14Jun2017 Market Close: Wall Street Closed Down With The DOW The Only Index Up, Crude Prices Recover, The Fed's Raise Rates 0.25 Percent

Written by Gary

US markets closed mostly in the red (SPY -0.1%) and the DOW closed near its high water mark 46 points in the green. The Fed’s raised interest rates today for the second time in three months, a slide in technology stocks pulled down the Nasdaq and crude prices climbed back to where they were this morning.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

Dow notches fresh record close after Federal Reserve raises rates

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Fed raises rates, unveils cuts to bond holdings in sign of confidence WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday for the second time in three months, citing continued U.S. economic growth and job market strength, and announced it would begin cutting its holdings of bonds and other securities this year.
	Tech drags Wall St. lower; financials buoy Dow NEW YORK (Reuters) – A slide in technology stocks pulled down the Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday and the S&P 500 ended slightly lower as investors worried about the pace of economic growth after weaker-than-expected inflation numbers and an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
	GE merges power units as executive who lost out on GE CEO job retires SEATTLE (Reuters) – General Electric Co said on Wednesday it will combine its power and energy distribution businesses to create its largest unit by revenue as the top executive at GE Power announced his retirement after failing to win the conglomerate’s CEO job.
	Morgan Stanley CEO says Saudi Arabia could be ‘major opportunity’ (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said Saudi Arabia could be a “major opportunity” for the firm as the country unveiled plans for oil giant Saudi Aramco’s $100 billion initial public offering and introduced a series of reforms to attract foreign capital in 2015.
	Uber director David Bonderman resigns from board following comment about women SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Uber Technologies Inc director David Bonderman said on Tuesday that he has resigned from the company’s board following a remark he made during an Uber staff meeting that was widely seen as offensive to women.
	Exclusive: SeaWorld shareholders vote to remove chairman – sources NEW YORK (Reuters) – SeaWorld Entertainment Inc shareholders voted against the re-election of Chairman David D’Alessandro, according to people familiar with the matter, amid concerns about a special bonus payout to company officials.
	Avon CEO expected to step down: WSJ (Reuters) – Avon Products Inc Chief Executive Sheri McCoy is expected to step down, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
	U.S. regulators still reviewing Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicle fix: lawyer WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Justice Department lawyer said at a court hearing on Wednesday it could take “weeks or months” before regulators decide whether to approve a software fix for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV diesel vehicles.
	Volkswagen to offer EU diesel car owners extended warranty but no money back: EC BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Volkswagen has agreed to offer an extra two-year guarantee to European owners of its diesel cars but no compensation in talks with Europe’s consumer affairs chief over its cheating on emissions tests, a European Commission spokesman said on Wednesday.
	Banks Best, Tech Trounced As ‘Hawkish’ Fed Flattens Yield Curve Most Since Brexit Economic data at 2-year lows, rate hikes, and hawkish outlook… yield curve crash, FANG (growth) plunge, and Gold down… First things first – today’s macro data was an utter disaster and smashed Citi Surprise Index to its lowest in 2 years… The post-FOMC fallout shows financials outperforming and tech tanking… Gold was the worst performer… The Dow managed to close green today (thanks to GS, HD, and TRV)… VIX broke above 11 early on but was crushed back below to ensure a ramp as ETFs rebalanced… Bad data sent traders back into the ‘buy growth, sell value’ mode but then when The Fed statement hit ‘g …
