TOKYO — The Tokyo Stock Exchange shut down for the day on Thursday as its operator raced to solve a technical glitch that halted equities trading throughout the world’s third- largest economy.
The breakdown is the worst ever for one of the globe’s biggest platforms to buy and trade stocks, bewildering investors who were unable to place orders. While the exchange has experienced outages in the past, none had stopped trading for a whole day. The outage could have significant cost to investors, depending on how long it lasts.
The shutdown stemmed from a problem in a system that reports market information, Japan Exchange Group, the company that operates the system, said in a statement on its website.
The glitch first became apparent on Thursday morning in Tokyo, before trading began, postponing the beginning of the session. At about noon, the company announced that trading would be stopped for the entire day.
The company offered its “deepest apologies” to investors and others affected by the shutdown, but did not give details about the cause and said it did not know when the problem would be resolved.
Trading was also halted at exchanges in Nagoya, Sapporo and Fukuoka, the companies running them said. After-hours trading on the markets was also stopped.
Trading in Japan’s second-largest exchange, in Osaka, appeared to be unaffected.
Over 3,700 companies are listed in Tokyo.
Speaking during a regularly scheduled news conference on Thursday, Japan’s top government spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, called the breakdown “very regrettable” and said that the exchange was taking “actions to identify the cause of the problem and restore it.”
He said that there was no indication that the shutdown had been caused by a cyberattack, but added that “at this point, we can’t say for certain.”
Earlier this year, a distributed denial of service attack disrupted trading on New Zealand’s stock exchange, raising concerns about the vulnerabilities of global stock markets to threats from hackers.
As of December, the Japan Exchange Group ran the world’s third-largest equity market, behind the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, with nearly $6.2 trillion worth of stocks, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. It had more listed companies than any other exchange, the group said.
Thursday’s breakdown effectively halted all trading in the region. Japan was the only major market expected to open, with exchanges in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea closed for autumn holidays.
The shutdown was a headache for investors who had been awaiting the release of a quarterly report from the Bank of Japan that tracks economic sentiment among the country’s companies. The report showed cautious optimism among firms adjusting to a future in which economic activity will most likely continue to be limited by restrictions on work and life imposed by the coronavirus.
Stocks in Tokyo crashed in March because of investors’ fears about the pandemic’s economic effects. Prices have recovered in the months since, with investors flooding into companies, such as pharmaceutical firms, expected to benefit from the global fight against the virus. It is currently down more than 5 percent since the beginning of the year.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange introduced its current market data system in 2010 and upgraded it last November. The system, known as Arrowhead, was developed by Japan’s Fujitsu Limited.
Japan has faced similar problems over the years, with system glitches occasionally stopping some trading for brief periods. The last systemwide shutdown was in 2005, when a software upgrade malfunctioned, shutting the market down for half a day.
Coinbase is offering to pay employees who decide to quit the cryptocurrency company after it discouraged employee activism and discussing of political and social issues at work.
CEO Brian Armstrong told Coinbase staff in an email that the company would offer severance packages for anyone "who doesn't feel comfortable with this new direction." The pay packages range from four to six months, depending on how long an employee had been with the company.
"Life is too short to work at a company that you aren't excited about," Armstrong said in the email, which was previously reported by The Block. "Hopefully this package helps create a win-win outcome for those who choose to opt out."
The message came days after Armstrong published a blog post clarifying the company's stance of non-engagement on social and political issues.
Specifically, Armstrong said that the company "won't debate causes or political candidates internally," and will not engage when the issues are "unrelated to our core mission, because we believe impact only comes with focus." The cryptocurrency company is "laser focused" on the use of digital currencies, and on profits, Armstrong said.
The co-founder pointed to "internal strife" at Silicon Valley giants such as Google and Facebook that "engage in a wide variety of social activism, even those unrelated to what the company does."
"While I think these efforts are well intentioned, they have the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division," Armstrong said. "I believe most employees don't want to work in these divisive environments."
The approach stands apart from many Silicon Valley companies, which have embraced social justice causes in the wake of widespread protests over racial injustice this year.
For instance, Google this week announced an extensive $310 million program to bolster diversity and inclusion at the company as part of a lawsuit settlement with shareholders who alleged the company did not take complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination seriously enough. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, recently tightened restrictions on discussing political and social issues on the company's internal message boards, but stopped short of discouraging or banning them entirely.
Armstrong himself was outspoken in the wake of George Floyd's death, and tweeted his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
"I've decided to speak up. It's a shame that this even needs to be said in this day and age, but racism, police brutality, and unequal justice are unequivocally wrong, and we need to all work to eliminate them from society," he said in series of tweets.
Coinbase's new policy immediately sparked debate on Twitter. Some, such as investor Paul Graham, applauded the position and predicted "most successful companies will follow Coinbase's lead."
Others suggested it would drive away tech talent and customers.
