Volkswagen up 12% MoM

Today’s Topic:

• Bulls take over the Markets
• Volkswagen up 12% MoM
• Uber grows its debt

Opening at the 13’156 point mark the German Index advanced to 13’200 point mark in the afternoon and follows the general trend on the Markets. Just before close only 4 stocks ( Infineon, SAP; Fresenius and Vonovia) are quoting negative ticks. The markets have profited from the tax reform advancements and couldn’t even be shaken by the nuclear missile test in North-Korea. Volkswagen takes the spot number one for the second time in a week with a 3% increase. The German carmaker went from 172,75 Euro to 175,75 Euro and is up 12% on a MoM comparison. Volkswagens Price jumped as a reaction to the 3,82 percent increase in Sales. “All brands have most recently developed strongly,” Mueller (Volkswagen CEO) said on Wednesday at a staff gathering in Wolfsburg. “And I trust that also the two remaining months will confirm the strong trend. And that we will be able to finish the year 2017 on a new record.”

After limping into the post-Thanksgiving weekend session with a mixed-to-lower showing on Monday, the bulls had the momentum back yesterday. On point, Wall Street started the latest trading day with solid gains and then proceeded to press forward with nary a hiccup for the remainder of the session. True, there was a rapid pullback early yesterday afternoon on news that North Korea had fired a missile into the waters off the coast of Japan. That headline event sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average, once up by more than 190 points, back down to less than a 100-point advance. However, that selloff, was just a brief affair with the market regaining its footing shortly thereafter. Then, the same forces that had sent stocks soaring at the open were back in play for the balance of the day. In other news, the economy continues to show enviable strength, with data on new home sales showing a strong gain for October in a release on Monday and a survey on consumer confidence, issued by the Conference Board yesterday morning surging to its highest level in 17 years. That one-two punch suggests that the nation’s gross domestic product will advance by 3%, or more, in the current period.  The market’s comeback yesterday suggests that the shock effect of news out of North Korea is less than it had been in months past. Indeed, stocks rather quickly regained all of their gains from earlier in the day. In all, the three major composites, the Dow, the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ all had reached all-time highs in the morning. Then, the earlier nominated Jerome Powell–to be Federal Reserve Chair–turned out positive for the Street as he implied that his accession would result in few central bank changes. In sum, he suggested that he would keep the current slow tightening rate policy intact. Then, in the final hour, the bulls received more good news as the Senate took a step toward passing a bill aimed at reforming the U.S. tax code, as the Senate Budget Committee approved its tax plan, bringing the full Senate closer to a floor vote that may take place as early as tomorrow. With that news in hand, the Dow’s gain surged past 250 points. It would seem that a tax package will pass either late this year or in 2018. As the final bell sounded, the Dow was up 256 points; the S&P 500 was ahead 26 points; and the NASDAQ was better by 34 points.

In other news, Linde plc announced today that 92% of the ordinary shares of Linde AG entitled to voting rights were tendered by the end of the additional acceptance period of Linde plc’s exchange offer on November 24, 2017. The tender process has been completed and no further Linde AG shares can be tendered in the exchange offer. The business combination remains subject to the receipt of certain antitrust and other regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2018.

Following the disclosure that over 57 million Uber driver and rider accounts were hacked, exposing sensitive, personal information, the National Limousine Association (NLA) is calling for Uber to halt its operations and on Congress to formally investigate the incident. While the scope of the breach is still not fully known, the NLA warns the public that this information most likely goes well beyond typical credit card exposure seen in many retail hacks. Insiders have confirmed with Reuters that Uber has increased its Debt to 1,46 billion USD.

Today’s Economic Calendar:

• MBA Mortgage Applications
• Janet Yellen Speech
• GDP
• Pending Home Sales Index
• EIA Petroleum Status