MIEX Offical

  It seems everyone is speculating on which will be better for the U.S. stock market: a re-election of President Donald Trump or an election of former Vice President Joe Biden to the Presidency. While opinions can be heated and often driven by one’s political predilections, in reality, the outcome of the election may not matter all that much to the markets. Both candidates have presented their economic visions for the future, and both have received positive reviews on their plans. For those willing to hear a few positive things about the ‘other’ candidate, here are a few points on why each candidate can potentially help the stock market move higher in 2021 and beyond: Donald Trump can be viewed as more favorable because: The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017    will remain intact under Trump.  The Act lowered corporate income taxes to a maximum of 21%, making U.S. corporations more competitive on the global stage. The Act also allowed more certainty for planning and capit...

  Will there be a stimulus deal? Here’s what you need to know—and  what it could mean for your wallet . New Stimulus There’s no clear sign that Congress will reach a stimulus deal before the November 3 election. As Americans await  second stimulus checks  and federal unemployment benefits, here are 5 potential outcomes of what could happen next: Option 1: Congress could reach a stimulus deal before the election Congress could reach a stimulus deal before the election, although there doesn’t seem to be a clear path currently. Option 2: Congress agrees on a stimulus deal, but president doesn’t sign bill Congress could agree on a stimulus deal, but the president must sign the legislation before it becomes law. One possible scenario—if and when Congress reaches a deal—is that the president decides not to sign the bill before the election, or at all. This scenario is probably low likelihood, since the president supports a new stimulus deal as well as second ...

Oil prices slipped on Friday and were set for a weekly decline due to mounting worries about the impact on fuel demand of a widespread resurgence in coronavirus infections, as well as some concern about the likely return of exports from Libya.   Brent is heading for a drop of nearly 3% this week with U.S. crude on track for a decline of around 2%. Both benchmarks are also heading for a monthly decline, which would be the first for Brent in six months.   "The outlook for oil demand remains challenging as prospects of new mobility restrictions continue to rise," ANZ Research said in a note.   In the United States, which has the highest death toll from the coronavirus pandemic and is the world's biggest oil consumer, unemployment claims unexpectedly rose last week suggesting an economic recovery is flailing and pushing down fuel demand.   U.S. fuel demand remains in the doldrums as the pandemic constrains travel. The four-week average of gasoline demand ...

Wall Street analysts warn that the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—and the ensuing battle over her successor—will engulf Washington and further decrease the likelihood of another fiscal stimulus bill to help the economy recover from the coronavirus recession.   With President Trump pledging to announce his Supreme Court nominee by Saturday, the upcoming debate will “formally eliminate whatever chance may have still existed for pre-election fiscal stimulus,” says Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge.   Stefanie Miller, managing director of FiscalNote Markets, agrees that the battle over the Supreme Court vacancy will be the “death knell for COVID-19 relief prior to the elections,” as Republicans seek to jam through a nominee and Democrats take “dramatic actions” to impede the process.   Economists at Wells Fargo Securities put the chances of another stimulus bill before the election at just 25%, saying that the prospects for an agreeme...

The market fell sharply on Monday, extending its three-week losing streak as stocks took a hit from an uptick in new coronavirus cases, declining tech shares and deadlocked stimulus talks in Congress. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.9%, around 500 points, on Monday, while the S&P 500 fell 1.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1%.   Stocks pared back some losses in the final hour of trading, but the S&P 500 posted its first four-day losing streak since February.   Market sentiment took a hit after both the U.S. and Europe saw a resurgence in coronavirus cases over the weekend: The U.K. is reportedly considering another lockdown, while countries like France and Spain have seen an alarming rise in new infections.   Fears that a second wave of coronavirus could lead to further government restrictions and lockdowns caused shares of companies that would benefit from a reopening of the economy—including airlines, cruise operators ...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday doubled down on her insistence on a comprehensive stimulus package worth at least $2.2 trillion, telling reporters that “it’s hard to see how we can go any lower.”   Her comments came the day after her first conversation with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been leading stimulus negotiations on behalf of the White House, in more than two weeks, the Washington Post reported.   President Trump also jumped back into the stimulus fray on Wednesday, unexpectedly and publicly pushing Republicans to accept a more expensive bill—including another round of stimulus checks—because he “want[s] to see people get money,” he said at a press briefing.     That would be a major reversal for the Senate GOP, which has spent the last six months insisting on a smaller, targeted package worth no more than $1 trillion, which Senate Majority Whip John Thune has said was already too pricey for some Republicans. ...

