- The Dow rose 550 points yesterday and all sectors of the S&P saw gains. Big winners were healthcare stocks (the Affordable Care Act will be impossible to repeal with a Democrat House), energy (regulations at the state level were rejected, putting less pressure on these companies), and technology (not totally sure, so input would be great, but I could only surmise that these companies may be expecting a less stringent business environment). Oil has been declining for awhile now and it looks like this is partly because of President Trump, or at least he claims responsibility for it, and his sanctions against Iran and demand is not as high as had been previously anticipated. Another note: be on the lookout for a Fed decision on rates today.
- Jeff Sessions "resigned" yesterday at the request of President Trump. The reason I put it in quotes is because I feel like he was going to get fired over Trump's open disapproval of Session's recusing himself from the Russian investigation. I don't know a whole lot about how White House politics work, but I would assume whenever someone resigns it's because a firing is imminent (could also be because Sessions couldn't stand Trump or didn't want the job anymore, but there are many possibilities). Oddly enough (or maybe not...), marijuana stocks soared after this announcement due to Session's anti-marijuana stance, and it also doesn't hurt that recreational marijuana was legalized in Michigan on Tuesday.
- Hedge funds are reviving a derivative known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that played a big role in the last recession in 2007-09. I don't want to spend too much time on it, so here's a good link if you're interested: https://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-funds-revive-the-junk-bond-cdo-1541592000.
- Google just announced its plan to expand its existing New York office, which will add approximately 3,500 workers, and build a completely new office space which will add room for 8,000 new workers, bringing its total New York staff to around 20,000 people. The timing of this announcement is rather curious given that Amazon just announced a few days ago that finalists for HQ2 include Crystal City, New York, and Dallas. What's Google's play here? Take top-tier talent away from Amazon?
Submitted November 08, 2018 at 08:19AM by hbratt69 https://ift.tt/2qBWcIW