The San Francisco-based company is the largest U.S. cryptocurrency trading platform. It has raised more than $500 million in private funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Tiger Global, among others, at an $8 billion valuation, according to PitchBook.
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The first Trump-Biden debate. A fiery hearing on corruption in Springfield. Chicago’s loosening COVID-19 restrictions. Our politics team tackles those stories and more in this week’s roundtable.
Tuesday’s presidential debate was loud, but there often wasn’t much you could actually hear.
Madigan declined to testify, and it remains unclear whether he’ll face the pressure of a subpoena.
The six legislators on the Special Investigative Committee met for about five hours, with much of that time spent peppering the Commonwealth Edison vice president who executed the deferred prosecution agreement, David Glockner, with questions about utility’s bribery scheme as described in the DPA.
However, Lightfoot said she was not prepared to announce whether Chicago Public Schools students would return to in-person classes in November.
“We’re not there yet,” Lightfoot said, while detailing what she said were significant problems with remote learning. “We’d have to see more progress.”
At a virtual town hall Tuesday evening, Lightfoot said that negotiations with community groups on police oversight are at an impasse.
“We’re moving on from GAPA (the Grassroots Association for Police Accountability),” Lightfoot said. “We’ve got to get it done, we’ve waited too long, we need to move forward and it’s unfortunate that the GAPA folks have not come forward to us with a concrete proposal that solves some of these outstanding issues, but the time is now for us to act. We can’t wait any longer.”
Lightfoot said at the town hall she would propose an alternative proposal before the end of the year.
Our politics team of Amanda Vinicky, Heather Cherone, Paris Schutz and Carol Marin discuss these stories and more in this week’s edition of “Spotlight Politics.”
GAC unveiled its electric sports car prototype on Sept. 26, 2020, at the Beijing auto show.
Evelyn Cheng | CNBC
BEIJING — Some of the flashiest items Chinese companies had on display at the first major auto show since the coronavirus pandemic were concept sports cars.
While vehicle sales for state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) fell 9.87% from a year ago in the first eight months of 2020, following a decline of nearly 4%last year, the company has been developing an electric sports car called "Enpulse."
The company revealed the glimmering metallic vehicle to media on Saturday at the Beijing auto show, which was delayed by five months due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
The convertible electric sports vehicle features a yellow interior with striped pink sections, evoking a rainbow. The car was developed by GAC's global design team, particularly designers from the company's Los Angeles office, according to GAC.
"Before the advent of cars, traveling afar was ambitious," Zhang Fan, vice president of design, GAC R&D, said at Saturday's launch event, according to an official translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.
"Before the advent of electric vehicles, making sports cars accessible to everyone was also ambitious," he said, adding, "We hope that the Enpulse will chart the course for the realization of our ambition and make the classic sports car romance accessible to everyone."
GAC's vehicle sales climbed double-digits in July and August from a year ago. The company still hopes to achieve its goal of 3% growth this year.
Also attracting a bit of a crowd at the Beijing auto show was state-owned Hongqi's S9 sports car. The hybrid turquoise vehicle was first unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show in September 2019, according to state media, and claims a maximum speed of 400 kilometers-an-hour.
Chinese state-owned brand Hongqi showed off its prototype for its S9 sportscar at the 2020 Beijing auto show.
Evelyn Cheng | CNBC
Hongqi, which means "red flag" in Mandarin, is a subsidiary of state-owned auto group FAW.
The brand announced in April it will set up a joint venture with New York-based SILK EV to manufacture the Hongqi S luxury sports car series, according to state media. The article also said Hongqi sold more than 25,000 cars in the first quarter of the year, or an 88% gain over the same period in 2019.
Auto sales in the world's largest car market are down 9.7% for the first eight months of the year from the same period in 2019, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
But the market has recovered in recent weeks. Auto sales rose 11.6% in August from a year ago, with sales of pure electric vehicles growing more quickly with a gain of 25.6%, according to the ministry.
Automakers often develop high-performance cars to test and exhibit innovative technology. At last year's auto show in Shanghai, BMW displayed its first electric race car, the iFE.18, shortly after it had completed a race.
At the 2020 Beijing auto show, Chinese electric vehicle start-up Nio also displayed its sports car prominently at the front of its display area. The EP9 was launched in 2016 and the following year set a record for the fastest self-driving electric car, a feat the company claimed took only four months of technology and software development.
Chinese electric vehicle start-up Nio welcomed visitors to its exhibit at the 2020 Beijing auto show with a display of the Nio EP9 sportscar.
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The Global Super Abrasives Market size is estimated at around $ 3.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow to $ 4.8 billion by 2025
Major factors responsible for the growth of the Global Super Abrasives Market include growing awareness regarding adoption of high-end technologies and their benefits coupled with the continuing growth of the automotive industry.
