07Mar2017 Market Close: Wall Street Moderately Lower After Trump's Tweet, Crude Prices Fall Sharply, Short-sellers Are Starting To Place Their Bets

Written by Gary

U.S. health stocks were lower today (SPY -0.3%) after Trump’s latest remarks on lowering prices. “I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the drug industry, ” Trump said in a Twitter post. “Pricing for the American people will come way down,” Trump added.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	China’s ZTE pleads guilty, settles with U.S. over Iran, North Korea sales NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp has agreed to pay $892 million and plead guilty to criminal charges for violating U.S. laws that restrict the sale of American-made technology to Iran and North Korea.
	Wall Street dips as pharma, bank stocks lose ground (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were on track for their first back-to-back losses in more than a month, led by declines in drug and bank stocks.
	Oil imports lift U.S. trade deficit to near five-year high WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. trade deficit jumped to a near five-year high in January as rising oil prices helped to push up the import bill, pointing to slower economic growth in the first quarter and posing a challenge for the Trump administration.
	Snap shares tumble as short sellers move in SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Snap Inc’s shares tumbled 12 percent on Tuesday and traders raced to position themselves to cash in on further declines after analysts gave the company a lukewarm reception following its red-hot market debut.
	Uber looking for chief operating officer (Reuters) – Uber Technologies Inc’s [UBER.UL] chief executive officer, Travis Kalanick, said the ride-hailing company was looking for a chief operating officer.
	Ex-Tesla manager seeks $4 billion for Europe’s biggest battery plant STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A former Tesla executive is trying to raise at least $4 billion to build Europe’s biggest battery factory in Sweden to meet an expected surge in demand as the region’s automakers switch to electric vehicles.
	Trump says he is working on plan to bring down drug prices WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is developing a plan that will encourage competition in the drug industry and bring down prices for medicines, as the House of Representatives leadership unveiled a new health care plan.
	EU consumer agencies to join forces to press VW over dieselgate scandal BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European national consumer agencies plan joint action to seek compensation for Volkswagen drivers who bought emissions-cheating diesel cars on the strength of their green credentials, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
	United looking at second-hand aircraft, rules out A380 SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – United Continental Holdings is interested in buying second-hand aircraft as they are released to the market when leases expire, Chief Finance Director Andrew Levy said on Tuesday.
	“Shit’s Starting To Break” – Stock Slide Escalates Amid Copper, Credit, & Crude Carnage One veteran macro trader summed up the markets perfectly “Shit’s starting to break” – noting that ‘real’ macro data decoupled from stocks at the start of the year, VIX decoupled from stocks three weeks ago, EM broke over a week ago, Copper snapped last week, and now High Yield credit is breaking – stocks are always the last to catch on… Russell 2000 down 4 days in a row – longest losing streak in 3 months; S&P’s 4-day decline is worst since right before the election; Trannies down 3% in the last 4 days… Bloomberg’s Andrew Cinko tallied up the drop from peak to trough for the five multi-day retreats in Nasdaq since election day: March 1 peak: -1.4% February 21 peak: -1.2% January 26 peak: -1.7% December 27 peak: -2.6% November 29 peak: -3.1% Small Caps are the worst performers of the last 4 days – biggest drop since before the election – testing key technical levels Another day, another desperate attempt to crush VIX and drive momentum back into stocks… (VIX LoD 11.04)
	US Credit Card Debt Sees Biggest Drop In Over Four Years The credit-card fueled spending spree came to a screeching halt in January, when according to the latest just released consumer credit data from the Fed, revolving credit tumbled by $3.8 billion. This was the first decline since February of 2016, and the biggest drop since December 2012. On the other hand, the far more generous non-revolving, student and auto loans, rose once again, posting a $12.6 billion increase in January, bringing the total consumer credit increase to just $8.8 billion, one half of the $17 billion expected, and down materially from the revised December print of $14.8 billion. The sharp contraction in revolving, i.e. credit card debt, is seen more clearly in the chart below laying out only this component of total consumer credit: As expected, there was no change to the breakdown of student and auto loans, which remained at $1.4 trillion and $1.1 trillion, respectively, as this data series is updated once every quarter. As traditionally happens in January, depository institutions saw a sharp, non-seasonally adjusted drop in their credit holdings, offset by a surge in Federal Government debt, which surged by $27.3 billion, the highes …
	Hewlett Packard Enterprise Jumps on Flash Sale The acquisition of Nimble Storage takes advantage of the market’s dim view of flash memory.
	Health-Care Overhaul Gets a Shrug From Wall Street Provisions of the proposed Obamacare replacement aren’t as tough as they appear.
	A Taxing Problem for Investors A corporate tax cut could provide a big boost to profits, but investors are expecting too much from it.
	January 2017 Consumer Credit Headlines Say Year-Over-Year Growth Rate Declined. Well Under Expectations. Written by Steven Hansen The headlines say consumer credit rate of annual growth SIGNIFICANTLY decreased from last month. Our analysis agrees.
	The Tell: Why ominous sounding ‘Ohama Titanic Syndrome’ has stock-market investors fretting a selloff A warning sign is flashing a sell signal on Wall Street and highlighting growing uneasiness among investors that the stock-rally inspired by President Donald Trump ‘s pro-business policies is starting to unravel.
	Market Extra: Stock investors can’t bank on another 8-year bull-market bonanza Those who remained bullish over this time, buying every dip in the face of calls of impending doom, turned out to be right and were rewarded handsomely
	Bond Report: Treasury yields tick up as investors await confirmation of March rate hike Treasury yields edged slightly higher on Tuesday, with prices lower, as expectations firmed for a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike at its meeting next week.