Despite the recent market sell-off, rising optimism about a coronavirus vaccine and progress with reopening the economy should propel stocks back to record highs before the end of the year, according to a recent note from Goldman Sachs.   Goldman raised its year-end target for the S&P 500 to 3,600, implying a 6% upside from Monday’s close of around 3,383.   “ Despite the sharp sell-off in the past week, we remain optimistic about the path of the U.S. equity market in coming months,” David Kostin, Goldman’s head of U.S. equity strategy, said in a note on Monday.   The S&P 500 is now attempting to rebound from its first two-week losing streak since May, which was sparked by a sharp sell-off in high-flying technology stocks that pushed the Nasdaq Composite into correction territory, falling 10% in just three days of trading.   Goldman called the recent sell-off a “warp speed correction,” noting that reasons for optimism—mainly progress on a coron...

Oracle has agreed to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operations from its Beijing-based parent ByteDance, weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order that threatened to ban the app unless it was sold to an American company, according to the Wall Street Journal.   The Journal did not have details about the deal, including its price.   Microsoft on Sunday evening said it was out of the running for TikTok and that its bid had been rejected by ByteDance.   Oracle emerged as frontrunner in the race to acquire TikTok last month. The software giant’s bid was being backed by venture capital firms General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, both of whom are major investors in TikTok’s Beijing-based parent ByteDance.   One of Sequoia’s partners, Doug Leone—a major Trump donor—and Bill Ford, CEO of General Atlantic, had reportedly been working with the White House to help secure the deal for Oracle’s consortium.   Oracle’s bid beats out a competing joi...

The money for President Trump’s $300 weekly unemployment program is already running out in some places, even though more than half of states have not yet begun paying any benefits under the new program.   This week, FEMA told Tennessee and Texas that funding for the Lost Wages Assistance program would stop after the week ending September 5.   People eligible for the program in those states can still receive retroactive payments for the six weeks between August 1 (when the program started) and September 5.   A FEMA spokesperson told CNBC that every state that applied to the program by the September 10 deadline will receive six weeks of retroactive benefits (nearly every state has applied and been approved already).   FEMA has now paid out $30 billion of the $44 billion in disaster relief money allocated to the program by Trump’s executive order.   While nearly every state has been approved for the grants, more than half of states have yet to s...

The market moved sharply lower on Tuesday—and the Nasdaq hit correction territory—as the widespread sell-off in tech stocks continued, following the sector’s worst drop since March last week.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.3%, over 600 points, on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 fell 2.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 4.1%.   The Nasdaq officially entered correction territory, falling by more than 10% in just the last three days of trading.   The tech sell-off continued on Tuesday, dragging the market lower as investors once again rotated out of hot Nasdaq stocks: Shares of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet fell more than 3%, while Apple dropped over 6%.   Semiconductor and chip stocks—including Nvidia, Micron and Advanced Micro Devices—plunged after the U.S. Department of Defense over the weekend floated the idea of blacklisting China’s largest chipmaker, SMIC.   Shares of Tesla tanked 21%—the stock...

 Bitcoin has struggled this week with wild price swings keeping traders on their toes.   The bitcoin price, down 12% on seven days ago, is bouncing around $10,000 per bitcoin as bullish investors jump at the opportunity to buy at under the psychological level.   With the former chief executive of Prudential Securities naming Labor Day, Monday September 7, as a potential turning point for bitcoin adoption and investment the crypto market could be heading into a big week.   Last month, George Ball, the chief executive of investment firm Sanders Morris Harris and former chief executive of Prudential Securities, said he expects there to be a surge of bitcoin buying "after Labor Day"—branding current global markets as stuck in the "summer doldrums," with investors waiting for "a spark" that he thinks will ignite in early September.   Ball is the latest in a growing line of high-profile, established investors, led by the famed Paul Tudor Jones in...

The market finished sharply lower on Thursday, posting its biggest sell-off since June as stocks retreated from all-time highs and tech shares plunged.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 2.8%, over 800 points, on Thursday, while the S&P 500 fell 3.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 5%.   The S&P 500 tech sector fell nearly 6% to drag the market lower: The sector is posted its biggest one-day loss since early June, while Apple’s stock had its worst day since March.   Shares of Big Tech stocks fell sharply across the board: Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet were down by over 5%, while Microsoft fell more than 6%.   Facebook’s stock lost over 4% after the company said it would ban new political ads on its platform the week before the presidential election.   Investors also continued to take profits out of high-flying stocks like Apple and Tesla, which fell by around 8% and 9%, respectively, just days after both com...

 As millions of people continue to rely on video-conferencing amid the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom is benefiting—shares of the e-video company surged by over 40% on Tuesday morning, a day after it reported blowout second quarter earnings that easily topped analyst estimates. The tech company posted revenue of $663.5 million last quarter, compared to the $500.5 million forecast by analysts, and profits of 92 cents per share (versus 45 cents per share expected).   Revenue more than quadrupled from last year, growing 355% on an annualized basis.   Zoom added nearly 105,000 new customers in the second quarter, with new customers’ subscriptions delivering 81% of revenue growth.   Zoom is one of the best performing stocks so far in 2020, largely weathering the pandemic-induced sell-off in March and rising by more than 370% year to date.   The company now expects revenue between $685 million and $690 million in the third quarter, and also raised its fi...