01Jun2016 Market Close: Wall Street Closes In The Green, Investors Worry About Mixed Economics, Disappointing Auto Sales And The SP500's Inability To Push Through 2100

Written by Gary

Wall Street edged into flat, but positive territory at the close. The DOW closed 2 points up and the Spooz closed up as well at 2099, but below the 2100 necessary to continue the bull run. Some bank analysts just got a little more bearish, saying a handful of forces including a summer Federal Reserve rate increase could send the S&P 500 into a potential tailspin this summer.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Rise in U.S. manufacturing activity masks underlying weakness WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. manufacturing grew for a third straight month in May, but factories appeared to be taking in fewer deliveries from their suppliers, which could hamper production in the months ahead.
	Wall St. flat on U.S. factory data, oil pullback (Reuters) – Wall Street kicked off June on a sluggish note on Wednesday, as investors sifted through a raft of manufacturing data from around the world.
	Fed report points to slight rise in inflation, tight job market WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) – Inflation pressures grew slightly across most of the United States from April to mid-May, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday in a report that also pointed to rising labor costs for American companies.
	Granddaughter of Sumner Redstone backs Viacom’s directors (Reuters) – Sumner Redstone’s granddaughter Keryn said on Wednesday she plans to support the independent directors of Viacom Inc to help free the 93-year-old media mogul from the “clutches” of his daughter, Shari.
	World factories stuck in low gear on sluggish demand LONDON/BEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global manufacturing activity remained stuck in a rut last month with factory output from Asia, Europe and the Americas barely improving as producers struggled to bring in new orders, surveys released on Wednesday showed.
	New York airport’s $4 billion renovation financing deal closes, begins lease NEW YORK (Reuters) – A $4 billion project to renovate New York’s delapidated LaGuardia Airport finalized its financing on Wednesday, marking the start of a 34-year lease on one of the most complex public-private partnerships in the United States.
	U.S. auto sales drop in May for GM, Ford as FCA up slightly DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. auto industry sales weakened in May, with General Motors Co , Ford Motor Co and other manufacturers reporting lower U.S. vehicle sales for the month due to sluggish demand for sedans and fewer selling days.
	Some new cars still include defective Takata airbags WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp , Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV , Volkswagen AG and Mitsubishi Motors Corp are still selling new vehicles with defective air bags that will eventually need to be recalled, according to a report by a U.S. lawmaker overseeing the agency handling the largest-ever auto safety recall.
	Sanofi requests Medivation set deadline for shareholder consent on board revamp PARIS (Reuters) – French drugmaker Sanofi said on Wednesday it had submitted a written notice to Medivation requesting the U.S. company’s board set a deadline for shareholders to give their written consent to remove and replace Medivation’s board of directors.
	The Great Hollowing Out Of The Middle Class: New Business Formation Collapses For a country that prides itself (or used to at least) on the success of the entrepreneur and small business creation, a disturbing trend has developed. According to according to a new analysis by the Economic Innovation Group, fewer new businesses were created in the last five years than any other period since at least 1980. “It’s hard to put into scale the collapse of new business formation. We have no precedent for that rapid and steep of a decline. It will have a ripple effect in the economy. You’re going to feel that impact five, 10, 15 years in the future” said John Lettieri, co-author of the report and co-founder of EIG. Businesses that did form during the last five years are far more concentrated than ever before, with just 20 counties accounting for half of the country’s total new businesses, all of them in large metro areas around large cities such as Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and San Francisco Quartz reports.
	What Happens When Thousands Of Chinese Cab Drivers Get Pissed At Uber Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Didi are a deflationary, VC-funded blessing and convenience to consumers (and lately, to Goldman Sachs). But to cab drivers, the services provided by the Ubers and Didis of the world are a mortal threat: in the past we have seen troubling images from many corners around the world, most notably Europe, when the taxi industry, threatened by the new service, take arms – in some cases literally – against ride-hailing apps. But in this latest example from the central Chinese city of Xi’an, courtesy of Tech In Asia, we see what happens when thousands of Chinese cab drivers take aim at consumer convenience. As you can see in the images below (which come via some Xi’an-based Sina Weibo users), taxi drivers congregated in a central area near the city’s ancient bell tower and made themselves into a massive traffic jam.
	Delivery Won’t Be the Driver at Amazon Comments by CEO Jeff Bezos suggest Amazon isn’t planning to supplant FedEx or UPS anytime soon. Investors should be glad.
	Alibaba Now Faces Two Big Sellers: SoftBank and Yahoo SoftBank is selling a stake Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba for the first time. Along with Yahoo, that means two major Alibaba shareholders are looking for at least a partial exit.
	Bank Stress Tests: The Bar Keeps Getting Higher As stress-test results loom, U.S. banks may face barriers to sharply increasing capital returns.
	Outside the Box: How cheap debt is keeping the economy from recovering Ultralow interest rates, large budget deficits and quantitative easing have failed to deliver a long-term boost to economies. What options are left?
	The Fed: House committee probing Fed’s role in cybertheft that nabbed $81 million The House Science Committee has launched a probe into the hacker attack on the New York Fed in February that succeeded in stealing millions.