Odd day: stocks rise on bank earnings oil falls on global growth fears
Good earnings news from big U.S. banks drove U.S. stocks higher today. As of 3 p.m. New York time, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 1.10% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 1.03%. The NASDAQ Composite had climbed .28% and the Russell 2000 small...
So last Friday’s “agreement” on U.S.-China trade wasn’t really an agreement
China now says it wants to hold more talks this month to hammer out the details of the U.S.-China mini-deal announced by President Donald Trump on Friday before Chinese President Xi Jinping will sign it, both Bloomberg and the Washington Post are reporting today....
Emerson Electric moves gradually higher on private equity speculation
On the surface the creeping improvement in the price of Emerson Electric (EMR) shares seems odd. The company is a powerhouse in process manufacturing–you know industrial automation, industrial control and safety, and the Internet of Things. And those...
Market soars on “news” of U.S.-China trade war truce
We’ve been here before. We’ve had other days and other rallies on news, rumors, speculation that the U.S. and China would reach some kind of deal that amounts to a truce in the two countries’ trade war. We been disappointed in that story before when...
It’s a ping pong market over U.S.-China trade talks
Overnight financial markets tumbled on fears that U.S.-China talks to end their trade war were looking at failure. Today stocks are up again as hopes for a so-called “mini-deal” have advanced as China signaled that it might be open to such a limited deal,...
Adding Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to JubakAM.com Special Report 10 Long-term Picks for a Short-term Market as Pick #6 and to my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio
It’s hard to get a handle on exactly how big the market called the Internet of Things will be. Bain Capital sats $520 billion by 2021. McKensey, another consulting company, says $11 trillion by 2021. The huge difference is a result of 1) what these...
Fed minutes from September show debate on how low interest rates should go
Here’s the most important point, to me, from the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s September 18 meeting released today. At the meeting the Fed lowered interest rates by 25 basis points for the second time in 2019. “Several participants suggested that the...
Not surprisingly U.S.-China trade war rhetoric heats up ahead of renewal of talks
Today the Trump administration put eight of China’s technology giants on a blacklist over alleged human rights violations against Muslim minorities. And China signaled that it would retaliate over the blacklist. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told...
The Powell Put underneath the financial markets and the U.S. economy just got stronger
It quacks like quantitative easing. It walks like quantitative easing. But it’s not quantitative easing. According to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell anyway. In a speech today, October 8, to the National Association for Business Economics, Powell said the...
Too much news for the next three weeks
Busy, busy, busy. Here’s what we know to be on tap for the rest of October as of today October 7. U.S.-China trade talks are set to resume on Thursday, October 10. That means a switch from a period when both nations were issuing statements and policy steps...
I think we can call this a data dependent market for Friday
The trend in U.S. financial markets this week has pointed down on data that shows the U.S. economy is slowing. Certainly the disappointing numbers in both the manufacturing and services Purchasing Managers Indexes have supported that conclusion. That could all change...
Wall Street puts two more 2019 interest rate cuts back on the table
Yesterday’s disappointing Purchasing Managers Index news on U.S. manufacturing has put two interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve back on Wall Street’s expectations.(Economists had expected that the PMI number for September would show the...
Looking for an above average yield? Australia’s Westpac Banking looks very attractive after today’s financial sector selling but I’d wait on a likely dividend cut this fall
Today’s weakness in the financial sector on the news that online brokerage Charles Schwab (SCHW) will be cutting commissions on equity and ETF trades to 0% sent the financial sector down to a loss of 2.07% on the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF). That...
U.S. manufacturing disappoints with continuing contraction for September
All the major U.S. stock indexes fell today as the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers Index for Manufacturing disappointed by sinking further into contraction territory. At 47.8 for September, the index hit a 10-year low. Economists surveyed by...
Two strikes and it’s time to sell Tyson out of my 50 Stocks Portfolio
Ok, one lawsuit/investigation/class action action against a company is bad news, usually, for a stock. Two, though? Time to say, Move along. Especially when the company in question shows a remarkable ability to keep getting sued for the same practices. Back in April...
