12Jul2016 Market Close: Wall Street Continues Bull Run With Key Indexes Recording New Historic Highs

Written by Gary

US markets closed higher, but off intraday historical high marks. Crude closed higher, but spent the afternoon trading sideways after surging more than 4%. Crude bounced off near two-month lows, after OPEC predicted in its first 2017 forecast that the demand for global oil will exceed production levels. U.S. wholesale inventories barely rose in May and will likely remained a drag on economic growth in the second quarter.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	S&P, Dow at record highs; Nasdaq turns positive for 2016 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Dow hit record intraday highs on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq turned positive for the first time this year, buoyed by rising prospects of global economic health and with Alcoa getting the U.S. earnings season off to a promising start.
	U.S. economy likely grew 2.3 percent in second quarter: Atlanta Fed NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy likely expanded at a 2.3 percent annualized rate in the second quarter following the latest data on wholesale trade, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow forecast model showed on Tuesday.
	IMF sees ‘negligible’ Brexit impact on U.S. growth WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Britain’s vote in a referendum to leave the European Union has caused uncertainty and increased risks to the U.S. economy but thus far it looks likely to have a pretty “negligible” impact on U.S. growth, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.
	Tesla has no plans to disable Autopilot feature: WSJ (Reuters) – Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric car maker has no plans to disable its Autopilot feature in the wake of a fatal accident in which the driver of a Model S car was using the technology, the Wall Street Journal reported.
	U.S. business wants slow Brexit, investment to dry up: lobby ISTANBUL (Reuters) – U.S. businesses, Britain’s biggest foreign investors, largely factored in the vote to leave the European Union and now want to see exit talks progress slowly, a top executive at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said.
	Fed’s Bullard sticks with single U.S. interest rate hike view ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve should be in no rush to raise U.S. interest rates despite a surge in June hiring, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Tuesday, sticking with his view that the central bank may need only a single rate hike for years to come.
	EU watchdog calls for tighter rules as Barroso takes Goldman job BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Ombudsman called on Tuesday for the EU to tighten rules on commissioners taking appointments on leaving office after former chief executive Jose Manuel Barroso moved to a senior job at Goldman Sachs.
	Magic Leap ramps up production for new type of virtual reality ASPEN, Colo. (Reuters) – Magic Leap, a startup backed by technology powerhouses including Google and Alibaba that has raised more than $1.4 billion, has hired more than 600 employees and is close to starting production of its first “mixed reality” products.
	Ex-Barclays director pleads guilty in U.S. to passing tips to plumber NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former director at Barclays Plc pleaded guilty on Tuesday to U.S. charges that he engaged in insider trading by tipping off a plumber friend to impending mergers that he learned about at the bank.
	Stock Panic-Buyers Reach “Extreme Greed”… But… Forget “greed,” US equity market investors are now in “extreme greed” according to CNN’s Fear and Greed meter. Does this go to ’11’? Soaring to 2-year highs… With every subcomponent screaming exuberance… * * * There’s just one problem with all this exuberant greed-mongering… Someone is hedging the breakout to record highs in size…
	Daily Pokemon Go Use Hits 43 Minutes, On Pace To Surpass Facebook As we noted two months ago, the US became an unsustainable service sector-based economy starting in the 1970s onward when service sector employment diverged from manufacturing without a corresponding boost in productivity. Even Alan Greenspan warned that America is “in trouble basically because productivity is dead in the water.” There are numerous reasons for this plunge in worker-productivity, from perverted inventives not to work to unintended consequences of monetary policy enabling zombies, but perhaps the most critical driver of recent productivity losses is captured by the following data point: 51% of total time spent on the Internet is on mobile devices – in 2015, first time ever mobile is #1 – to make a total of 5.6 hours per day snapchatting, face-booking, and selfying. So, while every effort can be made by Ivory Tower academics to solve the problem of American worker productivity, perhaps it can be summed up simply as “Put The Smart-Phone Down!” However, instead of putting away productivity-draining tools, Americans are about to lose several billi …
	Why Japanese Banks Shouldn’t Be Anyone’s Bargain Much could still go wrong for Japanese banks.
	Why This Bank Is at the Center of a Battle for Europe Italy is at loggerheads with its European peers over how to shore up the country’s struggling banks.
	Brexit Isn’t Only Reason Clothing Sales Are Out of Fashion The rise of e-commerce and sportswear matter more to fashion chains than Brexit.
	In One Chart: The CEO of your company probably earns 276 times more than you do CEOs at large companies made an average of $15.5 million last year.
	Market Extra: Investors have finally ruled out the possibility of a Fed rate cut Investors have abandoned bets that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates this summer, putting modest odds on the chance for a hike.