In addition to this, the product is widely popular due to its peculiar properties such as entrenched lifecycle, high scale hardness and superlative performance, which is anticipated to spur the Global Super Abrasives Market growth during the forecast period. However, some of the factors that might act as major impediments to the growth of super abrasives market across the globe in the years to come are high cost of production along with product price volatility due to the fluctuating raw material costs.
The Global Super Abrasives Market is segmented based on product, application, region and company. Based on application, the market can be segmented into aerospace, medical, automotive, construction, electrical & electronics, oil & gas, and others. Among them, the automotive industry dominated the market in terms of largest market share until 2019 and is anticipated to hold its position over the forecast period as well.
Moreover, the electrical and electronics industry is expected to witness high growth over the coming years on account of extensive utilization of super abrasives in the manufacturing of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). However, outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in bearish growth of the industry in 2020.
Major players operating in the Global Super Abrasives Market are Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Inc, Gnter Wendt GmbH Radiac Abrasives, Inc, Noritake Co. Limited, Asahi Diamond Industrial Co., Ltd, 3M Company, Carborundum Universal Ltd, Guangdong Chanway Industrial Co. Ltd and Others.
Years considered for this report:
Historical Years: 2015-2018
Base Year: 2019
Estimated Year: 2020
Forecast Period: 2021-2025
Key Topics Covered:
1. Product Overview
2. Research Methodology
3. Executive Summary
4. Voice of Customer
5. Global Super Abrasives Market Outlook
5.1. Market Size & Forecast
5.1.1. By Value
5.2. Market Share & Forecast
5.2.1. By Product (Cubic Boron Nitride, Polycrystalline, CVD Diamonds, Nano Diamonds)
5.2.2. By Application (Aerospace, Medical, Automotive, Construction, Electrical & Electronics, Oil and Gas, Others)
5.2.3. By Region
5.2.4. By Company (2019)
6. Europe Super Abrasives Market Outlook
6.1. Market Size & Forecast
6.1.1. By Value
6.2. Market Share & Forecast
6.2.1. By Product
6.2.2. By Application
6.2.3. By Country (France; Germany; UK; Italy; Spain and Rest of Europe)
6.3. Europe: Country Analysis
7. Asia-Pacific Super Abrasives Market Outlook
7.1. Market Size & Forecast
7.1.1. By Value
7.2. Market Share & Forecast
7.2.1. By Product
7.2.2. By Application
7.2.3. By Country (China; India; Japan; South Korea; Australia; and Rest of Asia Pacific)
7.3. Asia-Pacific: Country Analysis
8. North America Super Abrasives Market Outlook
8.1. Market Size & Forecast
8.1.1. By Value
8.2. Market Share & Forecast
8.2.1. By Product
8.2.2. By Application
8.2.3. By Country (United States; Canada; Mexico and Rest of North America)
8.3. North America: Country Analysis
9. Middle East and Africa Super Abrasives Market Outlook
9.1. Market Size & Forecast
9.1.1. By Value
9.2. Market Share & Forecast
9.2.1. By Product
9.2.2. By Application
9.2.3. By Country (UAE; Saudi Arabia; South Africa and Rest of Middle East & Africa)
9.3. MEA: Country Analysis
10. South America Super Abrasives Market Outlook
10.1. Market Size & Forecast
10.1.1. By Value
10.2. Market Share & Forecast
10.2.1. By Product
10.2.2. By Application
10.2.3. By Country (Brazil; Argentina; Colombia; and Rest of South America)
10.3. South America: Country Analysis
After Americans witnessed a cringe-worthy presidential debate the night before, investors paid up for stocks on Wednesday, thanks to what wasn't said during the event, CNBC's Jim Cramer said.
"Wall Street was worried about a lot of things going into last night's debate and almost none of them came true," the "Mad Money" host said. "That's how a fiasco for most voters could be fabulous for the stock market."
Stocks were buoyed by talks of lawmakers reaching an additional coronavirus spending bill that has proved to be elusive all quarter. With the third quarter coming to a close Wednesday, the market enjoyed a second-straight three-month period of strong growth in the wake of a major market meltdown at the onset of the Covid-19 epidemic in America.
But certain sectors on the market managed to power forward after investors, who are trying to gauge what the next four years of federal policy may look like, digested what Trump and Biden said or did not say on the debate stage.
The candidates dueled over health care and the state of the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, but fell short of bashing health insurers and drugmakers, Cramer said. Trump and the Republican Party have failed to make good on their four-year promise to "repeal and replace" the law that overhauled the country's health-care system.
The tones that both Biden and Trump struck, however, helped shares of government-sponsored health providers like Centene rally more than 4%, Cramer said. Trump doubled down on his party's plan to get rid of the law, while Biden promised to expand its reach.
"If Obamacare is here to stay regardless of who wins, that's fabulous for the managed care companies. And, of course, Biden helped create Obamacare," he said. "Whether you love it or hate it, it's good news for these stocks."
