1) The bond trading has gone from zero to $88 billion dollars in two years because of technology enabled portfolio trading that brings the same speed to the bond market as for stock traders. Bond trading used to take hours of pen and paper work, but now the same thing only requires seconds to do electronically. Most trades are between $100 million and $200 million dollars. The rate of change in the bond market these last few years has been stunning.

2) The struggling company WeWorks announced it plans to lay off at least 4,000 people, roughly one third of its 12,500 work force, a part of its five year plan for recovery from near bankruptcy. But some analyst WeWorks financial troubles come form its failed IPO (Initial Public Offering) in September which left the company with massive losses of $1.25 billion dollars.

3) The board of directors for HP has unanimously rejected the take over bid from Xerox, which they considers significantly undervalues HP and therefore isn’t in the best interest of its shareholders. The board also had concerns about the impact of outsize debt which could devalue the merged company. News has sent stocks for both companies down. HP does recognize the potential benefits of consolidation and therefore remains open to exploring future mergers. Both companies are in the process of cost cutting programs with HP laying off up to 9,000 workers.

4) Stock market closings for – 18 NOV 19:

Dow                 28,036.22    up    31.33 
Nasdaq              8,549.94    up       9.11
S&P 500             3,122.03    up       1.57

10 Year Yield:    down   at    1.81%

Oil:    down   at    $56.94

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