$FOUR

Shift4 Payments Inc

NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE INC.
Commercial Services
Miscellaneous Commercial Services
Information
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services

PRICE

$61.37 ▼-0.519%

Extented Hours

VOLUME

446,550

DAY RANGE

62.415 - 64.495

52 WEEK

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(Reuters) - The most important day for U.S. retailers is here and questions are rife on whether king dollar is set to lose its crown. Global purchasing managers data will shine a light on the health of the world economy, while markets want to see whether Beijing could step up some of its promised support. And the World Cup football bonanza is underway in Qatar. Here's a look at the week ahead in markets from Lewis Krauskopf in New York, Kevin Buckland in Tokyo and Amanda Cooper, Dara Ranasinghe and Karin Strohecker in London. 1/GOING SHOPPING With concerns that the U.S. economy may be on the verge of a recession, a key test of consumer demand arrives on Nov. 25, when retailers launch "Black Friday" sales - a day traditionally marked by long lines of shoppers eager to pounce on discounts. Soaring inflation and surging interest rates could test buying appetite. October U.S. retail sales increased more than expected, boosted by purchases of motor vehicles and a range of other goods, suggesting the consumer may be on more solid footing heading into year-end. Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. Retailers have offered mixed results in the most recent earnings season. Just this week, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) lifted its annual sales and profit forecast as demand for groceries was expected to hold up despite higher prices, while Target (NYSE:TGT) forecast a surprise drop in holiday-quarter sales. 2/PAST THE PEAK The rise of the U.S. dollar has been the dominant trading theme of 2022, thanks to the Federal Reserve's quest to raise interest rates to quell inflation, giving the currency an edge over its peers among investors, who have been starved of any kind of yield for at least a decade. October's inflation report delivered evidence that consumer price pressures have slowed for the past four straight months from June's 41-year peak of 9.1%. The dollar index, meanwhile, peaked at a 20-year high of 114.78 in September and has been falling ever since. Now, it's heading for its biggest quarterly loss since the second quarter of 2017, having shed 4.5% in value. The time may be fast approaching for dollar bears to emerge from hibernation. 3/BLEAK OUT THERE The International Monetary Fund says the global economic outlook is even gloomier than it was a month ago. Is the pessimism justified? Preliminary readings of business activity in November from a number of economies could answer the question in the coming days. Manufacturing PMIs for October pointed to a deepening contraction in global industry, with developed markets leading the decline. In most European countries, PMIs are below the 50 marker that separates expansion from contraction -- France was an exception. Britain is already facing a lengthy recession. Euro zone economic growth has held up better than expected and labour markets remain relatively robust. But the risk of recession is still elevated for a region grappling with an energy shock and higher costs for anything from financing to wages. 4/ZEROING IN ON CHINA The Chinese central bank's pledge to step up supportive policy measures are in focus, though policymakers kept benchmark lending rates steady for a third straight month on Monday. Some had expected a cut in the five-year loan prime rate (LPR), though no change suggests the bank remains wary of stoking further yuan weakness by easing monetary conditions. Stocks and industrial metal markets had cheered signs of pro-growth initiatives, from help for the beleaguered property market to, crucially, an easing of choking zero-COVID policies. But the COVID outlook remains murky. Noises from Beijing are that "life-saving" measures are essential, which argues against making too much of a two-day reduction in quarantine times. Students in schools across several Beijing districts buckled down for online classes after officials called for residents in some of its hardest-hit areas to stay home. Other regional central banks will also be setting rates. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is tipped for a super-sized 75 basis point hike on Wednesday, while the Bank of Korea is seen tightening again, but possibly only by a quarter of a point. 5/ THE BEAUTIFUL GAME The football World Cup is finally underway - an event marred by controversy since Qatar was awarded hosting rights 12 years ago, including allegations of corruption and human rights violations. Qatar has much riding on the tournament passing off smoothly - hoping to affirm Doha's place on the global stage and for an economic boost. Higher consumption, government spending and services exports are all positives for the Gulf state that has seen its growth outlook trail some of its peers in a region buffeted by high crude prices. But it remains to be seen how long these effects might last, according to analysts. (Graphics by Sumanta Sen, Riddhima Talwani, Kripa Jayaram, Pasit Kongkunakornul and Vincent Flasseur; Compiled by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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By Tom Balmforth KYIV (Reuters) - The United States warned on Sunday of "catastrophic consequences" if Moscow uses nuclear weapons in Ukraine, after Russia's foreign minister said regions holding widely criticised referendums would get full protection if annexed by Moscow. Votes were staged for a third day in four eastern Ukrainian regions, aimed at annexing territory Russia has taken by force. The Russian parliament could move to formalise the annexation within days. By incorporating the areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia, Moscow could portray efforts to retake them as attacks on Russia itself, a warning to Kyiv and its Western allies. