Wednesday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:            

• China Stockpiles Chips and Chip-Making Machines to Resist U.S.   
• China Faces a Liquidity Test Just Days After Crunch Passed.
• Equities Extend Rally in Asia; Dollar Holds Losses: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Jumps to One-Year High With Depleting Supplies Aiding Rally.  
• Powell’s Taper Future, Phantom Stimulus, N.Z. Jobs Boom: Eco Day.  
• U.S. to Deliver Doses to Pharmacies; Yang Infected: Virus Update.
• Meme Stocks Lose $167 Billion as Reddit Crowd Preaches Defiance.
• Reddit’s Market ‘Hype Machine’ Is in a Quest to Drive Out Bots.  
• Senate Democrats Move to Put Biden Stimulus Plan on Fast Track.
• Pelosi Steps Up Security for Traveling Members of Congress.  
• California Poll Shows Newsom’s Support Slipping as Foes Push Recall.  
• Mark Cuban Tells WallStreetBets to Hold ‘If You Can Afford to’.

Wall Street Journal:

• The Risks of Too Much ‘Stimulus’.
• Coup Puts Myanmar at the Center of U.S.-China Clash.
• Joe Biden’s New Trans Policy.
• Tesla Recalls 135,000 Vehicles Over Touch-Screen Failures.
  

CNBC.com:

• Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy to take over in Q3.
• Amazon’s next CEO transformed e-commerce company into a cloud giant.
• Reddit user who helped inspire GameStop mania says he lost $13 million, but is still holding on.
• Chipotle shares fall 4% as surging digital orders ease from record pace, earnings fall short.
• GameStop plunges 60%, has lost more than 70% of its value since Friday.
• Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Alphabet, Amazon, GameStop and more.

Zero Hedge:

• Dave Portnoy Loses '700K-ish' After Selling 'Meme Stocks'.
• Amazon Reports Blowout Quarter, Jeff Bezos Stepping Down As CEO.
• NY Times Calls For Biden To Appoint "Reality Czar" To Fight "Misinformation".
• China Suspected In Hack Of US Federal Payroll Agency Using SolarWind Exploit.
• Former ECB Chief Mario Draghi Tapped To Lead Italy As Government Collapses.
• GameStop's Stock May Have Exploded, But Traffic To Its Stores Is Still Tumbling.
• WTI Extends Gains After Another Big Crude Inventory Drawdown.
• Gone In 60 Seconds: Catalytic Converter Theft Erupts Across Country.
• SpaceX's Starship Prototype Rocket Crashes On Landing Attempt.
• Alphabet Shares Soar To New Record High After Crushing Expectations.
• Stocks, Crypto, & Bond Yields Pop As WSB Game Stopped.

Newsmax:

• Florida Gov. DeSantis Declares War on 'Big Tech Cartel'.
• WH Indicates It's in No Hurry to Engage China. 
• Iran Deepens Breach of Nuclear Deal at Underground Site.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• America Last: Joe Biden to Open Special COVID Vaccination Sites for Illegal Aliens.
• Author, Filmmaker and Activist Mike Cernovich to Challenge Governor Newsom as Likelihood of Recall Looms.
• Lindsay Graham Offers Support for Liz Cheney and Then Warns the Trump Team About Attempting to Present Evidence of Election Fraud In Front of the Senate.
• “There Are Many Democrats Who Said Unsavory Things – Anti-Semitic Things” – Rep. Devin Nunes Defends Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Media Onslaught (VIDEO).
• WATCH: Newsmax Host Has Mike Lindell on to Talk About Tech Censorship — Ends Up Censoring Him As Well — Then Storms Out of Studio.
• Top Democrat Calls on Pentagon to Screen Social Media Accounts of All Recruits for Ties to White Supremacy and “Violent Extremism”.
• Why Has Wisconsin Done Nothing With the 200,000 Ballots Its Supreme Court Claimed Were Likely Invalid In the 2020 Election?
• Trump Was Right! CNN Sees Viewership Shrink by 44% in First Post-Trump Week – MSNBC Down 20%.
• Joe Biden to Divert $30 Billion in Aid Trump Left For Farmers to Climate Change without Waiting For Congress.

HereIsTheEvidence.com:

• This is for aggregating publicly available items of voter fraud evidence in the US election that would be admissible in court.
  

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 +.25% to +.75% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 60.0 -1.75 basis points.

• China Sovereign CDS 30.25 -.75 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 62.45 +.05%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 1,938.0 +36.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 28.42 -1.11%.
• FTSE 100 futures +.31%.

• S&P 500 futures +.40%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.50%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (ABBV)/2.85
• (APTV)/1.01
• (BIIB)/4.76
• (BSX)/.31
• (GWW)/3.84
• (HUM)/-2.32
• (SMG)/-.68
  

After the Close:

• (ADTN)/.07
• (AFL)/1.04
• (ALGN)/2.13
• (ALL)/3.83
• (UHAL)/7.08
• (AVB)/2.09
• (CTSH)/.90
• (EBAY)/.83
• (GRUB)/.04
• (IAC)/-.34
• (KLAC)/3.21
• (MET)/1.51
• (PYPL)/1.00
• (QCOM)/2.09
• (RGLD)/.88
• (SUM)/.17
• (YUMC)/.26
  

Economic Releases

8:15 am EST

• The ADP Employment Change for Jan. is estimated to rise to 50K versus -123K in Dec.

10:00 am EST

• The ISM Services Index for Jan. is estimated to fall to 56.7 versus 57.2 in Dec.

10:30 am EST

• Bloomberg consensus estimates call for a weekly crude oil inventory decline of -971,550 barrels versus a -9,910,000 barrel decline the prior week. Gasoline supplies are estimated to rise by +914,450 barrels versus a +2,469,000 barrel gain the prior week. Distillate inventories are estimated to rise to -246,090 barrels versus a -815,000 barrel decline the prior week. Finally, Refinery Utilization is estimated to fall -.02% versus a -.8% decline prior.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The German Services PMI report, weekly MBA Mortgage Applications report and the (COST) Jan. sales results could also impact trading today.

Market Hours
Normal:

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly higher, boosted by technology and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to maintain gains into the afternoon. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.