Morning Brief: Tax refunds will be paid during shutdown, White House says
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
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WHAT TO WATCH
Investors can expect more insight into the labor market when The Labor Department releases the government’s count of job openings for November. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data for October was the second-highest level of total available jobs ever — only eclipsed by August’s data. Economists polled by Bloomberg are expecting a small decline of 7.05 million job openings for November, down from 7.08 million in October. The JOLTS data comes on the heels of a blowout December jobs report on Friday that illustrated a tightening labor market.
“Although we expect the growth in labor demand and wages to stabilize in the near term, the recent JOLTS reports appear consistent with ongoing labor market strength,” Nomura wrote in a note to clients on Friday.
Additionally, President Donald Trump will be jumping in front of news cameras at 9 p.m. ET to address the current state of the federal shutdown.
TOP NEWS
Tax refunds will be paid during shutdown, White House says: The Internal Revenue Service will pay tax refunds even though the agency is subject to the federal government shutdown, after the Trump administration reversed a longstanding policy. [The Wall Street Journal]
Amazon emerges as most valuable U.S. firm: Amazon (AMZN) has eclipsed Microsoft as the most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S. as a see-sawing stock market continues to reshuffle corporate America's pecking order. The shift occurred Monday after Amazon's shares rose 3% to close at $1,629.51 and lifted the e-commerce leader's market value to $797 billion. [Associated Press]
ALSO: Seattle officials tell New York to act against Amazon before it’s too late [Yahoo Finance]
Bitcoin mining chip maker Canaan mulls U.S. IPO: Canaan Inc., China’s second-biggest maker of Bitcoin mining hardware, is considering listing in the U.S. after shelving plans for a Hong Kong initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. [Bloomberg]
Samsung misses profit estimates as chip sector weakens: Samsung Electronics Co.’s quarterly profit and revenue missed estimates on sputtering demand for memory chips during the last three months of 2018, the same period when Apple Inc. saw anemic sales in China. [Bloomberg]
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