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Thursday, March 28, 2024

News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

Negative Rates Are Turning This Corner of the Credit Market Crazy (Bloomberg)

Negative interest rates are an odd fish in the world of finance given that they basically wreak havoc on a central tenet of investing; that investors will be compensated in some way for, you know, investing in things.

The Stir M1 desk retails for $2,990.This Desk Makes You Stand Up for Your Health (WSJ)

One day, when the machines are our overlords, I may regret saying this: I do the bidding of a robot desk, and I’m the better for it.

“Whirrr, whirrr,” goes my Stir Kinetic M1, undulating its desktop to signal it’s time to stand for a while. I oblige, and its mechanized legs rise to meet me.

Twenty minutes later, the desk purrs again. I’ve earned the right to sit back down.

NFL Will End Its Tax-Exempt Status, Goodell Tells Owner (Bloomberg)

The National Football League’s central office will become a taxable entity, ending its tax-exempt status in a move with minimal financial effect and significant symbolic value.

A demonstrator at Monday night's protests after the death of Freddie GrayThe Economic Devastation Fueling The Anger In Baltimore (ThinkProgress)

Last night, peaceful protests after the funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black mankilled in police custody, turned into more violent unrest when protesters were met with phalanxes of police.

The protesters’ anger was fueled, at least in large part, by the Baltimore police department’s long history of ugly violence against the city’s residents and a pattern of officers facing few, if any, repercussions. But the protests also take place in the context of a city that has been ravaged economically, most recently by the foreclosure crisis and predatory lending.

The Oil Rally Looks Doomed, in Five Charts (Bloomberg)

Oil has surged 20 percent this month to $57 a barrel as expanding violence in Yemen stoked concern that supplies could be disrupted.

Costolo 11The first analyst report after Twitter's earnings miss is out — and it's an upgrade to 'Buy' (BusinessInsider)

Twitter's big revenue miss on Tuesday sent investors running for the hills. 

There was no shortage of bad news in the report, from a shortfall in direct response advertising that will weigh on revenue growth this year, to slow user growth trends in April. 

Apple Investors Question Whether IPhone Growth Has Peaked (Bloomberg)

Welcome to the great iPhone debate of 2015: Have sales of the larger-screened phones peaked?

A day after Apple Inc. posted a 33 percent jump in quarterly earnings, shares rose and fell on Tuesday as investors questioned whether Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook can keep iPhone sales roaring and continue to turn in revenue growth in excess of 20 percent a quarter.

The Collapse of a Huge For-Profit College Company Could Cost Taxpayers $200 Million (Bloomberg)

The abrupt closure of for-profit Corinthian Colleges Inc. may cost U.S. taxpayers more than $200 million in canceled student loans.

Corinthian reached an agreement on Sunday with the Education Department to shutter its 28 campuses serving about 16,000 students. Forgiving their debt, if all students request it, would cost the government about $214 million, according to Denise Horn, an Education Department spokeswoman.

Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) called a workaround to ease nondefense spending curbs a ‘budget gimmick.’GOP Budget Workarounds Raise Ire Of Fiscal Hawks (WSJ)

Republican lawmakers’ effort to finalize their first budget agreement in nearly a decade hit a snag Tuesday amid an internal row over whether it relies too heavily on gimmicks to avoid unpopular spending cuts.

The tensions flared into the open when Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) said he hadn’t signed off on the proposal hashed out this week between House and Senate Republicans, who have been working to reconcile separate budget blueprints they passed last month. Republicans want to balance the budget over 10 years, but for the coming fiscal year, that same proposal would increase military spending while avoiding significant efforts to curb entitlements.

This Week's Biggest Data Point is a Labor-Market Measure Most People Don't Know About (Bloomberg)

In the alphabet soup of economic indicators, ECI doesn't get much TLC. 

