Written by Gary
Philly Fed Manufacturing survey index declined again, and the Stock markets slide on ‘cocktail of worries’ (SPY +0.2%). U.S. weekly jobless claims total 348,000 vs. 365,000 estimates.
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. | |
| Semiconductor Shortage Puts Worlds Largest Automaker At RiskA semiconductor supply crunch is forcing world-leading car manufacturers Volkswagen and Toyota to slash vehicle production. Toyota, the worlds largest carmaker, announced it will cut production by 40 percent in September. Instead of making 900,000 as planned the manufacturing giant will now produce just 500,000 cars. Likewise, Volkswagens parent plant in Wolfsburg confirmed that it will have to restart manufacturing at limited capacity in the coming weeks. Some models are currently unavailable for order, which will lead to further |
| Judge Pulls Brakes On Alaska Oil ProjectAn Alaska federal judge has ruled against the Willow project led by ConocoPhillips in Alaska, saying the Interior Department did a poor job of assessing the environmental impact of the project. In the case brought against the Bureau of Land Management and Conoco by local environmental organization Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic and the Center for Biological Diversity, along with several other organizations, the judge granted some of the demands made by the plaintiffs, such as revoking the Bureau of Land Managements approval of the |
| Gazprom: Nord Stream 2 May Supply Gas To Europe This YearThe controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany may supply 5.6 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe this year, Gazprom said on its Telegram channel on Thursday. Gazproms announcement caused European benchmark gas prices to drop 10 percent on Thursday morning. Europes gas prices have hit record levels in recent weeks amid higher demand and lower supply, including from Gazprom. The operating company behind the project, Switzerland-based Nord Steam 2 AG, told Reuters today that construction is 99 percent |
| Oil Drilling Activity To Jump In Guyana, SurinameGuyana and Suriname, the new stars on the oil map, are expecting more exploration drilling over the next two years after a string of discoveries revealed the potential of the Guyana-Suriname Basin. Reuters reports that the two small South American countries attracted the most attention at the recent Offshore Technology Conference in Houston this week, eclipsing even the Gulf of Mexico. Upstream Online reported this week the Guyana-Suriname Basin could see 10 drilling rigs in 2022 as exploration in the area accelerates. Exxon already has six drillships |
| Oil Sinks On Signals Fed May Soon End StimulusWest Texas Intermediate sank to $63 per barrel after news reports suggested the Federal Reserve is about to start winding down its bond-buying program that kept the economy going through the worst of the pandemic crisis. CNBC reported on Wednesday that more and more Fed officials are backing the end of stimulus, and tapering could begin as soon as next month. The report noted that uncertainty still remained elevated because of the resurgence of the coronavirus, and yet oil prices reacted immediately. The central bank has been buying corporate bonds |
| JP Morgan: Dont Expect A Shock Transition In Energy MarketsThe energy transition dream clashes with a reality in which the funding and behavioral changes necessary for deep decarbonization of the global energy system are grossly underestimated. Thats one of the key messages of JP Morgans 2021 Annual Energy Paper published days after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that if the world were to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, it would have to stop investing in new oil, gas, and coal supply immediately. Overwhelmed by enthusiasm about electric vehicles and solar and wind |
| Victoria’s Secret shares tumble, Bath & Body Works rises after first post-split earnings reportsVictoria’s Secret said its sales have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, while Bath & Body Works is optimistic about its fall and holiday lineup. |
