News

gold worth immediately: Joe Biden’s stimulus package deal to maintain supporting gold worth

wayne February 17, 2021
With US charge hikes wanting doomed for now, the Federal Reserve is printing more cash than ever to stimulate restoration from Covid-19. On prime of that, President Joe Biden has a brand new $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid plan searching for Congressional approval, after the $4 trillion issued final yr by the Trump administration.

Though the stimulus measures and different uncertainties are preserving market individuals on the sting, we count on that will preserve supporting valuable metallic costs. The invoice remains to be underneath negotiation and just like the earlier invoice this one has additionally seen few delays making the market individuals anxious. President Biden has already introduced few stimulus packages and is predicted to announce extra with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen additionally in help of injecting extra liquidity into the economic system. This situation shouldn’t be excellent for the economic system as it’ll improve the debt and affect inflation, however will create a helpful surroundings for the bullion market.

Funding in gold decreased for the week ended 14th Feb and holdings stood at 1,146 tonne, in comparison with holdings of about 1,156 tonne earlier. ETF holdings elevated by about 827 tonne to 19,549 tonne.

Aside from retail gross sales and

…

India shuns US bonds amid rising yields

wayne February 17, 2021
Mumbai: India bought a report $10 billion price US treasuries (USTs)taking income off the desk amid rising yields. This might enhance the RBI’s revenues and earnings as properly this fiscal 12 months benefiting the federal government from surplus switch.

India’s publicity to USTs stands at $210 billion as of finish December, down from $220 billion in finish November, in response to information from the US treasury division. “RBI promoting UST in December could also be a mirrored image of foreign money diversification, in gentle of rising yields, notably in US,” stated Rahul Bajoria, chief economist at Barclays India. “This may occasionally additionally level to their views on fiscal spending.” Notably even the 2 largest holders of USTs, China and Japan together with some European buyers like France and rising market buyers like Philippines and Brazil have additionally minimize down their publicity to USTs. international buyers in USTs have lowered their publicity to USTs by $61 billion between July and December, the US treasury division information signifies.

For India, the place the central financial institution is one the biggest buyers within the US treasuries, the foreign exchange reserves pile-up that’s occurring because the pandemic induced lockdown, the pull down from USTs

…

Stock futures rise as S&P 500 tries to build on last week’s gains and reach all-time high

wayne August 17, 2020

 

Traders work during the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 17, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City.

Johannes Eisele | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. stock futures rose on Sunday night after Wall Street logged in its third consecutive weekly gain, but fell short of breaking the all-time high set on Feb. 19.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up by 56 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also traded higher by 0.2% each.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% last week and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.1%. The Dow gained 1.8% last week.

Despite those gains, the S&P 500 failed to notch a fresh record high after flirting with the milestone for most of last week. Through Friday’s close, the S&P 500 was just 0.6% below 3,393.52, the intraday record set in February.

“The S&P 500 is overbought into key resistance and up against seasonal headwinds,” Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, said in a note to clients. But should the market “consolidate from here, we’ll be monitoring for an accumulation of cyclical equities to confirm what we expect to be a breakout to a new high.”

…

Inside Trump’s war on the postal service

wayne August 14, 2020

President Donald Trump admitted Thursday morning that he was intentionally blocking federal funding to the U.S. Postal Service to discourage the use of mail-in ballots in November’s elections.

“Now, they need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo. “Now, if we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money,” he added. “That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting, they just can’t have it.”

The next round of stimulus funding for businesses, local governments and individuals impacted by the virus is being held up largely due to Democrats’ desires to fund the USPS, the president said. House-backed legislation would provide the Postal Service with $25 billion and also undo restrictions imposed on the agency in relation to a $10 billion line of credit recently extended to them by the Treasury.  

Trump’s message comes as rapid changes at the Postal Service have left Americans, politicians and even postal workers and their union representatives scrambling to figure out what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what it all means. 

A slew of of new …

American Airlines could cut some flights required under federal aid terms as expiration nears

wayne August 13, 2020

American Airlines passenger planes crowd a runway where they are parked due to flight reductions to slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Tulsa International Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. March 23, 2020.

Nick Oxford | Reuters

American Airlines is preparing to scrap flights serving two-dozen medium and small cities as the expiration of federal coronavirus aid that placed restrictions on carriers from cutting service approaches, according to an executive at the carrier.

Airlines are required to maintain minimum levels of service through Sept. 30 under a $25 billion federal aid package that also prohibited layoffs through the end of the third quarter. American was granted $5.8 billion in support under the program.

The deal was meant to preserve both jobs by providing payroll assistance and air service around the country, even though most planes were flying with a fraction of their normal passenger loads. Regulators allowed airlines some exemptions in service.

The new cancellations for up to 30 destinations could show up in fall schedules as early as next week, the American Airlines executive told CNBC. The person asked not to be identified because the changes haven’t been finalized yet.

Airline labor unions and executives from carriers themselves

…

Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank bets on public tech equities

wayne August 12, 2020

Japanese telecom giant SoftBank has been known for its outsized bets in venture capital.

Now it’s diversifying. On Tuesday, SoftBank said that it is establishing an asset management subsidiary with $555 million to invest in about “30 highly liquid publicly listed stocks,” though Bloomberg reports that the subsidiary is targeting more than $10 billion and may rise beyond that.

In particular, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says the subsidiary has already invested in the likes of Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Facebook. 

It’s a notable roster. It’s all about tech—an area SoftBank’s Vision Fund has been heavily focused on—and the investments are much safer bets compared to its Vision Fund companies. They don’t exactly take advantage of the market dislocation that some firms, such as those in the travel and leisure space, are facing. It really is, as SoftBank puts it, about the high liquidity—which makes sense at a time when the company is shedding assets. 

That said, we don’t have full insight into the subsidiary’s investments, given the vehicle’s unusual financing structure that can stop SoftBank’s name from appearing in public records, per Bloomberg.

And I say diversification because Son is not characterizing it as an about-face …