Written by Gary
Interesting session today as the SP500, on low volume, climbed to the 2075 resistance and backed off just before the close. We have seen this behavior before when pundits start claiming the market can’t go any higher and then it does. Several trend lines have been broken (bullish) and unless the markets turn down next week, look for higher numbers.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Automakers post disappointing U.S. sales, still see strong 2016 DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co , Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and other major automakers reported weaker-than-expected U.S. sales for March, hurt by declining demand for sedans and light dealer traffic during the Easter weekend. |
| California sues Morgan Stanley over mortgage losses (Reuters) – The state of California sued Morgan Stanley on Friday, accusing the bank of concealing the risks of complex investments such as residential mortgage-backed securities, causing major losses for investors including the state’s public pension funds. |
| HSBC comes up short in money laundering vigilance, U.S. says NEW YORK (Reuters) – HSBC Holdings Plc has not done enough to thwart money laundering, despite making significant progress since reaching a landmark 2012 anti-money-laundering settlement with U.S. prosecutors, a federal monitor has found. |
| Exclusive: Brazil’s Vale mulls sale of Thyssenkrupp steel venture stake NEW YORK/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian iron ore miner Vale SA is finalizing a proposal to sell its 26.87 percent stake in a steel slab plant that cost nearly $10 billion to build to Germany’s Thyssenkrupp for $1 plus the assumption of some debt, a source close to the deal said. |
| Wall Street extends seven-week rally after jobs data (Reuters) – Wall Street extended a seven-week rally on Friday after upbeat U.S. jobs and factory data hinted at stronger corporate earnings without increasing concerns of potential U.S. interest rate hikes. |
| Broad base can support extension of S&P 500 rally NEW YORK (Reuters) – The seven-week U.S. stock market rally still has some room to run and could punch through the record high set by the S&P 500 last May, based on a number of indicators that are pointing the way higher. |
| Fed’s Mester doesn’t want to wait too long on rate hike NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve should still raise interest rates gradually this year given the economy’s resilience, a top Fed official said on Friday, explaining she did not want to wait too long despite having supported last month’s decision to stand pat. |
| Orange and Bouygues $11.4 billion French telecoms deal collapses PARIS (Reuters) – A proposed deal between state-controlled telecoms group Orange and Bouygues to create France’s biggest telecoms operator collapsed on Friday, ending an attempt to ease a price war that has ravaged their margins. |
| Tesla, buoyed by strong Model 3 orders, may need more cash (Reuters) – An initial flurry of orders has put Tesla Motors’ new Model 3 sedan off to a fast start, but the company may need to raise more cash if it hopes to deliver the new electric vehicle to customers on time, analysts said on Friday. |
| The Trade Wars Begin: China Retaliates To Steel Tariffs With Global Anti-Dumping DutiesWhen looking back in history, December 23, 2015 may be the date the global trade wars officially began. On that day, as we reported at the time, the U.S. imposed a 256% tariff on Chinese steel imports. It did so perhaps with good reason: with its local end markets mothballed, China was desperate to dump as much excess capacity as possible offshore with shipments of steel, oil products and aluminum all reaching new highs according to trade data from the General Administration of Customs, and the result was a dramatic drop in US prices.
On the other hand, with Chinese mills, smelters and refiners all producing far more than can be purchased domestically amid slowing domestic demand, as well as the government’s anti-pollution crackdown, China’s decision to ship the excess overseas was also understandable. As Bloomberg wrote at the time, “the flood of Chinese supplies is roiling manufacturers around the world and exacerbating trade frictions. The steel market is being overwhelmed with metal from China’s government-owned and state-supported producers, a collection of industry associations have said. The nine groups, including Eurofer and the American Iron and Steel Institute, said there is almost 700 million tons of excess capacity around the world, with the Asian nation contributing as much as 425 million tons.” 2016 was expected to get even worse: Colin Hamilton, head of commodities research, said the the price of hot-rolled coil, used in everything from fridges to freight containers, may decline about 13 percent next year. Ch … |
| “Whoever Wins In Cleveland, The Establishment Must Lose”Submitted by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org, The Wisconsin primary could be an axle-breaking speed bump on Donald Trump’s road to the nomination. Ted Cruz, now the last hope to derail Trump of a desperate Beltway elite that lately loathed him, has taken the lead in the Badger State. Millions in attack ads are being dumped on the Donald’s head by super PACs of GOP candidates, past and present. Gov. Scott Walker has endorsed Cruz. Conservative talk radio is piling on Trump. And the Donald just had the worst two weeks of his campaign. There was that unseemly exchange with Cruz about their wives. Then came the pulling of the woman reporter’s arm by campaign chief Corey Lewandowski, an atrocity being likened by the media to the burning of Joan of Arc. Then there was Trump’s suggestion, instantly withdrawn, that if abortion is outlawed, then women who undergo abortions may face some punishment. This gaffe told us nothing we did not know. New to elective politics, Trump is less familiar with the ideological and issues terrain than those who live there. But the outrage of the elites is all fakery. Democrats do not care a hoot about the right to life of unborn babies, even unto the ninth month of pregnancy. And the Republican establishment is grabbing any stick to beat Trump, not because he threatens the rights of women, but because he threatens them. The establishment’s problem is that Trump refuses to take the saddle. Again and again, he has defied the dictates of political correctness that they designed to stifle debate and demonize dissent. Trump has gotten away with his insubordination and shown, with his crowds, votes, and victories, that millions of alienated Americans detest the Was … |
| No Rebound HereThe most important aspect of the US economy – consumption – appears to face a headwind as despite “awesome” jobs data, exuberant Manufacturing surveys, and talking heads fighting each other to come up with the most superlative superlatives for the US economy, UMIch exposes the fact that income growth expectations for Americans (the ones that are throwing their support behind Trump and Sanders) continues to slide. All that post-QE3 “hope” is gone…
And Year-over-year shows no rebound here…
h/t @DougTee Still who needs “hope” when the stock market keeps rising. As Jim Cramer explained to ‘the people’ this morning, “we need the stock market to go higher and the wealth effect to continue.” |
| Rebutting Matt O’Brien’s and the Washington Post’s Misguided Attack on GoldIt is our mission to rebut any mainstream article that spreads misinformation about gold and/or shows a gross misunderstanding of monetary history. In Matt O’Brien’s œWonkblog in the Washington Post on February 23, 2016, titled œThis might be Ted Cruz’s worst idea œ, he does both. The ˜worst idea’ in this case refers to the Texas Senator’s view that it would be to the benefit of the US economy to return to a gold standard. One of O’Brien’s main arguments against the gold standard, aside from his claim that apparently nobody on the œUniversity of Chicago’s ideologically diverse expert panel thinks it a good idea, is that he believes goods and services priced in gold are more volatile than goods priced in US dollars and, behold, sometimes prices can even decline substantially.
Source: Washington … |
| How BlackBerry’s Handsets Are Stuck on HoldDisappointing device sales complicate the company’s makeover attempt. |
| Why the Jobs Report Lets the Fed Maintain Its Balancing ActThe upbeat employment figures were accompanied by an expansion in labor-force participation, and this allows Janet Yellen and the Fed to take a wait-and-see approach to rates in April. |
| Global Markets’ First-Quarter Report Card: Limited ProgressAfter a wild ride in the first quarter, markets are offering few easy choices for investors. |
| The Tell: 2016’s best ETF play in Q1 was buying gold, shorting this sectorIf you made investments in exchange-traded funds focused on gold and bet against those pegged to biotechnology, you would have made a pretty penny in the first quarter of 2016. |
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