| ‘World’s first fossil-free steel’ produced in Sweden and delivered to VolvoSteel production has a significant environmental footprint. |
| Southwest pilots union weighs holiday airport pickets to protest fatigue, lack of hotelsSouthwest pilots’ union is considering holiday airport pickets to protest fatigue and a lack of hotels. |
| Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette says shoppers’ reaction to delta variant leads to urban-suburban divide in store trafficMacy’s says consumers across the country are shopping differently, dependent upon where they live and how high Covid cases are in the area. |
| GM to add AT&T’s 5G connectivity to vehicles starting in 2023The upgrade is expected to enable greater connectivity for in-vehicle systems such as infotainment, navigation and most importantly, over-the-air updates. |
| Chipotle is testing a meatless chorizo alternative in two marketsChipotle Mexican Grill announced Thursday that the burrito chain is testing meat-free chorizo in Indianapolis and Denver. |
| Fires, probes, recalls: The shift to electric vehicles is costing automakers billionsThe issues range from recalls due to vehicle fires or loss of power to cars not starting. The problems can prove especially costly when they involve batteries. |
| Kohl’s shares surge after earnings top estimates, retailer raises forecast as higher foot traffic drives salesKohl’s said its higher forecast positions the department store to achieve many of its 2023 strategic goals this year, well ahead of plan. |
| Macy’s shares jump as earnings trounce estimates, retailer says it’s gaining new customers onlineMacy’s also reinstated its dividend and said its board approved a $500 million stock buyback program. |
| Amazon is reportedly planning to open department stores, its latest experiment in physical retailThe company has opened brick-and-mortar book stores, grocery stores and cashierless convenience stores in recent years. |
| Toys R Us is coming to more than 400 Macy’s stores next yearToys R Us will open pint-sized shops in more than 400 Macy’s locations next year. |
| The NFL wants to grow data and analytics to drive revenue, and just hired former Ford executive Paul Ballew to helpThe NFL made $1.62 billion in sponsorships for its 2020 season, and wants to grow that while protecting players with better usage of data and analytics. |
| Maersk inks deal to secure supply of ‘green’ e-methanol for vessel, targets 2023 launchIt’s hoped production of the fuel will begin in 2023. |
| Is A Hurricane Headed For New England?ÂIs A Hurricane Headed For New England? Residents of New England and the Northeastern coast should closely monitor what is forecast to become Hurricane Henri for potential impacts on Sunday. As of 0500 ET, Tropical Storm Henri was located about 500 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and approximately 800 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The storm has maximum sustained winds of around 70 mph and is moving west at nine mph. It’s likely the storm could be upgraded to a hurricane Friday afternoon. The latest National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) cone of uncertainty model of Henri forecasts the storm to take a sharp turn north Thursday into early Friday and ride up the US East Coast through the weekend, with potential impacts around outer Cape and Nantucket.Â
“A turn toward the northwest is forecast on Friday, followed by an acceleration toward the north and north-northeast Saturday and Sunday. On the forecast track, the center of Henri will remain well offshore the east coast of the United States over the next couple of days but could approach southeastern New England on Sunday,” … |
| (In)Stability…(In)Stability… Via AdventuresInCapitalism.com, This weekend, I watched in baffled amazement as our President and his entire administration went on vacation, abandoning tens of thousands of Americans, along with allied citizens, to their fate in Afghanistan. America has done some embarrassingly dumb things during my lifetime, but this one displayed a special sort of arrogance and incompetence that can only develop through years of hubris, gross negligence, and dereliction of the basic tenants of governance.
