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Thursday, March 28, 2024

News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

 

Financial Markets and Economy

Global markets are melting down (Business Insider)

Global markets are getting smoked again.

Dow futures are down 323 points, S&P 500 futures are down 40 points, and Nasdaq futures are down 93 points.

futures

U.K. Stocks Fall as Investors Weigh Data Showing China Slowdown (Bloomberg)

U.K. stocks declined as investors considered further indications that the Chinese economy is slowing down.

Bwin.party Digital Entertainment Plc dropped 1.5 percent after its takeover battle took another twist with a revised proposal from 888 Holdings Plc. BP Plc slid 1 percent as oil’s biggest three-day rally in 25 years stalled before U.S. government data forecast to show crude stockpiles expanded.

Dollar slides against yen as weak China data spur safe-haven demand (Market Watch)

The dollar slumped against the yen on Tuesday, as a fresh bout of weakness in global stock markets following weak Chinese data sent investors scurrying to the perceived safety of the Japanese currency.

The greenback USDJPY, -1.04%  fetched ¥119.59, down from ¥121.22 late Monday in New York.

A major warning from the most reliable bellwether of the world economy (Business Insider)

South Korean exports plunged 14.7% in August from a year ago. This was much worse than the 5.9% decline expected by economist. And it was the biggest drop since August 2009

This is a troubling sign as Korea's exports represent the world's imports. Because it is the first monthly set of hard economic numbers from a major economy, economists across Wall Street dub South Korean exports as the global economic "canary in the coal mine."

korea exports

China Said to Ask Brokerages to Boost Market and Buy Back Shares (Bloomberg)

China’s securities regulator asked brokerages to step up their support for share prices by contributing 100 billion yuan ($15.7 billion) to the nation’s market rescue fund and increasing stock buybacks, according to people familiar with the matter.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission gave the order on rescue-fund contributions at a meeting with representatives of 50 brokerages on Saturday, which CSRC Chairman Xiao Gang also attended, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the meeting hasn’t been made public. The regulator encouraged listed brokerages to buy back shares worth as much as 10 percent of their total market value, the people said.

September is the cruelest month for your stocks — or is it? (Market Watch)

Terrible as September usually is for the stock market, you shouldn’t be reducing your equity exposure for the next 30 days just because of the calendar.

My argument may strike you as odd, since the statistical case for September being a bad month is quite strong..

The oil price explosion is totally detached from reality (Business Insider)

Oil prices are still massively higher than they were a week ago but Citi believes that the surge is pretty much devoid from reality.

oilprice

Myer to Sell $221 Million New Shares Amid 70% Profit Slump (Bloomberg)

Myer Holdings Ltd., Australias largest listed department store chain, said it would raise A$221 million ($157 million) in new shares after profits fell 70 percent due to a weaker local dollar and store renovation costs.

A Wild Month on Wall St. Ends Quietly (NY Times)

For several years, parking one’s savings in the United States stock market seemed like a no-brainer. Not only did stocks steadily climb — giving investors far better returns than they could get from their bank accounts — the ride up was smooth.

Then August broke the calm.

Stocks, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, tumbled 6.3 percent in August, finishing the month on Monday with a decline of 16.69 points, or 0.8 percent, for the day. It was the worst monthly performance for the benchmark in over three years. The decline wiped more than $1 trillion off the value of stocks.

Paul McCulleyHaters judge the Fed's balance sheet like they would a 'fat man in Speedos' (Business Insider)

Paul McCulley, former chief economist at PIMCO and long-time confidant of Bill Gross, has a theory on why people hate the increase in the size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet: They think it's just wrong, but they don't have any real reason for why it's wrong. 

McCulley was on Bloomberg's Masters in Business radio show hosted by Barry Ritholtz this weekend, and said that in response to the financial crisis the Fed did just about everything right. 

Dubai Property Prices Fall Most in the World, Knight Frank Says (Bloomberg)

Dubai property prices fell by 12.2 percent during the past year, the largest drop in the world, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

The decline in the twelve months through June was the biggest in 56 mainstream residential markets and larger than the 12 percent fall in real estate prices in Ukraine, which has been hit by almost two years of protests, a separatist insurgency, and political upheaval, Knight Frank said Tuesday in a report. Prices in Dubai fell 2.8 percent in the second quarter. Hong Kong was the best performing residential market, with prices up by 20.7 percent.

Oil prices fall after climbing to near $50 (CNN)

Oil prices continued on their roller coaster ride Tuesday, as weak Chinese manufacturing data sent prices lower.

