S&P Futures
2,864.50+77.00(+2.76%)Dow Futures
24,122.00+715.00(+3.05%)Nasdaq Futures
8,902.75+168.50(+1.93%)Russell 2000 Futures
1,232.30+58.40(+4.97%)Crude Oil
18.45-1.42(-7.15%)Gold
1,706.30-25.40(-1.47%)
- BusinessBarrons.com•19 hours ago
How a $28 Billion Fund Is Navigating the Coronavirus Crisis
The JPMorgan Equity Income fund is sticking with quality stocks and remaining agile during coronavirus-driven market turmoil. 
BusinessMarketWatch•17 hours agoMark Cuban is moving to cash ahead of what the billionaire sees as another rough stretch for the stock market
Cuban, who hasn’t ruled out running for president, has weathered the selloff thanks to core holdings in Amazon and Netflix.
BusinessBloomberg•yesterdayGasoline Is Selling for 12 Cents a Gallon and Nobody Wants It
(Bloomberg) -- In Fargo, North Dakota, cheap fuel has never been so unwelcome.The Midwestern city is so awash in gasoline, the fuel last week sold for a record 12 cents a gallon at the rack -- its last stop before the pump. In better times, the price dip would be a boon for gas station owners looking to snag low-cost supplies. But with fewer customers every day, gas pumps are becoming little more than makeshift storage for ballooning inventories.“Our gasoline business has been cut in half,” said David Olson, general manager at family-owned RJ’s Gas Station near Fargo. Across town, Shaun Lugert estimates that sales at the station he owns have tumbled 80% in a month. “The biggest part for us that has been so hard is the unknown,” he said by phone. “It’s been kind of a roller coaster.”The slump in rack prices, which are typically stable due to intense competition among distributors, is the latest sign that the coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on every aspect of the fuel market. American gasoline consumption fell to the lowest level on record last week as lockdowns take drivers off the road while gasoline stockpiles rose to a record high. That’s caused rack prices across the U.S to collapse. Milwaukee this week beat out Fargo for the lowest price in the nation.“The local racks are just inundated with material,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. Some refineries may even be selling gasoline “at a break even or even a loss,” he said.The price decline is especially pronounced for cities at the end of pipeline systems, such as Fargo and Milwaukee.“Those places are at the end of the line,” said DTN refined products analyst Brian Milne. “What we are seeing is that a lot of the big pipelines are being used as storage, and the product will just get pushed and pushed until it has no place else to go.”While everyone along the supply chain is getting hammered right now, gas stations may have it the worst.“When you see gasoline down around 12 cents a gallon, no one is going to be making money,” said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. For retailers, it’s nearly impossible to turn a profit, he said.Lugert, the co-owner of Don’s Car Washes, has been forced to cut back store and worker hours, with no apparent end in sight.“You’re not going to be able to flip a switch and go back to what it was before coronavirus,” said station manager Olson. “Even with businesses opened back up again, people are going to be apprehensive.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
BusinessBloomberg•6 hours agoStock Market Investors Are Too Optimistic
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- There has been a V-shaped recovery; in the stock market, not in the economy. That is dividing opinion between the doomsayers who think this divergence makes no sense, and those who believe that the Federal Reserve and its central bank peers have this covered — and that they’ll restore the economy to its former state. That doyen of bargain hunters, Warren Buffett, has been conspicuous by his absence from the recent spate of share buying. Notably, he’s been a net seller of airline stocks.The S&P 500 lost one-third of its value between its record high on Feb. 19 and March 23. It has clawed back half of that as the Fed chucked out its rule book and went on a shopping spree for assets. Equities are pretty much the only type of security that it won’t be adding to its ballooning balance sheet, although a fresh bout of market mayhem might change that too. America’s central bank is already snapping up exchange-traded funds and junk bonds, after all. A 27% recovery in equities is surprising given that we still have no idea of the virus’s lasting impact on economic output, with only a very partial return to business activity planned and no vaccine in sight. The surge in jobless claims and companies furloughing staff makes forecasting more art than science, much like Covid-19 statistics. As Torsten Slok, Deutsche Bank AG’s chief economist, points out, a decade of U.S. employment gains have been reversed in a month. The International Monetary Fund's global economic predictions this week signaled the bleakest times since the 1930s.The monetary and fiscal response has been spectacular