Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Markets rebound in choppy session led by tech stocks

Dow jumped up 389 (closing near the highs), advancers over decliners 5-2 & NAZ gained 71.  The MLP index added 1+ to the 239s.  Junk bond funds were slightly higher & Treasuries retreated, bringing higher yields.  Oil went up in the 63s & gold gave back 12 to 1324 when stocks rallied.

AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)


Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]




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A stunning $63.3B left US stock funds in Q1, the 2nd largest ever, while $63.9B poured into global equities funds.  Trim Tabs said the US outflows from mutual funds & exchange-traded funds were 2nd only to the $68B that left US equity funds in Q3-2011.  The flows out of the US & into global funds showed a huge divergence, but the performance was nearly identical.  Trim Tabs said the global equity funds were down 0.5%, while US funds declined 0.7%.  US equity mutual funds lost $74.6B, while ETFs still had slight inflows of $11.3B, the lowest in the past 8 qtrs.  Global equity inflows were at a 3-qtr high.  Bond funds saw strong demand, even with continuing losses.  The funds received $61.8B, in line with recent qtrs as retail investors did most of the buying.  Bond ETF inflows dropped to $13.5B, the lowest level in 5 qtrs.

Sell-off sends investors running as stocks have second biggest outflow ever in first quarter

Pfizer (PFE), a Dow stock, said it signed an agreement with Allogene Therapeutics, a company formed by a consortium in which the drugmaker will hold a 25% stake, to further develop its allogenic CAR T cell therapy.  The agreement will accelerate the development of its chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy, an investigational immune cell therapy for treating cancer.  The CAR T cell therapy is a new class of treatment where disease-fighting T cells are removed from a patient & genetically modified to better recognize & attack cancer.  They are then re-infused into the same patient where they can circulate for years to seek out & fight the disease.  Allogene will receive from PFE rights to 16 pre-clinical CAR T assets which are licensed from French cell therapy specialist Cellectis & French drugmaker Servier.  PFE has an 8% stake in Cellectis from a 2014 agreement.  Allogene will also get rights to one clinical asset from Servier, which is called UCART19, an "off-the-shelf" cell therapy currently in early-stage study.  PFE will get a representation on Allogene's board, but financial details of the deal were not disclosed.  San Francisco-based Allogene specializes in cancer treatment by developing CAR T cell therapy for blood cancer & tumors.  PFE stock gained 64¢.
If you would like to learn more about PFE, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/PFE?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7

Pfizer signs deal with Allogene to develop cancer cell therapy


Oil rebounded following an equity-driven selloff yesterday, emboldening some investors to gather riskier assets.  Futures advanced over 1% following yesterday's 3%  drop when 2 US blue-chip stocks rose for every one that fell.  Expectations for continued growth in American crude stockpiles are keeping a lid on oil's upward move.  Crude in NY has averaged almost $63 a barrel so far this year as an OPEC-led coalition of major oil producers trimmed a global glut even as US drillers boosted output.  Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said his nation is ready to discuss long-term cooperation with OPEC at a ministerial meeting planned for the end of this month.  At the same time, the cartel’s output in Mar dropped to the lowest in a year, according to a survey of analysts, oil companies & ship-tracking data.  West Texas Intermediate for May delivery added 26¢ to $63.27 a barrel in NY.  Brent for Jun settlement climbed 27¢ to $67.91.  The global benchmark crude traded at a $4.61 premium to June WTI.  In the US, crude inventories probably expanded by 2M barrels last week, according to a survey before Energy Information Administration data is released tomorrow.  Inventories held at the key Cushing, Oklahoma, pipeline hub likely rose by 2.4B  barrels last week, a forecast showed.


Inside the White House, there are no active discussions about turning the power of the administration against the company, according to leakers familiar with the Amazon (AMZN) tweets. None of the leakers were aware of any ongoing discussion about turning Trump's tweets into action, not on the legal or regulatory fronts, or even regarding its reliance on the Postal Service, which has drawn the lion's share of Trump’s wrath.  Trump expressed a desire to aides last summer to raise the Postal Service's rates for delivering AMZN packages.  His staff explained to the pres that the Postal Service is an independent organization & its mail rates are set by a commission.  Trump’s attacks, 5 tweets on subjects from the Postal Service to taxes & retailing, have weighed on the company shares, sinking its market value by about $55B over the past 6 days.  “I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy,” Trump said on Twitter.  “Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!”  Trump's claim is unsubstantiated.  While its contract with AMZN is confidential, the Postal Service has argued that its e-commerce services benefit the organization & its mail customers.  It is legally prohibited from charging shippers less than its delivery costs.  Further, taxpayers don't support the Postal Service's operations.  “Amazon has the money to pay the fair rate at the post office, which would be much more than they’re paying now,” Trump said today.  The pres claimed, citing an unidentified report, that the post office loses $1.47 each time it delivers a package for AMZN.  The company regularly uses the Postal Service to complete what's called the “last mile” of delivery, with letter carriers dropping off packages at some 150M residences & businesses daily.  It has a network of 35 “sort centers” where customer packages are sorted by zip code, stacked on pallets & delivered to post offices for the final leg of delivery.  While aides say the White House isn’t currently preparing punitive measures toward AMZN, the company remains exposed to gov action on several fronts.  The stock recovered 20.
If you would like to learn more about AMZN, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/AMZN?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7

Despite Trump Tweets, No Ongoing White House Talks About Action Against Amazon

An hour before the close, stock buyers returned to bid prices higher including tech stocks.  Then the buyers went home & averages drifted sideways for the last 45 mins.  It's tough to make sense of today's trading without significant favorable news.  The  popular averages are stumbling around their lowest levels in the last 10 weeks.  Major negative thinking has not gone away.  Tariff wars are still out there & tech stocks have lost a lot of their loyal supports recently.  But the Dow felt a sigh of relief when it finished above 24K.

Dow Jones Industrials










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