17Nov2016 Market Close: US Major Indexes Close In The Green, But Off SP500 Historic High, US Dollar Highest Since 2003, Crude Prices Apparently Headed Lower, Gold In Trouble

Yellen says Fed could raise interest rates ‘relatively soon’

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president has done nothing to change the Federal Reserve’s plans for a rate increase “relatively soon,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday in Congressional testimony that included a pledge to serve out her term.

S&P 500 nears record high, helped by bank stocks

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The benchmark S&P 500 index ended higher and edged closer to its record high on Thursday as bank stocks got a boost from the prospect of higher interest rates and consumer discretionary stocks were helped by economic data and earnings.

U.S. inflation, labor market data bolster Fed December rate hike

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest increase in six months in October on rising gasoline costs and rents, suggesting a pickup in inflation that potentially clears the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December.

Ex-Valeant executive, ex-pharmacy CEO charged for fraud scheme

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Thursday filed charges against a former Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc executive and a former CEO of mail order pharmacy Philidor Rx Services, alleging they engaged in a multimillion-dollar fraud and kickback scheme.

McDonald’s to debut mobile ordering in U.S. in 2017

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES(Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp will debut mobile ordering in the United States and 10 major markets in 2017, as part of the fast-food chain’s effort to win back customers by becoming a “modern, progressive burger company,” executives said on Thursday.

JPMorgan to pay $264 million to resolve China hiring probe: SEC, DoJ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co has agreed to pay U.S. authorities $264 million to resolve allegations it hired the relatives of Chinese officials in order to win banking deals, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department said in statements Thursday.

Twitter CEO apologizes for allowing white supremacist ad

(Reuters) – Twitter’s Chief Executive Jack Dorsey apologized on Thursday after the microblogging service let through an ad promoting a white supremacist group.

Carmakers show their caution on electric cars at Los Angeles Auto Show

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Electric cars are taking a back seat to more profitable trucks and sport utility vehicles at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show, a venue that recently has been a showcase for green cars.

German minister says Facebook should be treated as a media company

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Justice Minister says he believes Facebook Inc. should be treated like a media company rather than a technology platform, suggesting he favors moves to make social media groups criminally liable for failing to remove hate speech.

Small Caps Surge Equals Longest Win Streak In 13 Years As Bond Bloodbath Begins Again

Before we start – this!!!

Trumponomics, a Hawkish Yellen, plunging jobless claims, and soaring housing starts sparked USD panic-bid, dumping US Treasuries, buying stocks and EM bonds, and dumping Yen and Yuan…

Russell 2000 (Small Caps) are up 10 straight days (since Comey ‘saved’ Clinton). The last time they saw a streak longer than this was June 2003 (after which it fell 6%) – Aug 2003 and Mar 2013 stalled at 10 days straight…

This is the best gain for Small Caps since the rip off the March 2009 lows…

Which is very odd given Small Caps’ major sensitivity to credit markets…

This is the biggest short-squeez …

Obama On Pace To Increase The Debt By Stunning $2.4 Trillion This Year

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

OK, this is pretty nuts.

According to data released by the Treasury Department yesterday, the US national debt has soared by a whopping $294 billion since the start of the 2017 fiscal year, just 45 days ago.

That’s an annualized increase of 14%.

So if they keep up this pace, the national debt will increase by $2.4 trillion this fiscal year, surpassing $21 trillion by next September.

It’s hard to believe how rapidly the debt is growing; debt growth is far outpacing the growth of the US economy… and there’s no way to pretend that this is good news.

That doesn’t stop leading economists from trying.

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman says “debt is good” because the US economy has grown so much over the last 200 years despite not having been debt-free since 1835.

This kind of logic is astonishing.

Aside from a few anomalies like World War II and the American Civil War, debt levels over most of early American history were low.

100 years ago in 1916, US debt was about $3.6 billion; as a percentage of GDP (i.e. the size of the US economy), that was about 7%.

Today’s debt of $19,867,119,032,053.28 is actually bigger than the entire US economy at over 106% of GDP.

