"Stocks rise as Wall Street’s roller coaster rolls on" by Emily Flitter New York Times December 28, 2018
NEW YORK — Wall Street’s roller-coaster ride extended into Thursday, with stocks staging a late-day recovery as investors turned their attention to fresh data about the US economy.
There were only a few new clues about the economy’s health, and they sent mixed signals.
I'm sick of getting lied to, I mean, getting mixed me$$ages from my corporate pre$$.
Related(?):
"Filings for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest since September, returning to hover near an almost five-decade low and signaling the labor market remains tight after what some economists saw as possible cooling signs...... Filings for unemployment benefits decreased for the third time in four weeks, hovering near an almost five-decade low that reflects a robust job market, Labor Department figures showed Thursday."
At lea$t the Fed's job is safe.
Concerns about the White House’s response to Wall Street’s decline grew last week as President Trump used Twitter to vent his frustration over the Fed’s decision to keep raising interest rates and sought guidance from aides about whether he could fire Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman. Despite the president’s frustrations, a number of White House officials have tried to reassure investors that Powell’s job is safe.
Traders have had their own concerns with Powell, as well. The partial shutdown of the federal government could also begin to wear on investors as they are forced to operate without official data that could help answer lingering questions about the health of the US economy. On Thursday, for instance, a Census Bureau report on new home sales was delayed because of the shutdown.
PFFFT!
What would the shutdown have to do with home sales?
Related:
"In the woodsy back corner of the 77-acre Hanover Mall, the new owners of the long-struggling shopping center see an opportunity to change its fortunes. It’s not the movie theater that sits there now, or another big box store. It’s housing. If it wins town approval, PREP Property Group, an Ohio-based company that bought the mall in 2016, would sell the land to a housing developer and use the proceeds to blow up the half-century-old indoor mall and turn it into an outdoor-oriented “lifestyle center,” like many of its newer competitors, with hundreds of customers in those apartments, just steps away. “When I heard about their plans, it was like a revelation,” said Ed Callahan, who has managed the Hanover Mall through years of foreclosure, bank ownership, and slumping sales. “We really lucked out with a new owner that saw this place as an opportunity.” It’s the sort of opportunity mall owners are seeing all over Greater Boston these days, and it’s the latest sign of the fast-changing landscape for brick-and-mortar retail......"
Even with mortgage rates being down?
Must be because it is hard for the state to make even limited changes (regarding $ome things, anyway).
Investors got some data to digest Thursday, and it was not encouraging.
WHAT?!!!!
A report on consumer confidence by the Conference Board, a business group, showed Americans growing more pessimistic about economic conditions.
Related:
"US consumer confidence tumbled this month as Americans began to worry that economic growth will moderate next year, but consumer spirits are still high by historical standards....."
WTF are they talking about?!!!
In China, officials said industrial profits had declined in November for the first time in three years, a reminder that the growth of the nation’s economy, the world’s second-largest, continues to slow.....
They also talked to a Mr. David Donabedian, the chief investment officer for CIBC Private Wealth Management in Atlanta, and a Mr. Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst for S&P Dow Jones Indices who tracks and catalogs market performance.
--more--"
"Blip or correction? Tech sector declines leave many investors wondering" by Hamza Shaban The Washington Post December 27, 2018
Facebook is down 38 percent from its peak. Netflix is down 40 percent. Apple slipped 33 percent, and Amazon 28 percent. Alphabet, owner of Google, is down 19 percent.
The nation’s top-performing tech companies — known colloquially as the FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) — have led the sharp US market sell-off over the past few months, which has unnerved most people who own stocks. It’s a far cry from last summer, when the question was whether Apple or Amazon would be the first US company to be valued at more than $1 trillion.
Now the question facing the tech industry — and the millions of ordinary investors with disproportionate exposure to tech — is whether the decline represents a healthy correction after years of gains or more fundamental changes that could limit the sector’s upside in the years to come.
Some analysts argue that the tech sector is being hit by some of the same factors pushing down stocks overall; however, the biggest tech companies are also facing new, more enduring doubts about their future — such as whether they’ll be able to use personal data as profitably as they have, whether they’re getting too big, and whether consumers are growing less attached to their platforms.
