04Apr2016 Market Close: DOW Closes Down 56 Points, WTI Settles In Mid 35's At Support, Wall Street's Longer-Term Is Bullish

Written by Gary

The markets closed fractionally lower in a slow session but, may be just consolidating for the next leg higher. Today’s session ended up with bearish signals that may carry over tomorrow, but a slightly longer look indicates that the Spooze is going to make one more attempt at the 2075/2080 resistance. Since 75% of pundits are now claiming a downward trend, I believe it is safe to say the SP500 will crack 2080 sometime this week.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	World figures deny wrongdoing as ‘Panama Papers’ reveal offshore wealth LONDON/PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Governments across the world began investigating possible financial wrongdoing by the rich and powerful on Monday after a leak of four decades of documents from a Panamanian law firm that specialized in setting up offshore companies.
	Alaska Air to buy Virgin America for $2.6 billion NEW YORK (Reuters) – Alaska Air Group Inc said on Monday that it would buy Virgin America Inc for $2.6 billion in cash to become the top carrier on the U.S. West Coast and compete more effectively with larger airlines.
	From Silicon Valley to Main Street, firms say SunEdison owes money LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Businesses ranging from Silicon Valley venture capitalists to a small Massachusetts solar installer say they are owed money by SunEdison Inc, underscoring the breadth of a breakneck expansion seen contributing to the solar and wind energy company’s financial woes.
	U.S. does not plan to grant Iran access to U.S. financial system WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration does not plan to give Iran access to the U.S. financial system, a State Department spokesman said on Monday.
	Wall Street flat as investors take stock after rally (Reuters) – Wall Street was mostly flat in quiet trading on Monday as investors took a break from a recent rally, which helped indexes recover from a steep selloff at the start of the year.
	Anheuser’s Leffe is not Belgian ‘abbey’ beer: U.S. lawsuit (Reuters) – Anheuser Busch Inbev SA has been sued by a U.S. beer drinker who claimed he was duped into believing its Leffe brand beer was brewed in a Belgian abbey, rather than mass produced in an automated factory that also makes Stella Artois.
	U.S. sues ValueAct over Halliburton-Baker Hughes deal disclosures (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday it had sued activist investor ValueAct Capital for violating pre-merger notification requirements related to oilfield service provider Halliburton Co’s deal to buy rival Baker Hughes Inc .
	Honeywell names chief operating officer seen as CEO-in-waiting NEW YORK (Reuters) – Honeywell International Inc on Monday named Darius Adamczyk as its first president and chief operating officer, a newly created role seen as a step toward designating a successor to Chief Executive Dave Cote, who has led the company for 14 years.
	U.S. top court rejects Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo class action appeals WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected two corporate challenges in class action cases, refusing to hear bids by Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Wells Fargo & Co to throw out large judgments against them.
	Russia Relies On “Pet Rock” to Push Reserves Back Over $380 Billion Whether you define gold as a barbarous relic, a pet rock, “tradition”, or “doomed”, Russia surely refers to it as a saving grace. As Russia’s foreign reserves dwindled to just under $350 billion in early 2015, many predicted Russia was going to burn through all of their reserves in the not too distant future as they dealt with a depreciating Ruble and plummeting oil revenues. However, this dire prediction did not pan out mainly due to one thing: Russia’s strategic decision to load up on as much gold over the past few years as it possibly could. As we have shown in the past, Russia has shown an insatiable desire for Gold, and as Bloomberg points out, has increased their holdings more than 12% since last July. This has paid dividends (figuratively in Russia’s case, literally for those who participate in India’s gold monetization scheme) as Gold’s price has helped push Russia’s foreign reserves back over $380 billion for the first time since January 2015.