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States would respond to any Russian use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine and had spelled out to Moscow the "catastrophic consequences" it would face. "If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia," Sullivan told NBC's "Meet the Press" television program. "The United States will respond decisively." The latest U.S. warning followed a thinly veiled nuclear threat made on Wednesday by President Vladimir Putin, who said Russia would use any weapons to defend its territory. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the point more directly at a news conference on Saturday after a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York in which he repeated Moscow's false claims to justify the invasion that the elected government in Kyiv was illegitimately installed and filled with neo-Nazis. Asked if Russia would have grounds for using nuclear weapons to defend annexed regions, Lavrov said Russian territory, including territory "further enshrined" in Russia's constitution in the future, was under the "full protection of the state". British Prime Minister Liz Truss said Britain and its allies should not heed threats from Putin, who had made what she called a strategic mistake as he had not anticipated the strength of reaction from the West. "We should not be listening to his sabre-rattling and his bogus threats," Truss told CNN in an interview broadcast on Sunday. "Instead, what we need to do is continue to put sanctions on Russia and continue to support the Ukrainians." 'BOGUS THREATS' Ukraine and its allies have dismissed the referendums as a sham designed to justify an escalation of the war and a mobilisation drive by Moscow after recent battlefield losses. Russian news agencies quoted unidentified sources as saying the Russian parliament could debate bills to incorporate the new territories as soon as Thursday. State-run RIA Novosti said Putin could address parliament on Friday. Russia says the referendums, hastily organised after Ukraine recaptured territory in a counteroffensive this month, enable people in those regions to express their view. Luhansk's regional governor said Russian-backed officials were going door to door with ballot boxes and if residents failed to vote correctly their names were taken down. "A woman walks down the street with what looks like a karaoke microphone telling everyone to take part in the referendum," Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said in an interview posted online. "Representatives of the occupation forces are going from apartment to apartment with ballot boxes. This is a secret ballot, right?" The territory controlled by Russian forces in the four regions represents about 15% of Ukraine, of roughly the size of Portugal. It would add to Crimea, an area nearly the size of Belgium that Russia claims to have annexed in 2014. Ukrainian forces still control some territory in each region, including about 40% of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia's provincial capital. Heavy fighting continued along the entire front, especially in northern Donetsk and in Kherson. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who insists that Ukraine will regain all its territory, said on Sunday some of the clashes had yielded "positive results" for Kyiv. "This is the Donetsk region, this is our Kharkiv region. This is the Kherson region, and also the Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions," he said in nightly video remarks. In a statement on Facebook (NASDAQ:META), the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said Russia had launched four missile and seven air strikes and 24 instances of shelling on targets in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, hitting dozens of towns, including some in and around the Donetsk and Kherson regions. Reuters could not independently verify the accounts. PROTESTS IN RUSSIA OVER DRAFT On Wednesday, Putin ordered Russia's first military mobilization since World War Two. The move triggered protests across Russia and sent many men of military age fleeing. Two of Russia's most senior lawmakers tackled on Sunday a string of mobilisation complaints, ordering regional officials to swiftly solve "excesses" stoking public anger. More than 2,000 people have been detained across Russia for draft protests, says independent monitoring group OVD-Info. In Russia, where criticism of the conflict is banned, the demonstrations are among the first signs of discontent since the war began. In the Muslim-majority southern Russian region of Dagestan, police clashed with protesters, with at least 100 people detained. Zelenskiy acknowledged the protests in his video address. "Keep on fighting so that your children will not be sent to their deaths - all those that can be drafted by this criminal Russian mobilisation," he said. "Because if you come to take away the lives of our children - and I am saying this as a father - we will not let you get away alive."