Let me state categorically that we should have gone home from Afghanistan long ago. What started as a mission to track down Osama bin Laden, morphed into an impossible adventure with nebulous goals, many of which were unobtainable and quite ludicrous. That said, four Presidents and countless generals all had time to strategize and plan our exit. This weekend’s events were truly a colossal klusterfuk of the highest order, overseen by the most senior leadership of our nation. Despite two decades … |
| FTC Refiles Facebook Antitrust Lawsuit, Stock YawnsFTC Refiles Facebook Antitrust Lawsuit, Stock Yawns Two months after Facebook spiked higher, surpassing $1 trillion in market cap for the first time when a district Judge dismissed the FTC’s antitrust case against the social network, moments ago Facebook dipped – modestly – following reports that the FTC had refiled its antitrust case against Facebook as it seeks to salvage what was once seen as a landmark case before it turned into humiliation. The agency is trying to revive the case after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in June dismissed it at the end of June, saying the agency failed to provide enough detail to support its claim that Facebook has a monopoly in the social-media market. Boasberg had given the FTC 30 days to fix the error and refile, and the commission won an extension until Aug. 19. According to Bloomberg, the Federal Trade Commission filed the new complaint in federal court in Washington, alleging again that Facebook violated antitrust laws by buying Instagram and WhatsApp in order to eliminate them as competitors. The Facebook case, first filed in December, presents an early test for FTC Chair Lina Khan, who was named head of the agency in June by President Joe Biden. Khan is a leading advocate for taking a more forceful antitrust stance against companies and is already taking steps to bolster the agency’s authority. Facebook, however, has been seeking to bar Khan from participating in the case, arguing that her academic writing about the company and her work on the House antitrust panel, which investigated Facebook and other tech platforms, showed she is biased. The lawsuit is part of a broad effort by lawmakers and competition enf … |
| “Why Should We Believe Anything?”: Gordon Johnson Harps On Tesla’s Broken Promises Ahead Of “AI Day”“Why Should We Believe Anything?”: Gordon Johnson Harps On Tesla’s Broken Promises Ahead Of “AI Day” Ahead of Tesla’s upcoming AI day, GLJ Research’s Gordon Johnson took to CNBC to defend a recent note questioning whether or not anyone should believe anything Elon Musk says at the event. “The last 5 Tesla ‘days’ were ‘littered with lies’,” Squawk Box host Joe Kernen reads from Johnson’s note. When asked to back up his reasoning by Kernen, Johnson unloaded about Musk’s horrific track record of lying at these types of events. “My question is: why should we believe anything that’s going to be said at AI day 2 when all the prior days were defined by complete fabrications or something close,” Johnson opens by asking. He then runs down examples. “Battery day. No battery introduced. They said they were going to have a 500 mile Model S Plaid this year, that we know right before it was launched, they cancelled,” he says. “They talked a lot about the Semi which was introduced in 2017 and the Cybertruck, which they’ve recently delayed.”
“A lot of promises made, nothing kept,” Johnson argued. “Let’s talk abou … |
| Chip shortage: Toyota to cut global production by 40%The world’s biggest carmaker will cut output in September, while VW warns it may have to make further cuts. |
| Stock markets slide on ‘cocktail of worries’Shares and oil prices fall as investors take fright over economic concerns, Covid and the Taliban. |
| FTSE bosses earn 86 times more than average worker in 2020The bosses of Britain’s biggest public companies earned 86 times the average full-time wage last year. |
| Morgan Stanley sees RBI hiking rates in each of the four quarters next yearThe research house said in the beginning of the next year, India will join four other Asia-region economies–Australia, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia–which will begin policy normalisation, whether in form of rate hikes or tapering of bond buying programmes. One of the biggest risks to the market is rising inflation, which many see will force economies to take action. Many officials at the US Federal Reserve have said the tapering should begin by the end of the current year. |
| Real estate stocks may be in for a treat as sales likely to peak in 2023Mumbai is likely to comprise a 28 per cent share of total sales and nearly 30 per cent of new launches. Bengaluru’s share will be 20 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively while Delhi-NCR may comprise an 18 per cent share of sales and 15 per cent of new launches, as per estimates. |
| Short term investors & traders in a very risky zone: Sandip SabharwalœShort term investors are in a very risky zone as the broader market has cooled down. People who do not have a very long term horizon, should be wary of hospital and diagnostic stocks which have very high valuations, at this point of time. |
| August 2021 Philly Fed Manufacturing Survey Index Declined Again
The Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey again declined. |
| The Ratings Game: Nvidia analysts hike price targets as data-center story shines, shares rallyNvidia Corp. shares rallied after some initial sluggishness Thursday as more than half the analysts who cover the chip maker hiked their price targets following the company’s strong quarter and outlook based upon data-center gains. |
| : More than half of Gen Z investors admit to trading while drunkAccording to a new survey, 59% of Gen Z traders claim to have bought or sold an investment while inebriated |
| : Biden White House tells states they can keep paying extra unemployment benefits with stimulus fundsThe Biden White House on Thursday said states that want to provide extra jobless benefits to the unemployed beyond a September cutoff can continue to do so by drawing on previously approved federal stimulus funds. |
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