Dow fell 202, decliners over advancers about 5-4 & NAZ recovered 49. The MLP index was up 2+ to the 167s & the REIT index fell 2+ to the 396s. Junk bond funds found a little buying & Treasuries crawled higher yields at yesterday's 14 month highs. Oil recouped pennies at 60+s following recent selling & gold added 3 to 1736.
AMJ (Alerian MLP index tracking fund)
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The Federal Reserve declined to extend a pandemic-era rule that relaxed the amount of capital banks had to maintain against Treasuries & other holdings, in a move that could upset investors & the bond market. The Fed said it would allow a change to the supplementary leverage ratio to expire Mar 31. The initial move, announced Apr 1, 2020, allowed banks to exclude Treasuries & deposits with Fed banks from the calculation of the leverage ratio. The decision to relax the capital requirements has been widely viewed as key to calming what had been tumultuous Treasury markets in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. A need for cash had caused a massive sell-off in the bond market that the Fed helped to cover through its liquidity programs. The central bank said it will solicit public comment on how to adjust the supplementary leverage ratio in the future but had decided to let the exemption expire now, as planned. “The Board will take appropriate actions to assure that any changes to the SLR do not erode the overall strength of bank capital requirements,” the Fed said.
The Fed will not extend a pandemic-crisis rule that had allowed banks to relax capital levels
A US official accused China leaders of "grandstanding" during contentious bilateral talks in Alaska. "The
Chinese delegation ... seems to have arrived intent on grandstanding,
focused on public theatrics and dramatics over substance," the official told reporters in Anchorage. "They made that clear by promptly violating protocol." He added that "exaggerated diplomatic presentations often are aimed at a domestic audience." The official said the 2 sides had agreed on 2-minute opening statements that ended up going for more than an hour. In return, Chinese state media called the US "inhospitable" & claimed US officials had spoken for too long. China had been looking for a reset in relations with the US after
tensions with the Trump administration, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken made it clear that the Biden administration would take a tough stance with Beijing. Blinken
said the US would bring up its "deep concerns" about issues related
to the gov's repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, as well as
anti-democracy efforts in "Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the
US & economic coercion of our allies" during the first
official talks of the Biden administration. China,
for its part, accused the US of meddling in the country's domestic
affairs, claimed the US has a human rights problem & said
the US military uses its might to suppress other countries. A 3rd meeting is scheduled for tomorrow.
US official accuses China of 'grandstanding' in tense bilateral talks
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), a Dow stock & Dividend Aristocrat, is forging plans to create a 2nd-generation
existing coronavirus, a spokesperson said. "We
are looking at the development of a second-generation vaccine and will
leverage our learnings from our current COVID-19 program to accelerate
these efforts," a spokesperson wrote in part. "We will
continue to do all we can to help bring an end to the pandemic and will
share more information as it is available." The efforts come in
parallel as the company works to boost manufacturing power to supply its
existing coronavirus vaccine around the world. "The results of our Phase 3 ENSEMBLE study showed protection against
multiple variants in circulation, and we are working around the clock to
develop and broadly activate our manufacturing capabilities to supply
our single-shot COVID-19 vaccine worldwide," the spokesperson added. "We
will also continue to test the effectiveness of our vaccine against new
and emerging variants." The ENSEMBLE study previously indicated the now-authorized single-shot
existing coronavirus was
72% effective in preventing moderate-to-severe COVID-19 in the US but
fell to 66% in a larger trial conducted worldwide. The late-stage trial
involved 43K participants. JNJ previously boosted hopes its vaccine candidate will be effective against variant strains. The stock fell 58¢.
If you would like to learn more about JNJ, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/JNJ?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Johnson & Johnson plans next generation COVID-19 vaccine
China trade talks have started touchy, not a good sign. When added to the specter of higher interest rates, investors have become very nervous.
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