Morning News: June 6, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 6th, 2017 at 6:30 am

The World’s $100 Trillion Question: Why Is Inflation So Low?

U.S. Extends Sugar Talks With Mexico as Both Countries Near Deal

White House Formally Backs Plan To Transfer Air Traffic Control System To Private Corporation

Supreme Court Disgorges the SEC

Trump’s Paris Pull-Out Can’t Stop The Renewables Revolution

Trump Organization to Go Budget Friendly With `American Idea’ Hotel Chain

Amazon Offers Prime Discount To Those On Government Benefits

Hedge Fund Guys Think They’re Smart. Let’s See.

J.Crew’s Mickey Drexler Confesses: I Underestimated How Tech Would Upend Retail

Alphabet Shares Follow in Amazon’s Footsteps and Top $1,000

The Video Game Business Is Finally Adopting The Netflix Model

Led by Rachel Maddow, MSNBC Surges to Unfamiliar Spot: No. 1 in Prime Time

Josh Brown: QOTD: You Will Always Find What You Need

Roger Nusbaum: We’ll Always Have Paris

Jeff Carter: One Bad Pitch Doesn’t Mean The End

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Morning News: June 5, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 5th, 2017 at 7:00 am

Saudi-Led Alliance Cuts Ties With Qatar

World Bank Still Sees Global Growth Picking Up Amid Policy Risks

JPMorgan’s Dimon Aiming for China Venture With Full Control

Solar Energy Boom Turns to Bust for Indian Manufacturers

The Bloody Fight for ETF Scraps Is About to Get Even Worse

Toyota Sold All Its Tesla Stock, And Plans To Ignite 2020 Games By Flying Car

Uber’s Surge Pricing Tactic During London Bridge Terror Attack Ignites Social Media Outrage

G.M. Wants to Drive the Future of Cars That Drive Themselves

Apple Services Unlikely To Offset Soft iPhone Sales

Apple Piles On the Features, and Users Say `Enough!’

Herbalife: Approaching Record Highs, But Should It Be?

Oculus Founder Plots a Comeback With a Virtual Border Wall

Blackstone Offers $2 Billion for Finnish Real Estate Firm Sponda

Jeff Miller: Is the Bond Market Sending a Message for Stocks?

Michael Batnick: These Are The Goods

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My NFP +138,000
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 2nd, 2017 at 8:32 am

The May jobs report is out. The U.S. economy created 138,000 net new jobs last month. The unemployment rate is down to 4.3%.

The numbers for March and April were revised lower. March by 29,000 and April by 66,000.

The unemployment rate is now at its lowest since March 2001. The unemployment rate is lower now than at any time from March 1970 to Feb 1999.

Morning News: June 2, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 2nd, 2017 at 7:12 am

Brazil Exits Recession With Fastest Growth Rate Since 2013

Trump’s Paris Exit Leaves Him Isolated From C-Suites to Capitals

Oil Slides as U.S. Climate Withdrawal Compounds Glut Concerns

Mnuchin and Mulvaney at Odds as Trump Confronts Debt Default

Dollar Gains as ADP Suggests Strength Before May Jobs Report

Trump Talks Tough on Trade, But His Team Is Treading Lightly

Goldman Sachs Applies for Saudi Equities Trading License

Walmart is Asking Employees to Deliver Packages on Their Way Home From Work

Uber’s CFO Search May Prove Difficult

British Airways I.T. Outage Caused By Contractor Who Switched Off Power

Blue Apron, a Meal Delivery Service, Files for Public Offering

Linde Shares Seen Up After Boards Agree Praxair Merger

The Doughnut Dilemma: What The Office Pastry Teaches About Behavioral Economics

Howard Lindzon: Nasdaq 10,000 and What Could Go Wrong?

Jeff Miller: How to Deal With a Losing Trade

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Update from Manila
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 1st, 2017 at 4:08 pm

I decided to head off to the Philippines for a few days of vacation. By now, you’ve probably heard of the awful attack at Resorts World Manila. That’s a big complex right next to the airport which is about five miles from where I am. Let me assure you that I’m safe and sound. I didn’t even know about the attack until I heard about it on Twitter.

The island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines has been under attack from ISIS. Manila is a long way from there but it seems ISIS wants to cause as much mayhem as possible.

Posting will be light but I wanted to let everyone know that I’m doing fine.

