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In the Markets – Week-Ending September 30

by Peter J. Creedon

Newsletter: In the Markets – Week-Ending September 30
Crystal Brook Advisors
We Make Financial Planning Crystal Clear™

United States: United States: GDP growth in the second-quarter was revised up +1.4% inflation-adjusted annual rate. Taking first-quarter’s 0.8% pace into consideration, the growth rate for the first half year is just above 1%, which is a sharp slowdown from expansion’s 2.1% average annual rate. Economists estimate the third-quarter’s annualized growth rate could be 3%, which has benefited from an increase in goods exports in August. (1) According to chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics Mr. Shepherdson, solid demand for soybeans from China has helped boost U.S. exports and will add about 1% to third-quarter’s GDP growth. However, officials have implied to raise Central Bank’s benchmark interest rate later in this year if the economy remains low. (2)

Europe: Europe: The European Commission has pushed forward a series of regulations and investigation for antitrust issues, which will be the greatest threat to U.S.-based internet superpower like Google, Microsoft and Apple. (3) After slipping in wake of Brexit vote, new car registrations came back 10% higher in August to push new car sales 8% higher for the first eight months of the year. (4)

Asia: Singapore Startup WB21, a payment service provider, has confirmed to move its European head office in London to Berlin and planned to invest €50 million in the German capital. It is the seventh firm to quite the U.K. since the Brexit vote in June. (5) Uber Technologies Inc. has brought its UberEats food-delivery service in Tokyo, aiming to run its core riding-hailing service in Japan and seek profit in the world’s third-largest economy. (6)

Latin America: Brazil’s unemployment rate increases to 11.8% in the June-and-August period, 102.2 million people are unemployed. Persistent deep recession has lead to companies cash flow hurt and monthly wages drop, even though Moody’s said that Brazil’s economy probably starting to rebound. (7)

Monday 09/26

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton argue over jobs, races, security and readiness to be president. 34% of voters say that presidential debates will be a very important in picking a candidate to support. (8)
GM plans to expand more diesel-powered Chevrolet cars and light trucks. GM hopes to fill a niche in the U.S. vacated by Volkswagen AG, who is in the trouble of emissions-cheating scandal now. (9)

Tuesday 09/27

he shipping cost has risen from 7.5% of sales in 2010 to 10.8% in 2015. This initiative “Consume the City” could save Amazon $3 or more on a typical delivery. (10)
Loose monetary policy at global central bank leads to low interested rate, which is considered to be the key driver of new housing bubble. House prices in Vancouver, London, Stockholm, Sydney, Munich and Hong Kong have increased by nearly 50% on average since 2011. (11)

Wednesday 09/28

Energy companies in the S&P 500 rose 4.3%, making the largest gain for the S&P 500’s energy sector since Jan. 14 and the group the best-performing sector in the index. (12)
Redstone publically calls for Viacom and CBS to explore merger, arguing that a reunion of the media giants could better shifting customer trend. (13)

Thursday 09/29

N.J train crashes into Hoboken station injuring dozens, which raises rail safety concerns. (14)
• Danish conglomerate Moeller-Maersk said it is splitting its operations into two separate divisions focused on transport and energy, as it bStock price of Deutsche bank dropped 6.67%, because big fund clients pull billions of dollars from bank to cut exposure. Concerns about its stability and their exposure wane shareholder confidence in the bank. (15)

Friday 09/30

Oil futures price falls on Friday because investors begin cashing their recent gain and are suspicious of grow over the agreement to cut production among OPEC members. Analysts doubt that OPEC deal would materialize, given the longstanding tension among the members. (16)
United States agreed to lift U.N. sanction on two Iranian Banks and transfer $400 million to Iranian regime for releasing of Americans imprisoned in Iran. (17)
Market Close
U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, boosted by a double-digit rally in Deutsche Bank AG shares and modest gains in oil prices after a turbulent week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.71% closed down 131.01 points, or 0.7%, at 18,261.45, for a weekly gain of 0.8%. Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL, -1.68% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, -1.65% led the blue-chip average lower. The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.57% finished down 12.49 points, or 0.6%, at 2,164.69, led lower by a 1.1% drag from the energy sector, as oil prices CLX, -0.02% settled down 4%. The Nasdaq Composite index COMP, -0.63% fell 33.78 points, or 0.6%, to close at 5,305.75. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished the week up 1.2%. (18)

Contributor: Dan Wang

Sources:
(1 – 17) Source: Wall Street Journal
(19-19) Source: MarketWatch

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