Yup, and me gone soon, too. I'm sick of agenda-pushing $pew passing itself off as newz!
The implications are significant.....
Once again they turn to a Mr. Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst with S&P Dow Jones Indices before asking the opinion of David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland.
--more--"
The FAANGs are out for Facebook.
UPDATE: Stocks finish week by sliding once again
Time to get some food and watch some TV (maybe Musk can help you there):
"Chain restaurants had a tough year, and 2019 looks worse" by Leslie Patton Bloomberg News December 28, 2018
It’s not going to get much easier for the restaurant industry.
After facing stagnant sales and weak customer traffic in 2018, US restaurants will encounter more headwinds next year, including rising food and wage costs, that may stall profit and hinder efforts to jump-start growth.
Even the industry stalwarts are dealing with such issues in a fiercely competitive and increasingly crowded field. Starbucks Corp. is closing some US locations amid oversaturation worries. McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant company, has been tweaking its value offering to stay relevant in the price wars and expanding delivery with Uber Eats to spur sales.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom this year. Amid a stock market rout, restaurant stocks fared better than the broader market, bolstered by a couple of standouts like Domino’s Pizza Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.
They survived the corporate sabotage over their rejection of GMOs, 'eh?
Or did they capitulate?
Chipotle, while far from reclaiming its position as a Wall Street darling, is beginning to recover following a string of food-safety issues that damaged the brand.
Here’s a look at issues — both obstacles and opportunities — facing the restaurant industry in 2019.....
I've had enough (puke).
--more--"
"Massive media company disputes could keep millions of TV viewers from watching football playoffs" by Brian Fung Washington Post December 28, 2018
Sports fans nationwide may soon find themselves cut off from some of the most anticipated televised football games of the year as massive media and television companies go to war with one another over the programming fees required to air those matches.
Why must my altrui$tic pre$$ frame every issue in the context of war, and do the propagandists, 'er, reporters even know they are doing it or have they self-internalized the values of their masters?
Beginning next week, TV customers on Verizon FiOS and Charter’s Spectrum service could be hit by widespread channel blackouts after the companies’ contracts with major programming giants expire.
Verizon’s 4.5 million TV customers could lose access to ESPN, Freeform, and the Disney Channel and other networks belonging to Disney, as well as ABC affiliates based in Philadelphia and New York, on Dec. 31. Meanwhile, some 6 million Spectrum viewers could miss out on programming from Tribune Media in as many as two dozen markets across the country starting Jan. 1.
The disputes highlight how rising media consolidation in America, along with the pressures brought by cord-cutting, have increasingly turned contract-renewal talks into a high-stakes, winner-take-all affair. As more content has come under the ownership umbrella of a shrinking handful of powerful firms — and with many Americans restricted to just a few cable options — companies now undergo bruising, monthslong fights over content pricing and terms. In November, HBO went offline for Dish Network customers for the first time in the premium channel’s history; the spat remains unresolved.
The contract fight between Verizon and Disney spilled out into the public this week, with both companies sending messages to customers notifying them who will be to blame if a new deal isn’t signed.
Comcast also now offering Amazon Prime, and it's led to higher TV bills.
Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but the company is now running ads targeting FiOS customers, urging them to call Verizon ‘‘to keep the networks you are paying for!’’ The ad features logos for key channels and events that could go dark, including the Disney Channel and the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Rose Bowl game. ABC and ESPN are also expected to carry one of the National Football League’s wild-card playoff games and the Pro Bowl.
Time to go one a cruise:
"A middle-aged male former labor analyst at Disney Cruise Line claims his younger female manager created a hostile work environment by bullying him about his age, bragging about sleeping with married men in the office, and passing him over for promotions, according to a federal lawsuit, a scenario that legal experts say is rare, given the genders of the employee and supervisor. Disney Cruise Line said in a statement that the claims are without merit and ‘‘we will respond to them in court.’’
Been a real roller coaster, huh?
SET-HUT!
NFL playoffs could also become harder to access for Spectrum customers as a result of its dispute with Tribune, according to a company spokesman, because Tribune operates CBS, Fox, and NBC affiliates in various markets.
