Friday, September 16, 2016

"Someone Just Placed A Massive Bet That The Solar City, Tesla Deal Fails" (SCTY; TSLA)

The headline is a bit deceptive as we don't know if the trader has either a long position in the stock they are dirty hedging or a synthetic long they are trading around. SCTY $17.28 up 18 cents  TSLA $205.40 up $4.98.
From ZeroHedge:

Following June's proposal, the merger of kissing-cousins TSLA and
SCTY was confirmed in early August. Since then, the market has begun to
aggressively price out

Ford Motor Company Moves Into Bicycle Sharing (F)

From SFGate:

Ford buys Chariot, makes bike-sharing deal in alt-transport push

Ford Motor Co. has seen the future — and it’s not just in cars.


“We want to change the way the world moves,” CEO Mark Fields said
Friday outside San Francisco City Hall, announcing plans for
bike-sharing and commuter shuttle services as Ford seeks to transform
itself into a broader transportation company.


The

For 13th Straight month, Rural Economies Slump In Creighton University Economist Survey; Farm Loans Being Restructured

From the Omaha World-Herald:



Weak farm income is affecting loans in the rural Midwest, according
to a survey of bankers in the region, as the rural economy declined for
the 13th straight month and the outlook leading into 2017 remains
dreary.

With grain prices slumping, Creighton University economist
Ernie Goss said, farm income is slated to drop by 12 percent from 2015,
prompting “an

Panic Grips Eastern U.S. With Gasoline Supply Shortage On Horizon

East coast panic? I'll tell you where there's panic.
Russia just blocked access to PornHub.*

That said, gasoline prices have jumped the last couple days:



FinViz

From OilPrice:

A gasoline pipeline that was shut down
for repairs after it leaked last week may threaten the regular supply
of the fuel for 50 million people in the eastern U.S. as the deadline
for its restart was postponed for

Tesla Responds in Spat With Former Partner Mobileye (MBLY; TSLA)

For folks catching up before the weekend, Tesla has decided to go with radar rather than LIDAR (laser light).
NVIDIA smiles.

From Reuters via Fortune:

Mobileye had said that it broke ties with Tesla over safety.



(Reuters) – Tesla Motors on Thursday said its former
camera supplier Mobileye disparaged the safety of Tesla’s assisted
driving technology Autopilot after learning the carmaker

"US farmland prices set course for third year of decline"

As we've been saying for years, most recently in February's "USDA Chief Economist Makes A Case For Farmland ":




It's too early.
Even though we think we'll see some upward price pressure [on crops] come late
summer, after a meandering downtrend, the reality of farmland investment
is that it is only worth a multiple of the cash flow.
(unless you're on the edge of a metro area and have some

Deutsche Bank: How Big A Hole Could A Fine Blow In The Balance Sheet?

Following up on "Deutsche Bank Is Asked to Pay $14 Billion to Resolve U.S. Probe Into Mortgage Securities (DB)".
From Breakingviews:

Smaller fine might still force Deutsche fire sale

A few billion dollars more or less can make a big difference to
Deutsche Bank’s future. The German lender insisted on Sept. 15 that it
wouldn’t pay nearly as much as the $14 billion (12.5 billion euro)