27Feb2017 Market Close: The Trump Bull Rally Lumbers On Despite Bearish Analysts Calls For Caution, US Dollar Settles Higher, WTI Crude End Session In The Low 54 Handle

Written by Gary

Wall Street closes higher (SPY +0.2%) with the Dow hitting a record high close for a 12th straight session as President Trump said he would make a “big” infrastructure statement tomorrow. Crude prices ended little changed today as the prospect for U.S. crude production to continue growing offsetting reports of high OPEC production.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

Dow notches 12th straight record close as Wall Street braces for Trump speech

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Dow notches 12th straight record close NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended slightly higher on Monday and the Dow hit a record high close for a 12th straight session as President Donald Trump said he would make a “big” infrastructure statement on Tuesday.
	Trump seeks ‘historic’ increase of 9 percent in U.S. military’s budget WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump is seeking what he called a “historic” 9 percent increase in military spending, even as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and remains the world’s strongest military power.
	No AT&T-Time Warner merger review expected: U.S. regulator’s chairman WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission does not expect to review AT&T Inc’s planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc , a spokesman for the agency said on Monday.
	Takata pleads guilty to U.S. fraud charge linked to faulty air bags DETROIT (Reuters) – Japan’s Takata Corp on Monday pleaded guilty to a felony charge as part of an expected $1 billion deal with the U.S. Justice Department that includes compensation funds for automakers and victims of its faulty airbag inflators.
	Buffett tells CNBC Berkshire bought 120 million Apple shares in 2017 NEW YORK (Reuters) – Billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC on Monday his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc had more than doubled its stake in Apple Inc. since the end of 2016, making it one of Berkshire’s biggest equity holdings, and that U.S. stocks overall were not in “bubble territory.”
	Tesla plunges another 5 percent on fears of Model 3 delays SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of Tesla dropped on Monday after a downgrade by Goldman Sachs, bringing the electric carmaker’s decline to 11 percent since its quarterly report last week stoked worries about how much cash it is using to launch its Model 3 sedan.
	Oil steady as rising U.S. output offsets record bullish bets NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices ended little changed on Monday as the prospect for U.S. crude production to continue growing offset reports of high compliance to the OPEC production cut agreement and record bullish bets that prices would rise further.
	U.S. judge dismisses case against Wal-Mart over Mexico bribery (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Monday won the dismissal of a U.S. lawsuit accusing the world’s largest retailer of defrauding shareholders in its Wal-Mart de Mexico unit by concealing its suspected bribery of public officials in Mexico.
	AIG looks at penalizing or ousting CEO over turnaround plan: WSJ (Reuters) – American International Group Inc’s directors are discussing whether to penalize or oust Chief Executive Peter Hancock over a major setback in the insurance firm’s turnaround plan, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
	The Dow Has Never Had A Longer Streak Of Record Closes… Ever Core Durables Goods and Shipments MISS, Pending Home Sales MISS, Dallas Fed ‘Survey’ BEAT… “Never gonna let you down”… 12th Record Dow Close In A Row. One streak was broken today – after 6 straight days of Dow and Long Bond price rises, bonds dropped as stocks rose today… But another streak reached a record high… The Dow has never had a longer streak of record closes than this in its 100-plus year history… After Friday’s panic-bid melt-up, The Dow opened lower and VIX was immediately crushed back below 12.00
