17Nov2015 Market Close: Averages End Session Down, Flat And Uninspiring, DOW Up 6 Points, Indicators Bearish

Written by Gary

The Markets closed mostly down, flat and uninspiring as did gold and oil. The only positive thing that can be said about today’s session is that the averages ‘fluctuated’. The short-term session indicators are very bearish, but that doesn’t mean that tomorrow will not be a session in the green.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Uber can’t appeal class certification order in U.S. driver lawsuit SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday denied ride service Uber’s request to immediately appeal an order approving class certification in a lawsuit filed by drivers who wish to be deemed employees.
	Top healthcare stock fund focuses on costs, orphan drugs in 2016 NEW YORK (Reuters) – Healthcare companies that can either contain costs or develop medications to treat rare diseases, known as orphan drugs, will be the most likely to outperform in the coming year, said John Fraunces, whose Turner Medical Sciences Long/Short fund is among the top performing healthcare funds over the last 5 years.
	Wall Street forfeits gains after Germany bomb report (Reuters) – U.S. stocks erased gains on Tuesday after a report that a soccer match between Germany and Netherlands was called off due to concerns of a bomb attack.
	Einhorn’s Greenlight takes new long positions, exits some shorts: letter BOSTON (Reuters) – Billionaire investor David Einhorn, whose Greenlight Capital hedge fund is nursing a 17 percent loss this year, told investors on Wednesday that he made new bets on fashion company Michael Kors and electric services company UIL Holding .
	American Airlines to reward fliers for money spent, not mileage flown (Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc on Tuesday said it will change its loyalty program in the second half of next year so customers earn frequent-flier miles based on the fares they pay rather than the distance they fly.
	TransCanada to raise dividend, add C$13 billion of new projects CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp said it expects to raise its dividend and bring C$13 billion ($9.76 billion) of new small and medium-sized projects into service by the end of 2018, following the rejection of its Keystone XL crude pipeline.
	U.S. pursuing criminal cases against RBS, JPMorgan executives: WSJ WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors are pursuing criminal cases against executives from the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and JPMorgan Chase & Co for allegedly selling flawed mortgage securities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
	Lockheed gets FAA approval for hybrid airship plan (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approved a certification plan developed by Lockheed Martin for its hybrid airships, the company said, taking it one step closer to starting commercial deliveries of the airships.
	McDonald’s to debut new value menu in January amid turnaround LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp said it would debut a “McPick” U.S. value menu in January as turnaround efforts continue at the world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue.
	Forty Centuries Of Wage & Price Controls Submitted by Tim Price via SovereignMan.com, LÃ©on Walras is the patron saint of modern economics. In other words, he was a clueless failure who hijacked immutable principles from the world of physics and misapplied them to the economic realm. The result, predictably enough, is that modern economics doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it masquerades as a science when it is really just a combination of dogma and very crude modelling. The modelling doesn’t work because garbage in equals garbage out. Sadly, this doesn’t stop the governor of the Bank of England from advocating overly simplistic policies in a highly complex world. What is alarming today is that almost nobody dares challenge the mandate or even ongoing existence of central banks as prime fixers of prices in the financial markets. (Spoiler warning: price fixing doesn’t work.) “Attempts to control and fix prices and wages span most of recorded history,” writes David Meiselman in the foreword to the definitive history of economic hubris, ‘Forty centuries of wage and price controls’ (Robert Schuettinger and Eamonn Butler). “Price and wage controls cover the times from Hammurabi and ancient Egypt 4,000 years ago to this morning.. “The experience under price controls is as vast as essentially all of recorded history, which gives us an unparalleled opportunity to explore what price controls do and do not accomplish. “I know of no other economic and public policy measure whose effects have been tested over such diverse historical experience in different times, places, peoples, modes of governm …
	BofA Is A “Seller Of Risk” As Everyone Is Long The Dollar, US Stocks Never More Overvalued There is exactly 1 month until the Fed’s December announcement at which at least practically every single economist (or 92% of them) are convinced the Fed will hike rates by 25 bps (keep in mind that over 90% of economists predicted in January that the Fed would hike by September at the latest). What happens if they are right? Well, perhaps nothing – after all the entire Fed move and then some, is already priced in. According to the latest Fund Manager Survey (FMS) by BofA, it may not be 92%, but at least 81% of active money managers expect the Fed to hike in December. …up from 47% last month as growth expectations bounce (in China to 15-month highs) and perceptions of market liquidity rise from 3-year lows. What that means is that everyone is also long the dollar, and that even the smallest disappointment by Yellen will result in an epic dump in the USD. Here is how BofA puts it: The Big November FMS takeaway is that the most vulnerable tactical trade heading into Dec Fed hike is “long dollar”, and associated positioning, i.e. long discretionary, Eurozone, banks, Japan, and short EM, resources, commodities. Exhibit 2 shows that â€œlong USDâ€ is the most crowded trade by far (32%), followed by the related trades of â€œshort commodity stocksâ€ (15%) and â€œshort EM equitiesâ€ (15%) It’s not just the US Dollar. According to the FMS, the other biggest consensus trade right now is long US stocks vs the re …
	U.S. Stocks Wobble U.S. stocks paused Tuesday, as a selloff in utilities and energy shares offset encouraging results from Wal-Mart Stores and Home Depot.
	U.S. Targets RBS, J.P. Morgan Executives in Criminal Probes Federal prosecutors areÂ actively pursuing criminal casesÂ against executives from RBS and J.P. Morgan Chase for allegedly selling flawed mortgage securities, people familiar with the probes said.
	U.S. Focuses on Banks’ Reports to Track Islamic State Targets The U.S. government is increasingly using bank reports on suspicious transactions to identify Islamic State targets and other terrorist facilities, including determining which refineries to hit with airstrikes, a senior U.S. official said.
	Retailers Add More Than 200,000 Jobs. Most October Job Gains Ever Recorded. from Challenger Gray and Christmas Holiday hiring got off to its strongest start ever last month, as retailers added more than 200,000 new workers in October. However, the record pace is not expected to continue into November and December.
	Market Extra: Analysts are baffled by moves in this esoteric but huge market Interest-rate swap spreads have recently turned negative, which according to analysts defies market logic.