Financial Markets and Economy
Five Strange Things That Have Been Happening in Financial Markets (Bloomberg)
Negative swap spreads, fractured repo rates, big moves, and much more.
Liberty Media to reclassify stock into three tracking stocks (Business Insider)
Liberty Media Corp said it would reclassify its common stock into three new tracking stock groups.
One tracking stock would be designated as the Liberty Braves Group, one as the Liberty Media Group and one as the Liberty Sirius Group.
Oil prices rise, but could struggle on big stockpile jump (Market Watch)
Oil prices are slightly higher in Asia trade because of a weaker dollar on Thursday, though the gains may not sustain as the near-term outlook remains challenging.
Investors are awaiting data on U.S. oil stockpiles to be released later in the day by the Energy Information Administration, which may show an increase because of a seasonal slowdown and weaken prices.
Rolls-Royce Says 2016 Profit to Be Hit by $990 Million Headwind (Bloomberg)
Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc said 2016 earnings will take a 650 million-pound ($990 million) hit from lower demand for aircraft engines and overhaul work, extending a sequence of profit warnings that’s battered the company for two years and sending the stock down the most since 2000.
Stock futures little changed as Yellen comments awaited (Yahoo! Finance)
U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Thursday ahead of scheduled speeches by several Federal Reserve policymakers, including Chair Janet Yellen, and weekly jobless claims data.
* Investors will parse the data and policymakers' remarks for clues on if the central bank will raise interest rates next month, as is widely expected.
Kohl's quarterly profit drops 15.5 percent (Business Insider)
Department store operator Kohl's Corp <KSS.N> reported a 15.5 percent drop in quarterly profit as warmer-than-usual weather hurt sales of winter apparel and footwear.
World's Top Innovator South Korea Dominates Asian Stock Winners (Bloomberg)
South Korea, which topped the Bloomberg Innovation Index in January, is now dominating Asian stock markets with seven of the 10 best performers this year.
U.S. stock index futures indicated a mixed open on Thursday as traders anticipated the release of jobs data as well as comments from a range of Federal Reserve speakers.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen will make welcoming remarks at a Fed conference on post-crisis monetary policy in Washington at 9:30 a.m ET, although the official who might make more news is New York Fed President William Dudley.
SABMiller second-quarter underlying sales rise, forex impacts margins (Business Insider)
Brewer SABMiller <SAB.L> reported higher underlying sales for the second quarter on Thursday, a day after larger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev <ABI.BR> launched a $100 billion-plus takeover bid for it.
Leveraged Finance Market Mired in Slump That Spans the Atlantic (Bloomberg)
A slump in the leveraged finance markets is being felt from Wall Street to the City of London.
Audi sells fewer cars in October than Mercedes, BMW (Business Insider)
Volkswagen's <VOWG_p.DE> Audi brand sold fewer vehicles in October than German rivals BMW <BMWG.DE> and Mercedes-Benz <DAIGn.DE>, according to data published on Thursday.
Sales of Audi's luxury cars and sport-utility vehicles (SUV) rose 2 percent to 149,200 models, with gains in Europe and the United States offsetting a drop in China, Audi's biggest market, it said.
Swiss Stocks Miss Out on Draghi Rallies in Rest of Europe (Bloomberg)
The prospect of more stimulus from Mario Draghi has been boosting most European stock markets. Switzerland has been lagging behind.
So You Want To Be A Modern "Trader": Here Are The Requirements (Zero Hedge)
Igor Oystracher's 3Red trading firm may not exist much longer after the recent vicious crackdown against the company's spoofing practices profiled a month ago in "Russian College Dropout Busted For 1,316 Spoofs Of Everything From E-Minis, To Copper, To VIX", an assault orchestrated by none other than king of HFT market-manipulation, Citadel itself, but for now he is busy looking for new trader meat…. ideally with pimples.
Back in 2010 we predicted that as a result of the advent of HFTs as the most profitable form of market manipulation on Wall Street, old school rolodex-and-phone, carbon-based traders were a dying breed and on their way out. Little did we know just how accurate we would be.
Why this market won’t crash even after stuffing itself (Market Watch)
It’s been almost seven long years of this bull run, so it’s no wonder more and more are worrying whether the market has peaked. And if it has topped out, doesn’t that long run mean just as drastic a plunge?
Not at all, says Brad McMillan in his latest blog post. Stocks could now fall, the chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network says, but it will be like dropping from “a second-story window,” rather than “a tenth-story window.”
Two Thousand Dollar Thursday – Futures Profits While We Wait (The Huffington Post)
Yesterday, in the morning post, I noted the weak volume rally was a good shorting opportunity in the Futures – specifically the Russell (/TF) at 1,190 (pictured here, now 1,170 for a $2,000 gain!) and the Nikkei (/NKD) at 19,800 (now 19,635). The Russell was good for a very quick $1,000 per contract gain and has hit $2,000 as of this morning(where we're done for now, expecting a bounce here) while the Nikkei took longer to grind out it's $1,000 win at 19,600 before bouncing back.
Getting Big Oil to Behave (Bloomberg)
Big Oil is going through a rough patch. Prices are low and will remain so. President Obama killed the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. And New York’s attorney general is probing whether ExxonMobil withheld scientific findings that confirmed decades ago that fossil-fuel consumption contributes to global warming. At this tumultuous moment, it’s worth pointing out where symbolism outweighs substance—and shed some light on an industry development that got eclipsed amid all the excitement.
