30Nov2015 Market Close: Markets Down

Written by Gary

The pundits are saying the markets declined because they are jittery from imagined future actions from central banks. Who knows but global markets are generally down.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

My opinion is that the markets are too high for a soft economy. Maybe holiday sales will be strong – or maybe not.

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Wall St. eases as consumer, healthcare stocks lag NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks slipped on Monday along with declines in health and consumer shares and as investors braced for policy news from central banks.
	American Airlines, union reach deal to hike gate agents’ pay (Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc said that members of the association representing its reservations and gate agents had approved a new five-year contract that includes “immediate and significant pay raises.”
	Volkswagen, DOJ want diesel civil cases heard in Detroit WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG and the Justice Department want a U.S. judicial panel to centralize in Detroit hundreds of civil lawsuits alleging the German automaker defrauded consumers and shareholders, according to court filings.
	Morgan Stanley to cut up to 25 percent of fixed-income jobs (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley plans to cut up to 25 percent of its fixed-income jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter.
	U.S. Cyber Monday sales jump, high traffic leads to website outages CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. online sales grew 14 percent on Cyber Monday, on track to set a record, leading some retail websites, like Target Corp’s, to crash temporarily due to high customer traffic.
	FTC preparing to block Staples-Office Depot deal: NY Post (Reuters) – U.S. antitrust regulators are preparing to block Staples Inc’s acquisition of smaller rival Office Depot Inc , the New York Post reported on Sunday.
	Apparel demand up, electronics flat over U.S. Black Friday weekend: MasterCard (Reuters) – Apparel-focused U.S. retailers saw sales perk up over the four-day promotional period that kicked off on Thanksgiving Day, though department-store and electronics revenue was roughly flat, a MasterCard executive told Reuters in an interview Monday.
	Tribune Publishing says not in talks to sell itself after Murdoch tweet (Reuters) – Tribune Publishing Co said it was not in talks or in the process of selling itself, after a tweet by News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch on Friday that suggested Tribune’s newspaper group would be sold.
	Foreign carmakers to keep price edge as Ford faces higher labor costs DETROIT (Reuters) – Foreign automakers with plants in the United States will be able to offer lower vehicle prices as Ford Motor Co faces continued higher labor costs under a new four-year contract with its U.S. union workers.
	New Smoking Gun: U.S. and UK KNEW Saddam Did NOT Possess WMDs We’ve pointed out again and again and again and again and again that everyone knew that Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Indeed, the architects of the Iraq war admitted that it was illegal … and really fought for oil (and Israel). Today, a new smoking gun has been disclosed. The Guardian notes: Tony Blair went to war in Iraq despite a report by South African experts with unique knowledge of the country that showed it did not possess weapons of mass destruction, according to a book published on Sunday. God, Spies and Lies, by South African journalist John Matisonn, describes how then president Thabo Mbeki tried in vain to convince both Blair and President George W Bush that toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003 would be a terrible mistake.
	President Obama’s Latest ISIS Strategy Illustrated Seek protection from the great threat… Source: Investors.com
	The Lull Before The Storm – An Ideal Chance To Exit The Casino, Part 1 Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog, Last night’s Asia action brought another warning that the global deflation cycle is accelerating. Iron ore broke below $40 per ton for the first time since the central banks kicked off the world’s credit based growth binge two decades ago; it’s now down 40% this year and 80% from its 2011-212 peak. As the man said, however, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. That’s because the above chart is not merely reflective of too much supply and capacity growth enthusiasm in the iron ore industry or even some kind of worldwide commodity super-cycle that has gone bust. Instead, the iron ore implosion is symptomatic of a much deeper and more destructive malady. Namely, it reflects the monumental malinvestment generated by two decades of rampant credit expansion and falsification of debt and equity prices by the world’s convoy of money printing central banks. Since 1994 the aggregate balance sheet of the world’s central banks has expanded by 10X – rising from $2.1 trillion to $21 trillion over the period. This rise does not measure some kind of ordinary trend which temporarily got out of hand; it represents an outbreak of monetary insanity that is something totally new under the sun.
	Erdogan Says Will Resign If Oil Purchases From ISIS Proven After Putin Says Has “More Proof” We’ve shown photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products, Vladimir Putin told reporters earlier this month on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Antalya. Putin was of course referencing Islamic State’s illicit and highly lucrative oil trade, the ins and outs of which we’ve documented extensively over the past two weeks:
	IMF Adds Chinese Yuan as Lending-Reserve Currency Marking a milestone in China’s ascendancy as a global economic power, the International Monetary Fund added the Chinese yuan to its basket of elite reserve-lending currencies.
	J.P. Morgan Hires Were Referred by China IPO Clients The bank employed friends and family members of executives at three-fourths of the major Chinese companies it took public in Hong Kong over a decade.
	How Manufacturing Fits in Fed’s Equation Sluggish manufacturing activityÂ could prompt the Fed to raise interest rates at a slower-than-expected pace in 2016.
	December 2015 Economic Forecast: On The Low End Of the Growth Seen Since The End Of The Great Recession Written by Steven Hansen Econintersect’s Economic Index declined – and remains in the low range of index values seen since the end of the Great Recession. The most tracked sectors of the economy generally showed some growth. Still our economic index remains in a long term decline since late 2014.
	What Is The Speed Of A Shadow Think about how fast a shadow can move. The speed of a shadow is not restricted to be less than the speed of light.
	The Tell: U.S. Treasurys lag behind in November as investors brace for rate hike U.S. government bonds underperformed all major European government bonds in November, as investors sold U.S. Treasurys in anticipation of a potential interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
	The Wall Street Journal: Sheldon Silver, powerful N.Y. politician, found guilty of corruption Sheldon Silver, for decades one of the powerful politicians in New York state, was convicted Monday of honest-services fraud, extortion and money laundering.
	Currencies: Dollar posts biggest monthly rise since January The dollar edges higher on Monday, cementing its best monthly performance since the beginning of the year as investors braced for the Federal Reserve’s long-awaited first interest-rate increase, which many expect will finally come to pass in December.