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By Julia Payne LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices dumped on Friday to trade at levels not seen since January as the dollar index hit its strongest level in two decades and on demand fears as rising interest rates risked tipping major economics into recession. Brent crude futures fell $3.74, or 4.13%, to $86.72 a barrel by 1313 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were also down by $3.98, or 4.77%, to $79.51 a barrel. Front-month Brent and WTI contracts were down 5.28% and 6.80% respectively over the past week. Global equities hit a two-year low on Friday while the dollar index reached its highest level in two decades, putting downward pressure on oil. "Weak European PMIs, growth concerns as result of aggressive monetary policy tightening in the US and Europe are weighing on risk assets. Oil prices are not immune to those growth concerns," Giovanni Staunovo, analyst at UBS, said. A downturn in business activity across the euro zone deepened in September, a survey showed, suggesting that a recession is looming as consumers rein in spending to contend with a cost of living crisis. "European equity gauges are ending the week on a negative note amid fears that rate hikes will push major economies into recession," PVM Oil Associates said in a note. Russia launched referendums on Friday aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine, which Kyiv called an illegal sham that it said included threats to residents if they do not vote. After the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a hefty 75 basis points on Wednesday, central banks around the world followed suit with hikes of their own, raising the risk of economic slowdowns. In Britain, meanwhile, the pound fell to a 37-year low and government bonds crashed after the new finance minister announced historic tax cuts and huge increases to borrowing. On the oil supply side, efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have stalled as Tehran insists on the closure of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's investigations, a senior U.S. State Department official said, easing expectations of a resurgence of Iranian crude oil exports.

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@NoobBot #Crypto4Noobs

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**JustinWolfers:** “I signed a letter... saying that Trump won the election, and, damn it, I stand by my letter... I’m not switching horses, baby. This is it," he said, four weeks and one primary win before reversing his position just in time for the general election. https://t.co/YDZmDvg58p https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/1570892627230494720

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By Anshuman Daga and Tom Westbrook SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks advanced on Tuesday and the dollar steadied below a recent peak ahead of U.S. inflation data that some strategists said could offer another signal that inflation has peaked. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures held firm, while European stock futures dipped, setting the stage for a subdued start for European markets. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares ex-Japan rose 0.8%, led by a 2.6% jump for South Korea's KOSPI. Japan's Nikkei put on 0.2%. [.KS][.T] The MSCI gauge has risen for four days in a row, bouncing back from two-year lows. Analysts, however, warned that U.S. core inflation is likely to march on and that the near-term rate implications are unclear. "It's too early to be celebrating the end of inflation, as some market participants seem already to be doing," said ING economist Rob Carnell. U.S. crude is hovering below $90 a barrel, down nearly 30% since the middle of June and roughly where it traded before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. [O/R] Interest rate futures imply a 90% chance that the Federal Reserve lifts its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points at next week's policy meeting - a position that is perhaps most vulnerable to a downside CPI surprise. "A further cooling in inflation would support the case for a step down in the pace of policy tightening to a 50 basis points rate hike at the FOMC meeting next week," said Kristina Clifton, a senior economist at CBA. "Nevertheless, an upside surprise to inflation will easily cement market expectations of another outsized 75 basis points rate hike." U.S. inflation figures are due at 1230 GMT and the consensus is for the core inflation rate last month to have risen 0.3% month-on-month, the same as in July. On Monday, Wall Street indexes posted a fourth straight session of gains. DOLLAR BELOW RECENT PEAK Asia data out on Tuesday offered a cloudy picture of regional economies. A 9% year-on-year jump in Japanese wholesale prices points to pressure on corporate margins, yet a slowdown in gains for August holds some hope of relief. In New Zealand, rate hikes which began a year ago are starting to bite, sending home prices down 6% since last August. The investment banking world is also offering a counterpoint to stock markets' enthusiasm. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is mulling job cuts, a person familiar with the plans told Reuters. A KKR-led consortium has told Australia's Ramsay Health Care it will not improve its $14.5 billion cash-and-stock offer for the hospital operator, a move that will likely put a deal on ice. In currency markets the dollar is off recent peaks. Its index against major peers was steady at 108.16, after falling 0.7% overnight, the largest daily decline since August. Tailwinds from last week's European rate hike have the euro extending a bounce and above parity at $1.0127. [FRX/] Even the battered Japanese yen is having a breather at 142.5 per dollar - a bit stronger than last week's 24-year low at 144.99 with some investors closing bets on a further slide as risks of official intervention increase. U.S. Treasury yields rose overnight after some lacklustre auctions. Selling was heaviest at the very long end, with the 30-year yield up about 6 bps to around 3.5%. Benchmark 10-year yields steadied at 3.3425% in Tokyo trade on Tuesday, beneath the two-year yield of 3.5489%. [US/] Gold was steady at $1,722 an ounce.

