Markets edge higher while oil rises to a 5 month high

Dow went up 75 with selling in the PM, advancers over decliners 5-4 & NAZ gained 13.  The MLP index crawled higher in the 278s & the REIT index stayed in the 378s.  Junk bond funds continued mixed & Treasuries had more selling, raising yields.  Oil was up 1+ to the high 82s (almost 5 month high) & gold edged up 2 to 2163 (more on both below).

AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)

Congress is back at the budget negotiation table this week & border security disputes again are threatening to torpedo talks as a weekend gov shutdown inches closer.  Yesterday, the White House told Speaker Mike Johnson & other congressional leaders that it could jettison their proposal to fund the Dept of Homeland Security via a stopgap measure thru Sep 30 rather than a permanent budget resolution, according to a senior GOP aide.  But the White House objected to the DHS bill.  “The White House’s irresponsible delay in communicating reality to their congressional allies until the 11^th hour is the real story here. Their delay in communicating has placed us in the brink of a shutdown,” a GOP aide said.  The administration's pushback comes as Capitol Hill scrambles to strike a deal on the last 6 appropriations bills to avert a gov shutdown ahead of a Fri funding deadline.  A Dem aide said that the White House did not flat-out reject the DHS bill, but the dispute has sent lawmakers back to the drawing board, delaying the release of legislative text on the budget & slowing an already down-to-the-wire voting timeline.  Congress successfully struck a deal on the first 6 appropriations bills in Feb, but the remaining ½ relate to thornier agencies like labor, homeland security, education & more.  “This second batch, they’re tougher because they’re more partisan,” said Bobby Kogan, a former budget advisor under Pres Biden.  The border is a top voting issue in the 2024 election & amid the heat of that controversy House Reps impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Feb after several failed attempts.  This week's talks also have been made more difficult because the first 6 bills passed in Feb got below-average spending cuts.  That means deeper cuts are necessary for these last 6 bills to stay within this year's tight spending caps.  “If there’s even less money to go around, then all of a sudden these big partisan fights are going to be tougher,” said Kogan.

Border-funding battle snags budget talks in Congress with shutdown days away

Norway has had massive success with EV adoption, 82% of new cars sold in the country in 2023 were electric, according to the Norwegian Road Federation.  This high adoption rate can be attributed to the generous subsidies the Scandinavian country has offered to electric vehicle owners as well as its investment in charging infrastructure.  Tesla's (TSLA) sales in the country may represent only a sliver of the 1.8M vehicles the company delivered globally last year, but its importance to the EV maker goes beyond revenue.  Its early foothold there has made Norway a pivotal proving ground for the company & a national model for electric vehicle transition.  As a result, CEO Elon Musk has taken a number of trips to the small Nordic country & has often praised its support for the technology change.  Norwegians were the first European customers to receive deliveries of the Tesla Model S in 2013.  In Apr of 2014, Tesla broke Norway's record for most monthly sales of a single model, electric or gas, with its Model S.  Today, the top-selling model is TSLA's Model Y.  TSLA accounted for about 20% of all vehicles sold in the country last year, according to Norwegian Road Federation.  But with competition from other EV automakers heating up, it remains to be seen if Norwegians will continue to favor TSLA in the future.  TSLA stock jumped 10.31 (6%).

How Tesla became the top-selling car company in Norway

United Airlines (UAL) CEO Scott Kirby sought to reassure customers about the carrier's safety after a series of flight problems in recent weeks.  In 1 incident this month, a tire fell from one of the carrier's Japan-bound Boeing (BA) 777s shortly after takeoff, damaging cars in a San Francisco airport parking lot.  In another, a missing panel from the plane was discovered after the older Boeing 737 landed in Oregon on Fri.  “Safety is our highest priority and is at the center of everything we do,” Kirby said in an email to customers.  “Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, our airline has experienced a number of incidents that are reminders of the importance of safety.”  Kirby said the incidents, which the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating, were “all unrelated” but that the team is reviewing the details “& using those insights to inform our safety training and procedures across all employee groups.”  The string of recent mishaps occurred during heightened scrutiny of the aviation industry after a door plug panel blew off an Alaska Airlines’ nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 on Jan 5.  UAL's CEO said the airline had already planned to implement changes such as “an extra day of in-person training for all pilots starting in May and a centralized training curriculum for our new-hire maintenance technicians.”  “You can be confident that every time a United plane pulls away from the gate, everyone on our team is working together to keep you safe on your trip,” Kirby wrote.  UAL stock fell 7¢.

United Airlines CEO tries to reassure customers after string of flight problems

Gold edged higher, holding its own even as the $ & treasury yields advanced ahead of this week's meeting of the Federal Reserve's policy committee.  Gold for Apr closed up $2 to settle at $2164 per ounce.  The Federal Open Market Committee begins its 2-day meeting on tomorrow & is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged even as market pressure to begin lowering rates is on the rise.  The world stands on the cusp of a new era of interest rate easing & even though the good of the central bank world procrastinate in decreasing circles, the markets at least believe that the barriers obstructing a loosening of fiscal grip on the monies of the globe are coming to an end.  The $ moved higher, with the ICE dollar index last seen up 0.2 points to 102.63.  The yield on the 2-year note was last seen up 1.7 basis points to 4.753%, while the 10-year note was paying 4.347%, up 2.9 basis points.

Gold Edges Up as the Dollar and Yields Steady Ahead of this Week's Fed Meeting

Oil futures climbed, with US & global benchmark prices settling at their highest since late Oct, as continued attacks by Ukraine on Russian energy facilities were estimated to have idled a significant chunk of Russia's refining capacity.  West Texas Intermediate crude for Apr rose $1.68, (2.1%) to settle at $82.72 a barrel.  That's the highest front-month contract finish since Oct 27.  May Brent crude, the global benchmark, added $1.55 (1.8%) at $86.89 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, the highest settlement since Oct 31.  Apr gasoline tacked on 1.3% to $2.76 a gallon, the highest since Aug 31, while Apr heating oil climbed by 2.2% to $2.79 a gallon.

Oil Ends at Nearly Five-Month High as Drone Attacks Crimp Russia's Output

Oil prices are on the move again & that threatens the Fed's ability to get inflation under control.  Presently just about everybody is anxiously waiting for the Fed's news conference on Wed.  Also, some of the enthusiasm for tech stocks on NAZ faded in the PM.

Dow Jones Industrials