	Here’s One ‘Alternative’; But It’s Extremely Unpopular Via Simon Black of SovereignMan.com, It’s my usual custom whenever I land at a major airport to stop by the rental car counters and inquire how much it costs to rent a vehicle. For me this is a sort of informal, albeit imperfect, economic indicator. High prices suggest strong demand from plenty of business travelers and tourists, which will likely have a positive economic impact. Cheap prices, conversely, suggest that there’s something wrong. Well, there’s definitely something wrong in Mexico. When I stopped by the counter the other day at Mexico City’s airport, I was stunned to learn that my rental car would cost a whopping $1 per day. $1. I’m serious, that’s not a type-o. I’m not missing any zeros. $1 was the daily rate to rent a full-size Mercedes C Class vehicle. It was unbelievable; the car depreciates more than that in a couple of hours. And the rest of my experience in Mexico has been similar. Food costs nothing. Rent costs nothing. Everything is just astonishingly cheap… if you’re spending US dollars. In Mexican peso terms, prices have actually gone up a bit. But because the peso has lost more than 25% of its value against the US dollar over the past two years (most of that since the November US Presidential election), foreigners get an unbelievable deal here. This is an anomaly that absolutely will not last. When I went to Russia last summer at a time when the ruble was just under 70 per dollar (versus its long-time average of 35), I told you that the Russian ruble was unsustain …
	This Is How You Juice Up Stocks (Video) By EconMatters We discuss the 11:00 am (CST) move in Bonds, Equities, Gold, VIX, and the Currency Markets in this video. It all starts with cheap Central Bank Money! Are these the kinds of incentives Central Banks should be allowed to let happen by creating excessive leverage with borrowed money to juice of bigger stock market bubbles? Central Banks need to be aware of the financial system risk that their extreme policies are leading to in Financial Markets. Janet Yellen, this is not what I want occurring in Financial Markets, this is not the role of Central Banks. Did we not learning anything from the 2008 financial crisis? You know this is unsustainable right? This ends the same way every time in a Financial Market Crash! EconMatters All Rights Reserved \| Facebook
	North Korea Executes Five Officials With Anti-Aircraft Guns One week ago, following news that China had banned coal imports from North Korea in retaliation to Kim Jong Un’s latest ballistic missile test, we mused that North Korea’s regime appears to be in jeopardy, even though we had no explicit knowledge of tensions inside the top echelons of the country’s political system. It now appears that those concerns may have been justified. According to AP, North Korea executed five senior security officials with anti-aircraft guns because they made false reports that “enraged” leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea’s spy agency said Monday. The spy agency told lawmakers that five North Korean officials in the department of recently purged state security chief Kim Won Hong were executed by anti-aircraft guns because of the false reports to Kim, South Korean lawmaker Lee Cheol Woo said. It’s not clear what false reports they allegedly made, and the NIS didn’t say how it got its information as South Korean spies have a spotty record when reporting about high-level events in its authoritarian neighbor to the north. North Korea fired Kim Won Hong in January, presumably over corruption, abuse of power and torture committed by his agency, Seoul said earlier this month. The fallen minister had been seen as close to Kim Jong Un. North Korea has not publicly said anything about Kim Won Hong or about the alleged executions in his department. Lee also cited the NIS as saying that Kim Won Hong’s dismissal was linked to those false reports, which “enraged” Kim Jong Un when they were discovered. The comments by South Korea’s …
	The New Normal for Drug Makers There were fewer double-digit price increases during the annual beginning-of-the-year price hikes as the pharmaceutical industry fights a wave of bad publicity.
	A People-Powered Pickup for the Art Market Return of sidelined auction executives could boost high-end art sales.
	Global Exchanges Merger Game Gets a Restart—Again The Deutsche Börse and London Stock Exchange tie-up looks set to fail. That opens the door for NYSE-owner InterContinental Exchanges.
	Personal Finance Daily: Young actresses reveal the real ‘La La Land’ and the world’s 10 biggest tax havens Monday’s top personal finance stories
	Trump Today: Trump Today: President pledges ‘historic’ boost for military spending President Donald Trump said Monday he’ll seek a “historic” boost for defense spending, met with the chiefs of major health insurers to discuss repealing and replacing Obamacare and hosted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan at the White House.
	Number of distressed U.S. retailers at highest level since Great Recession Moody’s is the latest ratings agency to weigh in on the state of the retail sector, which is rapidly replacing oil and gas as this year’s trouble spot.