Archives of “October 2019” month

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Report North Korea appears to have launched another missile

  
Analysis, Politics
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Japan Coast Guard

North Korean missile launches have been a regular occurenceoccurrence ever since Trump arranged the deal to have them stopped. Go figure.
Was a time when launches were a yen positive, but little response to the repeated launches seem to have become a feature.

Japan chief cabinet secretary Suga:

  • North Korean missile landed in EEZ
  • Off Shimane prefecture
Japan chief cabinet secretary Suga:
EEZ is Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone
More on the launch:
  • North Korea launched unidentified projectiles on Wednesday morning (local)
  • from North of Wonsan, Kangwon Province
  • towards the Sea of Japan (AKA the East Sea)

Crypto news – Visa, Mastercard, reconsider involvement in Facebook’s Libra network

  
Analysis, BITCOIN
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The Wall Street Journal report second thoughts from big payment companies on the cryptocurrency.

  • Visa, Mastercard and other key financial partners that signed on to help build and maintain the Libra payments network are reconsidering their involvement following backlash from U.S. and European government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. 
  • Wary of attracting regulatory scrutiny, executives of some of Libra’s backers have declined Facebook’s requests to publicly support the project, the people said.
  • Their reluctance has Facebook scrambling to keep Libra on track. 
WSJ is gated, but here is the link if you can access it
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Meanwhile, BTC price chart update:The Wall Street Journal report second thoughts from big payment companies on the cryptocurrency.

UK PM Johnson speech extracts – wants to get Brexit done and ‘move on’

  
Analysis, Politics
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BJ is giving a speech Wednesday UK time to the Conservatives’ annual conference
  • says UK will leave on October 31 with or without a deal
  • will say his offer is his final Brexit offer to the European Union
  • if not acceptable to the EU the UK will not negotiate further
  • says his plan is a  “fair and reasonable compromise”.
“Let’s get Brexit done on October 31 so in 2020 our country can move on.”
Note:
  • UK parliament has passed a law that requires the PM to request a Brexit delay if he fails to secure an acceptable deal at an EU summit on October 17.
  • The EU wants “legal and operational” proposals for the changes Johnson wants to a deal his predecessor Theresa May negotiated with the bloc last year

US major indices ending near session lows

  
Analysis, US Market
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Not a good day for the major stock indices

The major US stock indices were spooked by weaker than expected ISM manufacturing data . Shortly after the data came out, the major indices turned from being up to being down.

The momentum continued through the day.
The final numbers are showing:
  • S&P index, -36.56 points or -1.23% in 2940.18. That is just off the session low at 2938.70. The pair fell below its 50 day moving average today which had been holding support for most of September. That MA comes in at 2948 area.  Stay below going forward keeps the bears in control.  The 100 day MA is down at 2925.50 currently.  A move below that level increases the bearish bias for the pair
  • NASDAQ index, -90.654 points or -1.3% at 7908.68. The low for the day reach 7906.293. For the Nasdaq index, it tumbled below its 100 day moving average at 7963.81 today.  The next major target would be its 200 day moving average. However that is still a bit away at 7704.411.
  • Dow fell -343.79 points of -1.28% at 26573.04.. The low for the index reached 26562.22.
Selling with broad-based today with all the major sectors moving lower.
Some of the major losers today included:
  • Charles Schwab, -9.73%. They lowered commissions $0 on trades
  • DuPont, -4.73%
  • Schlumberger, -4.36%
  • 3M, -3.67%
  • General Motors, -3.66%
  • Slack, -3.46%
  • Cisco, -3.36%
  • Caterpillar, -3.14%
  • Morgan Stanley, -3.05%
  • Ford motors, -2.84%
  • Wells Fargo, -2.76%
  • Fed ex, -2.72%
  • McDonald’s, -2.64%
  • Bank of America, -2.50%
  • Exxon Mobil, -2.37%
  • Twitter, -2.33%
  • Goldman Sachs, -2.20%
Some winners on the day included
  • Phillip Morris, +2.52%
  • Tesla, +1.59%
  • Visa, +1.34%
  • Box, Inc, +1.15%
  • Wynn resorts, +1.11%
  • Netflix, +0.73%
  • Papa John’s +0.42%
  • Coca-Cola, +0.37%
  • Apple, +0.25%
  • Pepsi, +0.20%

India’s worst-kept secrets, told by Rajan

  
  Analysis
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Raghuram RajanFormer Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has said that people in authority have to tolerate criticism and that any move to suppress it “is a sure fire recipe for policy mistakes”.

“What makes India strong is its diversity, debate and tolerance. What makes it weak is narrow-mindedness, obscurantism and divisiveness,” Rajan said in a long LinkedIn post on Monday, two days ahead of the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.

He said governments that suppress public criticism do themselves a gross disservice.

“If every critic gets a phone call from a government functionary asking them to back off, or gets targeted by the ruling party’s troll army, many will tone down their criticism. The government will then live in a pleasant make-believe environment, until the harsh truth can no longer be denied,” he said.

“Undoubtedly, some of the criticism, including in the press, is ill-informed, motivated, and descends into ad-hominem personal attacks. I have certainly had my share of those in past jobs. However, suppressing criticism is a sure fire recipe for policy mistakes,” he added.

Last week, the Narendra Modi government had removed Rathin Roy and Shamika Ravi from the economic advisory council to the Prime Minister. Both had criticised some of the government’s policies. (more…)

Chance of a Brexit deal by end of October low, chance of hard Brexit by end January up – thus sell GBP

  
Analysis, Forex

The Brexit headline to the post is the view from JP Morgan, in a nutshell

  • Says GBP is no longer as cheap
  • JPM like short GBP, particularly against CHF
  • chance of end October Brexit deal are very low
  • chance of a hard Brexit by January have increased
  • BOE Saunders’s tilt to dovish supports short GBP view
  • Add these together and “we view risks to GBP tilted to the downside”
JPMorgan stop at 1.2450
Hourly candles GBPCHF:
The Brexit headline to the post is the view from JP Morgan, in a nutshell

US stocks wrap up a solid month and quarter with gains

  
Analysis, US Market

It’s the final trading day of the month and the quarter

Today’s changes:
  • S&P 500 +0.50%
  • DJIA +0.36%
  • Nasdaq +0.75%
On the month:
  • S&P 500 +1.7%
  • DJIA +1.9%
  • Nasdaq +0.5%
On the quarter
  • S&P 500 +1.2%
  • DJIA +1.2%
  • Nasdaq -0.1%
Stock markets haven’t exactly set the world on fire in the past few months but they managed to skate through some turbulent times.
Here is a look at the quarterly chart of the S&P 500:
It's the final trading day of the month and the quarter
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