Dow closed up 15 (136 below session high), decliners barely ahead of advancers & NAZ crawled 9. The MLP index was off 2+ to the 195s & the REIT index rose 1+ to the 477s (near record highs). Junk bond funds fluctuated & Treasuries continued a little higher. Oil was higher, going up to the 84s, & gold fell 12 to 1794 (more on both below).
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
Dems moved to put the final touches on a deal to invest up to $2T in social programs & climate policy, as they try to cap a months long slog to pass their economic agenda. After days of talks among House, Senate & White House officials, party leaders sounded more optimistic than ever about striking an agreement. Top Dems acknowledged a handful of issues were unresolved, which could trip up the rush toward a deal & votes in the coming days. “Most of that has been negotiated, most of it is ready to go,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, #2 Dem in the chamber, told reporters about the bill. “And we are just waiting for the last parts of the bill to be put together. We’re hopeful that that will be done in the next few hours, frankly.” Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that 90% of the safety-net legislation is written. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, yesterday said his party had to resolve 3 or 4 outstanding issues, also sounded optimistic Inking an agreement to invest in social programs & climate policy is critical for Dems to forge ahead with their full economic agenda. House progressives have withheld votes for a $1T bipartisan infrastructure bill until the party can make progress on the bigger spending package, which Dems plan to pass without Reps thru the budget reconciliation process. about reaching a deal. “This week, Democrats are continuing to make important progress toward finalizing President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, and we remain confident that a final deal is within reach,” he said.
Top Democrats aim to strike a deal on Biden’s social spending plan within hours
General Electric (GE) reported stronger profits as cost cutting offset lower-than-expected sales of its industrial equipment in the Sep qtr. Revenue increased in the jet engine business as travel
rebounded from the start of the pandemic, but sales declined in its
healthcare business from supply-chain shortages. The renewables division also booked a sales drop while the power business was flat. Overall
revenue fell 1% from a year ago to $18.4B, while GE's expenses
declined 7%. The forecast was for revenue to increase 4%
to $19.3B. "The teams are managing through a challenging operating environment,"
including supply chain disruptions & uncertainty around US tax
credits for onshore wind farms, CEO Larry Culp said. GE's quarterly profits came in ahead of expectations & the manufacturer raised its earnings goals for the full year. It
also narrowed the forecast for free cash flow from its industrial
business, a closely watched metric. GE said 2021 revenue would be
flat, down from a previous view of growth by a low-single digit
percentage. The company projected increased revenue, cash flow &
profit margins for 2022 but said it would provide more details at a
later date. The stock was off 2.14.
If you would like to learn more about GE, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/GE?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
General Electric reports stronger profits though sales miss forecasts
Noubar Afeyan, co-founder & chairman of Moderna, discussed a new COVID-19 therapeutic & booster shots, noting that there could be a "continuous need for boosting"
every year similar "to what we do with the flu vaccine." "We aren’t really going to be sure until we look in hindsight," he said. "We
just don’t know how this virus is going to travel from being a pandemic
all the way to potentially an endemic virus we have to get used to
living with," Afeyan added. "If that’s where it ends up, then it
may well need an annual booster, potentially varying on a year-to-year
or every few years’ basis as the virus varies, similarly to what we do
with the flu vaccine and so I think if we end up there, there will be a
continuous need for boosting" He stressed that "boosting gives us the antibodies that are the first
line of defense in our body to either preventing or counteracting the
virus getting into the body." In Sep, MRNA first said it is developing a single vaccine that combines a booster dose against COVID-19 with its experimental flu shot. "We are very excited several months ago to announce that we are going
to be developing a seasonal flu vaccine, which we very much hope to
have data on in the not too distant future," Afeyan said. "And we
are hopeful that we will see similarly encouraging results from just the
whole platform from mRNA so that we are able to show robust
and effective vaccination." "Once we do that, we’ve also
said publicly that we will likely combine these so that the seasonal
vaccine in the future might well be a combination of MRNA for COVID-19
as well as for seasonal flu or whatever version of COVID is attacking us
at that time," he continued. "So that is a major
convenience, compliance and protection kind of mechanism." The stock fell 3.82.
If you would like to learn more about MRNA, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/MRNA?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Moderna says COVID booster, like flu vaccine, could be yearly
Gold futures declined, settling below $1800 an ounce a day after posting a finish above that price level for the first time since mid-Sep. Profit taking, along with a slight gain in the $ & gold's fall below the key $1800 level, led to the selloff. The $, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar, was up 0.2% after the Conference Board said that the index of US consumer confidence rose to 113.8 in Oct from a revised 109.8 in Sep. Dec gold declined by $13 (0.7%) to settle at $1793 an ounce. That followed a 0.6% climb yesterday, which brought prices for the most active contract to its highest settlement since Sep 14. Bullion has been mostly supported by fears about persistent inflation around the world, with the precious metal viewed as a hedge against intensifying pricing pressures. However, expectations that the Federal Reserve will be forced to lift interest rates, which currently stand at 0-0.25%, faster than earlier anticipated is likely to limit rallies for precious metals. The Fed is slated to hold its 2-day policy meeting Nov 2-3, when it is widely expected to announce a tapering of bond purchases that were put in place during the worst of disruptions to financial markets sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Investors will be looking for any indication of the pace of that reduction in purchases as a signal of how rapidly the central bank might move to normalize interest rates.
Gold futures settle back below the key $1,800 mark
Oil futures climbed, with US benchmark crude prices looking to finish at a fresh 7-year high on expectations that global supplies will remain tight. OPEC+, which is comprised of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries & its allies, will hold a meeting on Nov 4 to discuss production levels. Russia's deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak yesterday said he expected OPEC+ next week to agree to raise output by another 400K barrels a day in Nov -- in line with the timetable agreed earlier this year. West Texas Intermediate crude for Dec rose 85¢ (1%) to $84.61 a barrel after touching lows below the $83 mark. The US benchmark traded at a y-year high above $85 a barrel yesterday before ending that day unchanged. Dec Brent crude , the global benchmark, was up 36¢ at $86.35 a barrel after closing at a 3-year high yesterday. Jan Brent, the most actively traded contract, rose 43¢ (0.5%) to $85.60 a barrel. Traders were wary of the potential resumption of nuclear talks with Iran that may eventually lead to more crude on the market.
Oil prices climb to multiyear highs on tight supplies
Dow Jones Industrials
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