Stocks were heading lower on Tuesday morning on fears that the Federal Reserve may began tapering off on their stimulus. The $85 billion-per-month bond buying program has been going strong, but some fear that the cutting back may begin following the recent strong jobs data and the rise in Treasury yields. The Atlanta Fed President, Dennis Lockhart, and Minneapolis President, Narayana Kocherlakota, are due to make comments later this afternoon. Richard Fisher, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said, ?We?ve changed and impacted the markets because of our intervention and I understand there?s a sensitivity, but markets should also bear in mind that this program cannot go on forever. The balance sheet is $4 trillion and there are limits to what the Federal Reserve can do.?

Shares of BP were up slightly higher after the company announced that they reached a fuel supply deal with Russian oil firm Rosneft. The deal totals nearly $6 billion on refined products. This deal comes on the coattails of a deal made earlier this year for BP to purchase $5.3 billion in crude oil. That deal also followed the hiring of BP?s former senior trader, Marcus Cooper, to Rosneft as head of their trading business in Geneva. In the last year, Rosneft has been selling large amounts of crude oil to trading houses like Glencore, Vitol and Trafigura. The filing that went through today said that Rosneft agreed to sell up to 3.2 million metric tons of fuel, totaling nearly $2.6 billion, to BP Singapore between November 2013 and December 2014. They will also sell 1.44 million metric tons of diesel for $1.77 billion from the Black Sea port of Tuapse. Marcus Cooper, who took over the trading operations position in Geneva at Rosneft, said, ?BP will have a bigger trading presence in the straight-run fuel oil market in China. BP is taking a view on the straight-run market next year.?

Shares of Dendreon Corp (DNDN) were up over 7% after the company announced their plans to cut nearly 15% of their workforce. The company missed analysts?s sales expectations of their prostate-cancer drug and will slash 150 jobs to eliminate operating expenses. By cutting these jobs, Dendreon will save roughly $125 million in expenses, after the company takes a $7.5 million charge tied to severance pay this quarter and the following. The prostate-cancer drug Provenge came in with third-quarter revenue around $68 million, missing the $75 million analysts?s were expecting. This was down 13% from this same time last year. Mark Schoenebaun, an analyst with ISI Group, said, ?Despite the restructuring to save cash and runway, we believe the negative sales trajectory will put pressure back on the stock today.?

That?s all for the day.
All the best,
Jack Aubrey, Oakshire Financial