Written by Gary
US stocks moderately extended gains today (SPY +0.8%), as Nike, the world’s largest shoe maker, posted a strong earnings report. Banking stocks also surged on clearing the Federal Reserve’s stress test.
Here is the current market situation from CNN Money | |
North and South American markets are broadly higher today with shares in Brazil leading the region. The Bovespa is up 1.25% while Mexico’s IPC is up 0.87% and U.S.’s S&P 500 is up 0.76%. |
Traders Corner – Health of the Market
Dow surges nearly 300 points as Nike hits all-time high
Nike is soaring, and it’s pulling the whole market higher
Amazon’s new warehouse policy will start penalizing sellers that store products for too long
Amazon’s big health-care bet just clobbered Walgreens. Its pain isn’t over, technical analyst says
Dollar slips, but on track to book nearly 5% quarterly gain
IRS debuts new post-card size tax 1040 form
Stock Market Bulls Should Be Frightened by These Numbers
What Is Moving the Markets
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Nike, financials push Wall Street higher(Reuters) – U.S. stocks further extended gains on Friday, as Nike shares hit an all-time high after the world’s largest shoe maker posted a strong earnings report and as banking stocks surged on clearing the Federal Reserve’s stress test. | |
China’s ZTE shakes up board in bid for U.S. ban liftSHENZHEN, China/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese telecoms giant ZTE Corp announced a new board on Friday in a radical management shakeup as part of a $1.4 billion deal with the United States, moving it closer towards getting a devastating American supplier ban lifted. | |
Bitcoin skids below $6,000, hits lowest level since NovemberLONDON (Reuters) – Bitcoin’s value slid to its lowest level since November on Friday, as waning investor interest and recent negative headlines from global regulators weakened demand for the cryptocurrency and most of its rivals. | |
Treasury chief Mnuchin slams report that Trump wants to exit WTOWASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Friday a report by the Axios news website, that cited sources as saying President Donald Trump wanted the United States to withdraw from the World Trade Organization, was wrong. | |
Canada strikes back at U.S. over tariffs, unveils aid packageOTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada struck back at U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Friday, vowing to impose punitive measures on C$16.6 billion ($12.63 billion) of American goods and unveiling a C$2 billion aid package for affected industries and workers. | |
Lawsuit targets ‘hidden fees’ in Wells Fargo finance programsNEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co has been hit with a lawsuit by a Texas jewelry company accusing it of encouraging thousands of retailers nationwide to charge hidden fees to customers using financing programs created by the bank. | |
Nike shares hit record as investors cheer North America rebound(Reuters) – Nike Inc’s shares jumped 12 percent to their all-time high on Friday after the world’s largest shoe maker saw a major sales rebound in its North America business and forecast strong growth for 2019. | |
U.S. core PCE price index hits 2 percent; spending slowsWASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices accelerated in the year to May, with a measure of underlying inflation hitting the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for the first time in six years. | |
German data, not politics key for trade war watchersDUBLIN (Reuters) – While German politics may dominate the headlines again in the coming week, the less attention grabbing release of industrial data could offer a better indication of the headwinds facing the European Union and its largest economy. | |
“Reject ‘Group-Stink'” – Doug Kass Reflects On A Wild Q2Submitted by Seabreeze Partners’ Doug Kass, Looking in the past and looking forward — politics has become more important than the central banks’ actions in determining stock market behavior CCAR results set the stage for an extended period of higher banks stock performance
As of 5:30 am, S&P futures (+13 handles) are nearly +40 handles above the premarket lows of Thursday (where we covered our (SPY) short position). This may be testimony to: Quite a bit of luck. The willingness to unemotionally trade within an expected trading range during non traditional market trading hours (” I am a pajama trader and proud of it”). A positive market reception to good CCAR results – and an after market climb in bank stocks. A marked reversal from general m … | |
BofA: It Feels Just Like Before LTCM And The 1998 Asia CrisisIn recent weeks, Bank of America’s strategists have turned decidedly gloomy on the market and the economy, warning on one hand that Europe simply can not be allowed to enter a recession as some 800BN in BBB-rated debt risks becoming a “falling angel” and flooding the junk bond market, while at the same time also warning that the global liquidity ushered in by QE has already turned negative. Now, in the latest “scare piece” by the bank’s Chief Investment Strategist, Michael Hartnett – who correctly predicted the February market tumble to the dot – puts together all the recent events that have troubled markets, namely: Fed tightening, US decoupling, flattening yield curve, collapsing EM, outperforming levered quant funds, and says that these are “all echoes of 20 years ago.” He is, of course, referring to the 1998 Asia/LTCM crisis, which he defines as a perfect example late-cycle global cr … | |
US Charges Over 600 “Despicable, Greedy People” In Multi-Billion Dollar Healthcare FraudWith the opioid crisis still in full swing (and researchers reporting on Wednesday 70,000 opioid-related deaths that were not added to official statistics over the past 20 years) The Department of Justice announced on Thursday the conclusion of a year-long crackdown on opioid overprescribers that led to the indictment of more than 600 people – including 76 doctors – on health-care fraud charges. All told, the DOJ found that the crimes resulted in more than $2 billion in losses for Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare, as well as private insurers. Medical professionals were also charged with contributing to the country’s opioid epidemic by unlawfully distributing millions of opioid pills.
According to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the investigation represents the biggest health-care fraud case the DOJ h … | |
France’s Macron Plans Compulsory Military Service “For Social Cohesion”Authored by Frank Sellers via The Duran, Perhaps he should crack open a history book… French President Emmanuel Macron is floating the idea of reintroducing compulsory military service. The plan intends on introducing youths to military life and service from the age of 16 for both girls and boys. The unpopular programme is expected to cost the French government nearly $2 billion. The BBC reports:
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Bank Stress Tests Don’t Instill ConfidenceSetbacks are minor for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, but gaps with the Fed’s view raise concerns. | |
How Amazon Made Pharmacies IllAmazon’s purchase of online pharmacy PillPack sparked a sharp selloff in drug supply chain stocks, as the deal shows the retailing behemoth is serious about entering the pharmacy business. | |
The Trans-Atlantic Catch-Up Trade Has Gone AwryThis was supposed to be the year global markets moved in sync, Europe following the U.S. with higher bond yields and stock prices. But at halftime things don’t look so simple. | |
Why there may never be a Netflix of videogamesPlenty of companies, from multibillion-dollar tech titans to startups, are trying to develop a streaming service for videogames that could do to consoles and individual videogame sales what Netflix did to DVDs and the cable bundle. But the issues that stand in the way could keep it from ever happening as imagined. | |
Currencies: Dollar slips, but on track to book nearly 5% quarterly gainA popular gauge of the U.S. dollar against major rivals is on track for a 4.9% rise in the second quarter, which would be its first positive quarterly stretch since late 2016. | |
Europe Markets: European markets rally as EU hammers out migration dealEuropean stock markets rallied on Friday after EU leaders after an all-night meeting knocked out a deal on refugees, seen as removing some political risk that had been hanging over the stock markets. |
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