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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.”

Wall

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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

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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 …

Lucid challenges Tesla with a luxury EV sedan that has a record 517 miles of range per charge

wayne August 11, 2020

The Lucid Air sedan is expected to go into production at a plant in Arizona in 2021.

Lucid

The first all-electric car from Lucid Motors is expected to set a new industry benchmark — and record — with more than 500 miles of range per charge, easily topping leading EVs from Tesla, General Motors and others.

The California-based start-up Tuesday said its Lucid Air sedan is estimated to achieve an EPA-rated range of 517 miles on a single charge. The results were verified by engineering consulting firm FEV North America.

“It’s unprecedented. It’s a big step forward,” Peter Rawlinson, Lucid Motors CEO and chief technology officer, told CNBC. “How we were able to achieve that is a holistic view of all the technology in the car.”

Most electric vehicles on the market today have a range of under 300 miles, while GM and others have said their future vehicles could top 400 miles. A version of Tesla’s industry-leading Model S sedan has an EPA-rated range of 402 miles per charge.

Lucid took a slight jab at Tesla, Rawlinson’s former employer, in a teaser video last week on social media of an odometer accelerating to 402 miles and then

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Mnuchin: Stimulus checks still on the table following Trump’s order to provide $400 enhanced unemployment benefits

wayne August 10, 2020

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On Saturday President Donald Trump signed executive orders and memorandums halt residential evictions, provide $400 weekly enhanced unemployment benefits, defer payroll taxes, and extend student loan relief until the end of the year.

This came after unfruitful negotiations between Democratic and Republican leaders on Friday for a broad stimulus bill, which would have included a second round of stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits to help Americans cope with the pandemic.

But on Monday Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared on CNBC and told viewers that the White House is still open to a stimulus bill that includes stimulus checks, another round of forgivable PPP loans, and money for schools and hospitals.

“We’re prepared to put more money on the table,” Mnuchin said Monday on CNBC. “Again, if we can get a fair deal we’re willing to do it this week.”

What’s holding up the $1,200 stimulus checks–which both parties support—and a broader stimulus bill? Simply put: Democrats haven’t come down enough in their asking price for the stimulus bill, and Republicans haven’t come up enough.

“It was …