Oil hits an 18-year low–worse to come as world runs out of storage
As of noon New York time, today March 30, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell another 5.67% to $20.29 a barrel. International benchmark Brent dropped 9.83% to $22.45 a barrel. That’s an 18-year low for oil. And worse is yet to come. The world has run out...
Positive coronavirus news from Abbot and J&J
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said today that it will begin human testing of its experimental vaccine for the coronavirus by September and that clinical data on its effects is expected before the end of the year. If the vaccine works well, the company said it could be...
Bulls almost pull the S&P 500 even today, but then late selling kicks in
For a while it looked like bullish investors and traders would manage to pull the market even into the close. That would have been quite a positive feat after a huge 3-ay rally and going into a weekend. At 3:27 p.m.New York time today the Standard & Poor’s...
This is the best 3-day rally since–ready for it–1931
Okay, you knew the punchline was coming. After dropping 11.9% in 1929 as the Crash and Great Depression got rolling, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 28.5% in 1930. And then, in 1931, it staged that big short-term rally that we’ve just surpassed. After...
Market shrugs off 3.28 million jump in new claims as $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill moves toward House vote tomorrow
Today Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the surge in Americans filing for unemployment benefits is “not relevant.” Mnuchin told CNBC, “The president is protecting those people.” For the week ended March 21, initial claims for unemployment soared to a record 3.28...
Selling ServiceMaster out of my 50 Stocks Portfolio
I wish I hadn’t bought ServiceMaster Global Holdings (SERV) in my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio back on December 17. But I did. It was a bargain then. It’s not now. And now I think it’s time to cut my losses after some relatively minor gains on March...
Selling First Quantum Minerals today in bear market rally
I still like my long-term thesis for copper miner First Quantum Minerals (FQVLF)–that copper prices will rise with a pick up in global economic growth and that when growth resumes the world will be looking at a shortage of copper. First Quantum has a lot of new...
Buy on the rumor, sell on the news in this bear market
As I write this at 1:20 p.m. New York time on Wednesday, March 25, the Senate is debating the $2 billion (or is it even more now?) coronavirus rescue bill. The consensus is that the chamber will vote and pass the bill sometime this afternoon and then send it to the...
GM dividend looks safe for now after credit line draw down
General Motors (GM) drew down its $16 billion credit line today to maximize its financial cushion as the auto industry headed into a very uncertain future. The $16 billion drawdown adds to the $16 billion in cash that General Motors projects to have on hand by the end...
Selling HDFC Bank out of 50 Stocks Portfolio as India declares coronavirus lockdown
In normal markets I don’t sell stocks out of my long-term 50 Stocks Portfolio on changes in market direction. This is definitely a buy-and-hold-ish portfolio. But these aren’t normal times either for financial markets or economies and today, March 24,...
Cover those shorts! S&P 500 up 9.38% but most heavily shorted stocks rocket ahead of the general market
Stocks are up Big Time today on speculation that the Senate will finally pass a $1.8 trillion (remember when it was just $1.2 trillion?) coronavirus rescue package. As of the close today, March 24, the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 9.38% to 2437.33, and the...
Fed to provide “infinite” money to credit markets
Today, March 23, the Federal Reserve announced that it would backstop all credit markets in the United States without limits. The Fed said it would purchase Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities “in the amounts needed to support smooth market functioning.” In...
Danaher unit gets FDA approval for fast coronavirus test
Late Friday night, the U.S. Food And Drug Administration gave emergency approval to Cepheid’s Xpert Xpress test for coronavirus. The test is the first that can be conducted entirely at point of care for a patient–at a hospital, for instance–without...
Workers are losing jobs at a faster than expected pace–and the layoffs are still accelerating
This morning the Department of Labor announced that new claims for unemployment for the week ending March 14 climbed to 281,000. That was up from 211,000 in the prior week. And much worse than the 220,000 projected by ecomomists. The worst news is that this spike in...
Is this the first “bottoming” in the coronavirus bear?
Bear markets typically require multiple bottoms–with rallies often of considerable dimension in between–before they set a final bottom. It wouldn’t be surprising, for example, to see a 30% drop with signs of a bottom followed by even a 10% to 20%...
