Shutterstock
Stocks mixed, Oil slides on modest Chinese growth forecast, Tesla slashes prices, Goldman says buy Apple, Investor Mobius sounds alarm after he can’t get his money out of China
Stock futures were early mixed on Monday as investors look ahead to forthcoming comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as well as the release of new economic data, CNBC reported.
S&P 500 futures were up 8.25 points or +0.20%, Dow Jones futures were up 18 points or +0.05%, and NASDAQ futures were up 48 points or +0.39% as of 8:44 AM ET.
The benchmark US 10-Year Treasury was down -0.06 to yield 3.909%, while the 2-Year Treasury was down -0.009 to yield 4.832% as of 8:45 AM EST on Monday.
Oil prices opened lower on Monday after China released a report with a lower-than-expected economic growth goal of 5%, Yahoo Finance reported.
Analysts had expected the world’s second-largest oil consumer to report a growth target of 5.5%, CNBC reported.
In oil futures on Monday, WTI crude was down -1.17% and trading at $70.73 a barrel, while Brent crude was down -1.18% and trading at $84.82 a barrel as of 8:46 AM ET.
Tesla just announced reductions to the prices of its two most expensive electric vehicles in the U.S. – Model S and Model X – within a range of 4%-9%, Reuters reported. A 5.2 percent reduction would be roughly $5000 off, while a 9.1 percent reduction would be roughly $10,000 off, according to changes on its website, Engadget reported.
For the first time in nearly 6 years, the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is recommending buying Apple Inc. shares as the stock has more than quadrupled in value, Yahoo Finance reported.
“Apple’s success in premier hardware design and resulting brand loyalty has led to a growing installed base of users,” Goldman Analyst Michael Ng said, who just took over for the company. Ng wrote in a note that Apple’s installed base of users helps the company reduce the number of users leaving the ecosystem, lowers client acquisition costs, and encourages customers to repeat purchases.
Mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners, is sounding the alarm on investors in China to be “very, very careful” as the nation’s economy is under a tight government grip, CNN reported.
“I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai,” told FOXBusiness in an interview. “I can’t take my money out. The government is restricting the flow of money out of the country.”
“I can’t get an explanation of why they’re doing this,” Mobius continued. “They’re putting all kinds of barriers. They don’t say: ‘No, you can’t get your money out. But they say: give us all the records from 20 years of how you made this money.'”
“This is crazy,” Mobius added.
