EconCurrents

Headlines:

Russia Is Ready To Send More Gas To Italy
Rising Lithium Prices Could Derail The EV Boom
Ford’s Mustang Mach-E beats Tesla’s Model 3
Bonds & Bullion Bid As Bullard & Blinken Bloviation Batters Big-Tech & Bitcoin
Rising Sex Costs As Durex Raises Prices

Wall Street opened by gaping downward for the second session with investors attempting to cut their losses. The DOW slid over 400 points in the first thirty minutes. Many analysts are predicting a continued weak market influenced by a growing inflation spiral and the imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.

For most of today’s session, the market moved sideways, marked by a notable absence of BTFDers. Everyone, it seems, is waiting for the second shoe to fall, believing the Wall Street elite are trying to sell Hopium spiked KoolAid to the sheeples. Others have said that the markets are at the top of a dead cat bounce and suggest tightening seatbelts for the roller-coaster ride down.

During the final hour, equity losses gained traction and negatively impacted market sentiment. With more than 500 explosions in Ukraine last night, Russian “shelling” hit a kindergarten and injured two teachers, further exacerbating Russia/Ukraine tensions.

Gold prices jumped to an eight-month high (1900), and other precious metals continued to rise. On the other hand, WTI crude is sharply down from its 96 dollar high three sessions ago.

New residential construction permits grew 0.7% month-over-month but year-over-year growth was a modest 0.8%. Construction completions declined 5.2% month-over-month and are down 6.2% year-over-year.

Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims was was 248,000 – an increase of 23,000 from the previous week. The 4-week moving average was 243,250, a decrease of 10,500 from the previous week

As usual, we have included below the headlines and news summaries moving the markets today.

Headlines:

The U.S. And Nato Aren’t Buying Russia’s Claims It’s Pulling Troops Away From Ukraine.
Forecasters Have No Clue Where Oil Demand Is Going.
Stocks, Bonds, & Bitcoin Dump’n’Pump As ‘Meh’-Minutes Reverse Russia-Rout.
S&P 500 Ends Higher For 2nd Day After Fed Minutes Affirms Plan For Faster Rate Hikes, Balance-Sheet Cuts

Wall Street began today’s session lower, briefly touching green, but failed to close up. Retail sales surge 3.8% in January, more than expected amid inflation rise. Minutes show Fed ready to raise rates, shrink balance sheet soon.

China looks to run coal-fired power plants at full capacity. China will help run its coal-fired power plants at full capacity to ensure energy security, despite the climate goals of the world’s largest polluter.

The Federal Reserve meeting minutes for their January 25-26 meeting shows little new insight on the schedule or size of increases for the federal funds rate which remained at 0 to 1/4 percent. The meeting minutes included the following opaque statement:

… most participants suggested that a faster pace of increases in the target range for the federal funds rate than in the post-2015 period would likely be warranted, should the economy evolve generally in line with the Committee’s expectation. Even so, participants emphasized that the appropriate path of policy would depend on economic and financial developments and their implications for the outlook and the risks around the outlook, and they will be updating their assessments of the appropriate setting for the policy stance at each meeting.

January 2022 retail sales increased 3.8% month-over-month and 13.0% year-over-year (numbers not adjusted for inflation). This is a sizeable increase considering COVID ran wild in January. The US Census also released export-import data for January 2022 which showed prices rose 10.8% year-over-year.

As usual, we have included below the headlines and news summaries moving the markets today.

Headlines:

Elon Musk unloaded $22 billion of Tesla stock — and still owns more now than a year ago.

Super Bowl 2022 attracted more than 112 million viewers, but failed to top record.

Virgin Galactic stock jumps 32% as spaceflight ticket sales open with $150,000 deposit.

Crude Crushed, Stocks Surge, Bitcoin Bid As US-Russia Tensions ‘Ease’

New York City Fires Nearly 1,500 Workers For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine: Mayor .

Oil Refining Industry Can’t Keep Up With Demand. The price of global refined products are soaring even more so than crude oil itself, as demand for those refined products is proving too much for refiners to keep up with, according to a new analysis by Vortexa.

Oil Prices Fall Back But Bullish Sentiment Remains. Oilprice Alert: InnerCircle members will receive the next private placement intelligence letter on Wednesday next week. Tap into a secret world of wealth and receive our 50-page whitepaper on Private Placements for free by signing up today.

As usual, we have included below the headlines and news summaries moving the markets today.

Headlines:

Ukraine Sparks Market Mayhem As Traders See Fed Panic Ahead, Price-In Rate-Cuts Next Year.
How Valentine’s Day Became A Lucrative Holiday.
Wall Street’s Biggest Bear Warns Stocks Are About To Be Hammered By A “Polar Vortex” Of Collapsing Growth.
Semiconductor Sales Top Half A Trillion Dollars or The First Time And Will Keep Growing.

A new inflation reading shows the small business tipping point has been reached as business owners say they need to raise prices. Also, they don’t expect inflation to decline, a signal that higher prices have overtaken Main Street.

Share prices fall sharply across Europe as Ukraine’s invasion fears rattle investors, but losses are lower in the U.S. amid hopes of a deal with Russia. Unfortunately, there is more bad news for Europe’s consumers and policymakers everywhere you look. Russia’s ongoing threats of an invasion of Ukraine have only served to compound insult upon Europe’s self-inflicted energy-related injuries.
The U.S. closes its embassy in Kyiv, citing the ‘dramatic acceleration’ of Russian troops.

Mark Hulbert: Gold isn’t likely to be a safe haven for your money if Russia invades Ukraine! Gold is rallying (1873) now, but prices typically decline in the wake of geopolitical crises. WTI has also settled higher at 94.88, sending gas pump prices higher.

Has anyone mentioned the “I” word today? FYI – “it” is going higher – much higher!

As usual, we have included below the headlines and news summaries moving the markets today.

Headlines:
Markets Turmoil Amid ‘Russia Invades’ Reports & Bullard’s Bond Bloodbath.
Despite Turmoil, Stocks Seeing Largest Ever Inflows In 2022.
Inflation worries will continue to haunt investors next week, say, analysts.
Biden sends 3,000 more troops to Poland amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Oil Prices Spike (WTI 91.77) On Rumors Russia Is Preparing To Invade Ukraine. Oil prices are soaring after media outlets began to report that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent. PBS has said that according to officials, the U.S. believes Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and communicated those plans to the Russian military.

U.S. Rig Count See Massive Climb On Higher Oil Prices. The number of active drilling rigs in the United States rose by 22 this week, the 16th straight weekly increase to the number of oil and gas rigs in the United States, and the largest single-week rise since February 2018.

Oil jumps amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Oil prices jumped amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia, with the U.K. advising British nationals to leave Ukraine immediately.
NASDAQ closes down sharply at 2.8%, while the S&P 500 closes down 1.9% on fears of a Russian attack on Ukraine. The red equities trading volume is fractionally higher than yesterday.

As usual, we have included below the headlines and news summaries moving the markets today.