In a bear market panic, it’s really, really hard to figure which way stocks will jump on any particular day.
Yesterday, I sold my Put options on Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) with gains of around 100% in each since I added them to my Volatility Portfolio (on my subscription JugglingwithKnives.com and JubakAM.com sites) on March 10. I’d bought those Puts in order to...
Fed move leaves yen as last safe haven standing
The Japanese yen soared 2% Monday after the Federal Reserve announced that it would cut interest rates and add $700 billion to its balance sheet by buying Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. The dollar was down 0.66% Monday against the DXY Spot Index, a basket...
More liquidity from the Fed helps reassure financial markets
The Federal Reserve is launching a special fund to keep credit flowing in the short-term commercial paper market that many companies use to raise cash for day-to-day operations. (Commercial paper generally matures in fewer than 270 days.) Starting today the Fed will...
CDC urges nationwide halt to gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks
Well, that’s worse than many of us were willing to contemplate. Today, Sunday, March 15, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged a nationwide halt to gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic....
Think the Fed got everyone’s attention with a Sunday night interest rate cut to 0%?
On Sunday night the Federal Reserve announced that it would cut interest rates to 0% (actually a policy range of 0% to 0.25%) from the current 1.00% to 1.25% range. The central bank will also resume its program of quantitative easing by buying at least $700 billion in...
Fed rides to the rescue–and stocks are still down almost 8% at 2:30 p.m. in New York
The Federal Reserve announced this morning that it would inject $1.5 trillion into short-term bank to bank lending markets today and tomorrow. The U.S. central bank will offer $500 billion in a three-month repo operation at 1:30 p.m. and repeat the exercise tomorrow,...
The U.S. hospital system burns while Washington fiddles
The math is very clear and extremely disturbing. The numbers certainly argue that the coronavirus has the ability to crash the U.S. healthcare system–which would leave hospitals and other healthcare facilities conducting triage among patients with serious cases...
Stocks fall again as WHO declares coronavirus pandemic, White House fails to deliver stimulus plan–no place to hide outside of Treasuries and the yen
As of 1:45 p.m. in New York the Standard & Poor’s 500 is down 4.62% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off 5.13%. The NASDAQ Composite is lower by 4.40% and the Russell 2000 small cap index, with its heavy load of smaller U.S. oil producers, has lost...
Dow Industrials sink into bear market territory at close; S&P 500 touches bear before closing down 19%; more debt worries
Today the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed in bear market territory, down 20% from its February high. The Standard & Poor’s 500 touched bear territory during the day before closing down 19% from its February high. (A bear market is usually defined as a...
Selling Nvidia today out of Jubak Picks Portfolio on belief that the downturn isn’t done
I’m taking advantage of the “Hope the White House has a plan” rally today to sell Nvidia (NVDA) out of my Jubak Picks Portfolio. Nvidia shares are up 3.05% as of 2:35 p.m. today, March 10, for a gain of $7.44 a share to $252.92. The shares are up...
What does Wall Street want? Just a replay of the 2008 bailout
Nothing that’s been floated in Washington, either by the White House, Congress or the Federal Reserve comes remotely close to what Wall Street wants to end the market meltdown and rescue credit markets. The White House is considering a temporary expansion of...
Take Wall Street traders complaints of a lack of liquidity today very, very seriously
Money managers are saying that it’s increasingly difficult to trade due to a lack of liquidity caused by huge swings in asset prices. “I have yet to find liquidity,” Richard Hodges, a money manager at Nomura Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “There is none.”...
Credit markets are even uglier than stock markets
By now I assume you know that today was another brutal day for U.S. stocks (although markets moved up significantly in the last hour.) The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed down another 1.71% and the Dow Jones Industrials dropped 0.98%. The NASDAQ Composite was...
OPEC production curbs collapse in Russia-Saudi fight
It’s over. The three-year marriage of convenience between Saudi Arabia and Russia is done. The Saudi’s argued that Russia and OPEC producers must cut production further in response to falling demand for oil in the face of the coronavirus outbreak. Russia...Jim’s Daily Email Alerts:
Every post from Jubak Picks straight to your mailbox. And they're free!