Financial stocks like Discover and Goldman Sachs also managed to run as Biden laid off the financial sector, Cramer added. Furthermore, optimism about a Covid-19 vaccine continues to carry stocks of developers like Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer higher.
Outside of Trump's casting blame on the coronavirus pandemic on the country, China did not become a punching bag during the debate, which pleased investors in companies with exposure to the Asian nation, Cramer said.
"Trump and Biden could get into a fistfight or a food fight, for that matter, as long as they don't target specific industries that are easy to hate or ramp up the tensions with China, and that causes the market to go higher," the host said.
In Tuesday night’s demolition derby of a debate, President Donald Trump did not even pretend to confront white supremacists. He didn’t pretend to respect the legitimacy of the election, either. So it was telling that after moderator Chris Wallace asked him the first-ever question about climate change in a general election presidential debate, Trump did pretend to support electric vehicles.
“I’m all for electric cars,” he said. “I’ve given big incentives to electric cars.”
In fact, Trump is not all for electric cars; he’s mocked them, and his policies have penalized them. He certainly hasn’t given big incentives to electric cars; he actually tried to eliminate the existing incentives. But while Trump’s 90-minute tornado of unfiltered insults and right-wing red meat suggested that he’s happy to run as an enemy of cities, the news media and racial sensitivity, he clearly would prefer not to be seen as an enemy of the climate.
That is a milestone in the history of climate politics. Global warming has been dismissed for years as a niche concern for the tree-hugging fringe, but not only has it become the kind of mainstream issue that even a moderator from Fox News deemed worthy of prime time, it has become the kind of hot-button issue that even a Republican president who used to call it a hoax manufactured in China feels the need to dissemble about. If hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, political lies are the tribute that unpopularity pays to popularity—and 2020 polling has found that climate science and climate action are both popular.
Green cars are especially popular; a survey by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found that 82 percent of Americans support tax rebates for energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels. That helps explain why Trump claimed to be one of them, even though his 2020 budget would have eliminated a tax credit for electric vehicles that was enacted during the George W. Bush administration and expanded during the Barack Obama administration. Trump made fun of electric vehicles during a 2019 rally in Michigan—“Darling, where do I get a charge?”—and scoffed that “all-electric isn’t going to work” in a Fox Business interview. And his rollback of Obama’s tough fuel-efficiency standards, along with his efforts to relax clean air regulations, could be devastating blows to zero-emissions electric vehicles.
Wallace’s original question was whether Trump believes the scientific consensus about climate change in light of the fires burning in California; the president dodged it rather than repeat his recent assertions that the science can’t be trusted and the earth is about to start cooling. When Wallace pressed him to clarify whether he accepted that greenhouse gases contribute to global warming, he grudgingly conceded: “I think a lot of things do, but I think to an extent, yes.” That made political sense, too, since the Yale survey found 72 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening, while only 12 percent don’t.
The survey found the public also agreed by a 61-29 margin that global warming will harm Americans, by a 56-44 margin that it’s already harming Americans, and by a 60-11 margin that the president should do more to address it—all of which helps explain why the president tried to tack towards the climate majority on the debate stage.
“We now have the lowest carbon,” Trump said. “If you look at our numbers now, we are doing phenomenally.”
America’s emissions are indeed lower in 2020, but that’s because of the coronavirus lockdowns, not because of Trump’s energy or environmental policies, which have had the consistent objectives of relaxing restrictions on polluting industries and promoting the mining and drilling of fossil fuels. Trump scrapped Obama’s Clean Power Plan that would have regulated carbon emissions—which, incidentally, had 75-24 support in the Yale poll—as well as rules limiting mercury, soot and other pollution from coal-fired power plants. As Biden tried rather inarticulately to point out, Trump’s administration has also ditched rules limiting methane emissions by oil and gas companies, accelerated permits for drilling, mining and logging on public lands, rolled back protections for wetlands, and made the United States the only nation to announce its withdrawal from the Paris climate accords.
Nevertheless, Trump tried to portray himself as a champion of clean air and water—or, as he put it, “immaculate air, immaculate water”—another nod to the power of environmental issues, especially among the suburban women who have been such a problem for his reelection campaign. The only specific environmental policy Trump brought up, aside from his nonexistent electric vehicle incentives, was his support for a global initiative to plant a trillion trees, which he misidentified as the Billion Tree Project. “It’s very exciting for a lot of people,” he said, although he didn’t really make it sound like he was one of those people.
Trump’s message was that he’s an environmentalist, but Biden is a radical environmentalist who would destroy the American economy with left-wing nonsense. Again, though, he had to resort to wild falsehoods to make that case. He attacked the Obama-Biden administration’s Clean Power Plan for somehow “driving energy prices through the sky,” even though it never went into effect. He accused Biden of wanting to spend $100 trillion on the climate, using a sketchy right-wing analysis of the Green New Deal that Biden doesn’t even support, and also of wanting to ban cows and air travel, another misleading reference to the Green New Deal, or at least to a list of talking points about the Green New Deal that Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s office released and then hastily retracted.
