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STOCKS TURN HIGHER, PACING TOWARD FIRST RISE IN THREE DAYS

Mortgage applications rose by the most since January last week as rates moderated

Nicolas Claxton with an alley oop vs the Dallas Mavericks

Nicolas Claxton (Brooklyn Nets) with an alley oop vs the Dallas Mavericks, 02/27/2021

Latest Stories

  • IRI Launches Most Comprehensive Omnichannel Platform With New OmniMarket and OmniConsumer Solutions

    IRI®, a fast-growing, global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and media companies, today announced a significant expansion of its omnichannel measurement capabilities to offer complete coverage of the omnichannel universe with the launch of two new solutions: IRI OmniMarket™ and IRI OmniConsumer™.

  • Kate Middleton Wore a Very Good Black Coat During Her Latest Appearance

    She and Prince William continue to pay tribute to Prince Philip.

  • Taking a knee, raising a fist to be punished at Tokyo Games - IOC

    Taking a knee during the Tokyo Olympics or lifting a fist in support of racial equality will be punished as the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday maintained its ban on athletes' protests inside stadiums, at ceremonies and on podiums. Against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement protesting racial injustice, calls have increased in recent months for a change to that rule that would allow athletes to protest. Some international federation chiefs, including World Athletics' President Sebastian Coe, have said that athletes should have the right to make gestures of political protest during the Games.

  • Oil Slides With U.S. Supply Gain Adding to Global Demand Concern

    (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell with an increase in U.S. crude inventories compounding concerns around a choppy global demand recovery.Futures in New York largely clung to losses after falling as much as 2.9% on Wednesday. A U.S. weekly inventory report showed the first gain in domestic crude supplies in a month. Meanwhile, a resurgent coronavirus in India is curbing fuel consumption.“The price pullback has been over rising uncertainty in regards to global oil demand, given the rise in infections, particularly in India,” said Rob Thummel, a portfolio manager at Tortoise, a firm that manages roughly $8 billion in energy-related assets. “India is a large, high growth market for oil. What’s going on in the country with Covid-19, at least in the near-term, could pose a challenge for demand.”U.S. benchmark crude prices are still up more than 25% this year with the country proving to be a bright spot for demand as a speedy Covid-19 vaccine rollout boosts domestic travel. A gauge of U.S. gasoline consumption is showing a steady trajectory higher and jet fuel cargoes are on the way to the West Coast from Asia to satisfy growing demand from airlines.There are also positive signs emerging in some other parts of the world. Congestion during morning rush hours in cities including Beijing was higher than 2019 levels in the week to April 12, according to TomTom International BV. In the U.K., road use reached 99% of pre-pandemic levels on April 18, government data show.Still, oil prices are struggling to break out of its recent trading range. Soaring virus cases in India, the world’s third largest oil importer, have forced the financial and political capitals to impose curbs on movement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked states to avoid shutting businesses, but “the health burden may soon catch up and force Indian authorities to respond more harshly,” according to Rystad Energy AS.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • KY auditor finds 37 full-time state workers took $116,978 in jobless benefits

    Employees at the Office of Unemployment Insurance improperly accessed their own accounts, state auditor says.

  • Bus driver who made ‘offensive’ George Floyd comment out of job, Louisiana district says

    Other students reported hearing the driver’s remarks.

  • Charlotte Hornets have a new starting center. It’s not ideal, but he’s the best choice

    The Hornets have two veteran centers and neither are producing at a high enough level to keep Charlotte competitive. The numbers don’t lie, this is the Hornets’ best option.

  • Bombing in hotel parking lot kills at least 3 in SW Pakistan

    QUETTA, Pakistan — A powerful bomb exploded in the parking area of a five-star hotel in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding at least nine others, police said. It was unclear who was behind the bombing at Serena Hotel. Police said rescuers were transporting the victims to nearby hospitals. Footage on Pakistan news channels showed burning cars. Baluchistan is the scene of a long-running insurgency by secessionist groups like the Baluchistan Liberation Front and the Baluchistan Liberation Army. They have for decades staged attacks to press their demands for independence. The Pakistani Taliban also have a presence there. Security forces were rushing to the hotel and no one was being allowed to go near the site of the blast. According to senior police official Azhar Akram, some of the wounded were listed in critical condition. He provided no further details, saying police were still investigating. Arbab Akram, a doctor at Quetta's main hospital, said the wounded were being brought their and they declared an emergency at the hospital to handle victims. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province. The Associated Press

