Thursday Morning Reads

Jobs? Economy? Future of trade?

These are some of the questions on traders' minds as they gauge market sentiment, with the Dow and S&P 500 dipping on Wednesday, only to rebound by 1.5% overnight along with the Nasdaq. Figures due later today are likely to show that another 3M Americans are out of work, adding to the 30M figure that has already been racked up over the past two months. The latest ADP data on Wednesday showed private payrolls were cut by 20.2M last month, while Friday's payrolls report is expected to show an unemployment rate of 16% or higher.

Stampede into online brokerage accounts

TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) disclosed a record 608K new funded accounts for Q1, as well as more than 3x the number of users in March Y/Y, while brokerages like Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), Fidelity and E*Trade (NASDAQ:ETFC) also reported record new users. Earlier this week, millennial-focused trading app Robinhood also closed a $280M Series F funding at an $8.3B valuation. In fact, finance apps have seen 55% growth in usage time from the end of 2019 to the week ended April 18, according to data from App Annie.

Battle over stock data feeds

For the first time in years, the SEC is forcing the NYSE (NYSE:ICE), Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) and Cboe Global Markets (NYSE:CBOE) to revamp the management of public data feeds that provide real-time stock prices. Two-tiered market? Exchanges are currently required to publicly transmit a consolidated view of all stock trades and best prices, but also sell more robust data feeds to sophisticated traders and investors. With the new system, the SEC hopes to increase transparency and richer content, though exchanges caution the move could shift the balance of power to brokers and prop traders, and hurt revenues that allow them to remain competitive.

Facebook names members to oversight board

Labeled by some as Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) "Supreme Court," the independent board will be able to overturn decisions by the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on whether individual pieces of content should be allowed on Facebook and Instagram. The project could turn into a new standard for the industry, with some seeing the experiment expanding to YouTube (GOOG, GOOGL), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) or other platforms that make content moderation decisions. "We are basically building a new model for platform governance," said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former prime minister of Denmark and one of the board's four co-chairs.

Norway cuts rates to zero

Marking its third cut in less than two months, Norway's central bank has reduced its key interest rate to zero for the first time and said rates are likely to stay there for the next several years. "The activity in the Norwegian economy has fallen abruptly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic... amplified by the severe impact of a sharp fall in oil prices," Norges Bank said in a statement. The twin shocks are also forcing the government to make record withdrawals from Norway's $1T Sovereign Wealth Fund, which recorded a return of -11.7% in Q1.
Go deeper: BOE holds rates, signals more stimulus.

'Made in India'

India is seeking to lure U.S. business out of China as tensions ramp up over Beijing's role in the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reports. The government reached out to more than 1,000 companies in April, including Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), to offer incentives for manufacturers of medical equipment, food processing units, textiles, leather and auto part makers. Japan has also earmarked $2.2B to help shift factories from its neighbor, while EU members plan to cut dependence on Chinese suppliers.

Virgin Media, O2 take on BT

It's the biggest shakeup in the British telecoms market in five years. Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) and Telefonica (NYSE:TEF) have agreed to merge their U.K. businesses in a $38B deal that will challenge market leader BT (OTCPK:BTGOF) in mobile and broadband. The transaction will bring together Virgin Media, the largest cable TV provider, and O2, the second-biggest mobile operator, and allow debt-laden Telefonica to extract some cash from the business while keeping a presence in Britain.

Future of 5G wireless standards

The U.S. Commerce Department is close to allowing American companies to work with China's Huawei Technologies on setting standards for next generation 5G networks, Reuters reports, after U.S. engineers took a backseat in the discussions following the firm's blacklisting in May 2019. It's a big deal. 5G wireless networks are expected to power the industry of the future, like high-speed video and self-driving cars, while patented technology for the standards could boost a company's bottom line by billions of dollars.

What else is happening...

World's biggest pork processor to restart South Dakota plant.

FLIR's fever scanners coming to GM factories.

Domino's Pizza (NYSE:DPZ) to join the S&P 500.

Sinclair Broadcast (NASDAQ:SBGI) agrees to pay record FCC fine.

Oilfield firm Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) cuts 22% of HQ staff.