Biden, on the other hand, seemed delighted to discuss the substance of issues he sees as politically advantageous as well as globally consequential. When Wallace said he’d like to discuss climate change, Biden blurted out: “So would I!” He talked with a lot of passion, though not a lot of focus, about his role overseeing the Obama stimulus that helped bring down the cost of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources; about “weatherization” programs that could put unemployed Americans to work caulking windows and otherwise upgrading the energy efficiency of homes and businesses; and about his idea to pay the Brazilian government to crack down on the destruction of the carbon-rich Amazon. He also called for electrifying the federal government’s fleet of vehicles and installing 500,000 charging stations on America’s roads—a solution for the Darling-where-do-I-get-a-charge problem.
Wallace also challenged Biden about the fiscal and economic cost of his climate plan, which irritated many climate activists, but it’s a legitimate question that led to one of Biden's strongest moments in the chaotic debate. He argued not only that his $2 trillion plan will provide millions of jobs in green industries and green infrastructure projects, a common Democratic argument, but that the cost of inaction would be far greater, since America is already spending more than ever on climate-driven floods, hurricanes, fires and droughts.
“We’re in real trouble,” Biden said. “Look what happened in the Midwest with these storms that come through and wipe out entire sections and counties in Iowa. They didn’t happen before. They’re because of global warming.”
Back in 2012, CNN’s Candy Crowley explained after a presidential debate that she considered including a question for “you climate change people” but changed her mind because “we knew the economy was still the main thing.” Eight years later, there’s increasing recognition from politicians as well as media bigwigs that all people are climate change people, and that there’s no way to isolate the economy from the energy that fuels and powers it or the climate disasters that increasingly threaten it. It’s hard to imagine that there will ever be another year of presidential debates without a climate question, and the worse the problem gets, the more pressure candidates will face to embrace the science and call for action.
That doesn’t mean that every candidate will make climate warriors happy with every answer. Trump never did acknowledge that climate change is contributing to California’s fires, arguing that the more pressing issue was bad forest management, which was a reasonable case to make. Biden made a point of distancing himself from the Green New Deal, prompting Trump, in a weird moment of off-message punditry, to declare: “You just lost the radical left.”
But Biden isn’t tailoring his message to the radical left. He’s aiming for the 63 percent of Americans who are worried about climate change, the 86 percent who support research into renewable energy, the 56 percent who say it’s important to their presidential vote. And while it’s obvious from his rhetoric as well as his record that Trump doesn’t truly care about the climate, it's a reflection of the changing political climate that he felt the need to pretend he does.
ROME (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Wednesday it had denied a request from Mike Pompeo for an audience with Pope Francis, and accused the Secretary of State of trying to drag the Catholic Church into the U.S. presidential election by denouncing its relations with China.
The extraordinary remarks from the two top diplomatic officials at the Vatican came after Pompeo accused the Church in an article and a series of tweets this month of putting its “moral authority” at risk by renewing an agreement with China over the appointment of bishops.
Pompeo, who was in Rome on Wednesday and due to meet Vatican officials on Thursday, repeated his denunciations of China’s record on religious freedom at an event hosted by the U.S. embassy to the Holy See.
The Vatican’s two top diplomats, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher, said Francis had declined a request from Pompeo for an audience, as the pope avoids meeting politicians ahead of elections.
“Yes, he asked. But the pope had already said clearly that political figures are not received in election periods. That is the reason,” Parolin said.
The Vatican’s two-year-old agreement with Beijing gives the pope some say over the appointment of Chinese bishops. It was due to expire next month, but is expected to be renewed.
Officials in the Holy See say the agreement is not perfect but call it a step forward, after decades during which Chinese Catholics who recognise the pope were driven underground.
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Parolin and Gallagher both described Pompeo’s public criticism as a “surprise”, coming just before his planned visit.
“Normally when you’re preparing these visits between high-level officials, you negotiate the agenda for what you are going to talk about privately, confidentially. It’s one of the rules of diplomacy,” Gallagher said.
“THAT’S JUST CRAZY”
Asked if he believed that Pompeo’s criticisms of the Vatican deal were intended for political use in the United States, Parolin said: “Some have interpreted it this way ... that the comments were above all for domestic political use. I don’t have proof of this but certainly this is one way of looking at it.”
The Vatican-China deal “is a matter that has nothing to do with American politics. This is a matter between Churches and should not be used for this type of ends,” Parolin said.
For his part, when asked at a briefing if he was “picking a fight” with the Vatican over China and what impact that could have on Catholic and other Christian voters, Pompeo replied: “That’s just crazy.”
President Donald Trump has campaigned on his hard line towards China ahead of the Nov. 3 election. He is also strongly associated with conservative Protestant and Catholic movements, many of which have been critical of Pope Francis.