An Unexpected $12 Trillion Hole Emerges In Donald Trump’s Plan To “Make America Great Again”

The “great hope” that has lifted asset prices and inflation expectations over the past week, sent the Dow Jones and the Russell to all time highs, unleashed the highest US Dollar in 13 years and muted pundits who warned of a Trump-induced market crash is that the new president will soon unleash a “Reaganesque” fiscal stimulus, one which will unanchor inflation from recent stubbornly low levels, and succeed where the Fed and other central banks have failed since 2009. Adding to this speculation was Wednesday’s report that the Trump administration is even considering creating an “infrastructure bank” despite nixing the idea previously.

However, as we noted yesterday, there is one major difference between the days of Reagan and modern America: citing the Bond Vigilantes blog we noted that “when Reagan came into power, debt to GDP was just 30%. It is nearly 100% now, as such Reagan had much more fiscal headroom than Trump does today.” Echoing what we said one week earlier, the blog concluded that “if Donald Trump intends to flex the fiscal lever, bond market vigilantes could return with a vengeance, making it increasingly expensive for him to do so.”

Today the question of where the funding will come to sponsor Trump’s ambitious plan to “Make America Great” again and reform America’s tax code so that both the economy and inflation areshaken higher, is starting to emerge loud and center, and in an unexpected twist, a bit hurdle may have emerged. As Goldman writes in a research report overnight, strategist Alec Phillips writes that while “there is substantial support in Congress for proposals to cut taxes and reform the tax code and that there is likely to be sufficient suppo …

“Triggered” Lena Dunham Checks Into Posh Arizona Resort For “Vision Quest”

Last week we noted an article written by Lena Dunham for the feminist blog Lenny Letter, entitled “Don’t Agonize, Organize,” in which Dunham chronicled her complete devastation on election night after she realized that “something had gone horribly wrong”.

The three hours I spent at the Javits Center Tuesday night, surrounded by campaign staffers and fellow surrogates for Hillary Clinton, are blurred and spotty. At a certain point it became clear something had gone horribly wrong. Celebrants’ faces turned. The modeling had been incorrect. Watching the numbers in Florida, I touched my face and realized I was crying. “Can we please go home?” I said to my boyfriend. I could tell he was having trouble breathing, and I could feel my chin breaking into hives. Another woman showed me her matching hive, hidden by fresh concealer.

At home I got in the shower and began to cry even harder. My boyfriend, who had already wept, watched me as I mumbled incoherently, clutching myself. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way. It was supposed to be her job. She worked her whole life for the job. It’s her job.”

Since election day we’ve been peppered by one outburst after another from the disaffected snowflake who can’t seem to come to terms with the results of the democratic process. She recently went so far as to share her utter “terror” that a “predator will soon be residing in the White House.”

Now, apparently the post-election stress has just overwhelmed the sensitive Dunham to the point that she has checked herself into a posh resort in Sedona, Arizona to recover from her misery. Per the Instagram post below, …

What Could Go Wrong With the Trump Trade

Investors are showing a remarkable amount of certainty in what President-elect Trump will mean for the market. But it wouldn’t take much for them to be wrong.

Dow 20000? He Called It in 2012

The sharp rally following last week’s election has the Dow just 6% away from one forecaster’s vaunted long-term target, years ahead of schedule.

J.P. Morgan Settlement Shows Western Banks’ Fading China Dreams

J.P. Morgan Chase has put a probe into its hiring practices behind it, but its settlement raises questions about how the bank and its U.S. peers can move forward in China.

Deep Dive: Bank stocks could record big gains in the months ahead if Donald Trump gets his way

Trump wants to pass tax reform and tweak regulations, says Phil van Doorn.

Personal Finance Daily: You should really change your generic passwords and how a good sleep tonight could get you more money in the future

Thursday’s top personal finance stories

Deep Dive: Warren Buffett loves four airline stocks, but Wall Street prefers this one

The industry’s sales, earnings and efficiency are improving, says Phil van Doorn.