15Sep2016 Market Update: US Markets Higher In Moderate Volume, Commodities Very Volatile, Crude Prices Up, Indicators Confused

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 1.47% while U.S.’s S&P 500 is up 0.74% and Mexico’s IPC is up 0.38%.

Obama administration targets corporate offshore tax avoidance

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Thursday took action to limit the use of foreign tax credits by American multinational companies to reduce their U.S. tax bills, a move that followed an EU order that Apple Inc pay back taxes to Ireland.

Wall Street marches higher with Apple, lower rate-hike odds

(Reuters) – Wall Street rallied on Thursday, buoyed by Apple’s best four-day run since 2014, higher oil prices and lackluster data that further dimmed the odds of an interest rate hike next week.

Federal Reserve stress test may be illegal: banking group

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve may have violated the law in adopting key parts of the bank stress tests, according to a study released on Thursday from a group whose members include large Wall Street banks.

Apple stock heads for best four days since 2014; short sellers flee

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple extended its Wall Street rally on Thursday, with enthusiasm over demand for its newest iPhone putting the stock on track for its strongest four-day streak in over two years and clobbering short sellers who bet against it.

Weak U.S. retail sales, factory data dampen rate hike prospects

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. retail sales fell more than expected in August amid weak purchases of automobiles and a range of other goods, pointing to cooling domestic demand that further diminishes expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate increase next week.

CBS CEO Moonves says ‘no active discussions’ with Viacom

(Reuters) – CBS Corp is not in “active discussions,” about recombining with Viacom Inc , CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said on Thursday.

Exclusive: Central banks seek global standards in wake of Bangladesh heist

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s major central banks, stung by this year’s $81-million heist in Bangladesh, have launched a task force to consider setting broad rules to protect the vast network of cross-border banking from cyber attacks, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

Activist Needmor calls on Wells Fargo to split Chair-CEO roles

BOSTON (Reuters) – Activist investor Needmor Fund said on Thursday it filed a shareholder resolution with Wells Fargo & Co calling on the bank to split the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive, saying management needs strong oversight from the board “in light of the recent scandal” involving fake accounts.

Poll: December Fed rate hike probability 70 percent, say economists

(Reuters) – Chances the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December have shot up in the past month, according to a Reuters poll that showed economists are more convinced a move is on its way despite weak inflation and wage growth.

Trumps Slams “Totally Politically Controlled” Fed, Sees No Rate Hike Until Obama Has Left

“The Fed is being totally controlled politically,” exclaimed Donald Trump. Interest rates will remain low until January 1st, Trump went on, “because Obama wants to go out with no stock market disruptions.” The stock market “will remain at artificially high levels,” until the end of the year.

“If it was a choice between the right decision and a political decision… The Fed would choose the political decision”

“The Fed has become very political… beyond anything I would have thought possible…”

Two minutes in: (apologies for sound quality)

And while there are those conventional “Keynesians” who will loudly proclaim that you have to be insane to be hiking rates as the economy is sliding, we will ask: with the Fed having prioritized capital markets over the economy for over a century, perhaps it is conventional thought that is wrong, and it is time to try something that may work, because ZIRP, and whatever the Fed is doing, clearly is not.

Merkel Meets With German CEOs To Address 99.97% Unemployment Among “Highly Unqualified” Migrants

It’s been a bad couple of months for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose approval ratings have fallen sharply over her continued support of open-border immigration policies that have allowed over 1 million refugees to flow into the country since 2015. Increasingly more Germans have blamed Merkel for the surge in refugee terrorist attacks over the past couple of months and have shifted their support to more nationalist-leaning political parties. In fact, just a few weeks ago Merkel suffered a massive, embarrassing defeat in her home state to her nemesis, the anti-immigation AfD party (see “Merkel Stunned By Defeat To Anti-Immigrant Party In Her Home State”). Alas, despite calls from voters for a shift in Germany’s immigration policies, Merkel continues to double down.

One of the original selling points for accepting migrants from the Middle East was the apparent economic “benefits” associated with adding 100,000s of new, young consumers/laborers to the German economy. In fact, the wave of new immigrants was sold as the perfect solution for Germany’s demographic dilemma which is expected to see its working-age population shrink by 6 million people by 2030.

While it sounded like a great plan, it doesn’t really work that well if new migrants fail to find jobs and become economically productive members of society which, according to Reuters, is exactly what is happening. Apparently, German companies have only been able to find jobs for about 100 of the 1 million migrants that have recently found their way into the country.

According to the latest figures from the German Labor Office, about 346,000 people with asylum status were seeking jobs in Germany in August.&nb …

YouTube Has Quietly Begun “Censoring” Journalists Who Criticize Government

Submitted by Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org,

Earlier this month, YouTube, the behemoth video-sharing website was accused of censoring users.

Claiming some of their videos had been barred from making money through the company’s ad services, YouTube hosts like Philip DeFranco spoke out against the policy, claiming over “a dozen of his videos had been flagged as inappropriate for advertising, including one dinged for ‘graphic content or excessive strong language.'”

In a video entitled “YouTube Is Shutting Down My Channel and I’m Not Sure What To Do,” DeFranco called YouTube’s policy “censorship with a different name,” since users touching on what the company considers to be controversial subjects end up losing money. “If you do this on the regular, and you have no advertising,” DeFranco added, “it’s not sustainable.”

While YouTube has already confirmed its policy regarding what it considers unfit for monetization hasn’t changed, the issue might lie elsewhere now that the company seems more efficient in enforcing its own rules. As a matter of fact, the content policy

New iPhone Could Be Bad News for Wireless Industry

The success of Apple’s latest smartphone could spell the end of record-high wireless margins.

BOE: Pondering Markets as Much as Brexit

Mark Carney said last week he was “absolutely serene” about the BOE’s downbeat judgments of the impact of Brexit, and serenity prevailed Thursday as the BOE left policy unchanged. But policy makers still have plenty to chew on.

Why Strong Car Sales Won’t Dispel The Bears

Investors remain unimpressed by the late-summer growth spurt in European car sales.

July 2016 Business Sales and Inventories Data Remain Soft

Written by Steven Hansen

Econintersect’s analysis of final business sales data (retail plus wholesale plus manufacturing) shows unadjusted sales decelerated compared to the previous month – and the rolling averages declined. Inventories shrunk relative to the previous month but inventory-to-sales ratios remain at recessionary levels.

Howard Gold’s No-Nonsense Investing: Eight years after Lehman’s fall, Wall Street is still reeling

Investment banks deserve to suffer because they still haven’t cleaned up their act, says Howard Gold.

Netflix’s set-top box deal with Liberty Global should help it hold on to subscribers

Netflix Inc. is taking its streaming content to set-top boxes owned by Liberty Global PLC, and analysts at Nomura say that could reduce churn that’s impacted the company recently.

Can 2016 marijuana ballot initiatives ignite a fire under millennial voters?

Millennial and youth voters in America care more than any other generation about the legalization of marijuana, but it’s not clear if that will be enough to drive them to the polls for November’s pivotal election.