agreed to purchase 100,000 vans from EV startup, Rivian.The United States Postal Service just signed a 10-year, multi-billion dollar contract with Oshkosh Defense to produce thousands of electric mail trucks.And United Airlines | |
The OPEC+ Stalemate Isn’t Over Just YetThe battle over oil production quotas within OPEC+ is not yet resolved, according to an official statement from the UAE, although some earlier reports suggested that this was so. But that doesn’t mean progress hasn’t been madeat least with the UAE. However, it is the UAE’s production quota demands that may lead to other producers who are unhappy with their designated baselines demanding similar hikes. Wednesday reports, based on anonymous sources who spoke to Reuters and Energy Intelligence, suggested that a deal had been struck between | |
Why The U.S. Is Desperate To Secure Influence In OmanSomeone in the White House seems to have stumbled upon an atlas, seen where Oman is located, and worked out how crucial it is in the Middle Easts energy matrix. China worked this out a long time ago and has been busily broadening and deepening its ties with the Sultanate, which is a crucial part of both the land and maritime routes of its multi-generational power-grab project, the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) program. Up until the apparent discovery of the White House atlas, it looked like Oman was entering the final stage of | |
U.S. Looks To Slash Long-Duration Energy Storage Costs By 90% By 2030The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Wednesday a new goal to support the increased rollout of more wind and solar power in the grid by reducing the cost of grid-scale, long-duration energy storage by 90 percent within the decade. The DOE initiative has very ambitious goals to accelerate breakthroughs in technology that could enable the storage of clean electricity to make it available anytime, anywhere. Analysts say that the target to slash costs 90 percent below todays lithium-ion batteries within 2030 would not be easy to achieve. | |
Wall Street Still Bullish On Emerging Markets Despite OPEC RiftA commonly heard refrain amongst investment circles is that emerging markets, or EMs, are no longer what they used to be over the past two decades. Coming out of the Global Financial Crisis, EM equities were the best performing regional equity market, returning 79% in 2009 compared to a 27% return by the S&P 500. But it’s been pretty much downhill from there, with the EM lagging behind the Developed Markets (DM) with a 7% return vs. 13% by the DM (excluding the U.S.) in the current year. A similar narrative has been playing out in the energy | |
Hong Kong biotech start-up Prenetics plans $1.3 billion SPAC mergerPrenetics is set to merge with Artisan Acquisition, a SPAC, in a deal that will value the new entity at $1.3 billion or more, a source told CNBC. | |
Lionel Messi: Barcelona forward agrees contract extension with 50% pay cutLionel Messi has reached a verbal agreement on a five-year contract extension at Barcelona, with his salary to be reduced by 50% under terms of the new deal. | |
Palm Beach is running out of mansions for salePrices in Palm Beach hit an all-time high in the second quarter, as brokers grappled with a record-low number of mansions to sell. | |
Ease of Covid lockdown restrictions may help diminish drug addiction, National Institute on Drug Abuse director saysDr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that she’s hopeful that the spike in drug overdoses will not be lasting. | |
Britney Spears can hire her own lawyer to challenge conservatorship, judge rulesBritney Spears is permitted to hire her own lawyer, the judge overseeing the singer’s guardianship ruled Wednesday. | |
Delta, Apple, Best Buy are some stocks that will benefit from consumer spending rebound, Cramer saysThe corporate earnings season is under way, and CNBC’s Jim Cramer thinks the early reports from major banks all have something in common. | |
Wheels Up CEO looks to transform private jet industry as company goes public via SPACPrivate jet company Wheels Up went public Wednesday via a SPAC merger, with its CEO now looking to transform the business’s technology platform. | |
Power restored at Denver International Airport after outage delayed flightsA brief power outage at Denver International Airport delayed flights on Wednesday. | |
FDA chief tells reporter ‘move on’ when pressed on Biogen Alzheimer’s drug approvalActing FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock pushed back against questions from a journalist about the approval of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s medication, Aduhelm. | |
GM warns some Bolt EV owners: Don’t park them inside or charge them unattended overnightTwo Bolt EVs caught fire even after they were repaired as part of a recall of nearly 69,000 of the vehicles that were flagged for fire risks. | |
Covid cases are surging again in Latin America and the U.S., WHO officials warnSpikes in infections are also exacerbating instability and violence across several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. | |
Nearly 3,000 guests, crew disembark cruise in Singapore after positive Covid case left them confined in cabinsNearly 3,000 guests and crew are disembarking a Dream World Cruise in Singapore after being confined for hours due to one positive Covid-19 case. | |
Delta CEO says delta Covid variant has had no impact on bookingsDelta CEO says delta Covid variant has had no impact on bookings | |
The Economist Publishes Bizarre Story Bemoaning Lack Of “Diversity” In Italian SquadThe Economist Publishes Bizarre Story Bemoaning Lack Of “Diversity” In Italian Squad Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News, The Economist published a bizarre article bemoaning the lack of diversity in the Italian football team, with some asking if the same complaint would be made about Nigeria or Ghana. œThe most striking aspect of Italy’s 26-man squad before it took to the pitch was that, alone among the main contenders, it did not include a single player considered as being of colour, tweeted the globalist publication. The article goes on to suggest that the team’s victory over England in the final of the Euros was a œvictory ¦for the Italian right, presumably because England’s first team included several black players while Italy’s starting 11 didn’t contain any.