‘‘We want football fans in our markets to be able to watch these games and root for their favorite teams — we want to reach an agreement with Spectrum,’’ said Gary Weitman, Tribune’s senior vice president for corporate relations.
Despite the looming headache for pay-TV subscribers, those with digital TV antennas could still get around a blackout by tuning into broadcast networks directly.....
HUH?
--more--"
Related:
"The Justice Department urged a federal appeals court Thursday to reconsider AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, arguing that the judge who approved the deal in June misunderstood fundamental economic principles and ignored how AT&T could unfairly extract higher fees from rivals by threatening to black out popular TV channels....."
At lea$t somebody is getting a pay raise:
"Legislative leaders to collect 3 pay bumps in 2019" by Matt Stout Globe Staff December 28, 2018
State legislative leaders stand to collect not one, not two, but three different pay raises in January thanks to a humming economy and a controversial state law, promising to swell some lawmakers’ paychecks by nearly $12,000 just two years after they awarded themselves a pay hike.
All of the state’s 200 senators and representatives are in line for a $3,700 increase to their base salary and a separate 8.3 percent hike to their office expense accounts, which currently range between $15,000 and $20,000, depending on how far they live from the State House.
Are you flipping kidding?
This is what they wrote into their own pay raise law, huh?
When they’re sworn in Wednesday, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, Senate President Karen E. Spilka — both already among the highest-paid legislative leaders in the country — and dozens of their top deputies will also get a third increase — an 8.3 percent raise to their legislative stipends, the lucrative add-ons the Legislature affords to its highest-ranking officials and committee leaders, and the good economic tidings don’t stop with the Legislature. Governor Charlie Baker is entitled to take home an additional $21,000 on top of his $250,000 pay package, though aides say the Republican doesn’t intend to take the extra pay. Other constitutional officers could score increases of up to nearly $15,000.
I'll get to the governor later, just remember that they gave themselves Christmas bonuses with the pay hike law, and remember all this when the economy tanks and the budget cuts come in about four months.
The windfall for elected officials is, in part, a confluence of two different pay adjustments — one guaranteed by the Massachusetts Constitution, the other newly baked into state law — each designed to tether the pay of the state’s most powerful leaders to changes in the state’s wage levels every two years.
Windfall is unexpected good fortune, and the newly baked law(?) wasn't riddled with loopholes like everything else they pass?
The fawning sycophant that is called a reporter must not have wanted to get state leaders mad!
The first, a constitutional amendment, ties lawmakers’ base pay to household median income, but gives the governor leeway to set the exact amount of the change. In a letter to state Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg on Thursday, Baker ordered a 5.9 percent increase for legislators, pushing their base salary from $62,550 to $66,250.
For the people who say that's not much for public $ervice, we need to pay to get good people, where are they? That pay is already more than what 75% of what the citizens of this state make.
We would all be better off without the looters of Beacon Hill and Washington D.C.
The second trigger is more complicated. In ramming an $18 million pay raise package into law in early 2017, lawmakers boosted their own compensation by increasing the stipends they could receive, while also hiking the pay of an array of state officials.
I $uppo$e he means overriding Baker's veto, and that certain; looks like a $elf-$erving $hell game of blame.
Oh, yeah, and we know who got f***ed, too.
The Legislature also established a separate process, similar to the mechanism in the constitutional amendment, that ties the salaries of the six constitutional officers and lawmakers’ additional pay to changes in state wages over the previous two years.
That first biennial change under the legislation comes due next week, but while the pay raise package specified what type of federal data on which to base the adjustment, its vague wording did not task a certain office or official with actually determining it.
WTF?!!!
Goldberg’s office, which handles legislative pay, said Thursday that “by default” it would take on the duty, and determined those pay scales would rise by 8.3 percent in 2019. Chandra Allard, Goldberg’s deputy chief of staff, said the office would apply it to both legislative stipends and expenses, as well as Goldberg’s own salary, which will jump to nearly $190,000.
OMFG!
Allard said the treasurer’s office would share the recommended increase with the other constitutional officers as well, though it will ultimately be up to them whether to accept it.
