Oil prices are up for the 3rd session in a row after the Oil Inventories report yesterday revealed US levels had fallen to their lowest in 3.5 years. WTI is over $71/barrel. Amazon announced plans to open as many as 3,000 cashier-less AmazonGo brick and mortar stores by 2021. Prototype stores in Seattle and Chicago are being tweaked, but Bezos sees enough success to move forward. Meanwhile, to keep up with the Musks, Bezos said he would invest over $1B Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket program which will fly people into space this year. On the trade war front, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma retracted his 2017 promise to create 1 million new jobs in the US; “This promise was on the basis of friendly China-US cooperation and reasonable bilateral trade relations, but the current situation has already destroyed that basis”. The economic calendar focus is Philly Fed and Claims @ 8:30am EST and Existing Home Sales @ 10:00am EST. Earnings include MU and DRI. Volatility continues to contract as the ES remains pinned under its back-adjusted 2922.50 all-time high. Assume upward movement will be grinding. No Size bias as Size has taken little interest in trading overnight.
