President Trump’s campaign won’t credential Bloomberg News reporters, in response to the media outlet saying it won't investigate candidate Mike Bloomberg or his Democratic Party rivals. Dan digs in with Axios media reporter Sara Fischer.
The No.1 risk to the stock market continuing its outperformance next year is not President Trump or consistently weak U.S. economic data or even China, senior analysts at John Hancock Investment Management say, but whether or not the Fed continues to stimulate the economy through what they call "not QE."
What it means: Fed chair Jerome Powell has insisted the central bank's bond buying program — initiated after rates in the systemically important repo market spiked to five times their normal level in September — is not quantitative easing.
The combination of increased appetite for passive investment and financial regulations, particularly Europe's Mifid II, is underpinning a "profound reshaping" of what Wall Street research analysts do, according to the Financial Times. It's a move into deep data and away from opinion-driven analysis.
What's happening: Because Mifid II mandates that asset managers and institutions pay for research directly rather than simply paying banks or researchers for their services broadly, there's a great "unbundling" happening throughout asset management.
Private sector job growth slowed last month and added just 67,000 jobs — a big miss from the 150,000 that economists expected, according to the closely-watched report by ADP and Moody’s Analytics.
“The job market is losing its shine ... job openings are declining and if job growth slows any further unemployment will increase,” Mark Zandi, Moody’s chief economist, said in a release.
Why it matters: It stokes fears about the health of the labor that’s shown some signs of slowing, but has mostly held up in the face of recession fears. The ADP report is considered a precursor to the government’s official jobs release, which comes on Friday.
A group opposing drug pricing measures around the country includes major pharmaceutical companies as well as large construction-industry unions, the New York Times reports — strange bedfellows, to say the least.
Why it matters: Ads run by the Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association may confuse public perception of the nature of opposition to drug-pricing measures.
Dolls Kill, a Los Angeles-based fashion brand and retailer, raised $40 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital.
Why it matters: This is Hot Topic for digital natives, leveraging social media comments to find its models and focusing on sub-cultures that often congregate online.
Consumer demand for animated content has remained stagnant over the past two years, despite the onslaught of animated box office hits, according to data pulled for Axios by Parrot Analytics.
The big picture: "Animation, especially adult animation, is a category that was mostly overlooked as 'peak TV' output increased, so one could argue it is underexploited today," says Matthew Ball, the former head of strategy for Amazon Studios.
After a record-breaking holiday weekend box office haul with Frozen 2, Disney is poised to win the box office yet again this year, and with it, remain the box office champion of animated films.
Why it matters: Rival streaming chiefs have talked openly about expanding their animation studios to compete with Disney, or to help lure families to their services.
The merger between Viacom and CBS is expected to close this week, but investors don't seem too excited about it. Shares from both companies have been down since the all-stock deal was formally announced in mid-August.
Why it matters: Analysts have expressed reservations about whether the combined company will be big enough to compete with the likes of Amazon and Netflix.
Strategists at $234 billion asset manager Macquarie Investment Management laid out an exceptionally bullish prediction for U.S. stocks — their equities team is calling for the market to double in value over the next 10 years.
Why it matters: That would put the Dow at around 55,000.
The ISM's November U.S. manufacturing index got all the headlines with a fourth straight reading showing the industry in contraction, but IHS Markit's index was also released Monday and told a very different story.
What's happening: Both surveys are well respected by investors and economists, but follow different methodologies. This seems to have created a widening divide in which IHS Markit's data is showing a solid recovery in U.S. manufacturing while ISM's is showing further deterioration.
The trade war looks to be back on in a big way after a series of pronouncements from President Trump and the White House.
The latest: Trump told reporters in London Tuesday he had "no deadline" for a China deal and that he liked "the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal."
