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☆ In about-face, Crypto exchange Binance pulls out of FTX acquisition
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Elizabeth Napolitano | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The crypto exchange Binance has pulled out of a deal to acquire rival digital currency company FTX just 24 hours after it announced the tentative agreement, the company said in a statement Wednesday on Twitter. Neither FTX nor the Securities and Exchange Commission immediately responded to inquiries about the deal or the reported investigation. “FTX going down is not good for anyone in the industry,” Zhao wrote. News of FTX’s insolvency has hit the platform and the wider crypto industry hard. The CoinDesk Market Index, a broad-based index of the digital asset market, is down by about 12% from last week.

☆ Crypto crash and gold sell-off show there’s no place for investors to hide
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Bitcoin prices are currently hovering around $16,500, down from a level of $20,000 just a week ago. Gold, like bitcoin, then surged in the latter part of 2020 as a sort of safe haven trade. Why buy gold or digital assets when the greenback is proving to be the king of currencies? Bitcoin prices have been notoriously volatile over the past few years, but they have still done better than many major stock market indexes. One venture capitalist who focuses on bitcoin and crypto assets agreed that FTX’s problems won’t derail the entire digital assets universe.

☆ This chart shows S&P 500 rally could resume if inflation has peaked
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

If inflation has peaked, then U.S. stocks have bottomed, according to strategists at Clocktower Group —and that's exactly what they think has happened. They then looked at the average S & P 500 return following peaks in the CPI since 1934, and found that the broad-market index rises. Economists also predict core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, to gain 0.5% month over month. Inflation figures came in hotter than expected for September , with CPI rising 0.4% month over month —more than the 0.3% Dow Jones estimate. While Clocktower strategists believe the bottom is in, they are urging caution right now.

☆ Cryptoverse-Elon Musk frees the bird and the dog coin flies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Vidya Ranganathan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter has put fresh wind in the sails of dogecoin, the meme cryptocurrency he catapulted to fame. It was trading at about $0.07 on Oct. 27 before Musk tweeted "the bird is freed" to announce his ownership. Not bad for a coin that was created as a "joke" satirizing wild speculation in the crypto market and named after an internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog. Its share of the $1 trillion global crypto market cap through the year until the end of October was 1%, a fraction of bitcoin's 39%, according to CoinMarketCap. Bets that Musk may allow crypto payments with dog tokens were kindled by his tweet last week of a picture of the Shiba Inu dog wearing a Twitter T-shirt.

☆ Stocks usually climb in the year after midterms. These Club names have been big winners in prior cycles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Kevin Stankiewicz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The S & P 500 advanced 11.7% in that stretch. 2014 election The S & P 500 rose 4.5% between Nov. 4, 2014 and Nov. 4, 2015. These are the five best-performing Club stocks over those 12 months: Amazon (AMZN), Starbucks (SBUX), Constellation Brands (STZ), Nvidia (NVDA) and Meta Platforms. 2010 election Between Nov. 2, 2010 and Nov. 2, 2011, the S & P 500 climbed 3.7%. 2006 election The S & P 500 rose 6.7% between Nov. 7, 2006 and Nov. 7, 2007.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Carvana, Meta, Palantir, Viatris, Walgreens and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday:Carvana — Carvana shares shed more than 15%, with trading briefly halted at one point due to volatility. Walgreens raised its fiscal year 2025 sales goal for its U.S. health-care business to $14.5 billion to $16.0 billion, from $11.0 billion to $12.0 billion to account for the deal. Viatris — The global health-care company rallied 16% after it announced it intends to create an ophthalmology franchise by acquiring Oyster Point Pharma and Famy Life Sciences. The toymaker's shares shed nearly 60% last Friday after it delivered disappointing quarterly results and issued a weak forward guidance that included a fourth-quarter loss. DoorDash — Shares of the food delivery company rallied 2.5% after being upgraded by Oppenheimer to outperform from perform.

☆ Facebook parent company Meta is now the worst performer in the S&P 500 this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A man poses in front of a sign of Meta, the new name for the company formerly known as Facebook, at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, October 28, 2021. With Meta shares sinking to new lows, the social media giant is now the worst performer in the S&P 500 this year as of Thursday. In October, for instance, Meta reported its second straight quarterly sales drop and issued weak fourth-quarter guidance that was below analyst's expectations. But building the metaverse doesn't come cheap with Meta's Reality Labs business unit, which is overseeing its VR and AR initiatives, losing $9.4 billion thus far in 2022. "Beyond 2023, we expect to pace Reality Labs investments such that we can achieve our goal of growing overall company operating income in the long run," Meta said in October.