Yet the employment cost index, released Thursday, will be a critical signal of whether wages are starting to perk up. Federal Reserve officials are betting on a rebound in paychecks that's been hard to come by in this recovery, any sign of which would give them more cover to initiate the first rise in the benchmark interest rate since 2006. 

Money Market Rates Suggest Investors Are Complacent as Fed Meets (Bloomberg)

Bullish bets in the futures market suggest traders may be underestimating the risk of the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting buoying money-market rates.

american flagWednesday is a huge day for the US economy (BusinessInsider)

Don't sleep in on Wednesday: it's a huge morning for the US economy. 

At 8:30 am ET, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its first reading on first quarter GDP, which is expected to show the economy grew at just a 1% pace in the first quarter. 

Los Angeles Power Prices at Record April Low on Trapped Solar (Bloomberg)

Average monthly prices for Los Angeles spot electricity are trading at a record low for April as planned work on a transmission line limits distribution of solar and wind generation.

California Renewable Power Generation

China now has more vineyard space than France (Quartz)

China now has more land dedicated to vineyards than any country except Spain after narrowly surpassing France this year, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine’s annual report, released April 27.

The Math Behind ESPN's Fear of Verizon's Skinny Bundles (Bloomberg)

ESPN filed suit against Verizon Communications on Monday over the pay TV carrier's attempt to cut down the size of cable bundles. Verizon is offering its FiOS customers a "Custom TV" option with a $55 base package of channels that allows a choice of two small bundles from amenu of seven. ESPN and ESPN2 are lumped with 10 additional networks in a sports channel pack next to alternative packs for viewers who prefer pop culture or children's programming. The Disney-owned network says this breaks the terms of its contracts with Verizon. The carrier says it's giving the people what they want.

Apple shares are falling (BusinessInsider)

And there goes Apple. 

In early trade on Tuesday, the stock was down as much as 1.9% after hitting an all-time high in pre-market trade.  

Screen Shot 2015 04 28 at 10.19.04 AM

 

Oil Resumes Slide as U.S. Crude Supplies Seen Exacerbating Glut (Bloomberg)

Oil fell for the third time in four days before U.S. government data forecast to show crude stockpiles expanded further from a record.

BlueMountain's James E. StaleyJames Staley Says U.S. Has Seen Debt Market ‘Explosion’ (Bloomberg)

BlueMountain Capital Management’s James E. Staley said banks removing risk from their balance sheets has caused a “virtual explosion” in the U.S. corporate debt markets.

The amount of company debt issued has doubled since 2008, Staley said in a Bloomberg Television interview Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. The expansion, helped by record low borrowing costs, is also being driven by mutual funds, which account for about 80 percent of growth in debt markets, he said.

Baltimore "Purge" Continues: National Guard Presence Builds As Curfew Arrives With "No Sign Of Crowd Thinning" – Live Feed (ZeroHedge)

It's not over yet. On the heels of a choatic Monday night in Baltimore that saw rioters burn buildings, loot stores, and clash with SWAT following the funeral of Freddie Gray, tensions are running high once again, and as you can see from the images and video below, it appears as though the situation could well escalate into the evening.

Gold Holds Above $1,200 as Investors Await Fed’s Rate Outlook (Bloomberg)

Gold held near a three-week high as investors awaited guidance from the Federal Reserve on when interest rates may rise amid speculation that policy makers may push back the start of higher borrowing costs.

Sony, Samsung Head for ‘Miserable’ ChristmasSamsung Predicts Recovery After First-Quarter Earnings Drop 40% (Bloomberg)

Samsung Electronics Co. expects earnings to recover in the second quarter as new Galaxy S6 smartphones lure back users and the component divisions win orders from rival vendors. Shares rose.

Samsung on Wednesday predicted the revival after reporting a 40 percent decline in earnings for the period ended March. Consumers have been switching to Apple Inc.’s larger iPhones and cheaper Chinese devices as the rising South Korean won makes Samsung products more expensive in overseas markets.

