Wealth Club

The major market indexes soared in the stock market today, fueled by reports that China may allow foreign companies increased access to its markets. But they trimmed some of their gains heading into the final hour of the regular trading session.

X

The Nasdaq composite led with a 1.5% gain, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average rose a respective 1% and 1.2%. Small caps took part in the broad rally as the Russell 2000 advanced 1.4%. Volume was mixed, tracking slightly lower on the NYSE and higher on the Nasdaq, vs. the same time Tuesday.

Big cap techs boosted the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) rose nearly 1% each. Apple is trying to climb from its Monday low. The iPhone maker remains 27% off its October peak. Microsoft is approaching a 112.34 buy point of a double-bottom base. The stock is 5% off its highs.

FANG stocks also boosted the Nasdaq. Netflix (NFLX), which boasts the highest renewal rate of U.S. streaming video subscribers, according to a recent report, vaulted 4%. Netflix and Amazon topped TV categories for the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, announced Tuesday. Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL) added nearly 2% apiece.

On the Dow, Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT) and DowDuPont (DWDP) rose about 3% each. Verizon (VZ), down nearly 3%, was the biggest loser. It's getting close to testing its 50-day moving average. Morgan Stanley downgraded the telecom giant to equal weight from overweight.

Energy, software and internet retailers were among the biggest sector gainers in the stock market today. Soap makers and utility stocks underperformed.

Among software stocks, Twilio (TWLO) surged 5% to a new high. Three weeks ago, the stock had triggered the 8% loss sell rule after a Nov. 7 breakout failed. The enterprise software maker is featured in today's New America.

Canada Goose (GOOS) led the IBD 50 with a 7% pop in above-average trade, on track to halt a five-session slide. It's trying to hold support at its 50-day line.

Twitter (TWTR) soared more than 5% to pad gains above its 200-day line. Shares have been consolidating after a 21% plunge in late July after the social media company's customer traffic numbers disappointed. They're 22% below a mid-June peak.

IBD 50 medical stocks on the move included biotechs Exelixis (EXEL) and Concept Therapeutrics (CORT), as well as medical services provider BioTelemetry (BEAT). They gained 4%, 3% and 4%, respectively.

The Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) rose 2% in a bid for its third straight up session.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Track Daily Stock Market Action With The Big Picture

Tesla Stock Hits A Buy Zone As Analyst Notes An Improved Outlook

Twilio Stock Rides Shift To Cloud Computing As New Markets Beckon

Source: https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/dow-romps-450-points/

This refers to “Jobs, tolerance, protection of institutions key issues: Rajan” (January 23). Often perceptions about the degree of autonomy enjoyed by important institutions is as important as the reality. Over the years, there has been an increasing tendency on the part of the mandarins of the North Block to stray into the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) regulatory domain. In the UPA II period, the then secretary of Department of Financial Services (DFS) used to issue circulars to public sector banks (PSBs) containing instructions that often contradicted the regulatory instructions of the RBI on those subjects. In the present context, the DFS mandarins are given to making public statements on issues that fall in the regulatory domain — that is, capital adequacy, prompt corrective action framework, level of reserves to be maintained etc. These statements confuse the banks, markets, investors and the public about the level of operational autonomy enjoyed by the central bank.

While the RBI is accountable to the government, these avoidable public statements create the perception that its ability to perform its stated functions is being slowly eroded. These issues need to be quietly discussed between the government and the RBI rather than be aired in public. This is important since the RBI has set up committees with the permission from the government to look into many important issues. Nothing should be said or done that creates the perception that these committees will merely echo the publicly stated views of the government.

Arun Pasricha New Delhi

Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:

The Editor, Business Standard

Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg

New Delhi 110 002

Fax: (011) 23720201 · E-mail: [email protected]

All letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Pakistani economic advisors discussed banning imports of luxury cars, smartphones and cheese in a wide-ranging strategy session on how to avoid seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a senior government advisor said.

While no decisions were made, the floating of radical measures to tackle Pakistan's ballooning current account deficit by the newly formed Economic Advisory Council (EAC) underscores the new government's determination to avoid another IMF bailout.

The EAC held its first session last week, chaired by Finance Minister Asad Umar, who took office last month.

A lull in Pakistani exports and a relative spike in imports has led to a shortage of dollars in the economy, putting pressure on the local currency and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

That has prompted most financial analysts to predict Pakistan will turn to the IMF for its 15th bailout since the early 1980s. But new Prime Minister Imran Khan has criticised a culture of dependency and his party's officials have expressed concerns that the reforms and austerity the IMF might demand would strangle promised government spending.

Ashfaque Hasan Khan, a university professor who is one of more than a dozen EAC members, told Reuters that during Thursday's meeting, the focus was on outside-the-box ideas that would help curb imports.

“I didn't find any member (who) suggested that Pakistan should go to the IMF because there is no other alternative,” he said. “We need to take some actions. 'Do nothing' scenario is unacceptable.”

