01Jul2016 Market Update: US Main Indexes Have Slipped Off Session Highs, But Some Investors Hoping Markets Will Close In The Green, Indicators Neutral

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are higher today with shares in Brazil leading the region. The Bovespa is up 0.64% while U.S.’s S&P 500 is up 0.20% and Mexico’s IPC is up 0.15%.

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Wall Street extends gains on robust manufacturing data

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks extended their gains and were up for the fourth straight day on Friday as strong manufacturing data boosted prospects for an improvement in the economy.

Tesla shares slip after first fatality involving Autopilot

(Reuters) – Tesla Motors Inc’s shares were down less than 1 percent in early trading on Friday, with at least one analyst saying that initial reaction to the first fatality involving its Autopilot system was based more on perception than reality.

Spotify hits out at Apple after updated app for iPhones rejected

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Spotify confirmed on Friday that it has complained to Apple Inc after the U.S. tech giant rejected an updated app for the Swedish music streaming service on iPhones.

With Brexit clouding outlook, U.S. payrolls to tilt focus back to Fed

LONDON (Reuters) – Investors will start to peek beyond the Brexit-dominated headlines in the coming week to gauge the outlook for the global economy, and what impact an expected rebound in U.S. job creation will have on central banks eyeing looser policy.

Fed’s Fischer watching how quickly Brexit unfolds: CNBC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks but the Federal Reserve expects it will take some time before it can assess the impact of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said on Friday.

BMW to develop driverless car technology with Intel, Mobileye

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – BMW is teaming up with Intel and Mobileye to develop new technology for the auto industry that could put self-driving cars on the road by around 2021.

U.S. auto sales on track for best June since 2005

(Reuters) – Robust sales of pickup trucks and SUVs put the U.S. auto industry on track to record its best June in more than a decade despite a dip in sales at General Motors .

Exclusive: BP-Exxon impasse blocks renewal of giant Azeri oil deal – sources

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil and Britain’s BP are at loggerheads over a giant oil production deal with Azerbaijan, blocking renewal of what was once called “the contract of the century”, three high-level industry sources told Reuters.

U.S. factory activity improves, construction spending slips

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. factory activity expanded at a healthy pace in June as new orders, output and exports rose, new industry data showed on Friday, providing another sign that U.S. manufacturing was regaining its footing after weakness early this year.

Driver Of Self-Driving Tesla Was Watching Harry Potter At Moment Of Death

In what turned out to be a case of morbid irony, last night we reported that Josh Brown, the 40 year old (non) driver of the Tesla which fatally crashed into a truck on May 7 in Florida while in self-driving mode when the car’s cameras failed to distinguish the white side of a turning tractor-trailer from a brightly lit sky and didn’t automatically activate its brakes, had as recently as a month earlier praised his “Tessy’s” autopilot feature in a YouTube clip.

Tesla Model S autopilot saved the car autonomously from a side collision from a boom lift truck. I was driving down the interstate and you can see the boom lift truck in question on the left side of the screen on a joining interstate road. Once the roads merged, the truck tried to get to the exit ramp on the right and never saw my Tesla. I actually wasn’t watching that direction and Tessy (the name of my car) was on duty with autopilot engaged. I became aware of the danger when Tessy alerted me with the “immediately take over” warning chime and the car swerving to the right to avoid the side collision.

He was so enamored with the feature, in fact, that as AP reported overnight, he was watching TV at the moment of the deadly crash.

Frank Baressi, 62, the driver of the truck and owner of Okemah Express LLC, said the Tesla driver was “playing Harry Potter on the TV screen” at the time of the crash and driving so quickly that “he went so fast through my trailer I didn’t see him.”

“It was still playing when he died and snapped a telephone pole a quarter mile down the …

Art Cashin Sums It All Up

In an interview today on CNBC, Art Cashin hits the nail on the head as he typically does when asked about the central banks, the bond market and US Treasury yields hitting new record lows.

“It’s attracting money, it’s a very powerful magnet and it’s going to keep doing that.”

“With all apologies to Janet Yellen it’s getting to a point where it doesn’t matter what the Fed thinks, rates are going to stay low.”

On whether anything Stanley Fischer said today changes the view on that, Cashin delivers epic truthiness that nobody with a PhD sitting in the Eccles building ever wants to hear again.

“Not at all, I think the only thing I heard from him was a mild frustration that they couldn’t get things going. The market is more powerful than the Fed, that’s the problem.”

Or put another way (h/t @RudyHavenstein) – “Let the market clear!!”

Italy Just Bailed Out Another Failed Bank, May Use Pension Funds For Future Bank Rescues

Despite – or perhaps due to – Italy’s failed attempt to slide a state-funded 40 billion recapitalization attempt past Angela Merkel while blaming it on Brexit, and coupled with a bailout proposal to provide 150 billion in liquidity to insolvent banks, overnight we got yet another confirmation that the biggest risk factor for Europe is not Brexit but Italy, where yet another failed bank was bailed out. As the FT reports overnight, Atlante, Italy’s privately backed 5bn bank bailout fund which was created in April to stem the threat of contagion from struggling lenders and whose assets turned out to be woefully inadequate, took control of Veneto Banca after a 1bn capital increase demanded by EU bank regulators attracted zero interest.

This is good news for Veneto Banco and bad news for all other insolvent banks, because the fund, known as Atlas in English, was intended to hold up the sky for Italian banks. Instead it is now practically out of funds, having depleted more than half of its war chest after taking control of Popolare di Vicenza, another regional bank, last month.

That has left little in reserve to tackle about 200bn in non-performing loans run up during Italy’s three-year recession, of which 85bn have not yet been written down. Bad loans are weighing on bank lending and crimping an already weak recovery.

As the FT adds, Lorenzo Codogno, an economist and former treasury director-general, said: “Italian [and to a lesser extent European] banks have entered into a negative loop where they cannot ask for private capital as there is no investor appetite and without capital they cannot provision or write off NPLs.”

This means the only hope is public-funded bailouts, however that is banned by eurozone regulations. …

Debt for Cheap: U.S. Companies Can Profit from Sinking Rates

With bond yields around the world falling further in the wake of Brexit, U.S. corporate bonds are the only game left in town.

Mondelez and Hershey: The Hunter Could Be the Prey

Mondelez’s bid for Hershey could have the effect of putting it in play.

Why LSE Group Investors’ Votes May Be Wasted

Shareholders vote Monday on the merger with Deutsche Börse but Brexit has put big obstacles in the way

Metals Stocks: Silver set for biggest weekly jump in almost 3 years

Gold and silver futures soar as the dollar softens and investors buy assets perceived as havens to start July.

Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks on track to post 4th consecutive post-Brexit gain

U.S. stocks climbed Friday and the three main indexes were on track to book a fourth straight day of gains as better-than-expected manufacturing data combined with easing fears about the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union fostered buying appetite.

London Markets: FTSE 100 extends Bank of England boost, marks best week since 2011

U.K. stocks climb Friday to their highest of 2016, just a week after a U.K. referendum resulted in the country moving toward dropping out of the European Union.