☆ 'Best smidcap stock that investors don't know about' is in billboards and broadband, Wells Fargo says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Boston Omaha, an outdoor advertising and broadband telecom services company, is "the best smidcap stock that investors don't know about," according to Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall raised the price target to $34 (from $27), implying shares of Boston Omaha can surge roughly 22% on the back of strong internal and external growth. "We're raising 2022/23 EBITDA at Billboards and Broadband, as organic growth remains solid. Boston Omaha shares have outpaced the S & P 500 this year, down nearly 3% compared to the roughly 19% decline in the broader market index. "We think BOC likes to find mid-stage growth businesses that have long-term ROICs and would benefit from expansion capital," Cahall wrote.

Chinese equities make up 31% of the MSCI Emerging Market index (.MIEF00000PUS), a popular stock index that many funds track and benchmark their performances against. Fund research firm Morningstar tracks nine new emerging market ex-China equity mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that were created this year, matching the number of launches in total over the previous two years. If Aubrey was to remove China from its emerging market strategy, the Indian market would take a significant portion, while the rest will be spread around other countries including Vietnam, Brazil and Mexico, he said. OUTFLOWSAndrew McCaffery, Fidelity International's global chief investment officer, said they have received increased requests from clients for emerging markets excluding China strategies, although the purpose was to “break China out as an allocation separately within global portfolios”. “The challenge is that they (global investors) are not going to be quick to add back in,” he said.

☆ It's a tale of 2 cities: An ex-Wall Street trader-turned personal finance influencer explains how this economic downturn can be turned into an opportunity to build wealth.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I bonds or real estate trusts are investments that can diversify your portfolio, said Vivian Tu. It takes place against the backdrop of the French Revolution between the two cities of Paris and London. On the other hand, many often view an economic downturn as an opportunity to build wealth. Another option is real estate trusts. "Right now, we are in a time where investors have so much freedom because they don't have to buy full shares," Tu said.

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☆ These companies are cheap, have strong balance sheets, and analysts love them
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The S & P 500 is down about 19% in 2022, while the Nasdaq has dropped about 29% in that time. Advanced Micro Devices has a price-to-book value of 1.7, with a total debt as a percentage of equity of 5.8%, according to FactSet data. Salesforce has a price-to-book value of 2.7, with a total debt as a percentage of equity of just 23.8%. Knight-Swift Transportation has a price-to-book value of 1.2. It has a total debt as a percentage of equity of 25.8.

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☆ ‘Ugly times’ are pushing record annuity sales. Here's what you need to know before you buy
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

How to know if an annuity makes sense for youFinancial advisors often recommend using a different flavor of annuity when building financial plans: a single-premium immediate annuity or deferred-income annuity. Payouts from immediate annuities start right away, while those from deferred-income annuities starts later, perhaps in a retiree's 70s or 80s. Single-premium immediate annuities and deferred-income annuities are relatively simple to understand compared with other categories, advisors said. By contrast, consumers can't get back principal when they buy single-premium immediate annuities or deferred-income annuities. This is one likely reason consumers don't buy them as readily, despite their income efficiency, Giesing said.

☆ Analysis: U.S. Republicans aim at Ukraine aid but unlikely to block it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Patricia Zengerle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

All 57 House votes against a bill providing more than $40 billion for Ukraine in May came from Republicans. Anderson said some Republicans have viewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's administration as corrupt since Trump's first impeachment trial. House Democrats voted to impeach Trump in 2019 on charges he held up military aid for Kyiv to put pressure on Zelenskiy to investigate one of Biden's sons. Several defense industry executives said they viewed the Republican comments on Ukraine aid as political rhetoric ahead of the midterms, not a threat. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion survey this month showed 73% of Americans felt the United States should continue to support Kyiv.

☆ This week's best stock markets performers include earnings winners such as Netflix
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Stocks are capping off a strong week Friday, despite some choppy trading, as rising yields failed to dampen market enthusiasm over stronger-than-expected corporate earnings results. Robust corporate results from Netflix and AT & T reassured investors who were expecting a worse showing this earnings season. Netflix claimed the top spot after stronger-than-expected third-quarter results prompted investors to pile back into the stock. Shares of Netflix are up more than 18% this week, but only about 36% of analysts rate the stock a buy, according to FactSet. However, just 30% of analysts have a buy rating on the stock, according to FactSet.

☆ Canada home price tumble in September shattering record -Teranet
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The index, which tracks repeat sales of single-family homes in major Canadian markets, showed prices dropped a record 3.1% in September from August, led by sharp declines in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario. The major market index is now 7.0% below the May peak, with Hamilton down 13.5% and Toronto down 11.1%. Prices are still higher than a year ago, up 6.0% from September 2021, but gains are slowing. The Teranet index tracks closings, so it typically lags realtor sales data by three to five months. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ An often-overlooked economic measure is signaling serious trouble ahead
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

However, Fed officials are stressing that they're far from finished when it comes to raising rates. "When this basket is signaling the weakness that it's showing, what the Fed typically does is not raise rates. But in this case, it's not only raising rates aggressively, but with a commitment to continue raising rates aggressively." In addition to the typical headline metrics such as the consumer price index and the Fed's preferred personal consumption expenditures price index, the Cleveland Fed's "sticky price" CPI rose 8.5% on an annualized basis in September, up from 7.7% in August. The measure looks at items such as rent, the price of food away from home and recreation costs.

