29Mar2017 Market Update: Wall Street Trades Mostly Sideways, $DJI Down, SP 500 Flat, Crude Prices Higher, But Quiet, Earlier Prospects Of A Red Session Haven’t Materialized In Early Afternoon Trading

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are mixed today. The Bovespa is up 1.15% while the S&P 500 gains 0.08%. The IPC is off 0.56%.

S&P, Dow weighed down by financial stocks; Nasdaq up

(Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Dow were pressured by declines in financial stocks, while consumer discretionary shares lifted the Nasdaq.

Banks to London staff: no panic as Britain launches EU divorce process

LONDON (Reuters) – Banks in Britain have tried to reassure their London staff over possible Brexit disruption, including a shift in jobs to continental Europe, as Prime Minister Theresa May triggered formal EU divorce proceedings on Wednesday.

Pending home sales surge to 10-month high

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes jumped to a 10-month high in February, pointing to robust demand for housing ahead of the busy spring selling season.

Samsung launches Galaxy S8 and dreams of recovery from Note 7

(Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone as it battles to regain the market leadership it lost to Apple Inc after the embarrassing withdrawal of the fire-prone Note 7s.

Huge nuclear cost overruns push Toshiba’s Westinghouse into bankruptcy

WILMINGTON, DEL./TOKYO (Reuters) – Westinghouse Electric Co, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp , filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, hit by billions of dollars of cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S. Southeast.

OPEC compliance with oil curbs rises in March as UAE joins cut: survey

LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) – OPEC oil output is likely to fall for a third straight month in March, a Reuters survey found on Wednesday, as the United Arab Emirates made progress in trimming supplies while maintenance and unrest cut production in exempt nations Nigeria and Libya.

Santander to pay $22 million to resolve subprime auto loan probes

BOSTON (Reuters) – A unit of Banco Santander SA has agreed to pay $22 million in connection with what the attorney general in Massachusetts called a first-in-the-nation settlement involving subprime auto loan securitization.

China’s first-quarter GDP growth seen at 6.8 percent: government think tank

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s economy, the world’s second largest, will likely expand 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2017, the official Xinhua agency quoted a government think tank as saying on Wednesday.

Ford says it will spend $295 million on two new recalls

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co , the second largest U.S. automaker, on Wednesday announced two new recalls affecting 440,000 vehicles and expects to spend about $295 million to fix the issues.

Strong markets struggling at breakout levels of late

The S&P 500, Banks, Small Caps and Transportation indices continue to climb higher, as the long-term trend remains up. The two charts below, look at performance over the past month and how each index is testing long-term breakout levels.

The chart below looks at how the above mentioned indices have performed over the past 30-days.

Meet The Mercers – The Most Powerful Family You’ve Never Heard Of

Authored by Alex Thomas via TheAntiMedia.org,

History is full of powerful families that have left their mark on the political and economic systems of their age. During the Italian Renaissance, there were the Borgias and Medicis. In the United States, a number of families have realized America is not only the land of opportunity but also the land of wealth and dynastic power. We’ve had the Astors and Rockefellers, and even the Rothschilds have a foothold in the American power system.

More recently, the Koch brothers have drawn attention to themselves, and though Charles and David generally try to avoid the spotlight, their fingerprints are all over the political system. Apparently, it’s tough to be the mysterious Wizard of Oz when you’ve bankrolled half the politicians in the Emerald City. Though they’ve historically backed Republicans, the pair has also opposed President Trump. Only last week, when the administration’s Obamacare repeal died before a vote, it was brought down by the Freedom Caucus, a group of congressmen loyal to the Freedom Partners, a political arm of the billionaires.

However, under the Trump administration, a new family is entering the generally cemented world of D.C. power-grabbing. The Mercer family is headed by Robert Mercer, who the New Yorker characterized as “a reclusive Long Island hedge-fund manager, who has become a major force behind the Trump Pre …

Investors Face Brexit Quiet Before the Negotiating Storm

The U.K. has been in a curious position: in the EU but with a much weaker currency that reflects the market’s judgment of its prospects outside the single market. Now the clock is ticking on Brexit.

Trump’s Free Hand on Bank Deregulation

The Trump administration has the power to enact substantial bank deregulation on its own without legislation.

Tencent Hits a Speed Bump With Tesla

The Chinese tech giant’s $1.8 billion stake in the U.S. electric-vehicle company looks wasteful.

February 2017 Pending Home Sales Index Improves?

Written by Steven Hansen

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) seasonally adjusted pending home sales index rebounded to the second highest level in a decade. Our analysis says the opposite but the rolling averages insignificantly improved. The quote of the day from this NAR release:

… Looking ahead to the busy spring months, Yun expects to see continued ebbs and flows in activity as new supply struggles to replace listings that are going under contract at a very quick pace. …

This is America’s least financially literate state

Southern states’ under-banked tendencies correlate with their lack of financial literacy.

The Tell: This surging measure of global economic health is drawing renewed attention

The Baltic Dry Index is on the rise. Should investors start to pay attention again to the once closely watched gauge.

The harsh moments these spoiled kids came face-to-face with the real world

Mopping the floor, microwaving ‘toast’ and doing laundry — how spoiled kids learned about real life.