Umar could not be reached for comment on the EAC meeting. He recently told the Senate that while Pakistan needs to meet a $9 billion financing requirement, the IMF should only be a fallback option.

Khan said the more radical steps discussed were a year-long ban on imports for cheese, cars, cell phones and fruit that could “save some $4-5 billion”. A push on exports could generate up to $2 billion in extra inflows, he added.

“You see how much cheese is coming in this country from abroad,” Khan said. “Market is full of imported cheese. Does this country, which doesn't have dollars, deserve this, that it is importing cheese?”

Last year, the previous government hiked tariffs by up to 50 percent on 240 imported items, including cheese and high-horsepower cars, and imposed regulatory duties on dozens of new imports. But no outright import bans were issued.

Umar recently said Pakistan would not rule out asking ”friendly nations” - usually code for historic allies China and Saudi Arabia - for assistance to avoid going to the IMF, as well as raising money on international debt markets.

The current account deficit widened by 43 percent to $18 billion in the year ended June 30, hit by a jump in oil prices. Pakistan imports about 80 percent of its oil needs.

To ease current account pressures, Pakistan's central bank has devalued the rupee four times since December, while interest rates have been hiked three times this year.

China’s services sector showed signs of a rebound in November with an industry gauge recovering from a 13-month low in October despite lingering concerns over the economy.

The Caixin-Markit China services business activity index jumped to 53.8 in November from 50.8 a month earlier, beating analyst expectations and moving further from the 50 point mark separating expansion from contraction. The Caixin composite output index also rose in November to 51.9, bouncing back from a 28-month low of 50.5 in October. 

Still, the survey result for services follows an official gauge of factory output released last week which showed China’s manufacturing sector snapped a more than two-year growth streak in November. And the Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index released on Monday, which focuses on smaller and private companies, also showed conditions remained broadly subdued.

Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group, noted: 

The gauge for prices charged by service providers fell, while the one for input costs remained unchanged from October, which was not good for companies’ profit margins. The measure for business expectations, which reflects services providers’ confidence about operation prospects over the next 12 months, dropped. 

And in a research note on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs analysts commented: 

We expect the [Chinese] government to continue with the policy loosening stance despite the 90-day pause on the trade front, as the outlook of the trade talks remains highly uncertain and the economy and markets are on a relatively weak footing.

The internet killed the sideshow.

You remember the sideshow, populated by acts who got record deals but just could not create a hit. The list is endless. Little Feat. Bonnie Raitt before she lucked out nearly twenty years later.

The sideshow was kept alive by media, word of mouth and scarcity. Hit fans were grazers, the same people addicted to playlists today. Whereas true fans were students of the game who had a comprehensive knowledge of the entire scene and drilled down into that which they found worthwhile. Ergo the battles of taste. All true fans hated the grazers, and the true fans argued and had contempt for each other and their tastes. There was a coherent scene. That which was mainstream, and that which was not.

Sideshow acts rarely played arenas, never mind stadiums, but they had loyal fan bases that kept them in action and alive, to this very day in fact.

Whereas hit acts’ careers waxed and waned on the basis of their chart performance. They could sell tickets when they had a hit, when not, they couldn’t.

MTV was an interim step. It blew up careers and rained down more money than ever before in the history of the music business. Everybody wanted in on the action. So for the better part of two decades we had a monoculture. And then the internet blew the paradigm apart. We were sick of having so little choice. We hated being dictated to by so few gatekeepers.

And now we’ve got an incomprehensible scene made up of hitmakers with less reach and influence than ever before, and a zillion acts who are mostly unknown fighting for attention.

Meanwhile, the press, like the government, is so far behind it’s got no clue. Posting the hit charts when SoundScan is eclipsed by the Spotify Top 50 and everybody with a clue knows it. Meanwhile, record companies are businesses, and they want to focus on hits. Used to be you’d invest, wait for the outside, the sideshow, to find its moment. But with no one at a label who has skin in the game, with quarterly reports and bonuses key, no one wants to wait. It’s not about investment, but cherry-picking that which has traction and trying to blow it up. It’s kind of like sports betting, but in this case the label has rights, at least for a little while.

So I’ve established the game has changed and the media is out of the loop and the purveyors don’t care, but what about the public?

You ignore the public at your peril. Those who acknowledge the needs of the people triumph in the end. Which is why the music business is moribund.

The people want more music. Hyped and distributed in a comprehensible way.

The barrier to entry in music is incredibly low. So if you wade into the sphere you’re immediately overwhelmed by product. Everybody is overwhelmed, even the professionals. There’s just too much music to comprehend.

So we have to prop up the sideshow.

The business has to pivot to paying attention to a limited number of acts who don’t create traditional hits, in this case being hip-hop or pop, and maybe country, who deserve attention. Playlists should be shorter. Most acts should be ignored. The scene must be made understandable to listeners. So they can dig in and digest new acts, marinate in their music.

Right now we’ve got a free-for-all, a tsunami of hype, and it’s turning off the populace at large. The business is in denial. But it’s heading for the dumper.

