Wednesday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:  

• Indian Economy Accelerates in September as Animal Spirits Soar.  
• Korea Consumer Confidence Jumps Most Since 2009 as Virus Eases.
• U.K. Reports Highest Daily Covid Death Toll Since May.  
• France Readies Curbs; U.S. Hospitalizations Climb: Virus Update   
• The Pessimist’s Guide to Jack Ma’s Record-Breaking Ant Group IPO.
• U.S. Stock Futures Decline; Dollar Pushes Higher: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Pares Gains on Expectations of Rising U.S. Crude Supplies.  
• Global Central Banks, Korea’s Surge, Virtual Christmas: Eco Day.
• Cuomo Seeks to Keep 95% of U.S. Out of New York as Virus Rages.    
• World’s Biggest ETF Is Losing Cash Faster Than Any of Its Peers.  
• The Trump Tax Cut Wasn’t Just for the Rich.

Wall Street Journal:

• France Emerges as Covid-19 Epicenter as Cases Surge Across Europe.
• Twitter’s Jack Dorsey: A Hands-Off CEO in a Time of Turmoil.
• Visa’s Planned Purchase of Plaid Faces Antitrust Scrutiny at the Justice Department.

Fox News:

• EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Hunter partner rips Joe Biden's denials in scandal.  
• Philly police get backup in fear of 2nd night of violence over deadly cop shooting of Black man.
• Facebook accused of censoring anti-Biden ad geared toward minority voters.
  

CNBC.com:

• Chipmakers AMD and Nvidia are using stock surges to make industry’s biggest acquisitions.
• Facebook political advertisers say their ads are being blocked even though they follow the rules.
• JetBlue CEO says flight bookings for holiday season have not yet been hurt by rising Covid cases.

Zero Hedge:

• "Plausible Deniability": Whistleblower Describes Brazen Biden-China Dealings In Explosive Interview With Tucker Carlson.
• Hunter Biden Confesses Partnership With China 'Spy Chief' -- Fumes After He And Joe Named As Criminal Witnesses: Audio.
• The COVID "Casedemic" & Biden's "Dark Winter" Plan.
• JPMorgan Asks "What If Trump Wins?".
• CNN's "Not Even Pretending Anymore".
  
• Meet Eric Feigl-Ding: How A Nutritionist-Turned-Politician Became A "COVID-19 Expert" With A Far-Left Agenda.
• The "Wokeness" Wars Coming To Your Town.
• Project Veritas Infiltrates Texas 'Ballot Chasing' Ring Targeting Senior Citizens.
• They're Going All-Out To Stop Trump Declaring Victory.
• WTI Tumbles After Bigger Than Expected Crude Build.
• "Priced To Perfection" Microsoft Smashes Expectations, But Shares Barely Budge.
• Bitcoin Outperforms Nasdaq Over Last 12 Months, Bonds Bid As Dollar Skids.

@CurtisHouck:

• This is really important, so I'm rewinding and putting this all in one video. Here was Bobulinski telling #Tucker about what the equity arrangements would be that involved, yes, Joe Biden. (video)
  
• This is maybe THE clip from this interview. Bobulinski to #Tucker: "I remember looking at Jim Biden in saying how are you guys getting away with this? Like, aren't you concerned? And he looked at me and he laughed a little bit and said. 'plausible deniability.'" (video)
  
• Bobulinski to #Tucker: "I want to simplify this for the American people as much as I can...In that email, James Gillard goes through intimate detail of what each individual's requests were from a compensation perspective and how the equity in the enterprise would be divvied up." (video)

The Epoch Times:

• CCP Tightens Ideological Grip Over Chinese Society, Leaked Documents Reveal.
• Xinjiang COVID-19 Outbreak Likely Worse Than Official Total, Critics Say.
• Medical Community Is Turning ‘Blind Eye’ to Forced Organ Harvesting in China: Experts.
  

Digital Blackboard:

• Daily New Cases by Region.

Worldometer:

• New Cases/Deaths by state.

Rt Covid-19:

• How fast virus is growing by state.

KFF:

• State Data(Tests/Hospitalizations).

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.25% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 67.25 +1.25 basis points.

• China Sovereign CDS 37.75 -.75 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 59.27 -.04%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index -177.0 +1.0 point.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 31.80 +1.52%
• FTSE 100 futures -.6%.

• S&P 500 futures -.52%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.43%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (ANTM)/4.18
• (ADP)/.98
• (BA)/-2.23
• (BSX)/.25
• (EAT)/-.16
• (BG)/.20
• (CME)/1.44
• (DBD)/.27
• (GNRC)/1.71
• (GD)/2.88
• (GE)/-.03
• (LM)/.85
• (MA)/1.66
• (NSC)/2.37
• (OC)/1.29
• (R)/-.32
• (SEE)/.66
• (TUP)/.41
• (UPS)/1.89
  

After the Close:

• (AEM)/.69
• (AMGN)/3.74
• (AVB)/2.17
• (CERN)/.72
• (CGNX)/.33
• (CTSH)/.90
• (CXO)/1.22
• (EBAY)/.83
• (FSLY)/-.01
• (F)/.18
• (GILD)/1.84
• (KLAC)/2.79
• (LVGO)/.06
• (OII)/-.15
• (ORLY)/6.44
• (RCII)/1.02
• (NOW)/1.03
• (SAVE)/-2.67
• (SFM)/.35
• (RGR)/.98
• (SPWR)/-.08
• (TDOC)/-.30
• (URI)/4.34
• (V)/1.10
• (WERN)/.67
• (WDC)/.55
• (WH)/.31
• (YUMC)/.49
  

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• The Advance Goods Trade Balance for Sept. is estimated to widen to -$84.5B versus -$82.9B in Aug.
• Wholesale Inventories MoM for Sept. is estimated to rise +.4% versus a +.4% gain in Aug.
• Retail Inventories MoM for Sept. is estimated to rise +.5% versus a +.8% gain in Aug.
  

10:30 am EST

• Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory gain of +1,152,910 barrels versus a -1,002,000 barrel decline the prior week. Gasoline supplies are estimated to fall by -19,270 barrels versus a +1,895,000 barrel gain the prior week. Distillate inventories are estimated to fall by -1,989,090 barrels versus a -3,832,000 barrel decline the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is estimated to rise by +.65% versus a -2.2% decline prior.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Bank of Canada decision, Bank of Japan decision, 5Y T-Note auction and the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report could also impact trading today.

Market Hours
Normal:

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by financial and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower and to maintain losses into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.