Stocks surge; millennials > Druckenmiller; Macy’s survives; Paul Singer counsels patience; and more!
US stocks surge, erasing 2020 losses [CNN]
The Dow finished up 461 points, or 1.7% higher. The S&P 500 ended up 1.2%, erasing its losses for the year. The Nasdaq Composite ended up 1.1%, its first record close since February.
The market rally came on the same day economists officially declared the United States is in a recession, ending the longest economic expansion in American history.
Robinhood traders cash in on the market comeback that billionaire investors missed [CNBC]
Robinhood — and other major e-brokers — saw a flood of new clients, seeing a “generational-buying moment” during the coronavirus market sell-off. The Silicon-Valley start-up said it saw a historic 3 million new accounts in the first quarter, while stocks experienced their fastest bear market and worst first quarter on record…. “We see a lot of buying activity of specifically industries that were impacted by the pandemic,” Robinhood co-founder and co-CEO Vladimir Tenev said at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference on Wednesday. Investor traded “a lot in airlines, a decent amount of buying in video conferencing, streaming services, some biopharmacuetical as well,” said Tenev.
There’s A Glaring, Misleading Error In The May Jobs Report: U.S. May Be At 20% Unemployment [Forbes]
"It’s going to be a problem of credibility now with the BLS,” said Mike Wolford, Director of Customer Success at Claro Workforce Analytics. “[BLS] looks incompetent or political. Twenty million people didn't finish unemployment in the last 30 days. I would have thought lag time was an explanation because it's a lot to count actually, but to find out they made a five-million-person error, knew about it, didn't correct it for the sake of ‘data integrity’ when they literally update things all the time. That is suspicious and, at least, merits investigation," Wolford added.
Macy’s raises $4.5 billion, says it has ‘sufficient liquidity’ to weather pandemic [CNBC]
The funding includes $3.15 billion in asset-based credit and a previously announced $1.3 billion bond offering…. Macy’s said it has additionally amended and substantially reduced the credit commitments of its existing $1.5 billion unsecured credit agreement. Macy’s plans to use the bond offering and cash on hand to repay outstanding borrowings under this agreement….
Macy’s should be able to now fund its business for the “foreseeable future,” according to Gennette.
Stanley Druckenmiller says his 3% return as the Dow and S&P 500 soared more than 40% from March lows has ‘humbled’ him [MarketWatch]
Druckenmiller acknowledged that he underestimated the length the Fed would go to help support the financial markets. Investors will get more clarity on the central bank’s policy stance on Wednesday, at the conclusion of their two-day meeting.
Paul Singer Wants More Time [II]
The union representing workers at AT&T, one of Paul Singer’s most recent activist targets, is asking investors in his Elliott Management hedge fund to resist locking up their money.