	Iceland Protesters Gather In Front Of Parliament Demanding PM Resignation: Live Webcast Thousands of people are gathering in Reykjavik’s AusturvÃ¶llur square in front of the parliament building to vent their anger over the previously discussed revelations involving Prime Minister Sigmundur DavÃÃ° Gunnlaugsson and the Panama Papers. As a reminder, various local politicians have already asked for his resignation which he has refused to grant. Additionally, as Iceland Monitor writes, the PM’s words in an interview today that “It’s not like everyone is going to attend the protest,” seems to have sparked further fury. Many shops and restaurants have put up signs that they will be closed for the duration of the protest. Police chief at the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police, Ãsgeir ÃžÃ³r Ãsgeirsson expects large crowds and says that the preparations are ” standard”. “We hope that the public will cooperate with us and show enough respect towards the police as not to throw things at us or to somehow make us the target of the protest.” One early protester was arrested for throwing skyr at the house of Parliament this afternoon. The protest started at 5 pm local time: it can be watched in real time below.
	Was There A Run On The Bank? JPM Caps Some ATM Withdrawals Under the auspices of “protecting clients from criminal activity,” JPMorgan Chase has decided to impose capital controls on . As WSJ reports, following the bank’s ATM modification to enable $100-bills to be dispensed with no limit, some customers started pulling out tens of thousands of dollars at a time. This apparent bank run has prompted Jamie Dimon to cap ATM withdrawals at $1,000 per card daily for non-customers. Most large U.S. banks, including Chase, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. have been rolling out new ATMs, sometimes known as eATMs, which perform more services akin to tellers. That includes allowing customers to withdraw different dollar denominations than the usual $20, typically ranging from $1 to $100. The efforts run counter to recent calls to phase out large bills such as the $100 bill or the 500 note ($569) to discourage corruption while putting up hurdles for tax evaders, terrorists, drug dealers and human traffickers. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that the European Central Bank was considering eliminating its highest paper currency denomination, the 500 note. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers also has called for an agreement by monetary authorities to stop issuing notes worth more than $50 or $100. This move appears to have backfired and created a ‘run’ of sorts on Chase… A funny thing happened as J.P …
	Why Manufacturing Matters Submitted by Erico Matias Tavares via Sinclair & Co., A few weeks ago we penned an article on Open Source Ecology, an exciting new manufacturing concept developed by Dr. Marcin Jakubowski and his colleagues. Given its potential to create a multitude of self-reliant jobs and bring about a true manufacturing renaissance in much of the developed world, we thought that it would generate a lot of interest. But boy were we wrong. Out of all the 77 articles that we have published since 2014 it got the lowest readings… EVER! Now, we don’t consider ourselves to be any literary geniuses (nor we publish for “hits”), but we could never imagine that a title containing the word “manufacturing” could be so off-putting. We assume that for many of our dear readers, who for the most part live in Western countries, manufacturing is just an afterthought. The future and all the cool stuff is in services right? Well, if this is the reason, we really need to think about how we approach manufacturing. This is a personal topic for us. We started our career at General Electric (GE), at the time under the leadership of the legendary Jack Welch. As part of his broader risk management strategy, he bestowed an important oversight role on the finance function. Accordingly even us glorified “bean counters” were required to develop a deep understanding of our business, and particularly so in the manufacturing divisions. We even had to become conversant in Six Sigma, the art of business process improvement. While we were busy trying …
	SunEdison: Looking for Life in Its Orbit SunEdison appears headed for a bankruptcy filing, but investors are sniffing around its affiliated yieldcos. TerraForm Power appears to be the safer bet.
	Why Nielsen’s TV Data Just Got Harder to Beat Nielsen’s deal with Dish Network will help it improve its ratings system and silence some of its many critics.
	Air Alaska-Virgin Deal: Why Investors Should Get on Board Alaska Air’s acquisition of Virgin America is a necessary response to industry consolidation.
	Metals Stocks: Gold settles at monthly low on hawkish Fed hint Gold falls for a second straight session on Monday to settle at its lowest in over a month after a Federal Reserve official suggested that an earlier-than-expected interest rate hike is likely.
	The Fed: Why inflation expectations have fallen and won’t get up One market measure of inflation expectations has fallen sharply over the past two years and isn’t likely to rebound soon, according to a research paper from the San Francisco Fed.
	The Wall Street Journal: Justice Department sues ValueAct over Baker Hughes, Halliburton disclosures Move is the latest hit by the government against ValueAct and other activist investors over antitrust disclosures.