Written by Gary
There was little market reaction to the withdrawal of the Trumpcare health care bill as major USA markets ended the day mixed. Likely the reaction was muted as few saw it as an improvement over Obamacare. Oil and gold moderately rose
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Wall Street ends little changed after healthcare bill yankedNEW YORK (Reuters) – A dramatic session on Wall Street ended little changed on Friday as stocks pared losses after Republicans pulled their bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system. |
| Trump greenlights Keystone XL pipeline, but obstacles loomWASHINGTON/CALGARY (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration approved TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, cheering the oil industry and angering environmentalists even as further hurdles for the controversial project loom. |
| Exclusive: Venezuela increased fuel exports to allies even as supply crunch loomedHOUSTON/CARACAS (Reuters) – A gasoline shortage in OPEC member Venezuela was exacerbated by an increase in fuel exports to foreign allies such as Cuba and Nicaragua and an exodus of crucial personnel from state-run energy company PDVSA, according to internal PDVSA documents and sources familiar with its operations. |
| U.S. business spending picking up, but may slow in second quarterWASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S.-made capital goods unexpectedly fell in February, but a surge in shipments amid demand for machinery and electrical equipment supported expectations for an acceleration in business investment in the first quarter. |
| Trump touts Charter hiring that was in works for two yearsWASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday touted Charter Communications Inc’s decision to invest $25 billion in the United States and a plan the company announced before he was elected to hire 20,000 workers over four years. |
| Mnuchin says U.S. growth prospects not fully reflected in marketsWASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that he believes financial markets could improve “significantly” once they fully reflect the potential for U.S. economic growth from President Donald Trump’s economic policies. |
| Uber tells U.S. court customers must arbitrate disputes(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court in New York on Friday weighed arguments over whether Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] customers gave up their right to sue the company when they registered for its popular taxi hailing service. |
| PPG chief snubbed by Akzo during Netherlands visitAMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A team of executives from U.S. paint maker PPG left the Netherlands on Friday without meeting their counterparts at Akzo Nobel during a two-day charm offensive to win support for their proposed takeover of their Dutch rival. |
| China’s Zhonghong Zhuoye to buy Blackstone’s stake in SeaWorld(Reuters) – SeaWorld Entertainment Inc said China’s Zhonghong Zhuoye Group Co Ltd would buy Blackstone Group LP’s stake in the embattled U.S.-based marine park operator, sending SeaWorld’s shares up 10 percent in morning trading on Friday. |
| VIX Spikes To 2017 Highs, Stocks Suffer Worst Week In 6 Months As GOP Pulls Vote“Good Day Sir…” Another day, another headline-algo game… Dow is down over 600 points from record highs 1210 Drop – *GOP LEADERS NOT CONFIDENT THEY HAVE VOTES TO PASS HEALTH BILL 1228 Rally – REP MULLIN: “WE’RE TRENDING YES ON THE VOTE”: RTRS 1235 Drop – Freedom Caucus “things are not good” 1247 Drop – Good chance vote may be postponed 1249 Drop – Ryan “we don’t have the votes” 1350 Drop – Spicer sounding downbeat 1450 Drop – REP. COLE: IF HEALTH BILL FAILS, IT MAKES TAX REFORM HARDER 1515 Drop – U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER RYAN HAS TOLD TRUMP THE HEALTHCARE BILL WILL NOT PASS THE HOUSE -CNN: RTRS 1529 Rally – Vote Pulled (retarded narrative that now they can focus on tax reform!) 1545 Drop – Market suddenly wakes up to realization no health bill means smaller tax reform |
| Watch Live: Paul Ryan Explains Why He Pulled The Health BillFollowing two days of utter chaos in Washington D.C., the Republicans in the House have finally called it quits and laid to rest, at least for now, efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. The bill was pulled shortly before voting was set to begin at 3:45PM EST.
After a last ditch effort by Paul Ryan and Mike Pence to rally support from conservative members of the House and save the bill, at the end of the day, they simply didn’t have the votes.