	Traders Are Flooding Morgan Stanley With Calls To Explain Why Bitcoin Is Soaring First it was Goldman succumbing to hedge funds and “due to popular demand” providing its first ever “technical” take on where Bitcoin will go from here. Now it’s Morgan Stanley’s turn. In a report on the “Blockchain, Unchained” – in which it advocates for regulation of the blockchain as part of its evolution as well as providing a “master key” to a regulator, in effect killing the very premise behind such a decentralized infrastructure (more on that later) – Morgan Stanley writes that “the rapid appreciation of cryptocurrencies has elicited many inbound phone calls to both our banks and tech teams.” It responds that possible explanations for the dramatic moves include investors in search of uncorrelated risk assets and technologists looking for incremental security. But, the bank writes, “governmental acceptance, would be required for this to further accelerate, the price of which is regulation.” We doubt many supporters of cryptos will agree with this. In any event, here are some further details from Morgan Stanley, but first, a quick primer: as MS explains, for many, Bitcoin and blockchain are often thought of synonymously. In reality, blockchain is primarily a messaging and bookkeeping method, whereas Bitcoin is a store of value that makes use of blockchain methodology to transfer value. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have shown rapid appreciation, as shown in Exhibit 23 and Exhibit 24, with the pace of appreciation showing rapid acceleration since the beginning of 2017. While Bitcoin grabs the headlines, Ethereum, another cryptocurrency that attempts to address some of the echnical shortcomings of Bitcoin, has been gaining value at an even faster rate. The rapid appreciation of blockchain-based currencies and the proliferation of new cryptocurrencies is fu …
	Party On Through 2030 Dudes! Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong With The Fed hike out of the way and a confident Janet Yellen shrugging off everything in her way, MishTalk’s Mike Shedlock has a few things to say about the farce… I have official guidance that a party is on through 2030. Nothing can possibly go wrong. Billionaire Ron Baron says blue chips to double by 2030… and Tesla shares to do even better. What can possibly go wrong with Baron’s prediction? I cannot come up with a single thing. Party on dudes!
	Dramatic New Video Captures Exact Moment Shooter Opened Fire On GOP Baseball Practice A shocking new video has just been released by the New York Post which reveals the exact moment that the “progressive,” never-Trumper James Hodgkinson opened fire on the GOP’s baseball practice in Alexandria, VA. As we noted earlier this morning, the shooting left Majority Whip Steve Scalise and 4 others hospitalized with gunshot wounds. The video was taken by someone enjoying a stroll in the park when shooting broke out. As many as 25 gun shots can be heard in the recording though it’s unclear how many of the shots were fired by the gunman and how many were fired by police. In the end of the video you can see people huddling around someone, presumably Scalise, in the outfield just beyond the 2nd base position. Per the New York Post: More than 25 bullets can be heard ripping through the air in the footage, which was captured by a witness close to the field at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park. At one point, a man can be seen lying in the middle of the field. “Do we know where he’s at?” the man recording the video can be heard saying. “I assume people have been calling 911 already.” The shooting continues for several minutes, with some pauses in between the gunfire. Toward the end of the video, several gunshots are fired in quick succession, as people shout in the background. The footage then shows several people crowd around the player on the field. As we noted earlier, the shooter has been identified as 66-year-old,
	Beijing Gives Banks the Go-Ahead for Yet Another Lending Binge Encouraging more lending to small companies may only worsen China’s problem of too much badly priced debt.
	Fed Moves One Way, Inflation Another Inflation is cooling again, and the Federal Reserve hopes that is only temporary. What if it isn’t?
	Oil Outlook Now So Bleak It May Be an Opportunity A trio of reports from OPEC, the IEA and the U.S. EIA on the oil market have sent prices to multi-month lows, but consensus may soon become too bearish.
	MarketWatch First Take: Inflation is right around the corner, Yellen insists The Fed still believes in the Phillips Curve, the idea that full employment will lead to higher prices, writes Rex Nutting.
	Deep Dive: This S&P 500 sector has actually gotten cheaper as the stock market trades near records The stock market keeps getting more expensive over the past year, but one group of companies has bucked the trend, says Phil van Doorn.
	Market Extra: Dow can hit 22,900—as long as tech doesn’t ‘roll over’, says godfather of chart analysis Prominent market technician Ralph Acampora thinks the stock market, specifically the Dow Jones Industrial Average, has more than 7% left to climb by the end of the year, if the technology sector doesn’t buckle under the weight of persistent worries about valuations.