In his speech on Thursday, Pompeo did not directly address the Vatican agreement with Beijing, but he described China as the world’s worst abuser of religious rights.
“Nowhere is religious freedom under assault more than in China,” Pompeo said. The Chinese Communist Party was looking to “to snuff out the lamp of freedom ... on a horrifying scale”.
Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Peter Graff
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Stocks rose Wednesday as investors considered the aftermath of a raucous first presidential debate and continued to eye developments among congressional lawmakers for further fiscal stimulus. During a conference presented by CNBC on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that lawmakers are looking to give passing a stimulus bill in the near-term a “serious try.”
Market participants also eyed a key labor market report, which showed more private payrolls added back in September than expected, and looked ahead to a couple highly anticipated direct listings for tech companies Asana and Palantir.
Wednesday’s rise did little to unwind the wave of selling that overtook markets for much of September. As of intraday Tuesday, the S&P 500 was still on track to post an about 3.3% monthly decline – its worst since March.
Only the materials sector clung to gains in the blue-chip index for September to date through Tuesday. The energy, communication services and information technology sectors were the laggards, as a month-long correction in previously high-flying tech names took out these sectors’ leadership positions. The utilities and industrials sectors were on track to post losses for the month as well, but still outperformed the broader market.
And with five weeks to go until Election Day, market pundits have warned of a potential for additional volatility conjured up by political uncertainty, compounded with ongoing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and strain still facing the US economy.
“I think markets are really nervous into those 36 days [before the election] and one of the things we have to think about is, when does nervousness price in the worst is yet to come? When do you think the worst is priced in? At least from June to August highs, if you give up two-thirds of those gains … that would be 3,224 [on the S&P 500],” Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors managing partner and head of research, told Yahoo Finance. “We think that that’s when you start to price in the worst, because you’ve given up two-thirds of the rally that you’ve had since June, and I think the world is better than it was since June.”
Despite the pullback, Lee added he does not believe stocks are ultimately in a “down trend.”
“There’s still $4.3 trillion in cash on the sidelines. I don’t think in the history of any financial market in the world do you ever have a top when there’s 20% of the equity market sitting in cash,” he said. “Investor cash — that’s excluding the private equity cash, the record cash held by corporates too. So you’ve got tons of dry powder. People are bearish.”
The election also comes against a dire economic backdrop, especially in the labor market, with major corporations recently unveiling new rounds of job cuts. Disney (DIS) Tuesday said it was slashing 28,000 jobs – one of the largest sums during the Covid-19 era – among its theme parks, cruise lines and retail businesses, as each unit struggles with demand far below pre-pandemic levels. ADP’s private payrolls report Wednesday morning topped estimates but showed fewer than 1 million jobs added back in September, as the pace of the economic recovery slows.
To that end, congressional lawmakers and Trump administration negotiators have been attempting to come to a deal to pass in the near-term another virus relief bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday discussed the $2.2 trillion Democratic stimulus proposal, according to a Bloomberg report, and are poised to hold further talks again on Wednesday. Still, most economists and policy pundits are bracing for no new stimulus legislation to pass before the general election.
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12:35 p.m. ET: Asana opens for trading at $27 per share on the NYSE
Workplace management software company Asana (ASAN) opened for trading at $27 per share in its direct listing on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, after having a reference price of $21 per share.
The company, while unprofitable, has posted a solid top-line increase in its most recently reported results. Asana grew revenues by 63% over last year to $99.7 million during the six months ended July 31. The company’s net loss, however, also widened over that period to $76.9 million from $30.5 million.
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10:00 a.m. ET: Pending home sales soar to a record in August
US pending home sales surged by 8.8% in August, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Wednesday, far exceeding consensus estimates for a 3.1% monthly rise. The jump brought the level of the pending home sales index to 132.8, a record high.
This marked the fourth straight monthly increase in pending home sales, with each of the four major US regions tracked by NAR posting steep gains.
"Tremendously low mortgage rates – below 3% – have again helped pending home sales climb in August," Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said in a statement. "Additionally, the Fed intends to hold short-term fed funds rates near 0% for the foreseeable future, which should in the absence of inflationary pressure keep mortgage rates low, and that will undoubtably aid homebuyers continuing to enter the marketplace."
"While I did very much expect the housing sector to be stable during the pandemic-induced economic shutdowns, I am pleasantly surprised to see the industry bounce back so strongly and so quickly,” Yun added.
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9:50 a.m. ET: Stocks extend gains as Mnuchin strikes upbeat tone on stimulus
The three major indices rose further Wednesday morning, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested lawmakers were serious about trying to come to an agreement and pass a virus relief bill in the near-term. Mnuchin, a key negotiator for the Trump administration in the stimulus talks, said at a conference presented by CNBC Wednesday morning that lawmakers were looking to give it “one more serious try.”
The Dow rose about 250 points, or 0.9%, as of 9:50 a.m. ET. The S&P 500 rose 0.55% and the Nasdaq increased 0.43%.