  • Wall Street Starts to See Weakness Emerge in Bitcoin Charts

    (Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin has yet to recover from its unexplained weekend swoon, and now the investing public is on edge about the notoriously volatile token’s next move. Enter the chart watchers.Noting that “a chart is a chart is a chart,” Tallbacken Capital Advisors’s Michael Purves sent a note Wednesday with a technical analysis of the coin’s trading patterns. Bitcoin’s recent highs weren’t confirmed by its relative strength index, among other things, and its upward momentum is fading, he said.“From purely a technical perspective, the bullish case looks highly challenged here in the near term,” after its recent rally, wrote Purves, chief executive officer at the firm.It’s another sign that Bitcoin has become too big for Wall Street to ignore. With more firms allowing customers to dabble in the asset and more institutional money tied to its performance, no wonder chart watchers are capitulating and now lending their expertise to the growing batch of analysis.Earlier, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s analysts also chimed in with their take. The last few times Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou witnessed such negative price action in Bitcoin, buyers returned in time to prevent deeper slumps. This time, the strategist is worried.If the largest cryptocurrency isn’t able to break back above $60,000 soon, momentum signals will collapse, strategists led by Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note Tuesday. It’s likely traders including Commodity Trading Advisers (CTAs) and crypto funds were at least partly behind the buildup of long Bitcoin futures in recent weeks, as well as the unwind in past days, they said.“Over the past few days Bitcoin futures markets experienced a steep liquidation in a similar fashion to the middle of last February, middle of last January or the end of last November,” the strategists said. “Momentum signals will naturally decay from here for several months, given their still elevated level.”In those three previous instances, the overall flow impulse was strong enough to allow Bitcoin to quickly break out above the key thresholds, yielding further buildups in position by momentum traders, JPMorgan noted.“Whether we see a repeat of those previous episodes in the current conjuncture remains to be seen,” the strategists said. The likelihood it will happen again seems lower because momentum decay seems more advanced and thus more difficult to reverse, they added. Flows into Bitcoin funds also appear weak, they said.Bitcoin rose as high as $64,870 around the time of the Nasdaq listing of Coinbase Global Inc., but has retreated back to $55,000. The cryptocurrency is still up about 90% year-to-date.The coin, down five of the last six sessions, is struggling to overtake its 50-day moving average around $56,819. For many chartists, that’s a bearish indicator since it tends to determine price momentum trends. Should Bitcoin be unable to breach its short-term trend line, it could move lower and test the $50,000 level, about a 10% decline from where it’s currently trading. The next area of support would be its 100-day moving average around $49,212. That would signify a 11% retreat from Wednesday’s trading levels.Tallbacken’s Purves, who says the coin’s 2017 breakout and subsequent decline is a useful case study, also points Bitcoin’s daily MACD signal -- or the moving average convergence divergence gauge -- which has turned bearish in the intermediate-term. And its performance is still correlated to Cathie Wood’s uber-popular ARK Innovation ETF.“Trading Bitcoin on the bullish side right now does not appear to have favorable risk-reward and if you have made profits, it seems like a good time to go to the sidelines for now,” Purves wrote.To be sure, he said, it’s difficult to conclude how much further it could decline. Key to the issue will be how strongly institutional buyers step in. “While upside momentum is clearly looking challenged here, it is inconclusive how much downside risk remains,” he wrote in a note. “It is entirely possible that Bitcoin could simply consolidate in a range for some time.”Bitcoin fell as much as 4.3% Wednesday to $54,341 before recouping some losses. Smaller and alternative coins that had run up in recent days also suffered declines Wednesday, with Dogecoin -- the poster-child for crypto risk-taking -- declining roughly 15% to trade around 31 cents. That’s down from a high of 42 cents the day prior, according to CoinMarketCap.com.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Nova Scotia picks up pace of vaccinations over last month, hits record one-day total

    HALIFAX — New provincial figures indicate Nova Scotia's COVID-19 vaccination program has picked up its pace in recent weeks after an admitted slow start. Tracey Barbrick, the associate deputy minister for Nova Scotia's vaccine strategy, said in an interview today the province administered 14,742 doses on Tuesday — the highest one-day total since the start of the campaign. Barbrick says 23.6 per cent of people who are eligible for a shot have received at least one dose, which is just slightly below the national average of about 25 per cent. She says Nova Scotia is roughly one week behind other provinces because it held back about 25,000 doses for booster shots before changing its strategy to a four-month interval between first and second doses. Barbrick says a recent increase in supply of vaccine allowed the province to move from administering 11,000 doses the week of March 14 to an expected 65,000 doses this week. And despite an interruption in the supply of the Moderna vaccine, Premier Iain Rankin has said the province remains on track to reach its goal of giving all Nova Scotians who want vaccine at least one shot by the end of June. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2021. The Canadian Press

  • Maharashtra imposes 'stricter' curbs on movement; max 25 allowed at marriages, offices to function at 15%

    The new restrictions under the government's "Break- the-Chain" programme will come into effect from 22 April 8 pm and will remain effective till 7 am on 1 May

  • Why Shares of Signature Bank Are Rising Today

    The bank reported earnings results from the first quarter today, which continued to excite investors.

