Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:                             

• Australia PM Defiant After China Airs 14 Grievances.
• Asia Stocks Slip on Virus Curbs; Treasuries Gain: Markets Wrap.  Asian stocks are poised to end their longest winning run since 1988 as restrictions to curb the coronavirus spread overshadowed progress toward a vaccine. Treasuries gained. Stocks had modest declines in Japan, Australia and South Korea. S&P 500 futures were little changed with the benchmark closing at its session low after New York City shut schools because of rising infections. Pfizer Inc. advanced after saying its vaccine was 95% effective, paving the way to apply for the first U.S. regulatory authorization for a coronavirus shot within days. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index headed higher after earlier falling to the lowest since April 2018 as vaccine optimism lifted commodity prices and resource-linked currencies. An MSCI gauge of Asian stocks had risen for 13 consecutive sessions to Wednesday. S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 9:10 a.m. in Tokyo. The S&P 500 Index fell 1.2%. Topix index fell 0.4%. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.4%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.4%. Kospi index fell 0.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index futures were little changed earlier.
• China Absorbs Yuan, Dimon Scolds, Virus Hotspots’ Rates: Eco Day.
• Oil Pares Gains as Fresh Virus Curbs Stoke Demand Concerns.
• U.S. Deaths Surpass 250,000; NYC to Shut Schools: Virus Update.  
• Covid Ravaging Long-Term Care Centers at Fastest Pace Since May.
• NYC Recovery at Risk on Double Whammy of School-and-Subway Pain.  
• Fannie-Freddie Watchdog Demands Capital Above $280 Billion.  
• Victoria’s Secret Owner Rises as Quarterly Sales Beat Estimates.

Wall Street Journal:

• Gretchen Whitmer Strikes Again.
• 2020 Reshapes Black Friday.
• In Minnesota and Beyond, ‘Defund the Police’ Weighed on Democrats.

Fox News: 

• How many of his own COVID restrictions did Newsom break at party as Calif. cases rise?
  

CNBC.com:

• Payment company Affirm files to go public with revenues doubling year-over-year.
• Nvidia beats on both earnings and revenue, sales up 57%.
• Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Sonos, L Brands, Palantir & more.

MarketWatch.com:         

• Trump calls Georgia recount a ‘joke’ as certification date looms.

Zero Hedge:

• Georgia Recount Monitor Catches 9,626-Vote Error During Hand Recount.    
• "No One Is Bigger Than The Party": At Crucial Juncture In US/China Relations, Xi Aims To Consolidate Power.
• Iran Is Already Warming Up To Biden, Suggesting Cancelling Sanctions And Rejoining The Nuclear Deal.
• Parler CEO Defends Free Speech: "It's Not Against The Law To Have Those Opinions".
• China Used 'Secret Microwave Pulse Weapon' Against Indian Troops In Border Battle.
• US COVID-19 Deaths Top 250,000 As Mortality Worst Since Spring: Live Updates.
• As Clock Ticks On Election Certifications, Here's Where Trump Legal Challenges Stand.
• NYC Restaurants Face 'Double Whammy' Of New Restrictions And Old Man Winter 
• Ten Geopolitical Risks To Watch In The Coming Year.
• GM Recalling Over 50,000 Chevy Bolts That Can "Catch Fire When Charged To Nearly Full Capacity"
• Bitcoin Jumps, Stocks Dump After Vaccine-Pop Flops.

Newsmax:

• Pa. High Court to Hear Trump Challenge to Thousands of Votes.
• Dick Morris to Newsmax TV: 'Georgia May Well Be Overturned'.

@kylenabecker:

• Dominion Voting Systems. "Results are loaded directly from the encrypted Memory Card"... This is the first of SIX Dominion Training Videos leaked from a NON-PUBLIC SOURCE. They reveal just how *shockingly* vulnerable the voting system is. Dominion does *not* wants us to see this. Watch:

 @RealDonaldTrump: 

• Look at this in Wisconsin! A day AFTER the election, Biden receives a dump of 143,379 votes at 3:42AM, when they learned he was losing badly. This is unbelievable!

The Epoch Times:

• McKinsey Under Pressure for Its China Ties.
• Chinese-American Raytheon Engineer Sentenced to Prison for Technology Exports.
  

Protectthevote.com:

• Trump campaign seeks recount in liberal Milwaukee and Dane.

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 -.5% to unch. on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 60.5 +.25 basis point.

• China Sovereign CDS 32.0 -1.0 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 61.16 -.08%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 1,046.0 +6.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 24.85 -.10%
• FTSE 100 futures -.94%.

• S&P 500 futures -.04%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.13%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (BJ)/.65
• (CPB)/.91
• (CSIQ)/-.24
• (M)/-.82
• (NTES)/2.93
• (SINA)/.77
• (PLCE)/.51
• (WB)/.60
  

After the Close:

• (HP)/-.75
• (INTU)/.42
• (POST)/.77
• (ROST)/.62
• (WSM)/1.48
• (WDAY)/.67
  

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 700K versus 709K the prior week.
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 6400K versus 6786K prior.
  

10:00 am EST

• The Leading Index for Oct. is estimated to rise +.7% versus a +.7% gain in Sept.
• Existing Home Sales for Oct. is estimated to fall to 6.46M versus 6.54M in Sept.
  

11:00 am EST

• Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Activity for Nov. is estimated to fall to 11.0 versus 13.0 in Oct.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Japan Inflation Data report, Bloomberg Economic Expectations Index for Nov., weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report, BofA Consumer/Retail Conference, Deutsche Bank Gaming/Loding/Leisure/Restaurant Conference, Canaccord Medtech/Diagnostics Forum, (DOV) investor meeting, (TRN) investor day and the JPMorgan Services Investor Conference could also impact trading today.

Market Hours
Normal:

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are lower, weighed down by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into the day.