31Oct2016 Market Close: Wall Street Showing Signs Of Weakness, But Refuses To Make A Downward Correction, Texas Tea Slipping Lower Along With The US Dollar

U.S. consumer spending ends third-quarter with strong momentum

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer spending rose more than expected in September as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles and inflation increased steadily, which could bolster expectations of an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve in December.

Wall St. treads water amid election doubts, M&A flurry

(Reuters) – Wall Street was little changed on Monday as investors digested the latest in a spate of large-scale corporate mergers as well as revelations ahead of the impending U.S. presidential election.

Wells Fargo agrees to $50 million settlement over homeowner fees

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a racketeering lawsuit accusing it of overcharging hundreds of thousands of homeowners for appraisals ordered after they defaulted on their mortgage loans.

GE to merge oil unit with Baker Hughes to create service giant

(Reuters) – General Electric Co said on Monday it would merge its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes Inc , creating the world’s second-largest oilfield services provider as competition heats up to supply more-efficient products and services to the energy industry after several years of low crude prices.

CenturyLink to buy Level 3 Communications for about $24 billion

(Reuters) – CenturyLink Inc said it would buy Level 3 Communications Inc in a deal valued at about $24 billion to expand its reach in the crowded market that provides communications services to businesses and compete with rivals like AT&T and Verizon.

Under fire, Carney to stay extra year at Bank of England

LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Monday he will stay in his job for an extra year until the end of June 2019 to help smooth Britain’s departure from the European Union, but he will depart two years short of a full term.

Atlanta Fed sees U.S. economy seen expanding at 2.7 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 2.7 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDP Now forecast model showed on Monday.

Nigeria’s Arik Air to buy mostly Boeing planes to double its fleet: source

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s largest airline Arik Air plans to nearly double its fleet to 52 planes within 10 years and has already ordered some of them from Boeing , a source at the company said on Monday.

Traders see remote chance of Fed rate hike this week

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Traders on Monday placed a low probability the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates at its policy meeting later this week amid mixed economic data and ahead of the U.S. presidential election, according to interest rates futures.

Valeant Plunges On BBG Report Former CEO, CFO Are Focus Of Criminal Probe For Accounting Fraud

While details are still lacking, moments ago Valeant stock plunged on a Bloomberg report that the Ex-CEO and ex-CFO are the target of a criminal probe due to accounting fraud.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. prosecutors are focusing on Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ former CEO and CFO as they build a fraud case against the company that could yield charges within weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reports.

On the news, VRX stock, which has had many aborted attempts to break solidly above the $20 level, just got dragged back in the teens.

Developing.

Saudi Finance Minister Al Assaf Fired On Royal Orders

While mostly taking place behind the scenes, it has been a rather calamitous month for developments in Saudi Arabia: one day before the record, inaugural $17.5 billion Saudi bond priced, news broke that for the first time, a member of the Saudi Royal Family, had been executed for murder in what until then had been an unprecedented fall from grace for a member of the chosen royal elite.

The very next day, as virtually everyone in the bond market knows, Saudi Arabia priced a massively oversubcribed – the first of its kind – international bond issue, taking advantage of rising oil prices on the back of Saudi jawboning about an OPEC production freeze deal which now appears unreachable (oil is down 4% as of this moment). The deal was seen by most as a major success for the Kingdom, one whose proceeds the local authorities had started to spend just as soon as the wire transfers were executed to get thousands of government staffers back to work.

So it is surprising that less than 2 weeks after this historic bond sale, moments ago we learned thatthe long-serving Saudi finance minister had been relieved of his post on Royal orders.

As Al Arabiya reports, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz issued a Royal decree to appoint Mohammed Al-Jadaan as the new finance minister on Monday to replace Ibrahim Abdulaziz Al-Assaf.

When It Comes To Household Income, Sweden & Germany Rank With Kentucky

Submitted by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

Last year, I posted an article titled “If Sweden and Germany Became US States, They Would be Among the Poorest States” which, produced a sizable and heated debate, including that found in the comments below this article at The Washington Post. The reason for the controversy, of course, is that it has nearly reached the point of dogma with many leftists that European countries enjoy higher standards of living thanks to more government regulation and more social benefits. What the data really suggests, however, is that even after social benefits are incorporated into the income data, the median American still has a higher income than most European countries.

Since I published that analysis last October, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) based in Paris has updated the numbers. Here is the ranking straight fom the latest “Society at a Glance” report from the OECD:

‘Conspiracy Vs. Government’ Is Elite Propaganda Justifying Violent Repression

Via The Daily Bell

‘Conspiracy Vs. Government’ Is Elite Propaganda Justifying Violent Repression

The rise of paranoid politics could make America ungovernable – and the FBI is fuelling the fire … Nothing can disprove the fears of a paranoiac. Indeed, everything confirms them … It takes away politicians’ incentive to understand one another and get things done. It says that if you scream loud enough, established norms will buckle under the pressure. And while those norms might be annoying and flawed, we’ll all miss them if they go. -UK Telegraph

With US belief in “conspiracy theory” over 50 percent (see our previous article here) elites are showing increasingly concern that they have lost control of their n …

Big Mergers May Face a Higher Bar in Washington

The White House is looking at the impact on jobs and pay when approving corporate deals, including planned mergers like General Electric-Baker Hughes and AT&T-Time Warner.

Cloud Bill: Why Amazon, Microsoft and Google Are Likely to Keep Spending

Trailing 12-month capital investments are now at $30 billion for three largest cloud vendors.

Oil Is Slicker Than Water at GE

General Electric is dumping its water business while combining the oil and gas unit with Baker Hughes, but probably not because it needs the cash.

CFPB: Student loan companies are illegally denying borrowers right to make lower payments

Report comes amid servicer overhaul.

Car-loan market suffers losses for a third straight month

Losses on prime and subprime loans rose in September, while delinquencies also moved higher.

Brett Arends’s ROI: Trump’s biggest supporters won’t bear the cost of his presidency

Brett Arends says he is watching armies of elderly people decide to impose terrible risks, without shame, on their own children and grandchildren by supporting Donald Trump. Those who will pay the price are the young and the middle-aged, who as a group don’t support him.