For the Legislature, the move promises an array of increases.
DeLeo, for example, made $157,500 last year, thanks to his base salary, an $80,000 stipend, and $15,000 in office expenses. After the hikes go into effect, his total compensation will balloon to $169,100 — a jump of $11,600. That same pay package will also welcome Spilka when she starts her first full term as the Senate leader.
Spilka on Thursday defended the increases, noting that the process for meting them out has been in place since early 2017.
Yeah, a proce$$ set up by YOU!
“This law, passed two years ago, created a transparent and standardized method to adjust pay and stipends for constitutional officers and legislators,” Spilka said. “We expect these adjustments to be made, in accordance with the law, through normal payroll mechanisms beginning in the new year.”
How bold of her!
That would be a first for Ma$$achu$etts, too! As the Globe has reported, our public records law is the worst in the nation, everything behind closed doors and secret (what is known as democracy 'roun' h're) with the Speaker dictating how you vote or you lose your chairmanship and parking place.
State Senate President Karen E. Spilka is among the leaders in the state Legislature who will see three pay increases in 2019 (Lane Turner/Globe Staff/File).
That's what is known as a $hit-eating grin!
Meanwhile, Stan has been relegated to public access TV appearances.
A spokeswoman for DeLeo did not respond to questions Thursday about the pay increases.
DeLeo did it himself:
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo spoke at a bill signing ceremony at the Statehouse, in Boston (Elise Amendola/Associated Press/File 2016).
It's the same kind of grin!
Related:
"The Massachusetts Senate is teeing up a bill for Thursday designed to extend by months potentially the unemployment benefits for 1,250 workers locked out by National Grid, marking another foray by the Legislature into the heated labor dispute, but the legislation would differ from a bill the House passed this month, albeit with an admitted “error,” underlining a divide between the two chambers in how to respond to workers’ pleas for help....."
The language was a “drafting error,” and the moratorium has been lifted.
Yeah, the Grid guys have been locked out since June (during which the Colombia gas explosion occurred) and the the Looti$lature still can't get unemployment benefits to them because of an "error" in what they wrote.
How about next time you make an error and rescind this God-awful money grab, you greedy $cum?
Baker — whose veto of the pay raise bill was overridden in 2017 — has said he intends to take the full $250,000 pay package afforded to him under the law in his second term, which includes a $65,000 housing stipend. His salary is currently $151,000. Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, who makes $122,000 now, also plans to take her statutorily set $165,000 salary, but both said Thursday that they would not take any additional pay generated by the biennial adjustment tied to state wage levels. For Baker, that could have meant another $20,800, and Polito, an additional $13,700 in annual pay.
Related: Baker giving Cabinet, agency heads pay raises
Yeah, a nice 5.5 percent rai$e on a Friday afternoon in between Christmas and New Years when the news cycle and public attention span is at its lowest point of the entire year.
You win reelection around here, you become a money-grubbing $lea$eball (with deep apologies to grubs for use of the term).
Also see: Top Baker aide Jay Ash lands job as CEO of powerful business group
He shouldn't have left!
The state auditor and secretary of state, who under the law can make up to $165,000, would also be in line for $13,700 more through the 8.3 percent increase. Similar to the treasurer, the $175,000 salary afforded to the attorney general would also rise to more than $190,000 — a $14,560 difference.
When lawmakers passed the pay raise package in 2017, only Auditor Suzanne M. Bump took the full pay raise among the state’s six constitutional officers, and each would have to decide whether to accept the new pay as well.
Maybe $he can conduct an audit on her$elf.
Goldberg, for example, declined the initial raise to $175,000 in 2017, but Allard said she would take that salary, and the additional adjustment, when she begins her second term in January.
Why not?
Everyone else is feeding at the taxpayer trough!
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura T. Healey said the Charlestown Democrat will also accept the increase to $190,000 given she “declined to take the midterm raise two years ago.”
Oh, if only women ran government, 'eh?
Efforts to reach aides to Bump and Secretary of State William F. Galvin were not successful Thursday night.