Fed shouldn’t normalize rates before the economy is back to normal (Market Watch)
We’re about to find out the price of gradualism for the Fed.
Zambian Kwacha Gains Most in World on Central Bank Intervention (Bloomberg)
Zambia’s currency strengthened the most in seven years as traders said the central bank sold dollars to stem the kwacha’s slide after it fell to a record low this week.
How OPEC Just Crushed Oil With One Chart (Zero Hedge)
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse – amid supply gluts, production surges, market share scrambles, and demand disappointment – it does. OPEC this morning confirmed not only no change in the already weak global demand picture but the current oil inventrory surplus is the largest in at least a decade. This has driven WTI prices down close to a $41 handle this morning (from over $48 a week ago) as simply put, there's too much oil and OPEC's grand strategy for solving this imbalance – pray for a colder winter…
Here’s the lowdown on those high-yield bond ‘bargains’ (Market Watch)
High-yield bonds (the polite term for “junk bonds” or bonds issued by less credit-worthy companies) have declined in price lately.
Euro Eyes Parity Once More (Bloomberg)
Following a failed attempt at parity earlier this year, the euro may be set to make a more convincing foray at 1.0000 to the U.S. dollar, as a crucial driver for further weakness in the common currency is now on a substantially different path, Bloomberg strategist Vassilis Karamanis writes.
6 charts point to a Thanksgiving correction for stocks (Market Watch)
Gobble, gobble! Since recovering some of their losses from a late-August rout spurred by China growth fears, stocks have clawed their way back from the abyss.
Euro-Area Industrial Production Falls 0.3%, More Than Forecast (Bloomberg)
Industrial production in the euro area fell more than economists forecast in September, which may raise concerns among European Central Bank policy makers about the outlook for the economy.
Hong Kong shares surge as tech earnings impress (Market Watch)
Shares in Hong Kong made their biggest daily jump in over a month Thursday, as strong earnings lifted shares of Chinese technology firms listed in the city.
Elsewhere, firming expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in the U.S. at its December policy meeting kept investors on the sidelines.
Charting the Markets: Federal Reserve Officials Take Center Stage (Bloomberg)
Hong Kong stocks rebound, Australia's dollar rallies and Rolls-Royce shares lose a fifth of their value.
Mounting inventory at Macy's is ringing warning bells at department stores (Business Insider)
Mounting inventory at Macy's Inc portends a tough holiday quarter for U.S. department store operators as they compete with home improvement and electronics retailers for the attention of thrifty customers.
Inventory was up 4.6 percent at the end of October – 3.1 percent on a comparable basis – after the warmest fall quarter in 25 years hit sales of winter clothing and footwear.
Politics
Postal Workers Union Endorses Bernie Sanders (The Huffington Post)
Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) won the endorsement of the American Postal Workers Union on Thursday, giving the self-described democratic socialist a boost as he seeks more support from organized labor in the Democratic primary.
APWU represents 200,000 U.S. Postal Service employees and retirees. It's the second major national union and member of the AFL-CIO labor federation to endorse Sanders over rival and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Is Ben Carson the New Republican Frontrunner? (The Atlantic)
Ben Carson came out to address the media after Tuesday night’s debate, emerging in the spin room with his typical air of beatific nonchalance. He was immediately engulfed by dozens of microphones and cameras; a reporter for the Daily Mail began shouting questions about new factual discrepancies in his autobiography. “Did you attack your mother with a hammer, or did she attack you?” the reporter shouted. “Are you running away from this question?” Carson simply ignored him and kept walking.
Technology
A five-story vending machine for cars just opened in Nashville (The Verge)
Buying a car is a hellish process. The reward for spending hours researching the right one is a trip to a local dealership — an experience that assaults the nerves in such a way that it's only rivaled by appointments with the dentist. But what if buying a car was easier than that? What if it was as easy as, say, a vending machine? A few years ago, a company called Carvana followed in the footsteps of companies like CarMax by trying to move the car buying experience completely online. The process of purchasing a car on Carvana's website includes all the steps that normally take place at a dealership: getting approved for and selecting financing, selecting a warranty, and signing the contract.
Health and Life Sciences
Maternal mortality falls by almost 50% (BBC)
Pregnancy-related deaths have fallen by almost half in the past 25 years, according to a report by United Nations agencies published in The Lancet.
Around 303,000 women died of complications during pregnancy or up to six weeks after giving birth in 2015 – down from 532,000 in 1990.
Heart Transplant Mental Toll May Be Greater for Women (Medicine Net)
Women may have more mental stress after a heart transplant than men, a new study finds.
Heart transplant patients with higher levels of mental stress are less likely to take medications as prescribed and are at higher risk for infection, the researchers noted.
Life on the Home Planet
Police arrest 15 suspected terrorists across Europe (Market Watch)
Police have arrested 15 people across Europe on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks and kidnappings linked to Islamic State.
During a news conference Thursday, Italian police officials said they issued 17 arrest warrants as part of a long-running investigation into a suspected Europe-wide network of terrorists with ties to Islamic State that was plotting attacks on and kidnappings of diplomats in Norway and the Middle East.
The people whose land is turning to dust (BBC)
The UN predicts over 50 million people will be forced to leave their homes by 2020 because their land has turned to desert. This is already happening in Senegal, writes Laeila Adjovi.
Cattle herder Khalidou Badara took me up a hill in Louga, northern Senegal, to describe to me how his area has changed.