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(In Sept 7 story, corrects headline to note biggest pct gain in four weeks, not four-week high) By Carolina Mandl and Chuck Mikolajczak (Reuters) -U.S. stock indexes climbed the most in roughly a month as bond yields eased, with investors shrugging off hawkish remarks made by Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday. The last time the Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a higher one-day percentage jump was on Aug 10, although investors doubt this is a long-lasting trend. The technology-heavy Nasdaq led gains among the main indexes, snapping a seven-session losing streak. U.S. stocks have sold off sharply since mid-August after hawkish comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell were compounded by signs of an economic slowdown in Europe and China and aggressive steps by major central banks to tame inflation. Data signaling strength in the U.S. economy has prompted traders to bet on a 75-basis-point interest rate hike by the Fed later this month. Fed fund futures implied investors were pricing in a more than 76% chance of such a move. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped from three-month highs hit earlier in the session, boosting shares of rate-sensitive stocks such as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN). High-growth companies such as those in the tech sector tend to benefit when yields go down as it means a lower discount rate on their future profits when investors are calculating valuations. Still, investors are looking for more outward signs of how Federal Reserve rate hikes will unfold to tame a surging inflation before its next meeting later this month. "The bond markets behaving a little bit better today which is giving the stock market a little bit of a better feeling, but the big worries are still what the Fed is going to do on Sep 21. So we're seeing a back and forth tug-of-war each day," said Brent Schutte, Chief Investment Officer at Northwestern (NASDAQ:NWE) Mutual Wealth Management Company. Stocks' performance also ignored hawkish comments by Federal Reserve earlier on Wednesday. Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said the high cost of U.S. rental accommodation has not yet fully filtered through to inflation measures, suggesting inflation may still rise further. Meanwhile, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said the U.S. central bank must lift interest rates to a level that restrains economic activity and keep them there until policymakers are "convinced" that inflation is subsiding, while Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard added the monetary policy will need to be restrictive "for some time." The main focus will be on Powell's speech on Thursday and U.S. consumer price data next week for clues on the path of monetary policy. The Fed's "Beige Book", a periodic snapshot of the health of the U.S. economy, indicated that price pressures are expected to persist at least through the end of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 435.98 points, or 1.4%, to 31,581.28, the S&P 500 gained 71.68 points, or 1.83%, to 3,979.87 and the Nasdaq Composite added 246.99 points, or 2.14%, to 11,791.90. Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors were trading higher, led by a jump in utilities, reflecting the defensive positioning by investors due to economic uncertainties. The energy index fell 1.16% as oil prices tumbled about 5% on demand worries related to looming recession risks. Brent crude fell below $90 a barrel. Nio (NYSE:NIO) Inc reversed earlier losses and ended the session up 2.16% after the Chinese electric vehicle maker reported a bigger second-quarter adjusted net loss but revenue topped expectations. Coupa Software (NASDAQ:COUP) Inc jumped almost 18% after the payment management software firm beat second-quarter estimates for revenue and profit. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.21 billion shares, compared with the 10.43 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.07-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.60-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 6 new 52-week highs and 16 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 24 new highs and 231 new lows.

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@NoobBot #Crypto4Noobs

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https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-miner-balance-reaches-four-year-high-weeks-before-the-merge

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@CarlosH-carvan #ivtrades

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Biden Set To Freeze Student-loan Repayment For Four More Months

