MARKET SNAPSHOT
A Wave of Anticipation Approaches
- To kick off the fourth quarter, the S&P and Nasdaq ended a bit higher and the Dow finished marginally lower, in classic hold-your-breath fashion as markets eagerly await the September U.S. jobs figure, to be released today.
- Anticipation for the report sent the dollar lower as investors speculate on whether the data will be negative due to lagging commodity markets. Despite the buck dropping against other major currencies, it has actually strengthened since the Fed announced in September it would keep rates down.
- With China’s markets closed for the holidays, the remaining Asian markets flourished, including Japan’s Nikkei 225, leading the way with a 2 percent gain. This helped offset the huge losses these countries have taken the past few months from falling commodities prices.
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U.S. MACRO
Volkswagen…What Are We Going To Do With You?
September auto sales came out on Thursday, checking in at over 18 million units sold on an annualized basis, the highest rate since 2005. Among the winners: Ford, GM, Toyota…and even Fiat Chrysler (embroiled in its own mini-scandal) came out strong. Volkswagen, however, only increased its sales by 1 percent (compare that to Ford’s 23 percent gain). Considering the Volkswagen emissions scandal only affected the last third of the month, this could be just the beginning of the company’s sales troubles.
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CORPORATE PRIMER
New United Continental CEO Speaks Out
Five years ago, United Airlines and Continental Airlines merged into one airline giant. Recently, Jeff Smisek, former CEO of United Continental Holdings, stepped down amidst overall poor performance, multiple computer glitches and an internal investigation (the triple whammy of corporate struggles). To the billion dollar corporation’s rescue was Oscar Munoz, who yesterday gave his first press conference as CEO. Munoz wants to start fresh by improving reliability and putting the customer first, claiming that the past five years focused too much on financial gains.
Dunkin Takes a Dip
America doesn’t seem to be running on Dunkin Donuts as of late. The coffeehouse and doughnut chain posted a 1.1 percent quarterly growth rate in U.S. same store sales—down from 2.8 percent in the second quarter. The stunted growth stems from increased breakfast chain competition and difficult economic conditions. And if that’s not enough, they’re closing 100 stores too. It’s no surprise that shares were down 12 percent yesterday.
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TODAY IN TECH
Apple and Google Get Amazon-Axed
By the end of the month, Amazon’s marketplace will be a little bit smaller. Yesterday, the so-called “Everything Store” announced that starting October 29, it will stop selling Apple and Google video streaming devices, namely Apple TVs and Google Chromecasts. As Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service has become a key part of the company’s business, it decided that selling third party streaming devices could cause customer confusion due to lower compatibility levels (or in less business-speak, draw sales away from Amazon’s own Fire TV Stick). Earlier this year, CEO Jeff Bezos wrote to shareholders that Amazon has a “customer obsession rather than competitor focus,” but blacklisting some of its main tech rivals shows that the massive marketplace’s priorities may be shifting.
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ECONOMIC CALENDAR
- Monday: Personal Income and Spending
- Tuesday: Consumer Confidence, Home Price Index
- Wednesday: Private Payrolls
- Thursday: ISM Manufacturing Index, Weekly Jobless Claims, September Auto Sales, Micron earnings
- Friday: August Jobs Report
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BERNIE SANDERS MAKES BANK
Discount Senator Bernie Sanders at your peril. The presidential candidate who many simply considered a ploy by the far left to push Hillary Clinton further left, Sanders has slowly but surely turned into a legitimate threat for the Democratic nominee in his own right. And now he’s got the one thing critics have consistently faulted him for (hint: it’s green and rhymes with funny):
- Typically, presidential candidates do the bulk of their fundraising through super PACs, but Sanders has sworn them off for being too corrupt. Instead, he’s relied on the power of the internet, and the internet has come through: he’s amassed a whopping one million online donations over the past five months, more than even Barack Obama in his 2008 campaign.
- On Wednesday night, Sanders hit a key milestone—$26 million raised since July, just slightly less than Clinton has raised in the same time period.
- Of course, cash isn’t worth much if you’re bleeding right through it, and here Sanders is also in great shape: his campaign has $26.5 million in cash. How has he done it? By carefully saving money by not running any commercials and using the viral power of the internet to gain traction, a strategy that has paid off in spades so far. Time will tell if he can keep it up as primary season approaches.
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INTERVIEW QUESTION OF THE DAY
Six drinking glasses stand in a row, with the first three full of juice and the next three empty. By moving only one glass, can you arrange them so empty and full glasses alternate? (Answer)
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BUSINESS TERM OF THE DAY
Par — The face value of a bond. Generally, $1,000 is par for corporate issues, with higher denominations such as $10,000 for many government issues.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
115 miles per hour: the speed of Hurricane Joaquin’s winds, which is building up power near the Bahamas.
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Correction: In yesterday’s October 1 issue, the Brew got its tech giants mixed up—it was Google and Microsoft that called a legal truce, not Apple and Microsoft. While the Brew hopes that Apple will also call truces with its ongoing legal battles (we’re looking at you, Samsung), yesterday’s news had nothing to do with Apple, and we sincerely regret the error.
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