29Nov2016 Market Close: U.S. Stocks Higher, Boosted By Healthcare, Held Down By Energy; Oil And Gold Slip; All Eyes On OPEC

Wall St. inches up with health stocks; Nasdaq hits record

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks edged higher on Tuesday, pushing the Nasdaq to a record high, with an upbeat outlook from UnitedHealth lifting health insurers.

Consumers, exports give U.S. economy muscle in the third-quarter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the third quarter, notching its best performance in two years, buoyed by strong consumer spending and a surge in soybean exports.

Iran, Iraq at loggerheads with Saudis ahead of OPEC meeting

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran and Iraq are resisting pressure from Saudi Arabia to curtail oil production, making it hard for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to reach a deal to limit output and boost the price of crude when it meets on Wednesday.

State treasurers renew call for independent chair at Wells Fargo

(Reuters) – Investors, including the state treasurers of Connecticut and Illinois, called on Wells Fargo & Co to require an independent board chair, saying the bank needs stronger oversight in the wake of a scandal over fake customer accounts.

U.S. probes hit defunct energy co linked to Platinum Partners

NEW YORK (Reuters) – At least four U.S. agencies are investigating former officials of a now-bankrupt oil and gas company once majority owned by troubled hedge fund manager Platinum Partners, according to a legal filing submitted last week.

J&J raises Actelion takeover pressure with higher price: source

LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. healthcare company Johnson & Johnson has raised its offer for Actelion, a source told Reuters on Tuesday, stepping up pressure on the Swiss biotech firm to accept a takeover deal.

Cyber Monday sales biggest online shopping day in U.S. history

(Reuters) – Shoppers spent $3.45 billion on Cyber Monday on Samsung 4K TVs, PlayStation 4s and Barbie dolls among other products, marking the largest online sales day in U.S. history.

Scores arrested in first ‘Fight for $15’ protest since Trump win

LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO (Reuters) – Scores of demonstrators were arrested on Tuesday as U.S. workers from fast-food chains staged nationwide protests for higher pay, union rights and immigration reform in their first major action since Donald Trump was elected president.

Saudi king showcases mining hub in push to move beyond oil

RAS AL-KHAIR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman underlined the kingdom’s intention to invest heavily in speeding up is diversification away from oil exports with the inauguration on Tuesday of a $35 billion mining and minerals processing complex.

CalPERS Weighs Pros/Cons Of Setting Reasonable Return Targets Vs. Maintaining Ponzi Scheme

In just a couple of months, the largest pension fund in the United States, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), will have to decide whether they’ll rely on sound financial judgement and math to set their rate of return expectations going forward or whether they’ll cave to political pressure to maintain artificially high return hurdles that they’ll never meet but help to maintain their ponzi scheme a little longer. The decision faced by CALPERS is whether their long-term assumed rate of return on assets should be lowered from the current 7.5% down to a more reasonable 6%.

As pointed out by Pensions & Investments, the decision has far-reaching consequences. First, a lower rate of return will equate to higher contribution levels for municipalities throughout California, many of which are on the verge of bankruptcy already. Second, given that CALPERS is the largest pension fund in the United States, a move to lower return hurdles could set a precedent that would have to be followed by other funds around the country in even worse shape (yes, we’re looking at you Illinois).

The stakes are high as the CalPERS board debates whether to significantly decrease the nation’s largest public pension fund’s assumed rate of return, a move that could hamstring the budgets of contributing municipalities as well as prompt other public funds across the country to follow suit.

But if the retirement system doesn’t act, pushing to achieve an unrealistically high return could threaten the v …

How Much Does The FBI Really Know About You?

Submitted by Derrick Broze via TheAntiMedia.org,

The Federal Bureau of Investigations is facing a new lawsuit from EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) regarding the agency’s latest biometric identification system. The FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system is made up of fingerprints, iris scans, faceprints, and other facial recognition data. EPIC is suing regarding the FBI’s plan to include tattoos and scars in the database.

According to EPIC:

“With NGI, the FBI will expand the number of uploaded photographs and provide investigators with ‘automated facial recognition search capability.’ The FBI intends to do this by eliminating restrictions on the number of submitted photographs (including photographs that are not accompanied by tenprint fingerprints) and allowing the submission of non-facial photographs (e.g. scars or tattoos).”

“The FBI also widely disseminates this NGI data. According to the FBI’s latest NGI fact sheet, 24,510 local, state, tribal, federal and international partners submitted queries to NGI in September 2016.”