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By Alun John HONG KONG (Reuters) - The euro was at a two-decade low, stocks languished and German bond yields hit an eight-week high on Wednesday as investor sentiment soured under the weight of high energy prices, a batch of poor global economic data, and more inflation fears. Renewed concerns central banks will keep hiking interest rates aggressively to tame red hot inflation were also high on investors' minds ahead of the closely-watched Jackson Hole central banking symposium which begins on Thursday. The European common currency tumbled 0.4% against the dollar to $0.9925, trading just above its 20 year intraday low hit a day earlier. Sterling suffered too, losing 0.52%. The risk-off mood could also be seen in share markets where the MSCI world equity index, dipped 0.2% to a three week low. Britain's FTSE100 shed 0.5%, though gains from defensive stocks helped the pan-European stocks index STOXX 600 to advance 0.2% after touching a four-week low in early trade. Moves were due to "the combination of the Fed and other central banks sticking with their inflation mandate, and at the same time the latest economic indicators showing signs of weakness not just in Europe, but also in the U.S. and Japan," said Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia at JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) Asset Management. Wednesday is fairly quiet on the data front, but poor economic activity reports the previous day from the euro zone - which reported a contraction for a second straight month - the United States and Japan, continued to hurt appetite for riskier assets, such as stocks. Energy prices are also a factor, with Dutch gas contracts, the benchmark for Europe, regaining previous day's losses and trading near their five-and-a-half month high hit on Monday. [NG/EU] Energy costs are a major driver of inflation, and expectations the European Central Bank will step up its rate hikes to bring it under control helped push Germany's 10-year government bond yield, the benchmark for the block, to a fresh eight-week high of 1.38%. Markets are also now repricing their expectations for Federal Reserve rate hikes after speculation their pace could slow boosted stocks early in the month. "Maybe two or three weeks ago, markets were thinking the Fed may be done with hiking rates by the end of this year and cutting rates in 2023, and that sequence of events now doesn't look like it's happening," Hui said. That shift had pushed the yield on U.S. benchmark 10 year treasuries back above 3% early in this week, he added. It was last 3.0573%. Traders have been raising their expectations on where the Fed funds rate might peak, with current pricing pointing toward around 3.7% in the middle of 2023. CHINA SLIDE China provided another reason for concern about the global economy, with a slide in property stocks serving as another reminder of the deep hole that developers are in without access to easy credit. An index of Hong Kong listed builders fell to a 10-year low. (HK) "People are still trying to understand the full extent of the detrimental effects as it has multiple repercussions," said Samuel Siew, a market specialist at CGS-CIMB in Singapore. "It's still very hard to actually measure the entire severity of the situation. That is what markets are trying to decipher, and whether ongoing support is sufficient." Oil recovered from early losses. Brent crude futures rose 0.9% to $101.1 a barrel - still affected by talk of Saudi supply cuts. U.S. crude futures gained 1% to $94.75. [O/R] Spot gold held steady at $1,747 an ounce. Bitcoin still bore the scars from a sudden slide at the end of last week, parked at $21,300.

