Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Today's Headlines

Posted by Gary .....at 3:02 PM
Bloomberg:
  • Wealthiest Nations See Terror Attacks Creep to 11-Year High. For the world’s wealthiest nations, it’s been their worst year in over a decade. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries suffered 731 attacks, a 23 percent increase from its previous high in 2004 after a steady rise over the past six years, according a new report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, which has been collecting data since 1997. Meanwhile Iraq, Nigeria, and Pakistan -- which account for a third of total incidents worldwide -- each declined by more than 20 percent.
  • China’s Yuan Tumbles to Eight-Year Low as Banks Weaken Forecasts. (video) The currency fell to 6.8729 against the greenback, the weakest level since December 2008 and beyond a Bloomberg survey’s year-end median estimate of 6.8. A gauge of dollar strength posted the biggest four-day rally in seven years following Donald Trump’s surprise win in last week’s presidential election. The Republican has promised to label China a currency manipulator and slap tariffs on the nation’s exports.
  • Apparent Calm in European Stocks Masks Wildest Days of the Year. (video) An early rally in European shares deflated, leaving the market little changed. That’s been the state of play for investors in recent days. While Donald Trump’s election last week dominated market moves and created a rift among industries, it has left the region’s equities largely flat. Intraday, though, investors have had to contend with the wildest swings since last December, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index alternating between gains and losses for seven straight days. The gauge slipped 0.2 percent at the close after jumping 0.6 percent and falling as much.
  • OPEC Reopens Talks on Oil Cuts Without Iran, Iraq Ministers. (video) OPEC and Russia will meet in Doha on Thursday for another round of talks without ministers from Iran and Iraq, the two countries that pose the biggest obstacle to a deal to cut production. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are “all hands on deck” to reach an agreement by the group’s Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna, Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said in an interview in Marrakech, Morocco on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran remain at odds over how to share output cuts, said an OPEC delegate, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
  • Libya to Nearly Double Oil Output as OPEC’s Task Gets Harder. (video) OPEC’s Libya plans to almost double crude production next year even as the producer group tries to implement a deal to trim production and ease a global supply glut. The country with Africa’s largest crude reserves currently produces 600,000 barrels a day, state-run National Oil Corp. Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a statement posted on the company’s website. It’s seeking to boost output to 900,000 barrels a day by the end of 2016 and about 1.1 million barrels next year, he said.
  • Fed’s Bullard Sees Medium-Term Boost From Trump Spending. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said there’s a chance the U.S. economy could get a medium-term boost if President-elect Donald Trump boosts infrastructure spending and reforms taxes. While Bullard offered that possibility, he said it’s still too soon to say how the economy may be affected by the election and he hasn’t changed his near-term outlook for growth or monetary policy. A “single policy-rate increase, possibly in December, may be sufficient to move monetary policy to a neutral setting,” he said, according to slides released by his office for a speech in London Wednesday.
  • Trump’s Cabinet Picks May Not Get Rubber-Stamped in GOP Senate. (video)
  • Traders Embracing Riskier Bets Push Value Stocks to ’09 High. Investors in the U.S. and Europe are warming again to a portion of the stock market that they’ve shunned since the financial crisis. Value shares, those trading at lower multiples to earnings and asset value, have rallied three times as much as growth stocks in the U.S. this year, heading for their biggest outperformance in a decade. Cheap companies are getting expensive: the group’s valuation is the highest since 2009 versus growth, data compiled by Bloomberg show. In Europe, value shares have become the costliest since May.
  • Investors Just Flooded Into Financials at the Fastest Weekly Pace Ever. Nearly $5 billion in inflows to the most popular financial ETF.
  • Best Business Schools 2016.
Wall Street Journal:
Fox News:
  • Report: Medicaid enrollment, costs swell under ObamaCare expansion. (video) Adult enrollment in ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion has more than doubled expectations in states across the country -- pointing to ballooning costs that threaten budget dollars for priorities like education and infrastructure, according to a report released Wednesday by The Foundation for Government Accountability. Newly obtained data from 24 of the 29 states with Medicaid expansions show at least 11.5 million able-bodied adults have enrolled. The FGA says adult enrollment for all these states exceeds projections, by an average of 110 percent. Some states have signed up more than four times as many able-bodied adults as they expected would enroll.
Zero Hedge:
Passauer Neue Presse:
  • Germany's Schaeuble Rejects Debt Cut for Greece. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said offering Greece a debt cut would do the country a "disservice," citing an interview. Says Greece urgently needs more reforms to become competitive. Debt cut would reduce incentive for Greek budget consolidation.

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