30Mar2017 Market Close: Wall Street Traded Mostly Sideways In The Green After Flat Opening, DOW Closes Up 69 Points, Daily Trend Moving Slightly Upward

Upward GDP revision sends Wall Street higher

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Financial shares led Wall Street higher on Thursday after data showed U.S. economic growth was stronger than previously reported last quarter, helped by robust consumer spending.

U.S. economic growth revised higher, boosted by consumer spending

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth slowed less than previously reported in the fourth quarter as robust consumer spending provided a boost that was partially offset by the largest gain in imports in two years.

Volkswagen settles 10 U.S. state diesel claims for $157 million

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG said on Thursday it has agreed to pay $157.45 million to settle environmental claims from 10 U.S. states over its excess diesel emissions, as the world’s largest automaker looks to move past the scandal.

FCC to vote to reform $45 billion business data market

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican head of the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed easing regulatory requirements in the $45 billion business data services market, a win for companies like AT&T Inc, CenturyLink Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and others.

Uber settles with Pennsylvania regulator following record fine

(Reuters) – Uber Technologies Inc has reached a settlement with Pennsylvania’s taxi regulator to end the ride-sharing company’s appeal of a record $11.4 million fine for operating illegally.

U.S. judge clears Toshiba’s Westinghouse to tap bankruptcy loan

(Reuters) – A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday cleared Westinghouse Electric Co, a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp , to borrow an initial $350 million to support the company’s global operations while it restructures operations.

Anthem likely to pull back from Obamacare markets in 2018: Jefferies

(Reuters) – Anthem Inc is likely to exit from a large portion of its Obamacare individual insurance markets next year, Jefferies analysts said, nearly a week after Republican leaders pulled legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.

U.S. awards AT&T contract to build wireless network for first responders

(Reuters) – The United States on Thursday awarded a contract to AT&T Inc to build a nationwide wireless broadband network to better equip first responders, years after a federal commission recommended setting up such a system following the 9/11 attacks.

Einhorn’s GM plan poses conflict challenge for board

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hedge fund manager David Einhorn’s unusual plan to divide General Motors Co’s shares into two classes poses a potential corporate governance minefield for GM board members.

Huge 300,000 Bpd Fracklog Could Derail Oil Price Recovery

Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

Thousands of drilled shale wells are sitting idle, unfracked and uncompleted.

The backlog of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) grew dramatically beginning in 2014, as low oil prices forced drillers to hold off on completion in hopes of higher prices at a later date. After all, why bring production online in a low price environment when the same oil could earn more in the future if prices rebound. That calculation is particularly important given that a shale well typically sees an initial burst of production in its first few months of operation followed by a precipitous decline in output.

The surge in DUCs created an enormous backlog of wells awaiting completion. This “fracklog” loomed over the oil market, threatening to derail any sign of an oil price recovery. As soon as oil prices rebounded to some higher point, the shale industry would bring thousands of already-drilled wells online, and that sudden rush of new supply would push prices back down.

But that was a necessary process in order to shrink the huge inventory of DUCs – and that’s exactly what started to play out last year. As oil prices moved up from $27 per barrel in February 2016 to around $50 per barrel by early summer, the industry began completing a lot of wells. The DUC inventory fell from over 5,600 to just over 5,000 between January and August, a decline of 10 percent, according to the EIA’s Drilling Productivity Report.

March Comex Silver “Deliveries”

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RBC: Two Things Are Behind Today’s Rally

According to RBC’s cross-asset strategist, Charlie McElligott, two things are behind today’s (painfully volumeless) market rally: i) a return of “policy divergence”, following yesterday’s hawkish announcements by the Fed (“up to 4 hikes”) offset by dovish hints by the ECB, which in turn is powering the dollar higher, and ii) OPEC “deal extension speculation” pushing oil prices higher. The result: the general reflation trade is back on.

Here are the full details from McElligott who writes that “Risk Is Rallying On The Return of “Policy Divergence” and Higher Crude”

“Major key” alert (H/T DJ Khaled) as a return of ‘policy DIVERGENCE’ powers ‘higher Dollar’ and OPEC deal extension talk powers ‘higher crude’—in turn driving risk-assets to best levels of the week.

As anticipated in the 3/16 “”RBC Big Picture: FED CREATES MORE ROPE TO HANG THEMSELVES WITH,” the Fed’s doves are rolling-out ‘hawkish,’ with 4 hikes in ’17 a real option.

Juxtapose this with ECB ‘source’ story yesterday (‘taken aback’ by mkt hawkishness and thus looking to reiterate ‘easy’ policy), while today we saw a massive messaging campaign from Nowotny, Praet and Knot all ‘walking-back’ hike expectations with dovish language.

Add-in the weak German March Inflation print (1.5% vs est 1.9% and Feb’s 2.2%) and we see Bunds rallying today.

This “hawkish Fed, dovish ECB” dynamic is a complete “round-trip” back to where we were just prior to the Fed—a return to “policy DIVERGENCE” and away from the two-week old “policy CONVERGENCE” narrative which has been driving the USD-unwind / weakness.

As a reminder, ” Fed / R.O.W. policy divergence” has been “THE” …

Samsung Needs a New Structure Alongside Its New Phone

Samsung Electronics is hoping to move on with the unveiling of its latest model, the Galaxy S8, but the world’s leading smartphone maker could gain lasting benefits from an uncluttering.

Lululemon Shows Athleisure Market Is Out of Breath

Lululemon’s earnings report may be the latest sign of a the end of rapid growth in the market for ‘athleisure.’

Fed Sees Car Trouble Down South

Delinquencies on auto loans are rising to worrying levels in some southern cities.

In One Chart: The IPO market is back, baby!

Propelled by the large Snap Inc. offering in early March, the first quarter of 2017 saw almost 15 times more proceeds than the first quarter of 2016, according to Renaissance Capital, a manager of IPO-focused ETFs.

Trump Today: Trump Today: President meets with Mnuchin on tax-reform plan

President Donald Trump tweeted about fighting the House Freedom Caucus, met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and hosted the prime minister of Denmark at the White House.

In One Chart: This could push Amazon’s Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the world’s richest human

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could pass Bill Gates to be the world’s richest human sooner rather than later, if the upward trajectory in Amazon’s stock continues.