Tentative Deal To Avert Another Shutdown Pushes Futures Higher
Another tentative deal to push off another government shutdown is taking shape, “in principle” according to negotiators, increasing the chances that a government shutdown will be averted by Friday when funding from a stopgap spending bill will be exhausted. President Trump lost this one badly, as the deal does not contain the $5.7 billion that Trump demanded for building a border wall on the Mexican border. Republican Senator Richard Shelby said that his staff and that of the Democrats involved in the negotiations will work “feverishly” to iron out the details be Friday, clearly smitten with the negotiation bug and already running a fever. Instead of $5.7 billion for a wall, Trump is getting $1.37 billion for new border fencing, and it is unsure if Trump will actually sign the bill. If he does by Friday, stocks should rise. If he doesn’t, stocks should fall. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, stock futures are up on the news of a deal in principle. The Dow (NYSEARCA:DIA) leads the S&P, set to open higher at time of writing two thirds of a percent, and the Nasdaq (NASDAQ:QQQ) leads the big three, up 0.8% premarket.
SEE: Cannabis Stock News Daily Roundup February 11
Aurora Cannabis Revenues Quadruple But Losses Mount on Equity Collapse
Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB) saw a huge bump in its top line, quadrupling revenues year over year for Q4 2018, which was expected given that last quarter was the first full quarter under legalization in Canada. However, losses mounted due to the popping of the cannabis sector bubble last year, in which Aurora participated by buying stakes in a bunch of pot companies, getting burned in the process. Investment losses amounted to C$190 million, a whopping 80% of total losses. Oops. The stock is still up 56% over the last 6 months, but shares are down over 5% in the premarket on the sad earnings news that Aurora became a victim of yet another speculative bubble mania. At least it didn’t put everything in Bitcoin.
Google, Walmart, End Deliv Partnership That Sought to Compete With Amazon
Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Deliv have delivered a divorce, the two firms breaking up after a partnership for same-day delivery of groceries just didn’t work out. The problem was centered on Walmart giving priority to customers over Deliv delivery boys at their stores, and Deliv people having to wait about 40 minutes once arriving at a Walmart to pick up orders. Walmart could not process online grocery orders fast enough for the service to be economical, so instead of shaping up, they shipped out. Or didn’t ship out. As the case may be. The two companies stopped working together at the end of last month, without telling anybody until now. But it’s not over for Walmart’s attempts at same-day delivery. The chain still has 800 stores that include that option, and hopes to add another 800 stores this year.
Bezos Saga Gets Weirder as Amazon CEO’s Dirty Laundry Heaps Up
Apparently, the guy who supplied the National Enquirer with explicit texts sent between Bezos and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, who was not his wife, was none other than the brother of the same girlfriend who was not his wife. Michael Sanchez, Lauren’s brother, somehow got hold of her cell phone and sent copies of the text messages to the infamous tabloid. It’s quite probable that brother and sister don’t really like each other too much, at least not anymore. Sanchez the brother was Sanchez the sister’s manager, which explains how he got access to the phone, so apparently you can’t really trust anyone, unless this was a setup against Bezos, in which case you still can’t trust anyone. Sanchez’s alleged motive was that he doesn’t like Bezos because Bezos doesn’t like Trump and Sanchez likes Trump. So far this saga hasn’t had much of an effect on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) but that could change if things get legal for whatever reason.
Hyperinflation in Turkey Has Erdogan Screaming at Wholesalers For Being Terrorist Traitors
Hyperinflation is gripping Turkey after last year’s collapse of the Turkish Lira on foreign exchange markets. The Lira has stabilized at around 5.3 per USD since November, but now prices are finally catching up to the consumer sector as food inflation measures about 31% for January alone according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. Speaking calmly and rationally, at least for a crazed lunatic, Erdogan took to the airwaves to spread the following message of hope for a better tomorrow:
“The government will finish off those terrorizing wholesale food markets in no time, the way it finished off those terrorists in caves.”
This will probably help the situation of escalating food prices by taking entire swaths of the economy (wholesalers) out of the market, thereby lowering supply, and in theory lowering prices, according to Erdogan, or something nonsensical along those lines. He continued by ranting against gravity, determined to finish off the curvature of spacetime once and for all. He can do that, because he’s the Prime Minister. Of Turkey. Time to short Turkey again? (NASDAQ:TUR)
