07Apr2016 Market Close: Markets Down, DOW Off Almost 200 Points, WTI Crude Settles In The Mid $37 Range, Mr. Market Resting For Next Move

Written by Gary

Markets closed down while investors readjust their sights on further market movements. Short and medium indicators are consolidating, but we may see a sideways direction again tomorrow with a possible retrace to the upside. Longer term indicators definitely show a ‘moderate’ downturn testing the Spooz’ 2020 support. The SP500 daily Macd shows a downturn developing, but stopping at the 200 DMA (2020).

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets. xxxxxxxxxxx
	Fed’s Williams supports at least two rate hikes in 2016: Fox Business Network SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – San Francisco Fed President John Williams can support at least two interest-rate hikes this year, Fox Business Network reported on Thursday, citing an interview conducted earlier in the day.
	Wall St. falls amid global growth worries (Reuters) – U.S. stocks dropped Thursday as oil prices slid and worries about the global economy resurfaced, putting pressure on the dollar as investors fled riskier assets and sought safety in the yen and gold.
	Google mulls bid for Yahoo’s core business: Bloomberg (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google unit is mulling a bid for Yahoo Inc’s core business, Bloomberg reported, citing a source.
	Boeing CEO says sales at risk due to U.S. EXIM paralysis NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A delay in appointing U.S. Export-Import Bank board members threatens to cost Boeing Co sales, the company’s chief executive said on Thursday, flagging an issue that also affects General Electric and other U.S. companies that depend on the agency’s export financing.
	MetLife’s ‘too big to fail’ tag is ‘arbitrary, capricious’: judge WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal regulators’ decision to designate insurer MetLife Inc as “too big to fail” was “arbitrary and capricious,” the U.S. judge who struck down the determination last month wrote in an opinion that was unsealed on Thursday.
	JPMorgan urges investors to vote down break-up proposal (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co urged shareholders on Thursday to vote against appointing a committee to explore a break up of the bank, reiterating that splitting its businesses would not be in investors’ best interests.
	Europe’s banks under scrutiny as regulators look into Panama Papers BERN/GENEVA (Reuters) – Banking watchdogs across Europe have begun checking whether lenders have ties to a massive document leak from Panama that showed how offshore companies are used to stash clients’ wealth.
	General Market Wrap – Focus on the Copper Market 4-7-2016 (Video) By EconMatters Risk Off day in assets led by Europe, we review some of the day`s most interesting moves, with a focus on the Copper Market. Â© EconMatters All Rights Reserved \| Facebook \| Twitter \| YouTube \| Email Digest \| Kindle
	The Costs & Consequences Of $15/Hour Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, What’s the big “hub-bub” over raising the minimum wage to $15/hr? After all, the last time the minimum wage was raised was in 2009. The argument for increasing the minimum is to create a “livable wage” for those working at that level. Given the amount of table pounding that has ensued after the current administration proposed increasing the minimum wage, you would have assumed that a vast majority of American workers were trapped at this horrifically low level of income. Let’s take a look at some numbers. According to the April 2015, BLS report: “In 2014, 77.2 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.7 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 1.3 million earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 1.7 million had wages below the federal minimum. Together, these 3.0 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 3.9 percent of all hourly-paid workers.” Of those 3 million workers, who were at or below the Federal minimum wage, 48.2% of that group were aged 16-24. Furthermore, the percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less declined from 4.3% in 2013 to 3.9% in 2014 and remains well below the 13.4% in 1979. Hmm…3 million workers at minimum wage with roughly h …
	Consumer Credit Rises $17.2 Billion; Holding Of Federal Debt Hit New All Time High After a near record drop in non-revolving (student and car) loans in December, many were wondering if this pipeline which has kept the US auto sector afloat would remain shut. We are happy to report that for two consecutive months, this all important funding pathway has now been unclogged and nonrevolving loans are back to their soaring self. As the chart below shows, in the latest, just released month of February, total consumer credit jumped by $17.2 BN, beating expectations of $14.9 BN, and up from January’s upward revised $14.9 BN (was $10.5 BN). This was driven by a $2.9BN increase in revolving debt, and a $14.3BN jump in nonrevolving student and car loans. The breakdown – revolving debt: And non-revolving: As usual, the two primary uses of credit remained the same, as shown on the chart below: Finally, in case there is any doubt, here is t …
	Valeant: Stepping Back from the Abyss A new debt deal rightly sent Valeant shares rocketing. Maintaining the stock’s newfound momentum will get tougher from here.
	M&A Drought Leaves These Banks High and Dry If merger activity keeps slowing, boutique advisory firms will suffer the biggest fallout.
	China’s Currency Victory Hides Scars of War Beijing may want to declare œmission accomplished in its war over the yuan. But the tactics it used may obfuscate the price it paid to get there.
	February 2016 Consumer Credit Rate of Growth Rate Improves. Written by Steven Hansen The headlines say consumer credit rate of annual growth improved – and came in well above market expectations. This was the exact opposite of last month. The backward revision was significant, and trend lines were affected. Some of the graphics in this post are very interesting including the Ratio of Total Consumer Loans Outstanding to Consumer Spending.
	Rail Week Ending 02 April 2016: March Totals Down 11 Percent From One Year Ago Week 13 of 2016 shows same week total rail traffic (from same week one year ago) declined according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) traffic data. All rolling averages are in decline.
	Currencies: Dollar nears 18-month low versus yen The dollar tumbles Thursday to its lowest level against the yen in nearly 18 months as Japanese officials signal they wouldn’t intervene in the market to try to weaken their currency.
	The Tell: Why the old Dow average is what’s new again While the Dow Jones Industrial Average gets a lot of flack for being old-fashioned and out of touch compared with modern stock market indexes, one strategist makes the argument that the more-than-a-century-old average is probably best positioned for the current slow growth environment.