The 2017 pay raise legislation also increased the salaries for the state’s judges and a slew of other officials, from court clerks and assistant clerks to the Suffolk County register of deeds, but it did not bake in biennial adjustments for them as it did for the constitutional officers and legislators.....
At lea$t you now know what the taxes are for.
--more--"
That's today's big story, and it's getting to be tar and feather time (looks like he was silenced instead, and the Globe isn't asking any questions).
Maybe they can hide from the long arm of the law as they make themselves at home in the barbershop to escape the lynching they would get in China. Maybe some protection will even be provided to keep them from being beaten, although they are the least likely to go to jail.
Btw, whatever happened to the sexual harassment scandal up on the Hill?
Yeah, it's ‘‘almost as if forensics and DNA has let us down,’’ even though “we are living through a defining moment in the fight for gender equality,” and you need a bucket-loader to through the $hit in Washington D.C.
"UAE reopens embassy in Syrian capital closed in 2011" Associated Press December 28, 2018
BEIRUT — The United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Syria’s capital on Thursday for the first time in seven years, a reflection of improved relations between President Bashar Assad and some of his Arab foes as the war winds down.
Will someone please tell that to the Deep State and it's mouthpiece media?
On Thursday afternoon, United Arab Emirates charge d’affaires Abdul-Hakim Naimi visited the embassy and witnessed his country’s flag being raised again on the compound in central Damascus.
The move provides a major boost to Assad, whose forces have won a series of military victories in recent years with the help of Russia and Iran. Sudan’s president, Omar Bashir, visited Damascus earlier this month, becoming the first Arab head of state to visit Syria since the start of the war.
He's currently suffering a destabilization campaign at home; however, the military is still backing him.
Did you know that Sudan was one of the world's top supporters of Palestinians?
The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Ministry said in a statement that ‘‘the step confirms that the UAE government is keen to restore relations between the two brotherly countries back to normal.’’ It added that the move is ‘‘to activate the Arab role in supporting Syria’s independence, sovereignty, unity and safety and prevent the dangers of regional intervention in Syria’s Arab affairs.’’
PFFFT!
This comes from one the two primary countries that funded and filled with manpower the terrorist groups that attempted regime change.
What it tells you is that the world is moving away from the neocon war plan and ignoring the EUSraeli Empire.
The United Arab Emirates was a supporter of the Syrian opposition, which is now largely confined to the northern Idlib province after losing its strongholds elsewhere. Some opposition fighters have joined Turkey for an expected assault on Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.
The United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Arab supporters of the Syrian opposition view Turkey with suspicion because of its embrace of regional Islamists.
In October, Assad told a little-known Kuwaiti newspaper that Syria had reached a ‘‘major understanding’’ with Arab states after years of hostility. He did not name the Arab countries in the interview, which was his first with a Gulf paper since the war erupted, but said Arab and Western delegations had begun visiting Syria to prepare for the reopening of diplomatic and other missions.
The interview came on the heels of a surprisingly warm meeting between the Syrian foreign minister and his Bahraini counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September. The meeting turned heads because it featured hugs between the two ministers.
Very important because the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain. That's the force that patrols the Persian Gulf.
What if they ask us to leave?
The encounter raised questions about whether the Gulf countries, most of them sworn enemies of Assad ally Iran, are reconsidering their relations with Syria.....
Does that include Saudi Arabia?
--more--"
Looks like we may be forced (part of the plan?) to get out of Iraq, too!
That's what makes the AmeriKan Empire different from all others. We don't stay where we are not wanted (or so I've been taught and told).
Thank you, Superman!
Also see: Palestinian families depend on humanity
Good to see the Globe finally recognizing them.
Related:
"They’d met for a lunch earlier that fall. The subject of politics had never come up before, but it sure did that day. It emerged that the older woman thought Donald Trump was terrific: smart and ethical and just what this country needed. She talked about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and Benghazi and the “antics” of the Clinton Foundation. The younger woman was appalled. They argued in the restaurant, tried to change the subject, kept returning to the argument. Their hug in the parking lot was strained....."
Yes, what is one to do in the era of Trump?