  • Bond Tax Nears End in Colombia in Quest to Entice Foreigners

    (Bloomberg) -- Colombia is trying to make its bond market more enticing for foreigners as it seeks to fund a fiscal deficit swollen by the pandemic, a top Finance Ministry official said.The tax bill sent to congress last week proposes eliminating the 5% tax levied on foreign holders of local peso bonds. This will help the government attract investors to the local debt market, Deputy Finance Minister Juan Pablo Zarate said.Colombia, like many other countries, faces “very large debt levels,” Zarate said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We need to create attractive conditions for all kinds of financing.”The withholding tax is one of the few levies the Finance Ministry wants to cut, as it raises taxes on salaries, dividends, public services and net wealth. The bill is mainly intended to raise money to tackle the ballooning debt and mass poverty caused by months of lockdowns.Read More: Colombia Sells $3 Billion of Bonds, Adding to Covid Debt BingeThe country began phasing out the withholding tax almost a decade ago, when it was 33%. Foreigners now own about a quarter of the nation’s domestic debt, up from around 4% before the tax cuts.With its credit rating now just one notch above junk, the government needs to demonstrate a credible plan to put its finances on a sustainable path. Two agencies rate Colombia at BBB-, the lowest level of investment grade, with a negative outlook.“It will be very difficult for the economy to grow in the coming years” if local and foreign investors begin to doubt the nation’s ability to pay its debt, Zarate said.The bill is intended to raise the equivalent of about 2% of gross domestic product per year on average through 2031, but lawmakers are likely to water down the government’s proposals. At a minimum, it needs to raise 1.4% to 1.5% of GDP, Zarate said.Read More: Colombia to Tax Rich After Pandemic Leaves Debt, Mass HungerStill, the tax proposal faces an uphill battle in congress, where the government of President Ivan Duque needs support from political forces at a time when many lawmakers are already focusing on next year’s presidential elections.Radical Change, the second-largest party in Colombia’s senate, said it won’t back the bill, arguing it goes against the country’s economic recovery, according to a statement posted on Twitter. Leaders from La U party also said they wouldn’t back a reform that raises levies on the middle class.The government estimates Colombia’s fiscal deficit will widen to 9.2% of gross domestic product this year, up from 2.5% in 2019, before the pandemic.“We are in a complex fiscal problem, with risks to macroeconomic stability,” said Zarate. “The reform looks in general to generate macroeconomic stability which is the most important thing for everything, for growth, for consumption and investment.”(Adds opposition from lawmakers in 9th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Canadian Pacific attacks rival bid for Kansas City Southern

    OMAHA, Neb. — Canadian Pacific railroad continued its assault on rival Canadian National's competing $33.7 billion bid to buy Kansas City Southern railroad Wednesday in a formal letter to regulators. Canadian Pacific urged the Surface Transportation Board to closely examine Canadian National's offer to buy Kansas City Southern. It says the deal would hurt rail competition throughout the central United States and could destabilize the balance between the industry's six largest players. Canadian National, meanwhile, maintains that the bid it announced Tuesday is superior to the $25 billion cash and stock deal that Canadian Pacific announced last month. Canadian Pacific said competition would be hurt by the rival deal because Canadian National and Kansas City Southern both have rail lines that connect the Midwest with the Gulf Coast, so combining those two railroads would eliminate a competitor. Canadian Pacific's network connects to Kansas City Southern in Kansas City, Missouri, but those two railroads don't overlap elsewhere. “Canadian Pacific respectfully suggests that the Board should see things the same way: the only combination involving KCS that is in the public interest is the one that Canadian Pacific has proposed, and which has already garnered support from over 400 shippers and other stakeholders,” Canadian Pacific's attorney David Meyer wrote. Canadian National has said its bid is better because it offers a stronger network to combine with Kansas City Southern and more cash for shareholders. CN said its offer is worth $325 per Kansas City Southern share. Kansas City Southern shareholders would receive $200 in cash and 1.059 shares of CN common stock for each share. In contrast, Canadian Pacific's current offer values Kansas City Southern at $275 per share, which includes $90 cash and 0.489 shares of CP stock. “Together, CN and KCS would offer multiple interchanges and create greater choice and service options for customers of both companies. Customers will benefit from a faster, more direct and more efficient network of end-to-end single-line services from Mexico to the United States to Canada,” Canadian National said Wednesday. Canadian National launched a website touting the benefits of its offer. Canadian Pacific created a similar site last month. Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said Canadian Pacific's sharp criticism of Canadian National's offer hints at how much that railroad wants the growth opportunities that would come with buying Kansas City Southern. “I think CP’s quick and pointed response helps to show how important the merger is to them,” Windau said. Kansas City Southern has said its board will review both proposals and respond later. Previously, KCS's board unanimously endorsed Canadian Pacific's bid. The Surface Transportation Board hasn't approved any major railroad mergers since the 1990s. It has generally said that any deal involving one of the nation's six largest railroads needs to enhance competition and serve the public interest to get approved. For more than two decades, the railroad industry has been stable, with two railroads in the western United States — BNSF and Union Pacific — two in the eastern United States — CSX and Norfolk Southern — and the two Canadian railroads that serve part of the United States. “Completion of a CN acquisition of KCS would create tremendous strategic pressure for CP to find a way to expand its market reach through further consolidation,” Meyer said to regulators. Josh Funk, The Associated Press

