Finance Update – The Curtain Falls

Corporate – Movies freeze

AMC has announced it would be cashless by year’s end, according to an AP report this morning despite a recent $40 mn stock offering, assetA stock, commodity, currency, index or any other entity one may trade or invest in. sales and restructuring. With movie releases either cancelled, postponed or moved to streaming channels, AMC stock plunged 13% yesterday on the announcement. Cinemax is down 8% and Nt’l Cinemedia -9%.

Meanwhile, Aramco (-0.14%) is reportedly negotiating the sale of some of its pipelines to BlackRock (-0.53%) and others in a deal worth over $10bn due to cash shortages.

Amazon’s (+0.02%) Prime Day now in effect, Walmart (+1.37%) will be extending its Black Friday deals after Thanksgiving by a day due to pandemic-impelled shopping habits, according to a report in Reuters.

Apple is down 2.65% after the launch of its iPhone 12 line yesterday. And Facebook is up 0.14% after announcing it would ban all anti-vaccine advertisements.

Delta shares are down 2.67% after announcing a 79% drop in revenues and a $3.30 loss in EPS. Citi is down 4.8% after announcing a 7% drop in revenues and $1.40 earnings per share. JP Morgan is down 1.62% despite beating expectations with a 3% decrease in revenues but a, 8.7% increase in EPS ($2.92). BlackRock lost a ½% despite am 18% surge in revenues and a 22% increase in earnings. And J&J lost 2.29% despite a 1.7% YoY increase in revenues and a 101.5%(!) increase in earnings to $1.33 per share.

Today’s calendar includes earnings reports from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, the Bank of Queensland, ASML Holdings and United Health Group, and dividends from Mondelez.

And finally, drugmaker Eli Lilly is down 2.85% after joining the group of Covid vaccine makers to halt trials on safety concerns.

Asia – Vaccine halt topples benchmarks

Asian markets are slightly depressed over yesterday’s equity losses in the US and Europe, the Shenzhen Composite down 0.92% and the Hang Seng grabbing onto the zero-line by its fingernails – all being attributed by Reuters to stalled COVID vaccine trials and US stimulus talks.

The Nikkei is up 0.11% as is New Zealand’s Dow JonesA business and financial news & analysis company that publishes the Dow Jones 30 index, which tracks... with a 0.46% gain. The Yen peaked at 0.9501 before losing half the day’s gains overnight after industrial production missed expectations with a 1% improvement MoM, pushing the yearly figure ½ a pointThe unit of price change for bonds (1%), futures (0.01%), shares ($1) and mortgage fees (1% of the p... deeper into contraction.

The AussieForex slang for the Australian-US Dollar pair. bounced off a 2-week supportThe price level that traders believe represents the lowest value an asset can reach. At this point, ... level at 0.7150 overnight but showing signs its next level at 0.7169 is showing resistanceThe price level that traders believe represents the highest value an asset will reach before reversi..., this after Westpac overnight produced a better-than-expected 11.8% improvement in consumer confidence.

Europe – EC taxing China-aluminium

European indices led the US down yesterday, the DAX losing 0.9% and the FTSE -0.53%. Holland’s AEX was up 0.03% and Portugal’s PSI20 0.9% – the only 2 green spots in a sea of red.

The Euro and pound both lost about 50 pips on the dollar over the European session after ZEW produced toppling economic sentiment markers for both Germany and the EU.

The European Commission yesterday announced it was imposing 30-48% anti-dumping tariffs on aluminium products from China.

Americas – Business optimistic

US indices were down last night led by the S&P’s -0.63%.

The USD is back to the 93.50 level after a dramatic 4-day double bottom, gaining most of Friday’s losses after consumer inflationThe rise in prices for goods and services, resulting in the deterioration of a currency’s purchasi... for September increased by a tickAn asset’s minimal unit of measurement and price change. YoY to 1.4%.

Business Optimism continues strong adding a better than expected 4 points to 104.

Commodities – Russia prepares digi-Ruble

Oil is back to its $40 support perch after adding a dollar a barrel before losing steam during the Asian session – this after OPEC downgraded its 2021 oil demand forecasts once again. Apparently, last month’s -25% prediction was understated.

Gold plunged by over $25 an ounce yesterday afternoon as US markets came online.

And Bitcoin added a per cent after Russia’s central bank announced it was planning to launch a digital Ruble.

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