Yeah, if only women were running the planet:
"Michelle Obama, who’s touring the country to promote her autobiography, was named the most admired woman by Americans in a Gallup poll released Thursday. It’s the first time in 17 years that Hillary Clinton didn’t top the list....."
Forget that 2020 run.
"Indonesia raises alert level as volcanic eruptions intensify" by Stanley Widianto and Simon Denyer Washington Post December 28, 2018
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia raised its alert level, widened an exclusion zone, and rerouted flights on Thursday, as eruptions again intensified from an island volcano that triggered a deadly tsunami at the weekend.
A landslide that followed a large eruption of Anak Krakatau on Saturday night sent waves between 6 and 10 feet high crashing into fishing villages and beach resorts on the densely populated islands of Java and Sumatra, killing at least 430 people, but the volcano is still erupting and is almost obscured by huge clouds of ash and lava billowing into the air. Meanwhile, heavy rain and stormy seas have raised fears that the volcano’s slopes could collapse again, potentially triggering a second tsunami.
They are on ‘‘red alert’’ for it, and ‘‘people are advised to keep calm and stay alert.’’
Haven't they been through enough already?
Rain is also hampering search and rescue efforts, while blocked and clogged roads forced search and rescue teams to use helicopters to assess damage, search for bodies, and evacuate people around the village of Sumur near the southwestern tip of Java.
‘‘Our main obstacle is with the weather, but the operation is still underway,’’ said Yusuf Latif, spokesman for Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency. ‘‘We got through to areas that were previously deemed isolated, like the Sumur village and some areas on the west coast of Banten province.’’
The seawaters have left behind a coastline littered with the debris of crushed homes, wrecked vehicles, and fallen trees. They also left dozens of turtles stranded on land, with volunteers helping them back out to sea, Reuters reported.
The tsunami was the third major natural disaster to hit Indonesia this year, after an earthquake killed more than 500 people on the island of Lombok in August and an earthquake and tsunami killed more than 2,200 on Sulawesi in September. It also evoked painful memories of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that struck on Dec. 26, 2004, killing more than 220,000 people in a dozen countries. More than half the fatalities were in Indonesia.....
There was also the recent plane crash.
--more--"
I couldn't stay silent about Indonesia anymore.
Related:
"The fall got colder gradually, scientists said. September was warmer than usual, October temperatures were around average, and November was colder than usual. Extreme rainfall could be a result of climate change, said Don McCasland, Blue Hill Observatory's program director, but the causation is difficult....."
For some reason, the Globe decide to stay silent on that.
I think we all know why; it conflicts with the agenda-pushing narrative.
"A total lunar eclipse in January will showcase the ‘super blood wolf moon’" by Katie Camero Globe Correspondent December 27, 2018
Astronomy fanatics are in for a treat Jan. 20, when Earth will pass between the sun and full moon to create a total lunar eclipse that will turn the moon’s silvery shine into a blood-red glow.
The perfect celestial alignment will be enhanced by the fact that it coincides with a “supermoon,” which means it will look bigger and brighter than usual. This happens just a few times a year, when the moon comes closest to the earth.
Together, the events will create a phenomenon known as the “super blood wolf moon” — a nod to a Native American term for full moons in January.
Some tribes named full moons based on the behavior of the plants, animals, or weather during that month. The “wolf” moon was named after the wolves that would howl out of hunger in the dead of winter.
The super blood wolf moon will appear in the night sky on the evening of Jan. 20 and last approximately 62 minutes, according to NASA.....
They have been shut down, and this is a BAD SIGN!
--more--"
The prophecy says the official beginning of World War III will be January 21st.
Do they dare assassinate the president two years to the day of his inauguration?
It's just the sort of mind-f*** thing the string-pulling globe-kickers would do to fuck with us all.
May God protect the President of the United States.
UPDATE:
"In a year of conflict and war, it was a moment of conciliation. There never has been a year quite like 1968, with war raging in Southeast Asia and in the streets of America; with assassinations depriving the nation of two inspiring leaders; with a presidential campaign catapulting to power a man who vowed to “bring us together’’ even as his election drove Americans apart......"
That time might as well be on the dark side of the moon.