Europe’s Deflation Specter Moving on as Greece Clouds Recovery (Bloomberg)

The euro area’s brush with deflation might be over before it even started.

After falling for four straight months, consumer prices in the currency bloc were unchanged in April, according to economists polled by Bloomberg. The respite, coming just as the region’s recovery improves, signals that the effect of a slump in oil prices is petering out without triggering a reinforcing decline in prices and wages.

It's Official: Being Poor Makes People Unhappy (ZeroHedge)

Not long ago we noted that contrary to the old adage, money can indeed buy happiness. Given this, it stands to reason that the converse is likely true as well. That is, no money probably contributes to unhappiness.

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon MuskElon Musk Bulks Up Tesla Batteries in Leap Beyond Cars to Grid (Bloomberg)

Billionaire Elon Musk thinks he can pave the way to a better energy future by turning the mattress-shaped batteries in Tesla’s electric car into upright pillars so they can be used to power homes, businesses and even utilities.

Musk will lift the veil Thursday on a new generation of batteries designed to store growing volumes of solar and wind energy. If he gets it right, Tesla Motors Inc. will have spun a significant second business off the technology originally designed for its electric vehicles — and will gain a toehold in a business projected to generate tens of billions of dollars in a decade.

Amherst Outsources Business Education to Harvard (Bloomberg)

The Harvard Business School announced on Monday that it will partner with Amherst College to offer basic business education online to Amherst liberal arts undergraduates. Amherst students will access reserved slots and greater opportunities for financial aid in an 11-week course designed by HBX, Harvard Business School’s foray into Web-based education. HBS says it plans to announce similar arrangements with additional colleges in the next few weeks.

Millennials Are Moving Out of Basements and Into Apartments (Bloomberg)

After shacking up with family or friends for the past few years, millennials finally seem to be striking out on their own.

The number of households grew by 1.48 million in the first quarter from a year earlier, following a 1.66 million increase in the final three months of 2014, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau. While the numbers can be volatile, it marks the fastest back-to-back gains in household formation since the second half of 2005.

Iceland Nasdaq Boss Backs Exit Tax as New Currency Regime Looms (Bloomberg)

The head of Iceland’s stock exchange says an exit tax would protect the economy from sudden shocks as policy makers prepare to unwind capital controls in place since 2008.

Total Sees Deal Targets Still Too Expensive After Crude Crash (Bloomberg)

Total SA Chief Financial Officer Patrick de La Chevardiere said prospective takeover targets are still too expensive after crude prices collapsed.

Europe Unseats U.S. as Best Place to Invest in Bloomberg Poll (Bloomberg)

Europe gets the nod as the best place to invest for the first time since at least 2009 in a Bloomberg survey of financial professionals, unseating the U.S.

Twitte CEO Dick CostoloTwitter CEO’s Credibility at Risk After Disappointing Results (Bloomberg)

Dick Costolo’s credibility is on the line.Twitter Inc.’s chief executive officer failed to foresee a slowdown that forced the social-media company to miss analysts’ first-quarter revenue estimates and cut its 2015 sales forecast, and the stock slumped 18 percent.

Bill Gates: You can help the world save 34 million lives (Quartz)

If I told you that we could save the lives of, say, 10 million people, mainly by doing things we already know how to do, that would get your attention, right?

Well, it turns out that this is the number of people the world can save from dying of tuberculosis over the next 15 years. The figure comes from a study published in The Lancet that looked at what’s possible if the world invests more in global health.

Pie charts of worldwide deaths by economic cohort

Brazil Senate Vote Delays Federal Revenue Shortfall to 2016 (Bloomberg)

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s administration scored a victory in the Senate with a vote that delays until next year a reduction in the amount of money that states owe the federal government

Asian Stocks Outside Japan Extend Seven-Year High Ahead of Fed (Bloomberg)

Asian shares outside Japan rose, extending a seven-year high, following an advance for U.S. equities as investors await the outcome of a two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting. Japanese markets are closed for a holiday.

 

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