26Oct2016 Market Close: US Markets Close Lower, Boeing Shares Up, Texas Tea Stabilizes In Low 49’s, Gold Falls To 1266, Friday’s Fed Rate Change Promises To Be A Game Changer

Boeing rally lifts Dow, Apple weighs on S&P, Nasdaq

(Reuters) – A rally in Boeing’s shares helped the Dow reverse course in the early afternoon session on Wednesday, while Apple continued to weigh on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.

Boeing sees cash growth even if sales, production slow

(Reuters) – Boeing Co on Wednesday beat profit expectations in the third quarter as cost-cutting offset declining revenue at the world’s biggest planemaker. Boeing also said it would deliver more commercial planes than originally planned for the year and that cash flow will keep rising through the end of the decade.

U.S. housing, trade data boost third quarter GDP growth prospects

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly rose in September, pointing to sustained demand for housing even as data for the prior three months were revised lower.

Microsoft announces Windows update with 3D features

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp on Wednesday announced a free update to its Windows operating system that lets users take photos and edit content in three dimensions, in an effort to bring excitement to its declining computing business.

Exclusive: Dr Pepper Snapple in talks to buy Bai Brands – sources

(Reuters) – Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc is in talks to acquire Bai Brands LLC, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, a move that would break its track record of only investing small stakes in growth drinks brands.

Verizon executive says company needs more information about Yahoo hack

(Reuters) – A Verizon Communications Inc executive said the acquisition of Yahoo Inc still makes sense, but the telecommunications company needs more information about the email provider’s massive breach of accounts.

Belgians struggle to agree text to save EU-Canada trade deal

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian politicians struggled on Wednesday to agree additions to a planned EU-Canada free trade agreement and keep alive a deal backed by all 27 other EU governments but rejected by the French-speaking south of Belgium.

Hearst buys Camp Systems, expands into aviation data

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hearst said on Wednesday that it is acquiring aviation software firm Camp Systems, in a deal that will boost the storied media firm’s investments in the transportation sector.

Google halts Fiber rollout in some U.S. cities

(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc is halting the rollout of its much-talked about high-speed internet service, Google Fiber, in some cities in the United States.

Bitcoin Soars As China Launches Crackdown On Wealth-Management Products

After trading in a tight range for much of the summer, coiled within a $100 range around the mid-$500s, over the past several weeks bitcoin has once again started to push higher, closely tracking the decline in the Chinese Yuan as shown below.

However, the most recent burst in bitcoin activity, which sent it surging by over $20 overnight, has little to do with any moves in the official Chinese currency, which recently rebounded modestly tracking the recent dip in the dollar, and is likely attributable to a long overdue crackdown on China’s Wealth-management products, a key component of China’s “shadow banking” system.

As Bloomberg reported overnight, China’s central bank is finally conducting a trial monitoring of banks’ off-balance-sheet wealth-management products under its macro-prudential assessment system. A question one should ask perhaps is why the $1.9 trillion in asset locked up with WMPs had so far been exempt from regulatory supervision.

Just as notable, going forward the WMPs will be included in calculating broad-based credit, something we discussed last week when we showed just how vastly China is undercounting its broadest credit aggregate, Total Social Financing by ignoring shadow debt. Currently, the products aren’t included in the assessment framework, however it’s not clear when or if the People’s Bank of China will add them, Bloomberg added.

Project Veritas 4: Robert Creamer’s Illegal $20,000 Foreign Wire Transfer Caught On Tape

Project Veritas has just released Part IV of it’s multi-part series exposing numerous scandals surrounding the DNC and the Clinton campaign, including efforts to incite violence at Trump rallies and, at least what seems to be, illegal coordination between the DNC, Hillary For America and various Super PACs.

Part IV focuses on a $20,000 foreign donation made by an undercover Project Veritas journalist to Americans United for Change (AUFC). Ironically, shortly after the $20k donation wire was released, the contributor’s “niece” was offered an internship with Creamer’s firm, Democracy Partners.