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BlackRock Bumps Base Pay 8% For Staffers At The Director Level And BelowBlackRock Bumps Base Pay 8% For Staffers At The Director Level And Below Just hours after we wrote that Goldman Sachs was considering a bump in pay for its junior employees, Blackrock has announced it its employees that it is raising base salaries. Staffers at the director level and below can expect an 8% bump in pay as a way for Blackrock to “reward its workforce”, according to Business Insider. The raises are expected to go into effect on September 1. Blackrock still plans on following its legacy salary processes, the report notes, meaning that employees will still be eligible for raises at the start of next year. The initiative was announced via a memo from CEO Larry Fink and President Rob Kapito. The move continues to highlight Goldman Sachs as one of the very few Wall Street firms that hasn’t offered a base pay bump for its employees. However, | |
Georgia County Ballot Images Prompt Speculation Of “Provable Fraud”Georgia County Ballot Images Prompt Speculation Of “Provable Fraud” Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, A group seeking to ensure that elections are run fairly said this week that an in-depth analysis of mail-in ballot images it obtained through a court order shows that the hand-count audit in Fulton County, Georgia, last year œwas riddled with massive errors and provable fraud. The analysis turned up at least 36 batches of mail-in ballots, containing 4,255 votes, that were added redundantly to the audit results, Voters Organ … | |
Heathrow Passenger Numbers Remain Almost 90% Down From Pre-Pandemic LevelsHeathrow Passenger Numbers Remain Almost 90% Down From Pre-Pandemic Levels Authored by PA via The Epoch Times, Heathrow passenger numbers remain almost 90 percent down on pre-pandemic levels and significantly lower than EU rival airports, new figures show. Airport bosses revealed just 957,000 passengers passed through its terminals in June compared with 7,246,157 who used the west London airport in June 2019. The number of passengers travelling through the airport covers the month where Portugal was moved from the green list of countries to amber and led to widespread fury in the travel sector over the speed of rule changes for travellers. Following the latest data, Heathrow bosses urged the government to do more to support the sector. They pointed out that Schiphol and Frankfurt airports in the Netherlands and Germany respectively have surpass … | |
Sainsbury’s and Tesco to encourage mask-wearing from MondayThe supermarkets will ask shoppers to keep the Covid measure even after the legal mandate is dropped. | |
Nissan sees 10% of workforce told to self-isolateUp to 900 workers are sent home from its Sunderland plant after being alerted by the NHS app. | |
Biggest rent rises in commuter and coastal townsCity centre rents show signs of increasing again as the easing of Covid restrictions sees demand rise. | |
Anil Kumar Goel on a selling spree; books profit in 6 stocksAnil Kumar Goel has trimmed his stake in Vardhman Special Steels to 12,66,000 equity shares or 3.1 per cent, as on June 30, 2021. | |
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala picks stake in PSU metal stockThe state-owned insurance behemoth LIC of India has trimmed its stake in SAIL to 34,81,00,137 shares or 8.43 per cent in the June 2021 quarter. It held 38,23,02,962 equity shares or 9.26 per cent stake as the quarter ended March 31, 2021. | |
Infy’s best growth in a decade leaves D-Street drawing parity with TCSAnalysts said the maintenance of FY22 Ebit margin projection at 22-24 per cent range and raising of FY21 revenue guidance to 14-16 per cent from 12-14 per cent was much in line with expectations, but there is ample scope for improvement in the latter, as the revenue guidance was conservative and did not fully factor in the growth prospects. | |
Infographic Of The Day: The Global Chip Shortage Impact On American AutomakersDelays in semiconductor (chip) manufacturing are hitting vehicle production, with more than 1 million vehicles delayed in North America alone. American-based manufacturers Ford, Stellantis and GM are taking the hardest hit, combining for a delay of 855,000 vehicles. Modern cars are built with anywhere between 500-1,500 different chips. | |
LIVE: Current Weather And Forecasts Up To 7 Days – Thursday July 15, 2021Written by Sig Silber HEADLINES – – Heavy rain and potential flooding for parts of the Central U.S. and the Desert Southwest – Heat wave across the western U.S. abates through the end of the week; some additional hot temperatures possible beginning this weekend – Severe weather possible across the Upper Mississippi Valley and Upper Midwest | |
A benchmark-beating robot thinks AMC will outperform Facebook and GameStop. It likes these other stocks, too.An exchange-traded fund run by artificial intelligence bought AMC stock at the beginning of July, preferring shares in the cinema chain and retail investor favourite over the likes of Facebook or Walmart. | |
Italy issues warning over top cryptocurrency exchange BinanceItaly on Thursday joined the crackdown against cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the world’s largest. | |
The Ratings Game: Worries of rampant inflation leads two analysts to abandon their buy ratings on Conagra’s stockShares of Conagra Brands Inc. took another hit Wednesday, after two Wall Street analysts abandoned their bullish calls in the wake of the packaged foods company’s warning that a ‘substantial increase’ in inflation the past three months will take a more than $250 million bite out of profit this year. |
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