but can it prevent a permanent loss of growth if people’s consumption, travel and working practices have been altered fundamentally? A wave of defaults, credit downgrades into junk territory, bankruptcies and price drops in real assets such as aircraft and property would change the more positive stock market narrative quickly, as would a second wave of the virus. Parts of the world, Europe in particular, were at risk of recession before the outbreak. Crude oil prices below $20 per barrel don’t suggest global demand will come roaring back.The equity market is meant to reflect anticipated corporate earnings, and although it’s often given to wild optimism, this is an entirely new situation. How can anyone say with a straight face that they can estimate future earnings right now? There’s little point scouring through first-quarter results apart from looking at how much provisioning the banks are putting in place for loan losses and how much credit has been drawn down.Any crisis throws up winners — Amazon.com Inc. shares have hit new highs — but most companies are losing. More than half of workers are employed by small- and medium-sized enterprises, which will struggle to get all the financial assistance on offer.The latest Fed stimulus package adds another $2.3 trillion of support and from this week corporates can go directly to the central bank for commercial paper funding. The ability of the Fed to really sustain stock prices is going to be tested like never before. More stimulus is always being promised but after a decade of quantitative easing, there will be a limit to its effectiveness.Catastrophe has been avoided but most of the emergency measures are geared toward liquidity and borrowing costs. Growth is the thing that matters most for equity valuations in the medium term, and no one can guarantee that.Consumers will only return to familiar spending habits if they have regular income and governments don’t raise taxes to pay for the current splurge. More dividends will be cut or cancelled. The hit to earnings will only be partially recoverable as most consumption is immediate and large items such as cars and electrical goods can be put off for other years.Equity markets are betting big on the lasting results of all the stimulus. A swifter end to lockdowns or a promising vaccine development would be something to get excited about. Until we have that, the confidence looks overdone.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Marcus Ashworth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European markets. He spent three decades in the banking industry, most recently as chief markets strategist at Haitong Securities in London.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
BusinessMarketWatch•16 hours agoThe biggest mistake stock market investors are making now — failing to look ahead
The No. 1 mistake investors make as they try to figure out the answer is that they are mostly focused on one dimension of a two-dimensional problem. As an example, new weekly jobless claims published Thursday came in at 5.245 million versus a consensus of 5.0 million. In our analysis at The Arora Report, the number of new jobless claims is in the process of peaking in the near term.
BusinessYahoo Finance•22 minutes agoStock market news live updates: Stock futures jump amid COVID-19 treatment optimism, economic reopening discussions
Policymakers ramped up talk of reopening businesses, and a major drugmaker’s treatment reportedly showed promise in treating patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
BusinessMarketWatch•2 days agoWhen are stimulus checks being sent out? Here’s how to track your $1,200 payment with a new IRS tool
The IRS has launched a ‘Get My Payment’ tracking tool for the $1,200 stimulus checks that it’s sending to most Americans.- BusinessInvestor's Business Daily•9 hours ago
Dow Jones Futures Jump On Gilead, Boeing News: Ride The Coronavirus Stock Market Rally Wave With These Eight Sectors
Futures jumped on Gilead and Boeing news. Eight sectors are driving the coronavirus stock market rally, from "play-at-home" names to data center chips. - BusinessReuters•19 hours ago
Nokia shares surge on report of takeover bid
"Nokia does not comment on market rumours," said a spokesman for the company. Earlier on Thursday shares in Nokia surged 12.5%, with traders pointing to a report by online newspaper TMT Finance that said the group was working to defend itself from a hostile takeover bid for parts or all of its business. The TMT Finance report said Nokia had hired Citi, a regular investment banking partner of the Finnish firm, for the deal which could be worth $17.4 billion. - BusinessMarketWatch•14 hours ago
‘This is going to hurt’ — pain is on the way for the four big U.S. banks
DEEP DIVE The four largest U.S. banks posted profits in the first quarter, even though they set aside billions of dollars for expected loan losses. Some analysts referred to the hit on earnings as “noise” because the banks simply moved money from one bucket to another.