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By Balazs Koranyi FRANKFURT (Reuters) - It was meant to be Europe's stellar year. A post-pandemic spending euphoria, supported by copious government spending was set to drive the economy and help fatigued households regain a sense of normality after two dreadful years. But all that changed on Feb. 24 with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Normality is gone and crisis has become permanent. A recession is now almost certain, inflation is nearing double digits and a winter with looming energy shortages is fast approaching. Though bleak, this outlook is still likely to get worse before any significant improvement well into 2023. "Crisis is the new normal," says the Alexandre Bompard, the Chief Executive of retailer Carrefour (EPA:CARR). "What we have been used to in the last decades - low inflation, international trade - it's over," he told investors. The change is dramatic. A year ago most forecasters predicted 2022 economic growth near 5%. Now a winter recession is becoming the base case. " onerror="this.style.display='none'" class="msg-img" /> Households and businesses are both suffering as the fallout of the war - high food and energy prices - is now exacerbated by a devastating drought and low river levels that constrain transport. At 9%, inflation in the euro area is at levels not seen in a half a century and it is sapping purchasing power with spare cash used up on petrol, natural gas and staple food. Retail sales are already plunging, months before the heating season starts and shoppers are scaling down their buys. In June, retail sales volumes were down nearly 4% from a year earlier, led by a 9% drop recorded in Germany. Consumers turn to discount chains and give up high end products, switching to discount brands. They have also started to skip certain purchases. "Life is becoming more expensive and consumers are reluctant to consume," Robert Gentz, the co-CEO of German retailer Zalando, told reporters. Businesses have so far coped well thanks to superb pricing power due to persistent supply constraints. But energy intensive sectors are already suffering. Close to half of Europe's aluminium and zinc smelting capacity is already offline while much of fertilizer production, which relies on natural gas, has been shut. Tourism has been the rare bright spot with people looking to spend some of accumulated savings and enjoy their first care-free summer since 2019. But even the travel sector is hamstrung by capacity and labour shortages as workers laid off during the pandemic were reluctant to return. Key airports, such as Frankfurt and London Heathrow were forced to cap flights simply because they lacked the staff to process passengers. At Amsterdam's Schiphol, waiting times could stretch to four or five hours this summer. Airlines also could not cope. Germany's Lufthansa had to publish an apology to customers for the chaos, admitting that it was unlikely to ease anytime soon. RECESSION LOOMS That pain is likely to intensify, especially if Russia cuts gas exports further. "The gas shock today is much greater; it is almost double the shock that we had back in the 70s with oil," Caroline Bain at Capital Economics said. "We've seen a 10 to 11 fold increase in the spot price of natural gas in Europe over the last two years." While the EU has unveiled plans to accelerate its transition to renewable energy and wean the bloc off Russian gas by 2027, making it more resilient in the long run, supply shortages are forcing it seek a 15% cut in gas consumption this year. But energy independence comes at a cost. For ordinary people it will mean colder homes and offices in the short run. Germany for instance wants public spaces heated only to 19 degrees Celsius this winter compared with around 22 degrees previously. Further out, it will mean higher energy costs and thus inflation as the bloc must give up its biggest and cheapest energy supplies. " onerror="this.style.display='none'" class="msg-img" /> For businesses, it will mean lower production, which eats further into growth, particularly in industry. Wholesale gas prices in Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, are up five-fold in a year but consumers are protected by long term contracts, so the impact so far has been far smaller. Still, they will have to pay a government mandated levy and once contracts roll over, prices will soar, suggesting the impact will just come with a delay, putting persistent upward pressure on inflation. That is why many if not most economists see Germany and Italy, Europe's no. 1 and no. 4 economies with heavy reliance on gas, entering a recession soon. While a recession in the United States is also likely, its origin will be quite different. SILVER LINING Struggling with a red-hot labour market and rapid wage growth, the U.S. Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates quickly and has made clear it is willing to risk even a recession to tame price growth. By contrast, the European Central Bank has only increased rates once, back to zero, and will move only cautiously, mindful that raising the borrowing cost of highly indebted euro zone nations, such as Italy, Spain and Greece could fuel worries about the their ability to keep paying their debts. But Europe will go into a recession with some strengths. Employment is record high and firms have struggled with growing labour scarcity for years. This suggests that companies will be keen to hang onto workers, especially since they head for the downturn with relatively healthy margins. This could then sustain purchasing power, pointing to a relatively shallow recession with only a modest uptick in what is now a record low jobless rate. "We see continued acute shortages of labour, historically low unemployment and a high number of vacancies," ECB board member Isabel Schnabel told Reuters earlier. "This probably implies that even if we enter a downturn, firms may be quite reluctant to shed workers on a broad scale."

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By Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Devik Jain (Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes were set for a dour start to the week as investors worried about hawkish signals from U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers in the face of slowing economic growth. A four-week summer rally for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 snapped last week as megacap growth companies slumped on Friday, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield hitting nearly 3% on inflation fears. [US/] High-growth and technology companies such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc fell 1.6% and 1.8%, respectively, in trading before the bell on Monday. Lenders JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) fell more than 1% each amid a broader risk-off mood. Banking giants collectively face more than $1 billion in regulatory fines for employees' use of unapproved messaging tools, including email and apps such as WhatsApp. The CBOE Volatility index, Wall Street's fear gauge, rose to 23.16, its highest level in over two weeks. After a rough start to the year, the benchmark S&P 500 recovered nearly 16% from its mid-June lows helped by strong earnings and hopes of a dovish pivot by the Fed. Focus this week is on Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at a central banking conference in Jackson Hole on Friday for further cues on the central bank's monetary policy tightening path. "The market convinced itself that the CPI last month suggested peak inflation has been reached ... but that was short sighted," said Kenny Polcari, managing partner at Kace Capital Advisors. "Jackson Hole will give Powell an opportunity to reset the narrative and suggest the Fed is going to remain vigilant and aggressive." According to economists polled by Reuters, the Fed will raise rates by 50 basis points in September. Traders are also expecting a slightly higher chance of a 50 bps hike over a third 75 bps hike, even as several Fed policymakers have pushed back against expectations of a dovish pivot and emphasized the fight against inflation is ongoing. Investors will also be looking for details on the central bank's plans to reduce its nearly $9 trillion balance sheet, a process that started in June. The Fed's favored inflation gauge, the PCE price index, will also be released this week. With recession fears lingering and investors eager for any clues about the economy's strength, other U.S. data will be closely awaited this week, including flash PMIs, the second estimate of second quarter GDP and University of Michigan consumer sentiment. Economic slowdown fears have hit markets globally, with China's central bank trimming some key lending rates on Monday in a bid to support a slowing economy and a stressed housing sector. At 8:32 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 323 points, or 0.96%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 48.5 points, or 1.15%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 194 points, or 1.46%. Signify Health Inc jumped 40.2% following a report on Sunday that UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE:UNH), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), CVS Health Corp (NYSE:CVS) and Option Care Health (NASDAQ:OPCH) Inc are bidding to acquire the company. AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) Holdings Inc tumbled 37.7% after UK-based rival Cineworld Group, the world's second-largest cinema operator, warned of a possible bankruptcy filing.