☆ U.S. factory output solid in September; builder sentiment slumps further
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Dan Burns | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The two data points out Tuesday illustrate the uneven impact the U.S. central bank's rate hikes are having so far on the economy. Manufacturing output rose 0.4% last month, keeping pace with an upwardly revised 0.4% gain in August, the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday. Overall industrial production rose 0.4%, after slipping 0.1% the prior month. The rate hikes have torpedoed activity in the housing sector, and Wednesday's data from the National Association of Home Builders reinforced that. "And given expectations for ongoing elevated interest rates due to actions by the Federal Reserve, 2023 is forecasted to see additional single-family building declines as the housing contraction continues."

☆ U.S. home builder sentiment falls for 10th straight month - NAHB
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Confidence among U.S. single-family homebuilders fell for the 10th straight month in October as soaring mortgage rates and bottlenecks for building materials made new housing less affordable for many first-time buyers. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market index dropped eight points to 38 this month. "This will be the first year since 2011 to see a decline for single-family starts," NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz said in a statement. "And given expectations for ongoing elevated interest rates due to actions by the Federal Reserve, 2023 is forecasted to see additional single-family building declines as the housing contraction continues." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Homebuilder sentiment drops to half of what it was six months ago
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Diana Olick | In Dianaolick | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Homebuilder sentiment in the single-family home market has fallen to half what it was just six months ago as mortgage rates climb, according to a new report. "High mortgage rates ... have significantly weakened demand, particularly for first-time and first-generation prospective home buyers," said NAHB Chairman Jerry Konter, a homebuilder and developer from Savannah, Georgia. Of the index's three components, current sales conditions slid 9 points to 45, and sales expectations in the next six months dropped 11 points to 35. On a three-month moving average, the sentiment score in the Northeast fell 3 points to 48. In the South it fell 7 points to 49 and in the West declined 7 points to 34.

Could we be at that point for major stocks and bonds markets? chartSimilarly, can the market's Fed view get any more hawkish than a terminal rate of 5% and 10-year yield of 4%? Possibly, but that may require a catalyst not baked into current forecasts - and recession next year is pretty much the consensus view. Citi's U.S. and G10 economic surprises indexes are the highest since May, and the global surprises index on Friday crept up to its highest since June. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson sees a bear market rally that can lead to an 11% gain from here
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The stock market's historic turnaround last week following a hotter-than-expected inflation report was the beginning of a tradeable short-term rally, according to Morgan Stanley. The S & P 500 closed lower on Friday at 3,583.07, after notching a 2.6% gain the day before following the CPI report. "[We] would not rule out another attempt to re-take the 200-day moving average. While that seems like an awfully big move, it would be in line with prior bear market rallies this year and prior ones." However, he added: "We also believe the 200-week moving average will eventually give way like it typically does when earnings forecasts fall by 20% [or more].

☆ Wall St Week Ahead As U.S. markets churn, some stick with rare 2022 winner: energy shares
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The S&P 500 energy sector is already up around 48% this year and monetary policy tightening around the world has bolstered the chances of a global recession that could curtail energy demand. The S&P 500 energy sector trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 9.9, nearly half the 17.4 valuation of the broader index. The S&P 500 is down around 24% this year while bonds - as measured by the Vanguard Total Bond Market index fund - are down nearly 18%. Saira Malik, chief investment officer at Nuveen, believes that fund managers will remain lightly positioned in energy shares despite recent gains. She is also betting that China’s economy will rebound in coming months, supporting global oil prices"We still think energy has legs here," she said.

☆ Wall St Week Ahead: As U.S. markets churn, some stick with rare 2022 winner: energy shares
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( David Randall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The S&P 500 energy sector is already up around 46% this year and monetary policy tightening around the world has bolstered the chances of a global recession that could curtail energy demand. The S&P 500 energy sector trades at a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 9.9, nearly half the 17.4 valuation of the broader index. Energy is the only sector in the S&P 500 expected by analysts at Credit Suisse to post positive revisions to their third quarter earnings. Saira Malik, chief investment officer at Nuveen, believes that fund managers will remain lightly positioned in energy shares despite recent gains. She is also betting that China’s economy will rebound in coming months, supporting global oil prices"We still think energy has legs here," she said.

☆ Stocks sink after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warns of recession
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Stocks weren’t doing much Monday morning but took a nasty – albeit brief – turn lower in the afternoon following stark comments from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who warned that the United States is likely to enter a recession within the next six to nine months. “You can’t talk about the economy without talking about stuff in the future…and this is serious stuff,” Dimon said in the CNBC interview. He added that he thinks Europe is in a recession already and that the US is probably next. Shares of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), which is one of the 30 stocks in the Dow, were down nearly 1.5%. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is one of several big banks that will report earnings on Friday.

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