After nearly a monthlong lull in the named storm season that mystified...
After nearly a monthlong lull in the named storm season that mystified meteorologists, Tropical Storm Francine turned into a hurricane and is expected to make landfall in Louisiana this afternoon. Forecast as a Category 1 or 2 storm, Francine brings strong winds of up to 95 mph and heavy rain with a risk of flash flooding in large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi through tomorrow. A coastal flood warning has been in effect from east of Houston to the Mississippi–Alabama border. Francine comes as predictions of a super active 2024 hurricane season have failed to materialize, prompting weather scientists to revisit their computer models.
Planned Fed rules are a win for big banks. The likes...
Planned Fed rules are a win for big banks. The likes of JPMorgan and Bank of America celebrated the Fed walking back some of its proposals for tighter banking rules yesterday. The central bank is working with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to raise requirements for the share of big banks’ assets that must be parked in easily sold securities to avert banking crises. The regulators have now loosened the proposal for big banks and exempted banks with under $250 billion in assets from parts of it after lenders complained that stricter rules would’ve made their operations more costly.
Wildfires in the Los Angeles area forced some schools to close and thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
Australia plans to set a minimum age for social media use, which experts warn could drive children to more dangerous apps instead.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, aka “the Lebron James of the restaurant industry,” outlined his strategic vision for the coffee giant, which includes making cafes more welcoming.
Two Delta planes collided on the tarmac while taxiing at Atlanta’s airport, damaging one of them. No one was injured in the incident.
US household income rose last year for the first time since 2019, though it’s still slightly below the pre-Covid high.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded Israel change how it operates in the West Bank after the Israeli military admitted that it likely “unintentionally” shot and killed a Turkish American citizen.
On Tuesday, crude oil prices plunged to their lowest levels since December 2021, with both major benchmarks falling nearly 4%. This sharp decline came in the wake of OPEC+ downgrading its demand forecast for 2024 and 2025, a move that overshadowed supply concerns arising from Tropical Storm Francine, as reported by Reuters.
Key market movements:
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude: Closed at $65.75 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, dropping $2.96 or 4.31% At one point, WTI futures fell over 5%, touching their lowest levels since May 2023
Brent crude futures: Settled at $69.19 per barrel on ICE Futures Europe, and fell $2.65 or 3.69%. Earlier in the trading session, Brent declined by more than $3 per barrel.
This significant price drop underscores the market's sensitivity to demand projections, particularly those from influential bodies like OPEC+. The revised forecast appears to have outweighed immediate supply disruption concerns, highlighting the complex interplay of factors influencing global oil prices.
Analysts will closely monitor how these price movements might impact production decisions and investment in the oil sector in the coming weeks.
Falling oil prices and China concerns add fuel to market fears of a U.S. recession
Concerns about China’s economy have dulled the outlook for energy demand...
Concerns about China’s economy have dulled the outlook for energy demand — contributing to a drop in U.S. and global oil prices to their lowest levels in over two years on Tuesday while exacerbating U.S. recession fears in some parts of the financial market.
Persistent fears of a steeper-than-expected economic slowdown suggest that there might be room for stock investors to react negatively on Wednesday — even if August’s CPI comes in as expected, with a monthly core rate of inflation at 0.2% that’s unchanged from July. This is because an as-expected reading could keep traders’ expectations in place for a 25-basis point Fed rate cut, instead of a 50-basis-point reduction, and may reinforce worries that officials are moving too little and too late to offset a U.S. recession.
U.S. stocks finished mostly higher on Tuesday afternoon,...
U.S. stocks finished mostly higher on Tuesday afternoon, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite scoring back-to-back gains ahead of Wednesday's release of August's CPI inflation report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 92.63 points, or 0.2%, ending at 40,736.96, according to FactSet data.
The S&P 500 rose 24.47 points, or 0.5%, to end at 5,495.52.
The Nasdaq Composite advanced 141.28 points, or 0.8%, to finish at 17,025.88.
According to FactSet data, the S&P 500's energy and financials sectors were the only two sectors to end in the red on Tuesday, down nearly 2% and 1%, respectively. Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. finished 5.2% lower amid widespread pressure on bank stocks.
Traders also look at two key economic reports that will likely decide the size of the Federal Reserve's first interest-rate cut next week. August's consumer-price index report is due Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, followed by the producer-price index report on Thursday morning.
