Dow rebounded 515 (topping 28K), advancers over decliners 5-2 & NAZ recovered 265. The MLP index crawled higher to the119s & the REIT index was up 3 to the 357s. Junk bond funds edge higher & Treasuries were slightly weaker. Oil traded higher in the 37s & gold added 9 to 1952.
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
| CL=F | Crude Oil | 37.05 | +0.29 | +0.8% |
| GC=F | Gold | 1,954.10 | +10.90 | +0.6% |
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will unveil a new stimulus proposal that builds on previous stimulus actions but also includes significant liability protection amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The main aspects of the bill appear to be: including liability protection, a continuation of some federal unemployment benefits, additional small business funding, assistance to the postal service & educational & child care support. At the heart of the memo is what McConnell has put as a key objective for any stimulus: Liability protection. Businesses have been worried they will be slammed with personal injury lawsuits if they reopen & employees contract COVID-19 on the job. This federal protection is expected to allow business owners to reopen with greater certainty they won't be on the hook for coronavirus-related liability. An official for McConnell's office declined to comment but referred to a statement the senator made earlier in the day highlighting the efforts the GOP has made to get relief to Americans.
Mitch McConnell’s GOP coronavirus relief package details released
Companies hired fewer people in Jul during a fresh wave of
coronavirus cases even as they listed more open jobs, reflecting a high
level of uncertainty about how rapidly the labor market & broader
economy are improving. Businesses, govs other organizations hired 5.8M people in Jul, according to a Labor Dept survey of the labor market that’s released with a one-month delay. But that marks a sizable decline from almost 7M in Jun. Job openings, on the other
hand, rose by 617K to 6.6M in Jul. The number of jobs
available was running around 7M a month before the pandemic. The number of separations — layoffs, firings, people quitting — barely changed in July at 5M. At the peak of the pandemic in Mar & Apr, the US lost
more than 24M jobs. So far it’s only recovered about ½ of them
back. Hotels, restaurants &
health-care providers cut back on hiring in Jul. All 3 sectors of
the economy regained lots of jobs in May & Jun, but employment is
still well below pre-crisis levels. Job openings increased the most in July in retail, health care & construction. Retailers have ramped up online operations & taken
other steps to lure customers back to brick-&-mortar stores. Construction companies, for their part, have been one of the
surprise beneficiaries of the crisis. Demand for new or previously owned
homes has surged as some people take advantage of record-low mortgage
rates or those couped up in cities leave in search of more space. The share of people who left jobs on their own, known as the quits rate, rose to 2.4% from 2.1% among private-sector employees. That's still well below the most recent peak of 3.2% last year,
however. Fewer people are willing quit a more secure job during a
pandemic.
The slowdown in hiring was not surprise given sharp deceleration in
employment growth shown in the gov's more timely US jobs report
that came out a month ago. The goods news is that hiring in Aug appeared to stabilize
as the summer spike in coronavirus cases receded, suggesting the
economic recovery is more resilient than it appeared. The big worry is that a 2nd wave of layoffs could take
place, however, without more federal aid. Some industries badly damaged
by the coronavirus, such as airlines & hotels, have said they plan to
turn temporary furloughs into permanent job losses because business
remains extremely weak.
U.S. job openings rose again in July, but hiring lagged as economic recovery slowed
White House coronavirus advisor Dr Anthony Fauci said it's “not uncommon” that AtraZeneca (AZN) is holding up its coronavirus vaccine trial for a safety review, but the “serious adverse event” with one of the participants is unfortunate. Yesterday AZN said it paused its phase 3 trial for a potential Covid-19 vaccine, called AZD1222, due to safety concerns. It's unclear exactly what the concern is, but a person familiar with the matter said the hold is related to a “suspected serious adverse reaction” in a participant in the UK. “This particular candidate from the AstraZeneca company had a serious adverse event, which means you put the rest of the enrollment of individual volunteers on hold until you can work out precisely what went on,” Fauci said. He added that the company would typically alert other sites of the trial to be on watch for similar adverse events“ & then you proceed cautiously. He added that it’s “unfortunate” that an adverse reaction occurred at all, but said that putting the trial on hold & taking time to review the data is “one of the safety valves” that's built into clinical trials. “It’s not uncommon at all,” he said. He added that the adverse event could be unrelated to the vaccine & might have just occurred at the same time as the trial, “but you can’t presume that. You always make the presumption that it’s due directly to the actual vaccine or therapeutic.”
Dr. Fauci says coronavirus vaccine trial delay isn’t ‘uncommon at all’
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