Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
  • Trump Threatens Hollywood’s Growth in China. “There is a disconnect between what Trump ... might want to do and what Hollywood wants”. The Trump administration is creating uncertainty and “making everybody very, very nervous,” says Geetha Ranganathan, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. The renegotiation “could be a casualty if he really wants to come down hard on it.”
  • Supply Is the Technical Factor Behind Global Rally in Markets. (video) Rising political risks. A fading era of central-bank stimulus. The potential end of a multi-decade bull run in U.S. government debt. Markets have so far this year shrugged off a laundry list of looming headwinds, with U.S. equities scaling new heights and sales of corporate bonds reaching record levels. What gives?
  • Bonds Face Worst Loss Since 2013 as India Signals End to Easing. Indian sovereign bonds headed for their biggest loss since 2013 after the nation’s monetary policy panel unexpectedly kept interest rates on hold and changed its stance to neutral from accommodative. The committee led by Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel held the benchmark repurchase rate at 6.25 percent for a second straight meeting, according to a central bank statement in Mumbai on Wednesday. The move was predicted by just five of 39 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, with the rest forecasting a cut to 6 percent. 
  • This Is Why Investors Are Suddenly Worrying About Greece Again.
  • European Stocks Move Higher on Push From Earnings. (video)
  • OPEC Ministers Say the Market Might Need More Oil Cuts. (video) OPEC and other major crude-producing nations may need to extend output cuts into the second half of the year to re-balance the market, oil ministers for Iran and fellow group member Qatar said. Global oil supplies have decreased as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and producers outside the group comply with a six-month deal to curb output that took effect on Jan. 1, Qatar’s Energy Minister Mohammed Al Sada said Wednesday at a news briefing in Doha. “It’s too early to make a judgement,” he said, adding that markets may re-balance in the third quarter. “We kept it open to reconsider the rollover, and rollover is an option if needed,” Al Sada told Bloomberg TV in Qatar’s capital.
  • Copper Jolted Higher as Threatened Disruptions Point to Deficit. Copper rallied with other metals as strengthening prospects of disruptions at the world’s two largest mines threatened to send the market into a global shortage. “We expect copper will move into deficit in the coming months, driving the next leg higher in prices,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts including Max Layton and Jeff Currie said in a report Wednesday. While the bank’s six-month target remains at $6,200 a metric ton, risks surrounding the forecast are skewed to the upside, they said.
  • Low VIX Masks Insurance Markup Options Traders Are Paying. (video) Here’s another sign that beneath the surface of placid stock markets, investors aren’t exactly sound asleep. It’s the persistently high premium traders are paying for equity options, visible in the difference between implied and realized volatility in the S&P 500 Index. The gap, definable as the intangible cost of stock insurance over and above what is accounted for by the market’s swings, has now lingered for 51 trading days. That’s the longest streak in almost a year and one of the longest in the past decade, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
  • Trump’s Plan to Tap Offshore Profit for Infrastructure Gains an Ally. (video) President Donald Trump’s plan to use corporate profits returned from overseas to help finance nationwide improvements to roads, bridges, airports and other public works picked up an important supporter in the U.S. House: Representative Bill Shuster. “The dollars are out there, so we get a piece of that,” Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in an interview. The process of returning corporate profit to the U.S., known as repatriation, can be one of the sources that helps generate funding for repairs and new construction, he said. 
  • Netflix(NFLX) Plans New Toys, Merchandise Based on Hit TV Shows.
  • Tesaro Shares Jump on Report of Takeover Interest. (video)
Wall Street Journal:

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