Are the foundations of this market looking a little ragged?
If you were an investor during the dotcom bubble of 1999 that turned into the dotcom bust of 2000 and then into an extended and painful bear market, then you now what we’re seeing now isn’t a comparable level of distress in the underpinnings of the...
Market retreats on news that Trump administration is looking at ways to restrict U.S. portfolio flows into China
I think I know where this is coming from but the news certainty hit the market from left field today. Bloomberg is reporting that the Trump administration is discussing ways to restrict portfolio flows into China’s stocks. Chinese companies traded in the United...
August numbers say U.S. consumer is in decent shape; business investment still lags
Consumer spending on goods and services, which accounts for about two-thirds of gross domestic product, increased by just 0.1% in August from July, the smallest gain in six months, according to the Commerce Department today. Personal income was up 0.4% in August....
McDonald’s announces test of Beyond-Meat-based PLT
We knew this one was coming, right? Today, McDonald’s (MCD) announced that it would begin a test of the PLT, the plant, lettuce and tomato burger, for 12 weeks in 28 restaurants in south-western Ontario. The move mirrors but trails (by six months) the...
Persistent drip, drip, drip of smaller negative stories out of China today
No big bad news story from China this morning, but the news trend continues to emphasize the downside. For example, this morning a U.S. official said the U.S. is unlikely to extend a waiver allowing American firms to supply China’s Huawei Technologies with technology...
China’s economy continues to weaken
The manufacturing sector–thanks to the U.S.-China trade war–continues to slow China’s economy. But the real problem may be an underperformance in the services sector that makes it impossible for that sector to pick up the slack. The end result is that the...
Financial markets still showing signs of indigestion in debt auctions so Fed will pump another $75 billion into money markets tomorrow
Today, Friday, September 20, the Federal Reserve will buy another $75 billion in the overnight repo market. That brings the total this week to $203 billion in the Fed’s effort to stabilize the short-term markets that Wall Street uses to finance its purchases of...
With injection today of $75 billion into money markets Fed attempts to regain control of short-term interest rates
If $53 billion doesn’t work, try $75 billion more. The Federal Reserve injected $75 billion into U.S. money markets today after yesterday’s injection of $53 billion didn’t solve the problem. The problem is that the big Wall Street banks are finding...
This is important: Federal Reserve spent $53.2 billion on Tuesday to stabilize Money Market markets
On Tuesday the Federal Reserve bought $53.2 billion of short-term securities to stabilize the market for money market securities. A funding shortage on Monday and Tuesday had led rates on overnight general collateral repurchase agreements to climb as high as 10% and...
Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 25 basis points; Trump, financial markets disappointed by guidance on future cuts
Today the Federal Reserve lowered its main interest rate another 25 basis points to a range of 1.75% to 2%. To say that the Fed’s Open Market Committee was divided on the decision would be an extreme understatement: Five officials wanted to keep rates unchanged,...
Oil pops more than 10% on drone attack in Saudi Arabia–where does it go from here?
Oil prices are higher–much higher–today after a drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq processing center knocked out 50% of the country’s oil production. As of 1 p.m. New York time U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 13.58% to $62.30 a...
The financial markets–and especially Treasuries–continue their September trend reversal
One way to understand of the recent market action–one way that makes sense to me–is to think of it as a big short squeeze. The drop in Treasury yields and the climb in Treasury prices went to far in August with Treasuries showing their biggest monthly gain...
With luck and slight of hand, Draghi restarts quantitative easing at European Central Bank
If it had come to a formal vote, there’s a good chance that European Central Bank President Mario Draghi would have faced defeat in his efforts to revive quantitative easing at the central bank. But the bank doesn’t usually hold a formal vote on a issue...
Bolton departure from White House sends oil tumbling
The resignation/firing of John Bolton, a long-time advocate of military action against Iran, as National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, has send oil prices tumbling today. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate is down 2.42% to $56.01 a barrel....Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
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