Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed with lean to the upside. New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines posted decent gains; Hong Kong and India were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently suffering relatively big losses. The UK, Denmark, France, Turkey, Russia, Finland, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Portugal are down more than 1%. Futures in the States point towards a relatively big gap down open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: Phantom of the Pits – Book Review
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The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold is up; silver is down. Bonds are up.
Stories/News from Seeking Alpha…
The European Union decided to give the United Kingdom an extension on negotiating an exit from the EU – but it won’t be a long reprieve if UK Prime Minister Theresa May can’t get a win in Parliament. European Council President Donald Tusk said Article 50 would be extended to May 22 if Parliament can reach a withdrawal agreement next week; but failing that, the deadline is extended only to April 12. In the meantime, the EU is continuing preparation for a no-deal Brexit. The pound sterling is down 0.1%.
Economy
Goldman Sachs has cut the chances of Theresa May’s Brexit deal being ratified to 50% from 60% and has increased the probability of a “no-deal” Brexit to 15% from 5%. The bank has kept its estimated probability of no Brexit at 35%. Goldman (NYSE:GS) changed its estimates after European Union leaders agreed to extend the deadline by at least two weeks.
U.S. stock futures point to opening in the red, following the decline in Europe’s stock markets as weaker-than-expected German manufacturing data fuels concern about global economic growth. Futures indicate a 0.42% decline at the open for S&P 500 and 0.47% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while Nasdaq futures fell 0.33%. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.2% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index slid 0.89%. The Dollar Index gained 0.4% to 96.71 as the Euro weakened 0.7% against the dollar. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei Index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.09% and 0.14% respectively.
Stocks
In the first publicly confirmed attempt to cancel a 737 MAX 8 order since the planes were grounded after the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, Indonesia’s national airline has told Boeing (NYSE:BA) it wants to cancel an order of 49 MAX 8 jets, saying that its passengers have lost confidence in the model after two crashes in five months. The overall deal has been estimated to be worth $4.9B. The airline’s officials will meet with Boeing executives in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday to discuss alternatives.
In a lawsuit, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) accused one of its former engineers of stealing confidential autopilot information and then joining Chinese competitor Xpeng Motors, eight months after one of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) former employees was charged with taking autopilot secrets to a new job at the same company, Bloomberg reported. Xpeng, which hasn’t been accused by either Apple or Tesla of wrongdoing, denies having any part in the alleged theft by the engineers. The lawsuit is “questionable,” Xpeng Chairman He Xiaopeng said in a WeChat post on Friday.
With the quarter’s end ticking closer, Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is making delivering its vehicles the “primary priority” for workers, according to a reported internal memo. It’s the “biggest wave in Tesla’s history,” Musk said in the memo titled “Vehicle Delivery Help Needed!” Vice President Sanjay Shah sent an email last week looking for company volunteers for delivery shifts.
In other EV news, General Motors reportedly will announce plans to invest $300 million in its Orion plant near Detroit that builds electric and self-driving vehicles for Chevrolet and the self-driving Cruise. GM is expected to announce it plans to build a new electric compact vehicle for Chevy based on the same compact architecture as the Chevrolet Bolt EV and the Cruise AV that are assembled in Orion.
MillerCoors has filed a lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD), alleging Bud’s ad campaign associating Miller Lite and Coors Light with corn syrup is false and misleading. MillerCoors (NYSE:TAP) says the ads “deceive beer consumers into believing that there is corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup in Miller Lite and Coors Light,” adding that there is no corn syrup in either beer by the time it reaches consumers and high-fructose corn syrup is never involved at any point.
Facing competitive pressure from Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), UPS is eyeing a further move into the growing healthcare logistics market with a test for a home vaccination service. In the trial, it would ship vaccines from its healthcare complex to a franchised store, where a licensed nurse would carry it the “last mile” to administer it in-house. Merck (NYSE:MRK) has said it’s talking with UPS about the project. Outsourced healthcare logistics is an $85B market, expected to grow to $105B by 2021.
Thursday’s Key Earnings
Nike (NYSE:NKE) -4.3% PM despite profit and margin gains.
Dynagas LNG Partners (NYSE:DLNG) -12.1% AH on Q4 earnings and revenue miss.
Zuora (NYSE:ZUO) -11.7% PM after mixed Q4.
Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS) -2.5% AH after revenue guidance cut.
Spirit MTA REIT (NYSE:SMTA) -2.4% AH after fall in Q4 FFO.
WidePoint (NYSEMKT:WYY) -1.9% AH despite Q4 beat.
Caleres (NYSE:CAL) -6.7% AH on Q4 earnings miss.
Today’s Economic Calendar
9:45 PMI CompositeFlash
10:00 Existing Home Sales
10:00 Wholesale Trade
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
2:00 PM Treasury Budget
9:30 PM Fed’s Bostic: Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy
9:45 PM Fed’s Evans Speech on Sunday
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar