Trading Ideas

(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump has been raging against Twitter Inc. since the social media platform that helped vault him to the presidency slapped fact-check links on a pair of his tweets.Now, he’s poised to take action Thursday that could bring a flurry of lawsuits down on Twitter, Facebook Inc. and other technology giants by having the government narrow liability protections that they enjoy for third parties’ posts, according to a draft of an executive order obtained by Bloomberg.“This will be a Big Day for social media and FAIRNESS!” Trump said in a tweet Thursday morning.Twitter slumped to a session low …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — South Korea reported its biggest spike in new coronavirus cases in nearly two months, raising concerns about a second wave of infections. Small clusters also emerged in several locations in Japan in its first week since the emergency was lifted.Cases continued to soar in Brazil and America reached the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths, the most in the world. The U.K.’s coronavirus tracing program was hit by technical problems on the day of its launch, with some health-care workers unable to log-on to the system.Roche’s immune suppressor Actemra will be paired with Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir in a late-stage …read more […]

Stock futures were mixed Thursday morning, mostly holding gains after the S&P 500 pushed to an 11-week high a day earlier. …read more […]

We’ve mused often about the intimate relationship between our money and our Liberty.
We argue that, with an exception for America’s slave years, never has the tie been as obvious as it is right now.
But our job is not to point out the obvious. No, our job is to lift up the rocks and pluck out the ideas that hide quietly underneath them.
With that, let us share some words we sent our Manward Letter subscribers on Tuesday.
It’s an oddball fact that’s proving quite potent these days.
Roughly one-tenth of 1% of companies in the United States are publicly traded. Out of the …read more […]

Top news and what to watch in the markets on Thursday, May 28, 2020. …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — It was anything but an ordinary afternoon for Hong Kong stocks as Chinese lawmakers approved a controversial plan to impose national security legislation for the city.The Hang Seng Index plunged as much as 2.2% before erasing all its losses. A rally for Chinese companies spurred speculation that mainland-based funds were behind the gains. The gauge then headed lower again to trade down 1% at 3:22 p.m. local time.There was also speculation of intervention in the currency market, with the offshore yuan strengthening just as traders said they saw some state-run banks selling dollars. Premier Li Keqiang was due …read more […]

Boeing Co (BA) announced that it is laying off another 6,770 employees in the U.S. as the U.S. planemaker is cutting costs to cope with the impact that the coronavirus pandemic is having on the aviation industry.Boeing said it is taking these streamlining measures as travel restrictions tied to the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in a deep cut in the number of commercial jets and services its customers need over the next few years. Earlier this month, the planemaker reported that it did not receive a single order in April, while it was also grappling with 108 order cancelations for …read more […]

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is emerging as one of China’s biggest corporate winners of the coronavirus crisis, gaining the opportunity to expand its businesses and solidify its status as a critical part of the country’s socio-economic engine. While many companies are hurting from disruption caused by the virus, Alibaba has seen traffic at its online marketplaces shoot higher and demand grow for services like food delivery. The company, which emerged as China’s leading e-commerce company after the 2003 SARS outbreak, is now positioning itself as a hirer and a lender too, advertising for over 100,000 jobs and offering …read more […]

Shares in troubled car rental company Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) sunk a further 11% to $1.16 in Wednesday’s after-hours trading on the news that Carl Icahn has sold his Hertz stake at an apparent loss of about $1.8 billion.Icahn divested 55.34M common shares for $39.8M, at a price of $0.72/ share on May 26, an SEC filing revealed. He previously owned a 39% stake in Hertz and had three representatives on the board.The 84-year old hedge fund manager stated “I have been an investor and supporter of Hertz since 2014. Unfortunately because of Covid-19 which has caused an extremely …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Nasdaq 100 Index futures fell on a report Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order that could threaten to penalize Facebook Inc., Google and Twitter Inc. for the way they moderate content on their sites.Contracts for June delivery on the Nasdaq 100 fell as much as 0.8%, before paring losses to 0.1% as of 2:50 p.m. in Tokyo. Trump’s upcoming executive order aims for federal regulators to review a law that spares tech companies from liability for comments and content posted by users, the Washington Post reported. Investor sentiment was also damped by deteriorating U.S.-China ties.“U.S. …read more […]

Shares in PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals (PHAS) surged 82% in after-hours trading on Wednesday, after the company announced clearance of its investigational new drug (IND) application by the FDA under its Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP).PhaseBio’s “VANGARD” trial will assess the efficacy and safety of its PB1046 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients at high risk for rapid clinical deterioration and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Approximately 210 patients will be targeted to be enrolled at approximately 20 sites across the US. The primary endpoint will measure days alive and free of respiratory failure.The patients will be treated with PB1046, a novel, once-weekly, subcutaneously-injected vasoactive …read more […]

Spot gold was up 0.6% at $1,718.77 per ounce, as of 0544 GMT, after dropping to $1,693.22 on Wednesday. U.S. gold futures rose 0.5% to $1,717.80. “That’s bad news for the globe as it spills over into trade- the impact on global growth, while the global economies are fragile, could be severe.” …read more […]

Oil prices slid for a second consecutive session on Thursday as U.S. industry data showed a steep and surprising build-up in crude stockpiles, dampening hopes of a smooth demand recovery as the world begins to ease its way out of coronavirus lockdowns. The decline extended losses from Wednesday on uncertainty about Russia’s commitment to deep oil production cuts in the lead-up to a June 9 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, dubbed OPEC+. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 4.4%, or $1.44 at $31.37 a barrel at 0402 GMT …read more […]

While the benchmark S&P 500 index has surged 34% from its March lows and the Nasdaq Composite is just 6% short of record highs, investors are more bearish than they have been in years and key measures such as unemployment and gross domestic product are giving their worst readings since the Great Depression. The dichotomy between market performance and investor sentiment echoes the “There Is No Alternative” argument that dominated investor thinking in the recent pre-Covid era, when ultra-low rates around the world and the U.S. economy’s relative outperformance pushed global investors into U.S. stocks, even as they fretted …read more […]

The latest dispute comes after Twitter added fact-check links to the president’s tweets for the first time. …read more […]