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9:31 a.m. ET: Stocks open higher, shaking off overnight declines
Here were the main moves in markets as of 9:32 a.m. ET:
S&P 500 (^GSPC): +14.53 points (+0.44%) to 3,350.00
8:17 a.m. ET: US employers added back 749,000 private payrolls in September, topping expectations: ADP
US private employers added back a greater than expected 749,000 payrolls in September, according to ADP’s closely watched monthly private jobs report.
Consensus economists were looking for private job gains to total 649,000 for the month, according to Bloomberg data. August’s increase in payrolls was upwardly revised to 481,000, from the 428,000 previously reported.
By ADP’s measure, domestic employers have on net added back payrolls for the past five consecutive months. However, the pace of increase has slowed considerably from the nearly 4.5 million the firm reported were created in June this year, when the first wave of business reopenings drove record surges in business rehiring.
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7:27 a.m. ET Wednesday: Stock futures turn lower as overnight boost quickly fades
Here were the main moves in markets, as of 7:27 a.m. ET Wednesday morning:
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,317.50, down 16.25 points or 0.49%
Dow futures (YM=F): 27,240.00, down 168 points or 0.61%
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 11,272.00, down 65.75 points or 0.05%
9:50 p.m. ET Tuesday: Futures push higher with first presidential debate under way
Contracts on the three major indices were higher Tuesday evening as the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden was under way. In the first about 45 minutes of the debate, the discussion, moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, covered topics including the Supreme Court, and whether Trump’s pick Judge Amy Coney Barrett should be moved to be confirmed before the election, the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the candidates’ health-care plans and the labor market.
Here’s where futures were trading, as of 9:50 p.m. ET:
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,344.75, up 11 points or 0.33%
Dow futures (YM=F): 27,493.00, up 85 points or 0.31%
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 11,368.5, up 30.75 points or 0.27%
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6:11 p.m. ET Tuesday: Stock futures open lower
Here were the main moves in equity markets, as of 6:11 p.m. ET Tuesday:
S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,332.00, down 1.75 points or 0.05%
Dow futures (YM=F): 27,389.00, down 19 points or 0.07%
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): 11,332.00, down 5.75 points or 0.05%
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 18: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 18, 2020 in New York City. The Dow fell more than 1,200 points today as COVID-19 fears continue to roil world markets. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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The first debate between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not produce any major policy surprises.Credit...Olivier Douliery/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
European markets slid lower on Wednesday, and Wall Street appeared poised for a fall when trading starts later in the day, as investors seemed to gravitate toward safe assets the morning after an acrimonious U.S. presidential debate.
But the markets were not rocked by the stormy exchanges between President Trump and his rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., in part because there were no unexpected policy announcements.
Spot gold prices, which rose in the days preceding the debate amid concerns of shocks coming from the two candidates, reaching about $1,900 an ounce, fell back to $1,883 in the hours afterward.
S&P 500 futures predicted a fall of about 0.7 percent when Wall Street starts trading.
European indexes were down 0.5 to 1 percent. The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 shed 0.2 percent. In Japan, the Nikkei fell 1.5 percent, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng climbed 0.8 percent.
Oil futures were lower, with Brent crude, the global benchmark, down 0.8 percent, trading at $40.71 a barrel. U.S. 10-year Treasuries rose slightly.
“Markets have remained calm as no policy surprises have emerged from the debate so far,” wrote Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda. “The uncertainty ahead of the debate has subsided.”
“Lost in the noise of the debate,” Mr. Halley added, “China has released another impressive set of data.” China’s official Purchasing Managers Index, which covers large firms, and the private Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, which includes an important measure of smaller export-oriented companies, both released stronger than expected numbers.
More numbers to come: On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department will release the nonfarm payroll data for September.
With Tuesday’s drop included, the S&P 500 is down nearly 5 percent for the month of September, and about to register its first monthly decline since March. After stocks hit a record early in September, they’ve been falling as investors worried about the government’s gridlock over an economic stimulus plan.
Negotiators have resumed talks over a coronavirus relief package as House Democrats unveiled a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill that would provide aid to American families, businesses, schools, restaurants and airline workers. But no agreement has been reached. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, have agreed to speak again on Wednesday.
The remains of the farmhouse at Castello di Amorosa winery in Napa, Calif.Credit...Samuel Corum/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
More than 8,100 blazes have burned nearly four million acres across California this year. The Glass Fire that broke out this week near Napa, which is only 2 percent contained, is ravaging parts of the famous winemaking region in the middle of the harvest season, and the effects may linger long after it and other fires are extinguished.
Grapes untouched by flames can be tarnished by ash or smoke taint, and the extent of the damage is revealed only in the fermentation process. (Because red wines are fermented along with their skins, which bear the brunt of smoke taint, they are more affected than whites.) There is a testing backlog, so the extent of the taint is not yet known, Gladys Horiuchi of the lobbying group Wine Institute told the DealBook newsletter.