What kind of bizarre world do we live in where an excoriated film about ancient rockers is the only thing with universal appeal? People care about Freddie Mercury and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” most are unaware and don’t care about what passes for hits today.

It’s not that we need a farm team, but an alternative.

The music business has a long history of promoting alternatives, alternative rock to begin with. Seattle overthrew the hair bands. Isn’t it interesting that we haven’t had a new sound THIS CENTURY!

Meanwhile, there are endless press releases about this act or that breaking a “Billboard” record… It’s as if we’re promoting the results of the AYSO.

Now change always comes. Usually from outside, from those not inured to the old ways.

As for the techies, they aren’t about music, and this is definitely a musical issue.

We don’t need to promote every act, just a few.

But hype is broken too. Our entire system is broken other than distribution. We know how to get the music to everybody, we just don’t know how to promote what deserves it and de-emphasize that which does not and get the general public excited about new acts and new tunes.

Hell, music doesn’t even represent what it used to. It used to set your mind free, give you insight into the times. Now it’s mostly machine-based wanking with platitudes and boasting laid on top. Try selling that to Netflix, the service wouldn’t be interested.

But if you buck the system the climb is just too steep. You need help. You need attention. Most don’t deserve it, but some do.

This isn’t about fixing the Grammys.

It’s not even about fixing the charts.

No one used to care who won a Grammy, the charts were irrelevant. Quick, what was the peak of “Purple Haze”? “Stairway To Heaven” wasn’t even a single.

And Kurt Cobain wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t punk.

Whereas today acts are only true to the almighty dollar.

This can be fixed, and it won’t be tough. Just adjust the angle by a degree or so and the whole picture changes.

I’m not talking about emphasizing a minor league. I’m talking about pointing the spotlight on acts that deserve it. Who might not fit into the round holes. Isn’t that what artists are, square pegs?

Let’s find them, anoint them and expose them.

It’s everybody’s responsibility. We’ve got to create a paradigm that works for modern times. Lord knows, we haven’t got one now.

Even the Port's director agrees something needs to be done; East Coast port notches new record; ATA crows about California victory.

Good day,

It should be a valedictory year for the Port of Los Angeles. The biggest port in the U.S. is on track to close out another record year for freight. Yet customers are still voicing their discontent. Timothy Sher, president of the Asian Food Trade Association, spoke before the last meeting of the Board of Harbor Commissioners about the headaches his group's members face when fetching containers from the port. Those problems include chassis availability, appointment times, and increasing demurrage fees. With the ocean liners having divested their chassis assets, shippers now face having to secure chassis from the port's Pool of Pools or finding motor carriers with their own chassis. But Sher said current chassis procurement processes "kind of delays everything and makes the pickup very inefficient." The port's driver appointment system is also not allowing for timely pickup, with customers being forced to pay demurrage fees of $200 to $500. "The situation is worse than it was earlier this year," Sher told the Board. During the meeting, the port's executive director Eugene Seroka could only agree with Sher's assessment, saying the delays are "absolutely unacceptable." 

Did you know?

South Carolina Ports is the latest to report record volumes coming across its docks. The port handled 188,585 twenty-foot equivalent units in November, up 15 percent vs. November 2017, setting a new all-time record for the month of November. SCPA has moved 985,981 teus since the fiscal year began in July, an increase of 11 percent over the same period last year. 

Quotable:

"This decision is a tremendous victory for the trucking industry, bringing our efforts to secure immediate relief for ATA members to a close."

--Chris Spear, president and chief executive of American Trucking Associations, on the FMCSA's decision to overturn California's meal-and-rest break requirements.

Don't miss it. Register today.

Japanese liner operators seek berth in Singapore

Ocean Network Express to team up on mega-container marine terminal (World Maritime News)

Pakistan launches privatized rail service  3

Country experiments with private freight rail service. (Brecorder)

Canada's largest railroad expects bumper 2019

Chief executive of Canadian National Railway says oil, grain and potash will drive growth. (The Star)

Container dwell time becoming issue on West Coast

Shippers' trade group says containers sit too long at Los Angeles and Long Beach. (American Shipper)

Canadian truckers show support for oil and gas industry

Alberta-based drivers stage 1,000-strong convoy in support of pipeline development. (CBC)

Final Thoughts

Stock researchers at Stifel is pulling in its outlook on the less-than-truckload sector as next year is looking weaker for freight markets. Among major names in the LTL sector, it only has ‘buy' recommendations on XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO) and TFI International (TSE: TFII), while hold recommendations are in place for Old Dominion (NASDAQ: ODFL), Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA) and ArcBest (NASDAQ: ARCB). Stifel notes that many of these companies are trading at low valuations thanks to the recent sell-off in the stock market. But it notes the sell-off "is telling us something negative is brewing on a grander scale that is not yet evident to most of us." The bank notes that recent conversations with these companies show "they are less optimistic about 2019, but not pessimistic."

Hammer down everyone!

Want more content like this? Click here to Subscribe

Permalink

Please enable cookies.