19Jan2017 Market Close: Wall Street Closes Down Fractionally On Lackluster Investor Participation Ahead Of Tomorrow's Presidential Inauguration, George Soros Said That Global Markets Will Falter

Written by Gary

Wall Street is lacking momentum as the Presidential inauguration comes closer and the level of consternation in the market is palpable. Markets closed down (SPY -0.3%) on low volume, however, stocks have mostly stalled, leaving the Dow flat for the month led by declines in utilities and energy shares.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Wall Street falls as investors ready for Trump’s inauguration NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks added to losses in afternoon trading on Thursday, led by declines in utilities and energy shares, with investors cautious ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday.
	Exclusive: Aon nears $4.5 billion sale of benefits outsourcing unit – sources (Reuters) – Insurance broker Aon Plc is in advanced talks to sell its employee benefits outsourcing unit to buyout firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC for nearly $4.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
	Soros says uncertainty over Trump will cause markets to falter (Reuters) – The billionaire investor George Soros on Thursday said that global markets will falter given the uncertainty of new U.S. president Donald Trump’s policies.
	Judge to block mega-merger of Anthem and Cigna: NY Post (Reuters) – A federal judge is expected to block a proposed deal between health insurer Anthem Inc and Cigna Corp as soon as Thursday, the New York Post reported, citing sources.
	U.S. regulator finds no evidence of defects after Tesla death probe WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators has found no evidence of any defects in Tesla electric cars after investigating the death of a man whose Model S collided with a truck while he was using its Autopilot system, the first fatality involving semi-autonomous driving software.
	U.S exchanges rent helicopter, drape banner in pursuit of Snapchat IPO SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – This past November, Nasdaq Inc hired a helicopter to film Manhattan’s skyline using Snapchat’s new video-camera sunglasses and sent the aerial footage to its social media followers.
	U.S. health agency tells Grassley there is no EpiPen settlement yet NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mylan NV has yet to reach a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the classification in the Medicaid program of life-saving allergy treatment EpiPen, the acting head of a top U.S. government health regulatory agency told Senator Charles Grassley in a letter disclosed on Thursday.
	Western Union settles U.S. money laundering allegations for $586 million WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Western Union Co agreed to pay $586 million and admitted to turning a blind eye as criminals used its service for money laundering and fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission said in statements on Thursday.
	Exclusive: Spirit AeroSystems mulls outsourcing U.S. supply chain jobs: sources SEATTLE (Reuters) – Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc , a major supplier to aircraft maker Boeing Co , is considering outsourcing up to 85 U.S. supply chain jobs, possibly to a company overseas, according to three people familiar with the plan.
	Trumphoria Fades – Dollar Down, Stocks Down, Bonds Down, Banks Down, Oil Down, Gold Up Herd mentality? Gold remains 2017’s big winner, Crude the big loser and The Dow in the red… In fact The Dow and Small Caps are now red YTD… Intraday saw a notable spike in VIX and dump in stocks… Which was reflected in the biggest negative TICK of 2017 (and 2nd biggest since the election) Down for the 5th day in a row, The Dow dropped to six-week lows…more than 300 points from Dow 20k… Aside from Fed rate hike day, this is the heaviest volume day since September
	Just 3 Things: Stocks “Are Not Magical Lottery Tickets” Submitted by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, What Drives Returns A little over a year ago, John Coumarianos penned a very interesting note with respect to the view that it is just “volatility” is driving prices. “The great economist John Maynard Keynes once said: ‘Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.'” The point of his article was debunking the idea investors who have the fortitude to withstand volatility in the markets will eventually be rewarded assuming increased volatility pushes asset prices higher. The problem, which I addressed in Tuesday’s post entitled the “The Psychological Impact Of Loss,” is the repeated emotional mistakes made by investors which are ultimately driven by the very volatility investors are supposed to withstand. But more importantly, while the idea of “efficient markets” and “random walk” theories play out well on paper, they don’t in actual practice. What drives stock prices (long-term) is the value of what you pay today for a future share of the company’s earnings in the future. Simply put – “it’s valuation, stupid …
	Trading Inauguration Day While president-elect Donald Trump’s post-election stock market gains are among the greatest in US History, he faces an uphill battle tomorrow as he steps to dais for inauguration. In the last 80 years, newly-elected presidents have seen inauguration-day-losses, two-thirds of the time. Trump had been #winning… But faces a problem tomorrow in maintaining that exuberance as the following table shows only 33.3% of newly-elected inauguration days were winners, losing on average 0.9%… Source: @AlmanacTrader (NOTE: the 5.28% plunge on the day of Obama’s first inauguration) And while analogies to Reagan remain common, we wonder just what happens when (or if) Trump cannot live up to the expectations already priced in…
	The Walking BrainDead Archive at Trader Scott’s Market Blog. Netflicks is proud to present an exclusive new series, “The Walking BrainDead”. In the action packed pilot episode, chaos ensues when hundreds of thousands of braindead walkers descend upon Washington, DC. They have stumbled into Washington to wreak havoc and stop the Inauguration of the incoming President, the former motivational speaker Ronald Crump. The crowd has their telltale blank stares and confusing cardboard signs. They are also monotonously chanting weird incoherent slogans. It’s very hard to identify the sexes, as most of the crowd is either gay or gender neutral. But do not let the walker’s stupid comments and irrational thoughts fool you. They have been programmed and directed by three very savvy, wealthy, and dangerous criminal masterminds. Their leaders are hedge fund titan George Morose, Chuck And Cheese founder, John Molestah, and computer security entrepreneur, Hillary Clanton. But the sworn enemies of the Braindead, the Delusionals, will be there to protect Ronald Crump. The Delusionals are led by the flamboyant Milo Yfopulous. However, Milo will not be in DC as he just had his nails done. But the Delusionals will be led by their other fiery leader, the rotund Alex James. Violence erupts when the Braindead use their tried and true battle tools – relentlessly cursing, crying, screaming, throwing eggs, sucker punching, rioting, destroying private property, and making completely false accusations. Tune in to see this exciting pilot episode.
	CSX’s New Engineer Could Work Wonders; Sell the Shares Anyway Canadian Pacific boss Hunter Harrison has an amazing record and could add serious value to CSX, but shareholders would be wise to lock in recent gains.
	GE’s Stock Rally Needs More Power Fourth-quarter earnings will put the industrial giant’s stock rally to the test.
	ECB: Going Nowhere Despite German Inflation Anxiety The ECB struck a dovish tone and the euro fell. The bigger picture is steady ECB policy even in the face of German worries about inflation.
	Market Extra: Trump’s inauguration is set to unleash a cascade of stock-market anxiety The day of reckoning for the Wall Street is nearly upon us. Donald Trump is set to be sworn in as leader of the free world and the level of consternation in the market is palpable.
	Personal Finance Daily: People are paying this much to fly to the inauguration and why you should expect to hear more of “financial feminism” Thursday’s top personal finance stories
	Market Extra: How the ‘Trump rally’ stacks up to other postelection stock-market gains The S&P 500 is up roughly 6% since Donald Trump’s November election win, leaving him on pace for the largest election day-to-inauguration day jump since Bill Clinton won a second term in 1996.