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@Jonove #droscrew

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Prior to registering his own holdings and buying 5 million Bed Bath & Beyond shares over the span of a week, Freeman had allegedly been investing with his uncle for years. And he’d been an intern at Volaris Capital, a New Jersey Hedge Fund for over four years.

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By Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks crept sluggishly higher on Tuesday as investors sought safety in defensive names, while risk aversion likewise lifted the safe haven dollar following weak Chinese and U.S. economic data that stoked fears of a global recession. The dollar briefly hit a one-week high as investors piled back in having ditched the greenback last week following lower-then-expected U.S. inflation data, while the Aussie, euro and Chinese yuan buckled. Europe's benchmark STOXX index climbed 0.3% to hit a 10-week high and mark a fifth straight session of gains, led by mining companies as London-listed BHP Group (NYSE:BHP) reported strong results. But S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures dipped, indicating a likely weaker direction for U.S. markets when they open later. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.03% after gains earlier in the day. MSCI's benchmark index has gained 5% from the year's lows but is still down 15% this year. Just as investors were taking heart from a four-week rally in global equities that pushed markets to their highest in more than three months, Monday's weak Chinese activity data spanning industrial output and retail sales hit sentiment. Also, U.S. single-family homebuilders' confidence and New York state factory activity fell in August to their lowest since near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a further sign the world's largest economy is softening as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates. The picture was mixed across Asian bourses on Tuesday, with Tokyo and Taiwan benchmarks flat, while South Korean stocks put on 0.2%. Chinese stocks gave up early gains as growth concerns remained after data showed economic activity and credit expansion slowed sharply in July, prompting the central bank to unexpectedly cut interest rates. The blue-chip CSI 300 index slipped 0.2% after dipping on Monday. Bond markets, meanwhile, continued their tussle between fears over inflation and recession, which are particularly acute in the euro zone. Germany's 10-year yield, the benchmark for the euro zone, was up 3 basis points (bps) to 0.932%, holding below a two-week high of 1.025% touched last Friday. DOLLAR HAVEN Investors' latest move to the safety of the dollar came after the raft of weak global economic indicators. The U.S. economy contracted in the first and second quarters, amplifying a debate over whether the country is, or will soon be, in recession. On Tuesday, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose as high as 106.87, its strongest since Aug. 8. The euro, the most heavily weighted currency in the dollar index, dropped 0.28% to 1.01305. The Australian and New Zealand dollars were put on the defensive by frail global data. Brent crude futures fell 1% to $94.11 as the bleak economic data from top crude buyer China renewed concerns of a global recession, and the market monitored talks on a reviving deal that could allow more Iranian oil exports. WTI crude futures shed 0.98% to $88.52 a barrel. Spot gold dipped slightly to $1,775.6 per ounce as the stronger dollar dented bullion's appeal and investors watched for signs of future rate hikes by the federal reserve.

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Key Metrics

Market Cap

3.38 B

Beta

1.86

Avg. Volume

1.25 M

Shares Outstanding

53.01 M

Yield

Public Float

Next Earnings Date

2023-03-02

Next Dividend Date