What You Need To Know This Week — March 9th 2019
A weekly recap to keep you informed on the most important events this week impacting markets, business, tech and the global economy.
FEBRUARY JOB GROWTH: CANADA BEATS EXPECTATIONS, U.S. DISAPPOINTS
The Canadian labour market generated its second straight month of job growthwith 55,900 new jobs, exceeding economists expectations of flat jobs numbers. This surge came after a huge gain of 66,800 jobs in January, making the two-month stretch of job creation the best since 2012. The Canadian unemployment rate remained at 5.8%. February job growth in the U.S. was not pretty — only 20,000 net new jobs compared to 180,000 expected. The U.S. unemployment rate declined to 3.8%.
CHINA EXPORTS TUMBLE THE MOST IN THREE YEARS
Chinese exports in February fell -20.7% from a year earlier, the largest decline in three years. This was substantially lower than the economists’ average estimate of a -4.8% decline. Chinese stocks declined -4% on the news. The rapidly approaching “trade recession” presents a setback for China in its trade war against the U.S.
MARK ZUCKERBERG ANNOUNCES THAT FACEBOOK WOULD BE “PIVOTING TO PRIVACY”
The Facebook CEO announced that the social networking platform would be shifting direction to become a “privacy-focused communications platform”. Zuckerberg indicated that Facebook users would be able to communicate privately, using secure and encrypted messaging and ephemeral stories. Critics believe this may just be a ploy to distract users from the recent raft of constant scandals regarding privacy and data misappropriation at the company. The market’s reaction to a new-found focus on privacy? Yeah right, Zuck.
BARRICK AND NEWMONT ENGAGE IN JOINT VENTURE TALKS
In a move that potentially exposed Barrick’s hostile bid as a bluff, Barrick CEO Mark Bristow stated that they would drop their hostile bid if Newmont agreed to a joint venture of their Nevada assets. This joint venture could create $750 million of annual synergies, or cost savings, for the two companies. The JV would make sense, and both companies continue discussions. However, they remain in disagreement on operatorship and ownership levels of the joint venture.
NORWAY’S $1 BILLION SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND IS DITCHING OIL STOCKS
The Norwegian government announced that its massive, $1 billion sovereign wealth fund will gradually phase out its investments in oil and gas producers. Although the fund will maintain positions in oil companies that are developing renewable energy businesses. The government said that the divestment decision was driven by financial factors, however they acknowledged that climate change is an important risk factor.
BANK OF CANADA HOLDS RATES STEADY, BLAMING RECENT ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN
The Bank of Canada kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 1.75% on Wednesday, citing weaker growth in the first half of the year as compared to its previous forecast. The central bank indicated that the slowdown that began late last year was “sharper and more broadly based” than expected, citing trade tensions and a deeper global economic slowdown.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES, PODCASTS, BOOKS AND TWEETS
Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway talk to cannabis analyst Craig Wiggins on the state of the market of Cannabis investing in Canada.
WeWork, the office subleasing company valued at $47 billion, has been using some of the $9 billion it has raised to invest in the CEO’s hobbies and personal interests, according to the WSJ.
FT interviews former bond king Bill Gross: “I wanted to be famous because I wanted to be loved . . . so I pursued that obsessively”.
Goldman Sachs launched 5 new ETFs built on machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Bernstein quantitative research analysts see a record valuation dispersion between cheap and expensive stocks. Could this lead to outperformance of value stocks?
The OECD cut its outlook for global growth again, blaming trade tensions and political uncertainty.
- The Accelerate Team
Find out more at https://accelerateshares.com
