 The Market Sum | Insight after the bell
By Caleb Silver, Editor in Chief Monday's Headlines 1. Markets Flat with Trade Talks in Limbo 2. Germany's Manufacturing Sector Slumps Again 3. Apple Plans to Keep MacPro Production in the U.S. 4. Amazon is Coming for Your Ears 5. The NYSE's Parent Company Launches Bitcoin Futures Markets Closed
 (credit: REUTERS/THILO SCHMUELGEN)
Markets Today
With little to catalyze markets, given the recent breakdown in U.S.-China trade talks and the Fed's lowering of interest rates behind us, U.S. markets barely budged to start the week. It's the last full week of the third quarter, so U.S.-listed companies are preparing their earnings report cards ahead of earnings season, which kicks off in a couple of weeks.
There is a slew of manufacturing and housing markets reports out this week that will add some color to the health picture of the U.S. economy. The Fed told us last week that economic growth at 2.2% is relatively healthy, although it is slowing amid uncertainty about the trade war and the health of the global economy.
U.S. Auto Sector is in Turmoil GM's union workers continue their walkout against the U.S. automaker as the strike enters its second week. There have been new signs of progress in the talks, which are at an impasse over the potential closure of plants, healthcare contributions, and GM's use of temporary employees.
Today, GM furloughed an additional 1,200 workers in the U.S. and Canada, bringing the total number of workers temporarily out of jobs to 3,725 at GM and at least 2,000 employees at its suppliers. Around 48,000 UAW members with GM have been on strike since Sept. 16 after the two sides failed to reach a deal by a Sept. 14 deadline. This current strike is costing GM an estimated $100 million per day in lost production, according to several analysts.
The last time the UAW went on strike against GM was in 2007 as the U.S. was falling into the Financial Crisis. That work stoppage lasted two days. This current strike is the longest since the 1970's, when the UAW walked out on Chrysler.  (UAW Members on Strike against Chrysler, 1970. Source: UAW.org)
Germany's Economy is Exhausted
Europe is in the throes of a manufacturing recession.
The eurozone economy came close to stalling at the end of the third quarter as demand for goods and services fell at the fastest rate in over six years, according to a report from IHS Markit. Manufacturing output fell at the fastest pace since 2012 as the service sector also slowed.
The German Purchasing Managers Index, a survey of the country's largest manufacturing companies, fell to its lowest levels in 83 months (around 12 years).
Germany, the largest economy in the eurozone and the fourth largest in the world by GDP, finds itself caught between China, the U.S., and a hard place.
(chart courtesy of Bloomberg)  Germany's two biggest trade partners are locked in a trade war that could go on for months. Both the U.S. and China are promoting their homemade products and trying to wean their dependence on trade. China is also experiencing its own economic slowdown as it spars with the U.S., and tries to navigate the protests in Hong Kong. This all creates more uncertainty for the big German multinationals that do billions of dollars of business with China and the U.S. every year.
Those include companies like:
 What's Next? The European Central Bank already cut bank interest rates (again) earlier this month and announced a new round of bond buying to stimulate the market. Germany, which has historically tried to insulate itself from the troubles in the eurozone, has been loathe to accept aid from the ECB. It actually has a $23 billion budget account surplus, so it could dip into it, if necessary. That could affect its credit rating and lower interest in its government bonds, but already facing negative interest rates, it's hard to see those German bond yields going lower.
With growth slowing all over the planet, it's hard to see Germany avoiding an all-out recession, but stranger things have happened. It's just a matter of how long it will last and how severe it will be. Apple to Manufacture MacBook Pro in the U.S. Speaking of homemade products, Apple announced today that it will be making its new MacPro in Austin, Texas. It will be an All-American version of Apple's most powerful computer, with components made in Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Vermont.
Apple is usually pretty tight-lipped about where and how it makes its products, but it is clearly going out of its way with this announcement by issuing a press release with the following statement from CEO Tim Cook:
"We thank the administration for their support enabling this opportunity... We believe deeply in the power of American innovation. That's why every Apple product is designed and engineered in the U.S., and made up of parts from 36 states, supporting 450,000 jobs with U.S. suppliers, and we're going to continue growing here." There were reports back in June that the U.S. Dept. of Justice might investigate Apple for antitrust violations, but we haven't heard anything about that in the latest round of DOJ probes.
I wonder why?  Amazon Wants Your Ears Technology companies want to own every part of the consumers' ecosystem, and our ears are fair game.
Various reports are circulating today that Amazon is developing earbuds that will have fitness tracking capabilities built into them.
According to CNBC, the new earbuds, codenamed "Puget," are expected to come with a built-in accelerometer and be able to monitor things like distance ran, calories burned, and pace of running, a person directly involved in the project said.
Amazon has a hardware event in Seattle this Wednesday, so we may just hear more about these products in a couple of days.
(image courtesy of NY Post) 
chart courtesy www.koyfin.com  Shares of Ultra Beauty rose by almost 4%, following the start of the company's Fall-Haul Sale today. Carmax's stock price increased by nearly 3% after 10 analysts gave the company a "Buy" rating.  Shares of Take-Two Interactive are down by nearly 4% after announcing initial sales results of its Borderlands 3 game, which fell short of consensus forecasts. Abiomed's stock price decreased by over 3% today, following a class action lawsuit being filed against the company for violation of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5.  Word of the Day A furlough is a temporary layoff, an involuntary leave, or another modification of normal working hours without pay for a specified duration. Businesses use furloughs for a variety of reasons, such as plant shutdowns or when a broad reorganization makes it unclear which employees will be retained.  Today in Browser History Sept. 23, 2002: The first public version of the Mozilla Firefox browser is released; originally called Phoenix 0.1, its name was changed due to trademark issues with Phoenix Technologies. Mozilla is owned and operated by the Mozilla Foundation, which is built around its stated mission: The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
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Monday, September 23, 2019
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