A 2% decline comes after prices soared higher to close Monday above $49 a barrel — a nearly 30% rise in three days.

Ivory Coast Has `No Fear' of Euro Peg, Keeps Growth Targets (Bloomberg)

Ivory Coast’s economy has benefited from the stability of a currency pegged to the euro and has so far escaped any fallout from the economic slowdown in China, Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan said.

“There is no fear” about any major pressures being exerted on the CFA franc, the currency used by Ivory Coast and 13 other smaller African economies, Duncan said in an interview in Abidjan, the commercial capital, on Monday. The common currency “is beneficial for our economies. Those who have tried their own money have had some ups-and-downs with some difficulties.”

Charting the Market: New Month, Same China (Bloomberg)

China continues to dictate the mood of markets. On Tuesday, Asian and European stocks resumed where they left off in August after China's official factory gauge fell to a three-year low. The report suggests the world's second largest economy has yet to find a bottom.

Investors back to being schooled by this market (Market Watch)

September means “sayonara” to summer vacations, back to school and, for investors reeling from August’s thrashing, perhaps more punishment.

Looking back, the first day of this month hasn’t been kind to stocks. Now, another round of disappointing Chinese economic data has sauntered in like a playground bully, beating up the U.S. stock market’s friends in Asia and Europe on Tuesday.

Politics

Latest Clinton email release includes redactions of now-classified information (Market Watch)

The State Department released Monday night the largest batch of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails to date—some 7,000 pages—including about 150 that had been redacted for containing information the department said is now classified.

The classified material appears in redacted form, occasionally in emails discussing State Department operations and personnel. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that all the emails weren’t classified when sent but have since been retroactively made classified.

Technology

Could Polaroid Become The Next Apple? (Forbes)

Do you remember when Apple AAPL -0.89%’s stock price hit a low of $3.19 in 1997? Bereft of inspirational leader Steve Jobs, virtually all it had left was its iconic partially-bitten eaten fruit logo and some diehard aficionados who loved its early work.

Now it is the most valuable company in the world by some distance, with a stock market capitalisation of more than £640bn.

Nest-awayNest's new thermostat will tell you about furnace problems (Mashable)

Nest's updated lineup of smart home products is finally complete

The company unveiled the newest version of its flagship product Tuesday, the Nest Thermostat. The $249 device, available now, adds a few new tricks to the connected thermostat, including a better display and a furnace monitoring feature.

Health and Life Sciences

The tiny killer spreading 'Break bone fever' (CNN)

A bite from a single mosquito can result in fever, headaches, and pain. Severe cases can experience a multitude of symptoms including bleeding, shock, organ failure — and potentially death.

There is no treatment or vaccine and no real means of protecting yourself in countries endemic for the disease.

TV t-shirtToo much TV: Obesity isn’t the only health risk (Futurity)

Spending too much time in front of the television may be unhealthy for both young adults and people with certain personality traits. A pair of studies details the risks.

A reduction in television viewing and a content rating systems that is geared not just to age, but also to personality traits, could help.

Researchers Have Pinpointed A Genetic Variant That Causes Nearsightedness (Forbes)

There has been an explosion of nearsightedness in school-age children around the world in recent years. In the United States, 44 percent of adults are now nearsighted, up from 25 percent 30 years ago. And in Asia, that rate is as high as 80 percent in some regions.

The leading theory for this sharp rise in nearsightedness is that an individual’s genetic predisposition, combined with certain environmental factors, is to blame. Now, vision researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have discovered a gene that increases the risk for myopia in people who spending a lot of time in childhood reading or doing other close visual work.

Life on the Home Planet

How Come Some People Believe in the Paranormal? (Scientific American)

I loved magic shows when I was a kid. I remember being absolutely fascinated by mysterious events and the possibility that some of us might possess supernatural powers such as the ability to read minds, get a glimpse of the future, or, perhaps, suddenly port into another dimension. The human mind is a curious one. Although it is well-known that children have a lively imagination, what about adults? You might be surprised to learn that a recent national poll found that over 71% of Americans believe in “miracles”, 42% of Americans believe that “ghosts” exist, 41% think that “extrasensory perception” (e.g., telepathy) is possible and 29% believe in astrology.

El Nino in Pacific Seen as Strongest Since Record 1997-98 Event (Bloomberg)

The El Nino that’s changing weather across the globe is now the strongest since the record event almost two decades ago.

Sea temperature anomalies in the central Pacific Ocean are now at their highest since 1997–98, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said in a fortnightly update on its website. The values are still below the peak observed in the period, it said.

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