Opening Bell: 10.30.17

Trump Likely to Name Jerome Powell Next Fed Chairman (WSJ)
President Donald Trump is likely to announce Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell as his nominee to be the next chairman of the U.S. central bank next week, according to a person familiar with the matter. The president hasn’t made a formal decision and could still change his mind, several people familiar with the matter said.

Bond Traders Confront Fears in Week That May Change Everything (BBG)
The next five trading days will bring a torrent of market-moving information: President Donald Trump is poised to finally announce his nominee to lead the Federal Reserve; U.S. central bankers have an interest-rate decision to make; the first possible charges from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election; a House committee is set to release a tax bill; and the Treasury will unveil plans to issue more debt to make up for lost funding from the Fed. Oh, and investors will also get the latest reading on the nation’s job market and the central bank’s preferred inflation gauge.

Why Are Markets Rising Everywhere? Investors Can’t Stop Buying Every Dip (WSJ)
In the stock market, investors are buying the dip more quickly than they used to. The S&P 500 recouped the bulk of its 5.3% two-day post-Brexit decline in only three trading days. It took just three days for the S&P 500 to recover from a 1.8% drop in May—its largest one-day decline of the year—following reports that President Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. That is a faster recovery than when the S&P 500 fell 11% over a six-day stretch in August 2015 and then took until November of that year to get back to its pre-selloff level.

How Floyd Mayweather Helped Two Young Guys From Miami Get Rich (NYT)
The boxer’s endorsement of Centra, along with a similar endorsement from the popular rapper DJ Khaled, lent a patina of credibility to a project that has ended up with more than a few problems, including a chief executive who does not appear to have been a real person and a shaky, fast-shifting business plan. SEE ALSO: This Company Added the Word ‘Blockchain’ to Its Name and Saw Its Shares Surge 394%

Bitcoin Backlash: Back to the Drawing Board? (Aswath Damodaran)
As you listen to arguments for or against crypto currencies, my only advice is that you go back to basics about the needs that they are filling and that you ask questions about their long term staying power. I think it is also time for us to separate arguments about block chains/smart contracts from arguments about crypto currencies, since you can have one without the other, and to differentiate between crypto currencies, rather than defend them or abandon them all, as a bundle. To me, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and ICOs are different enough from each other, not only in structure but also in terms of end game, that they need to be assessed independently.

There’s precedent for Amazon competing with so many companies. It doesn’t end well. (Qz)
For business historians, Amazon is starting to look like the sprawling conglomerates of the past century. History has some bad news, says MIT’s Cusumano. “Eventually, Bezos is going to be, if he’s not already, a sample of the US or world economy,” he says. When that happens, Amazon’s equity growth rate may mirror that of the broader economy itself. Since the company went public in 1997, the S&P 500 has grown by a respectable 197%. Amazon stock has risen 700-fold over the same period. Such a drastic slowdown would dash Amazon’s global promise.

The Line Between Aggressive And Crazy (RHS Financial)
From this we start to see the problem with levered ETFs as they are currently constructed: they generally use too much leverage applied to too volatile of assets. Even with the plain vanilla S&P 500 3x leverage is too much. And after accounting for the hefty transactions costs and management fees these ETFs charge, even 2x might be suboptimal (especially if you believe returns will be lower in the future than they have in recent decades). And the S&P 500 is one of the most conservative targets for these products.

Man locked in Kwik Trip beer cooler stays and drinks (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The man told police he went to Kwik Trip to buy beer and got locked inside the beer cooler when it was locked at about 11:50 p.m. Tuesday, according to the report. The man said he decided he might as well just stay inside the cooler and drink the beer, the report said. The cooler has a glass door and, if the man had knocked, employees would have heard him and let him out.