Most California wine grapes are sold in advance, so vineyards and wineries are negotiating to mitigate the impact of the fires, Ms. Horiuchi said. The goal is to avoid any smoke-tainted wine ever going on sale. That means, for now, drinkers are unaffected, sipping wines from prior harvests. But even if consumers don’t notice any difference in flavor or pricing down the line, behind the scenes, supply chains and longstanding industry relationships are already coming under strain.
Some wineries are offering growers reduced payments to keep them in business but avoid potentially tainted grapes, while major buyers like Constellation Brands warn that contracts could be voided for elevated taint. And wineries previously concerned about oversupply because of the pandemic’s effect on restaurant sales are looking to the bulk market to cover a potential shortfall.
The San Francisco Chronicle is keeping a running list of wineries and vineyards in Napa that have been hit by the Glass Fire, with extensive damage reported at Castello di Amorosa (although its famous castle survived), Chateau Boswell and LVMH-owned Newton Vineyard, among others.
Shell’s chief executive said the company was reshaping itself to meet a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.Credit...Robin Utrecht/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ben van Beurden, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, said Wednesday that he was speeding up a reorganization of the company that will result in the loss of up to 9,000 jobs by the end of 2022.
In an interview published on Shell’s website, Mr. van Beurden said the company needed to be reshaped to meet its targets of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. At the same time, Shell is under pressure to cut costs because of lower demand for oil and gas because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. van Beurden said the job cuts would help Shell shed up to $2.5 billion in operating costs. He said that 1,500 people had already left the company on voluntary redundancy packages this year. Shell has about 83,000 employees.
By 2050, Mr. van Beurden said, Shell’s business lines would differ markedly from today. He said that Shell would still sell some oil and gas but that its products by midcentury would be “predominantly low-carbon electricity, low carbon biofuels,” as well as hydrogen and other “solutions.” The company is expected to present more details of its plans in February.
Walt Disney World in Florida reopened in July but attendance has been weaker than the company anticipated.Credit...Eve Edelheit for The New York Times
Disney said it would eliminate 28,000 theme park jobs in the United States, or about 25 percent of its domestic resort work force. About 67 percent of the layoffs will involve part-time jobs that pay by the hour. However, executives and salaried workers will be among the laid off. Disney’s theme parks in California and Florida employed roughly 110,000 before the pandemic. The job cuts, which will come from both resorts, will reduce that number to about 82,000.
JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay close to $1 billion as part of settlements to resolve charges that it had manipulated markets for U.S. government bonds and precious metals. The settlements announced on Tuesday — which include a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department — stem from charges that JPMorgan bankers placed artificial orders for futures contracts.
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The Treasury Department said Tuesday that it had completed loans for seven passenger airlines, drawing from the $25 billion set aside for the industry under the March stimulus law known as the CARES Act.
“The payroll support and loan programs created by the CARES Act have saved a large number of aviation industry jobs, and kept workers employed and connected to their health care, during an unprecedented time,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement. “We are pleased to conclude loans that will support this critical industry while ensuring appropriate taxpayer compensation.”
In exchange for the loans, the airlines are subject to requirements like limiting executive compensation, refraining from stock buybacks and issuing warrants or equity to the federal government. The recipients are Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, SkyWest Airlines and United Airlines.
American announced last week that it had completed a $5.5 billion loan from the Treasury, but expected that to rise to $7.5 billion after the agency reallocates funding set aside for other carriers, like Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, that declined the loans. That amount, $7.5 billion, is the maximum any airline will receive, the Treasury said.
Steven Ray Littles II left his job as a Delta Air Lines flight attendant and plans to pursue a hobby in drone photography as a business.Credit...Horatio Baltz for The New York Times
Tens of thousands of airline workers are bracing for a wave of furloughs that could begin as soon as Thursday, when a ban on broad layoffs that was a condition of federal aid comes to an end. The cuts will be painful, but they could have been worse.
For months, airlines have asked employees to volunteer for pay cuts, extended leaves, buyouts or early retirement in order to help preserve as many jobs as possible. Tens of thousands signed up.
Steven Ray Littles II, a young Delta flight attendant, took a buyout because he didn’t want to leave his future to chance. Mike Stoica, a mechanic at American Airlines, decided to do the same to secure health care benefits for his wife. Tina Jackson, a 56-year-old reservations agent at Alaska Airlines, retired early so that she might help save a colleague’s job.
“When something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us,” she said.
The industry had hoped to avoid, or at least delay, this reckoning and its chances seemed good. Workers in recent weeks had successfully lobbied lawmakers to renew the $25 billion in payroll assistance that they provided passenger airlines under the CARES Act in March, garnering bipartisan support in Congress and the president’s approval. But broader talks stalled.
There is still a chance that a bill may pass, but the parties remain far apart on a price tag.
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