Tune in below to watch a dejected Paul Ryan take questions from the press: |
| In Blow To Trump, Obamacare Repeal Fails: Republicans Withdraw Healthcare BillTo summarize today’s latest Congressional rollercoaster, the pundits and the White House were wrong, and the online betting markets were right. Following a day of drama in Congress yesterday, Friday was another nail-biter until the last moment, and after Trump’s Thursday ultimatum failed to yield more “yes” votes, the embattled bill seeking to replace major parts of Obamacare was yanked Friday from the floor of the House. As a result, Trump suffered a second consecutive blow as opposition from within his own party forced Republican leaders to cancel a vote on healthcare reform for the second time, casting doubt on the president’s ability to deliver on other priorities. The withdrawal pointed to Trump’s failure to charm republicans in the last minute, raising questions about whether he could unify Republicans behind his pro-growth legislative goals of tax reform and infrastructure spending. NBC News reported that the President Donald Trump asked House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., to pull the bill. A source told NBC that Ryan during visit to Trump at the White House earlier Friday afternoon had “pleaded to pull” the bill after telling the president that the GOP leaders had failed to convince enough House Republicans to support the bill. Trump personally told Washington Post reporter Robert Costa about the move to avoid an embarrassing loss in the House during a phone call, Costa tweeted. “We just pulled it,” Trump reportedly said to Costa.
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| OPEC Out Of Moves As Goldman Sachs Expects Another Oil Glut In 2018Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com, Oil prices are heading down again on swelling U.S. crude oil inventories, with Brent dropping below $50 per barrel for the first time this year. The OPEC deal that has taken more than 1 million barrels per day of oil off the market has not succeeded in reversing this bearish trend for inventories. And with the deal at its midway point, focus is shifting towards an extension of the cuts through the end of the year. But OPEC’s usual strategy of jawboning the market back up ahead of these negotiations seems to be wearing thin amid record high crude oil inventories. “OPEC has used up most of its arsenal of verbal weapons to support the market. One hundred percent compliance by all is the only tool they have left and on that account they are struggling,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.
Although projections from Wall Street banks tend to vary quite a bit, there is a growing chorus warning about another slide in crude prices. At this point, the big variable is whether or not OPEC decides to extend the deal when it meets in May – an extension would likely stabilize prices and might even push them back up into the mid-$50s or higher … |
| Nintendo Switch May Not Flip GameStop’s ProspectsGameStop hopes new consoles will attract more people to its stores, but the retailer must grapple with an increasing shift to digital downloads and gamers buying fewer titles. |
| Investors Need to Wake Up to Europe’s Surprising Good HealthEurope is still a collection of “what-if” scenarios for investors in terms of politics. But the question investors need to weigh up is: what if the eurozone economy is really motoring? |
| Curious Quirks in How Credit Suisse Makes MoneySomething unusual in Credit Suisse’s earnings deserves investors’ attention. |
| The Federal Reserve Banks Provided $91.5 Billion Remittances To The U.S. Treasury In 2016from the Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System on Friday released the 2016 combined annual audited financial statements for the Federal Reserve Banks, as well as statements for the 12 individual Federal Reserve Banks and the Board of Governors. An independent auditing firm engaged by the Board has issued unqualified opinions on the financial statements and on the Board’s and the Bank’s internal controls over financial reporting.
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| 17 March 2017: ECRI’s WLI Growth Index Shows Continued Moderate Slowing Of Rate of Growth
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| Market Extra: Wall Street’s volatility threatens to make a glorious return as the stock market stumblesMeasures of risk are rearing their heads back up, with the CBOE Volatility Index trending higher. |
| In One Chart: Mexican peso heads for largest monthly rise in 5 years as Trump agenda faltersThe Mexican peso is headed for its largest monthly gain in nearly five years as President Donald Trump and his partisans suffer the first major legislative setback of his presidency. |
| Bond Report: Treasury yields fall for 2nd week as Trump fails to muster support for health-care billTreasury yields declined on Friday, cementing their second-straight weekly drop, as recalcitrant House Republicans handed President Donald Trump his first major political defeat by refusing to support his bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. |
ECRI’s WLI Growth Index which forecasts economic growth six months forward remains in positive territory for the 52nd week – after spending the previous 35 consecutive weeks in negative territory. This is compared to RecessionAlerts similar weekly leading index. ECRI also released their lagging index.Summary of Economic Releases this Week
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