14Jul2016 Market Update: US Indexes Have Slipped From Session Highs As Wall Street Takes Another Breather

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are broadly higher today with shares in Brazil leading the region. The Bovespa is up 1.15% while U.S.’s S&P 500 is up 0.49% and Mexico’s IPC is up 0.48%.

JPMorgan-powered rally pushes S&P, Dow to new highs

(Reuters) – The benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow scaled new highs yet again as JPMorgan’s strong results on Thursday set an upbeat mood for earnings and spurred a rally in financial stocks.

Microsoft wins landmark appeal over seizure of foreign emails

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Thursday said the U.S. government cannot force Microsoft Corp and other companies to turn over customer emails stored on servers outside the United States.

Fed’s Lockhart: Brexit, uncertainty, require patience on rates

VICTOR, Idaho (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve should remain “cautious and patient” with any future interest rate increases as the fallout from the recent Brexit vote becomes clear, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said on Thursday, adding weight to a core of U.S. central bankers who appear poised to remain on hold.

Mired in low rates, JPMorgan buoys itself with loan growth

(Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co is lending more and keeping a lid on expenses to combat the scourge of low interest rates, allowing management to stick to financial goals for the year.

Facebook makes little progress in race, gender diversity

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said about a third of its workers are females, while black employees accounted for 3 percent of its U.S. senior leadership, both numbers only slightly higher than a year earlier.

Bank of England jolts sterling as it keeps rates on hold, August move expected

LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England wrong-footed investors by keeping interest rates on hold on Thursday, but held out the prospect of a stimulus package soon to help the economy cope with Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Japanese chat app operator Line Corp soars in New York debut

(Reuters) – Shares of Japanese messaging app operator Line Corp soared as much as 36 percent in their U.S. market debut on Thursday, valuing the high-profile tech startup at $9.34 billion in the biggest tech IPO this year.

U.S. jobs, inflation data point to sustained economic strength

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly held steady near a 43-year low last week, pointing to further momentum in the labor market after job growth surged in June.

Hedge fund manager Ackman still betting against Herbalife

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said on Thursday that he was still betting against Herbalife Ltd shares and that the company needed to make “material changes to its incentive structure.”

What Britain’s New Foreign Minister Really Thinks Of The World

In a somewhat shocking move, new UK PM Theresa May has appointed former London Mayor and always outspoken “Leave” campaign leader Boris Johnson as her Foreign Secretary. Given his history of foot-in-mouth disease, as Bloomberg reports, the chances of a diplomatic issue are high as from “sadistic nurse” Clinton to “dobby the house elf” Putin, we detail what Britain’s latest foreign secretary thinks of his global peers…

On Vladimir Putin:

Johnson compared the Russian president to a character straight out of the Harry Potter books, in a 2015 column for The Telegraph newspaper about working with Russia to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Despite looking a bit like Dobby the House Elf, he is a ruthless and manipulative tyrant”

On Hillary Clinton:

Writing in the Daily Telegraph in 2007 Johnson questioned whether he could back her candidacy. Clinton, who today is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was at the time seen as a favorite to win the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

“She’s got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital; and a …

Helicopter Money – The Biggest Fed Power Grab Yet

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

The Cleveland Fed’s Loretta Mester is a clueless apparatchik and Fed lifer, who joined the system in 1985 fresh out of Barnard and Princeton and has imbibed in its Keynesian groupthink and institutional arrogance ever since. So it’s not surprising that she was out flogging – albeit downunder in Australia – the next step in the Fed’s rolling coup d’ etat.

We’re always assessing tools that we could use,” Mester told the ABC’s AM program. “In the US we’ve done quantitative easing and I think that’s proven to be useful.

“So it’s my view that [helicopter money] would be sort of the next step if we ever found ourselves in a situation where we wanted to be more accommodative.

This is beyond the pale because “helicopter money” isn’t some kind of new wrinkle in monetary policy, at all. It’s an old as the hills rationalization for monetization of the public debt—-that is, purchase of government bonds with central bank credit conjured from thin air.

It’s the ultimate in “something for nothing” economics. That’s because most assuredly those government bonds originally funded the purchase of real labor hours, contract services or dams and aircraft carriers.

As a technical matter, helicopter money is exactly the same thing as QE. Nor does the journalistic confusion that it involves “direct” central bank funding of public debt make a wit of difference.

Congress To Release Classified “28 Pages” Detailing Saudi Involvement In 9/11 As Soon As Friday

Four months ago, Saudi Arabia went “nuclear” when it emerged that Congress was preparing legislation which would allow plaintiffs to sue the Kingdom for its involvement in the September 11, with Saudi officials going so far as threatening to liquidate their holdings of US reserves. In the subsequent weeks, the legislation was quietly killed, however an open topic remained: the classified “28 pages” that were part of the 2002 Congressional report which allegedly disclose Saudi involvement in the worst terrorist attack on US soil ever.

To be sure, this wouldn’t be the only smoking gun: as we posted in April, another report, also known as “Document 17” linked the Saudi Embassy In Washington To Sept 11. As such, Saudi involvement is largely taken for granted. The only thing that has been missing is an official policy stance.

That may changed tomorrow because as CNN reports, citing sources, the classified pages detailing alleged Saudi Arabia government ties to the 9/11 hijackers will be released as early as Friday by Congress.

Known as the “28 pages,” the document was part of a 2002 Congressional investigation of the 9/11 attacks and has been classified since the report’s completion.

The 3 Charts That No UK Property Fund Manager Wants You To See

Things just went from worst to worst-er in Britain’s property market. Having detailed the numerous ‘dominoes’ that have begun to fall, and most recently the start of forced real asset liquidations, the hard data from Britain’s Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors suggests Brexit just killed the British housing market.

Having previously shown the following chart as an example of the ‘liquidity gap’ between fund-level liquidations and the exuberant UK real estate market, things could get ugly very quickly…

But things are about to get a lot worse… Here are three charts that no UK Property fund manager wants their investors to see…

New Vendor Instructions (roughly translated as pending home sales) has crashed by the most ever…

Source: RICS

“Hope” has collapsed with National Sales Expectati …

Why the Politics of Brexit Are Toxic for Investors

Don’t expect laissez-faire business policy from Britain’s new Prime Minister Theresa May.

Bank of England’s Hard Choice in a Post-Brexit World

The Bank of England has delayed action on Brexit until August. Even then, it may not have the real answer to the U.K.’s challenges.

How Google’s YouTube Business Is Tuned In

Despite their differences, YouTube and the music industry have a strong case of mutual need.

Commodities Corner: Guess what’s on pace to book the biggest gain among commodities this week

Cotton boasts the best gain for the week among commodities, thanks to a slowdown in global production. It could be due for a correction before its next move higher, analysts say.

The Wall Street Journal: Congress passes GMO label rules that supersede tough state measures

Congress has passed a federal requirement for labeling products made with GMOs that will supersede tougher measures passed by one state and considered in others.

The Tell: How Pokémon Go could save the shopping mall

It used to be you’d go to the shopping mall to go to the arcade, but what if the shopping mall itself became the new arcade?