In the effort to prove the credibility of the undercover donor featured in the videos and to keep the investigation going, Project Veritas Action made the decision to donate twenty thousand dollars to Robert Creamer’s effort. Project Veritas Action had determined that the benefit of this investigation outweighed the cost. And it did.

“First thing, like I said, thank you for the proposal. And I’d like to get the $20,000 across to you. The second call I’m going to make here is to my money guy and he’s going to get in touch with you and auto wire the funds to you,” said the PVA journalist.

Creamer told the PVA journalist to send the money to Americans United for Change. Shortly after the money was released, the “donors” “niece” – another Project Veritas Action journalist – was offered an internship with Creamer.

In an effort to see how far Creamer would go with the promise of more money, another Project Veritas journalist posing as the donor’s money liaison requested a meeting with Cre …

Texas County Enacts “Emergency Paper Ballots” After “Software Glitch” In Voting Machines

Just yesterday we noted several social media complaints from Texas voters who alleged that when they voted a straight republican ticket that voting machines were switching their presidential selection to Clinton/Kaine. While most undoubtedly dismissed these reports as conspiracy theories, new official reports from Chambers County, Texas suggest that there might be some truth to the voting machine “irregularities”. According to an NBC affiliate, polling stations in Chambers County had to enact emergency protocols yesterday and revert back to paper ballots
after a “glitch” was discovered in the county’s voting
machines.

The issue was actually discovered on Monday morning when Chambers County Clerk Heather Hawthorne was casting her own ballot and the voter next to her noticed that one of her votes was not filled in when she reviewed her electronic ballot Hawthorne told 12News on Tuesday.

An error in the voting machine programming by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) caused votes for one statewide court of appeals race not to be entered when a voter tried to vote straight ticket in either party according to a release from Chambers County.

ES&S is the vendor that Chambers County contracts with to program their voting machines.

The Texas Secretary of State’s office informed Hawthorne to create emergency paper ballots to continue voting until the problem could be fixed according to the release.

Below is the official

Don’t Diss The Dark Ages

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Much was lost when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, but islands of literacy, learning and security arose despite the constant conflicts and threats of invasion.

Once dissed as The Dark Ages, the Medieval Era is more properly viewed as a successful adaptation to the challenges of the post-Western Roman Empire era. The decline of the Western Roman Empire was the result of a constellation of challenges, including (but not limited to) massive new incursions of powerful Germanic tribes, a widening chasm between the Western and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), plague, an onerous tax burden on the non-elite classes, weak leadership, the dominance of a self-serving elite (sound familiar?) and last but not least, the expansion of an unproductive rabble in Rome that had to be bribed with increasingly costly Bread and Circuses.

In effect, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire ran out of time and money. The Grand Strategy, successful for hundreds of years, relied heavily on persuading “barbarian” tribes to join the Roman system for the commercial and security benefits. This process of integration worked because it was backed by the threat of destruction by military force.

The Empire maintained relatively modest military forces given its vast territory, but its road system and fleet enabled relatively rapid concentration of force to counter an invasion. It also maintained extensive fortifications along active borders. …

Deal or No Deal, Time Warner Is a Good Bet

Investor skepticism over the regulatory outlook for AT&T’s deal for Time Warner has created an opportunity in the media company’s shares.

Recession Fears Are Misplaced Until Growth Takes Off

Just because the economic expansion has been long doesn’t mean it is getting long in the tooth.

Santander: A Rare Bank That Lives Up to Hard Promises

The Spanish lender is exposed to a tough market in Brazil, but its loan losses remain contained.

Here’s how much an extra $10,000 in student debt will set you back over your lifetime

A college graduate with an extra $10,000 in student loans will achieve the nation’s median net worth 26% slower than a college graduate without that debt.

Currencies: Dollar climbs against Mexican peso, Russian ruble as oil sinks

The U.S. dollar jumps against the Mexican peso and Russian ruble Wednesday amid weakness in oil prices.

The Wall Street Journal: National Geographic’s ‘Afghan Girl’ arrested in Pakistan

An Afghan refugee whose portrait as a young girl became one of the most famous magazine covers in history was arrested for allegedly possessing a fraudulent Pakistani identity card.