  • Princess Royal opens garden to commemorate Covid-19 victims

    Anne visited three hospitals in Gloucestershire on Wednesday.

  • Freeland urges patience as business looks for answers on reopening border, economy

    OTTAWA — Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is urging Canadian companies to have patience as the federal government faces growing questions about its plan for reopening the economy and border. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce hosted Freeland at a virtual event Wednesday to discuss Monday's federal budget, but Freeland was pressed there on the government's plans to end the border closure. While he acknowledged specific dates are impossible at the moment, the business group's president Perrin Beatty suggested the government could lay out the criteria it will use to determine when the border restrictions can start to be eased — or end entirely. Freeland refused to provide any details, however, as she repeatedly underscored the unpredictable nature of COVID-19. “One thing that I would remind us all about is this virus is, as one doctor has said to me, it's very sneaky,” she told Beatty. “It has surprised us quite a few times along the way, including with the variants, and including with the places in the world where new variants have been popping up.” And while she acknowledged Canadian companies want — and need — predictability, she asked for patience and “flexibility.” “What you all want, very understandably, is predictability and certainty and knowing when and how things will happen,” she said. “We need all of us to have just a little bit of flexibility, because we're dealing with a threat which is flexible in how it attacks us.” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced on Tuesday that Canada was extending restrictions on non-essential travel from the United States and overseas as a third wave of COVID-19 cases marked by variants from abroad sweeps across the country. Restrictions were first imposed at the start of the pandemic last spring. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security tweeted Tuesday that it is “engaged in discussions with Canada and Mexico about easing restrictions as health conditions improve.” Freeland also emphasized the importance of vaccines in moving past COVID-19 and reopening the border and economy, and asked Canadian business leaders to encourage vaccinations in their communities. Beatty, meanwhile, revealed that Health Canada is currently in talks with his organization about using its business network to distribute rapid-test kits to companies across the country. He indicated kits have already been distributed by chambers of commerce in some southern Ontario communities, and that the organization is pressing provincial governments to let non-medical staff administer the tests. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Apr. 21, 2021. Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

  • Guatemala prosecutors pursue ex-president Jimmy Morales

    Guatemalan prosecutors on Wednesday requested that former President Jimmy Morales be stripped of his immunity so he can be prosecuted for violating the mandate of the United Nations-backed anti-corruption mission then working in the country. Morales, who led Guatemala from 2016 to 2020, has immunity because after his term he immediately became a representative to the Central American Parliament. Morales assumed the presidency pledging to battle corruption but once he and family members became targets of the anti-corruption mission, he moved to push it out of Guatemala.

  • Mom kicks kids out to host a party and attacks them when they return, Michigan cops say

    She’s facing child abuse charges.

  • UPDATE 1-Facebook tweaks ad tools ahead of Apple's privacy changes

    Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it is making changes to its advertising tools to comply with an upcoming privacy update by Apple Inc, limiting the effectiveness of data collection features used by advertisers. The world's biggest social media company has been at loggerheads with Apple's 'App Tracking Transparency' feature, expected to kick in with the latest iPhone software update next week, which allows users to block advertisers from tracking them across different applications. Apple says it defends data privacy rights, but faces criticism from Facebook, app developers and startups whose business models rely on advertising tracking.

  • ‘Big Six’ could yet face Premier League punishment over Super League plans

    The six English clubs have withdrawn from the competition in the wake of fan protests.