Morning News: June 1, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 1st, 2017 at 7:04 am

E.U. Agrees to Recapitalization Plan for Monte dei Paschi

As China Ushers In New Cyber Law, Misgivings Remain

Wall Street Regulators Just Got a Powerful Reminder of One of the First Rules of Finance

Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Its Addiction to Social Security Numbers

Express Scripts Sues Maker of Overdose Drug, Intensifying Feud

Investors Pick Tesla’s Promise Over GM’s Steady Profits

Nomura Admits Part in Goldman Venezuelan Bond Deal

Uber Posts $708 Million Loss as Finance Head Leaves

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Dire Quarter Shines Light on Deal With U.K.’s Micro Focus

Brazil Levies Record $3.2 Billion Fine On Parent Of Meatpacking Giant

United Slapped With Fine For Taking Plane ‘Not in Airworthy Condition’ on 23 Flights

JetBlue and Delta Test Biometric Scanning to Replace Boarding Passes

The Whistleblower Behind Caterpillar’s Massive Tax Headache Could Make $600 Million

Ben Carlson: Don’t Be Fooled By High Dividend Yields

Cullen Roche: Chart of the Day – The USA is Not a Corporation

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Morning News: May 31, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 31st, 2017 at 7:03 am

This Is What the Demise of Oil Looks Like

Once Costly Deep-Sea Oil Turns Cheap, to OPEC’s Dismay

The Billionaire Gadfly in Exile Who Stared Down Beijing

Venezuelan Opposition Condemns Goldman For $2.8 Billion Bond Deal

Despite Weak Inflation, Fed Is Likely to Raise Interest Rates in June

Deutsche Telekom CEO Says U.S. M&A Regulations Look Good Under Trump

U.S. Colleges Have $500 Billion to Invest. Now Where Are All the Green Deals?

Supreme Court Rules Patent Laws Can’t Be Used to Prevent Reselling

Amazon Gets First Dance With $1,000 Share Price

Amazon Is Giving Out $70 Million in App Refunds: See If You’re Eligible

Exxon Steps Up Efforts To Sway Shareholders On Climate-Report Vote

Toshiba Unable to Present Audited Results At End-June Shareholders Meeting

Birkin Bag Sells For Record $380,000 at Hong Kong Auction

Jeff Carter: Two Markets With Parallel Paths

Roger Nusbaum: Watching Tech’s Weighting in the SPX

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Morning News: May 30, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 30th, 2017 at 6:43 am

Markets Don’t Trust Banks, and They’re Right

Oil Slips on Oversupply Worries Despite OPEC Deal

Venezuelan Opposition Threatens Country Won’t Pay Goldman Sachs’ $2.8 Billion Bond Deal

India’s Bad Debt Is Looking Better to Investors

Australia’s Real Estate Boom Has Wall Street Wooing a Newspaper Publisher

Tesla’s Model X Misses Out On Nation’s SUV Hunger

New Russian Jet Heralds Carbon Manufacturing Shake-Up

British Air Meltdown Feeds Outrage at Airline Cost Cuts

Robots May Help Defuse Demographic Time Bomb in Japan, Germany

Payment Processor First Data to Buy CardConnect for $750 Million

Novartis Has Assets to Sell, Investors Wary of What It Might Buy

U.S. Companies No Longer Know Rules of Game Under Trump, Hasbro Director Says

Howard Lindzon: Statistics Provide Rather Bloodless Answers and Losers Average Losers

Jeff Miller: Will a Big Week for Data (finally) Bring Volatility?

Josh Brown: Scarier Than The Living Dead

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Morning News: May 29, 2017
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 29th, 2017 at 7:10 am

Oil Slips As More U.S. Drilling Outweighs OPEC-Led Cuts

Merkel: Germany Can No Longer ‘Fully Rely’ on the US

Russia Squares Up to Boeing and Airbus With Its First Post-Soviet Passenger Jet

Fed’s Williams Sees ‘Much Smaller’ Balance Sheet in Five Years

Most Chipotle Restaurants Hacked With Credit Card Stealing Malware

World’s Most Painful Short Just Gets Worse for Evergrande Bears

Hackers Hide Cyberattacks in Social Media Posts

In China, Umbrellas and Basketballs Join the Sharing Economy

BMW Says Shortage of Parts From Bosch Hampers Production

British Airways Battles Third Day of Disruption, Image Blow After IT Meltdown

Lenovo’s Struggling Mobile Business Sets Sight on High-End Market

Mark Zuckerberg Calls For Universal Basic Income

Route to Air Travel Discomfort Starts on Wall Street

Ben Carlson: How Many Will Stay the Course During the Next Bear Market?

Michael Batnick: These Are The Goods

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Q1 GDP Revised Higher
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on May 26th, 2017 at 11:47 am

We had some good news this morning. First-quarter GDP growth was revised higher.

It’s still bad but not as bad as we thought. The original report said the economy grew in real terms by 0.7% during the first three months of the year. Now it looks like the economy grew by 1.2%.

That was the weakest performance since the first quarter of 2016 and followed a 2.1 percent rate of expansion in the fourth quarter. The government revised up its initial estimate of consumer spending growth, but said inventory investment was far smaller than previously reported.

The sluggish first-quarter growth pace is, however, probably not a true reflection of the economy’s health. GDP for the first three months of the year tends to underperform because of difficulties with the calculation of data that the government has acknowledged and is working to resolve.

The economic expansion is about to turn eight years old. It’s one of the longest and weakest expansions on record. Real GDP growth has tracked a 2.1% trend line fairly well for the last eight years.