EPIC is asking a judge to force the FBI to release records about its plan to share the biometric data with the U.S. Department of Defense. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year, but the FBI has so far refused to release the 35 pages of responsive records. EPIC and privacy advocates are concerned about the potential for cases of mistaken identity and abuse of the collected data. …

Druckenmiller Joins Gundlach In Predicting 6% Yields; Expects Market Correction As Rates Rise

We previously reported on Druckenmiller’s sudden and dramatic U-turn in outlook following the Donald Trump presidential victory, when on November 10, the legendary Duquesne manager said that he is now “as hopeful as I’ve been in a long time”, and to validate his belief, he said that “I sold all my gold on the night of the election” because “all the reasons I owned it for the last couple of years seem to be ending”, first and foremost his expectations that inflation is now set to spike, forcing money out of safe assets – like gold and Treasuries – and into the US Dollar.

Druckenmiller became an overnight bull on hopes the Trump administration would unleash a fiscal stimulus-based period of growth for the economy, with a a “large bet on economic growth.” He also told CNBC that “I’m short bonds, Bunds, Italian bonds, U.S. bonds” a reflection of his expectation of higher deficits and stronger growth.

Fast forward to today, when Stan Druckenmiller spoke at the Robin Hood Investors Conference in Brooklyn, repeated he is bullish on the American economy following the U.S. election, and anticipates a much stronger dollar and higher bond yields. Druckenmiller joined Jeff Gundlach in predicting that US 10Y yields may rise to 6% over the next year or two, while the euro could weaken far below parity and drop to 82 cents against the dollar. He’s also short the yen, European, Japanese bonds and also gilts.

Speaking at the conference, Druckenmiller said that he had been short the market heading into the election, expecting a Clinton victory and was prepared to short more had the market rallied “based on the quagmire of no options left after the eight year-old experiment of low rates.” However, he immediately went long o …

Martin Armstrong Exposes The Real Fake News: Did The BBC Get Caught Fabricating News To Start A War?

“The press has been routinely creating fake news reports to start a war,” exclaims Armstrong Economics’ Martin Armstrong, pointing to a recent report exposing The BBC allegedly faking news over chemical attacks in Syria…

What follows is shocking evidence that crisis actors, green screens, CGI, and paid propagandists are being used to fake worldwide events in order to scare people into giving up liberties and sending us into war. To say this was shocking would be to put it lightly.

From video proof showing “dead soldiers” killed by “chemical weapons” walking around after they thought the videos stopped recording, to digitally altering sounds to add in “explosions” that never happened, this segment demonstrates some of the most damming evidence against the media ever shown on television.

Armstrong continues… “This is a serious issue for the press is conspiring against the people to create war, sell climate change, and rig elections. This is by no means something new.”

They taught me in high school history class about how the press started the Spanish-American War by reporting that the Spanish attacked a US ship, which never happened.

Luxury Industry Can’t Count on China’s Reverse Silk Road

What will be the luxury industry’s new China? Today’s standard answer has a familiar ring: new parts of China.

Fed Won’t Stand in Workers’ Way on Wages

One argument for the Federal Reserve to stay cautious on rates: Workers are only starting to gain back the ground they lost.

Amazon’s Cloud Growth Unlikely to Dissipate

AWS makes biggest price cuts in more than two years from a position of strength.

October 2016 Median Household Income Not Statistically Different Than The Previous Month

from Sentier Research

According to new data derived from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), median annual household income in October 2016 was $57,929, not significantly different from the September 2016 median of $57,821.

November 2016 Conference Board Consumer Confidence Rebounds

Written by Doug Short / Jill Mislinski

The latest Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index was released this morning based on data collected through November 15. The headline number of 107.1 was an increase from the final reading of 100.8 for October, an upward revision from 98.6. Today’s number was above the Investing.comconsensus of 101.2.

Commodities Corner: The 4 most likely outcomes, and market reactions, ahead of the OPEC meeting

OPEC members have a lot to discuss as they gather for Wednesday’s much-anticipated meeting, but there are really less than a handful of plausible outcomes.

Need to Know: Here’s how ugly it could get for stocks if OPEC can’t reach a deal

Are investors taking this oil meeting seriously enough? One analyst says brace for the S&P 500 to drop below 2,100 if OPEC can’t toss the market at least a bone. Plus, the struggle for gold is real.

White is about to be replaced as the most popular car color

If this one color expert is correct, we may all be getting the blues soon — at least on cars.