Market Brief: June 25, 2020

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and other regulators finalized an overhaul of the so-called Volcker rule, imposed under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. It was meant to prevent banks from engaging in some of the risky behavior that contributed to the crisis, such as proprietary trading and making speculative, hedge fund-like investments.

The Labor Department said Thursday that seasonally adjusted jobless claims were 1.5 million in the week ended June 20, little changed from the previous week’s level. Economists polled by FactSet expected a decline to 1.325 million.

The 15.8% jump to $194.4 billion in goods reversed April’s plunge of 18.1 percent, which was revised even further downward in the May report. An 80.7% jump in transportation equipment orders to $46.9 billion led the index’s overall increase, ending two months of declines in the sector as plane maker Boeing and the Detroit car makers resumed production after shutting down due to the coronavirus.

It comes shortly after ex-CEO Markus Braun was detained before being freed on bail. He stands accused of market manipulation and falsifying the company’s accounts, in what is becoming one of Germany’s biggest financial scandals.

The struggling retailer says the job cuts are part of a restructuring that it expects to save $365 million in costs this year and $630 million of costs annually. The layoffs will be associated with $180 million of pretax cash costs; most of those costs will be recorded in the second quarter.

Disney had planned to open Disneyland on July 17, but the reopening is now pending approval from the state. California is among the states that are seeing a worrying resurgence of Covid-19 cases as it eases lockdown orders aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. This week, the state recorded its largest spike in cases yet, with more than 7,000 new infections.

Even though the vaccine’s large-scale safety and effectiveness has yet to be demonstrated, the urgency of the coronavirus pandemic is driving the companies to prepare production of 100 million doses by this year’s September quarter. In a press release, Moderna’s chief of technical operations Juan Andres said the production scale-up was proceeding with “unprecedented speed.”

The survey looks at initial quality, calculated as the number of problems car owners have in the first 90 days of new-vehicle ownership. It collects information on tens of thousands of new vehicles to come up with the ranking. The top-performing auto brands in 2020 are Dodge and Kia, with 136 problems per 100 vehicles, or less than two problems per car. Tesla, on the other hand, made its debut at the bottom of the list among major auto makers, with 250 problems per 100 vehicles.

Natural gas futures were down 7.8% in midday trading, to $1.47 per million British thermal units. The last time natural gas closed below $1.50 was in August 1995, when it settled at $1.47. The lowest-ever price for natural gas is $1.05, which it hit in 1992. Thursday’s drop represents the fourth consecutive negative day for natural gas, which settled on Wednesday just under $1.60.

The timing of the move coincides with the previously announced decision by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma to step off the SoftBank board, which is also effective Thursday. SoftBank will continue to have the right to appoint one person to the board of Alibaba, although the seat so far has been unfilled.