Written by Gary
US stock market large caps closed up, but flat (SPY +0.08%), the Nasdaq closed up +0.4% powered by a string of strong earnings from technology companies. The DOW and SP 500 traded mostly sideways, but trending down from session highs.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Tech earnings lift Nasdaq to record high; S&P, Dow flat(Reuters) – The Nasdaq hit a record intraday high on Thursday, powered by a spate of strong earnings from technology companies, while the S&P 500 and the Dow were little changed. |
| Jobless claims rise, but four-week average at two-month lowWASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but the four-week average of claims fell to a two-month low, indicating that labor market conditions continue to tighten. |
| MetLife to invest $1 billion in tech to reach cost-savings goalsNEW YORK (Reuters) – MetLife Inc plans to invest $1 billion in an efficiency program through 2019 that will eventually reduce annual operating costs by around $800 million, the insurer said on Thursday. |
| Trump says U.S. will renegotiate trade pact with Canada, MexicoWASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was ready to kill the 23-year-old trade agreement with Canada and Mexico but agreed to renegotiate it after pleas from their leaders, expressing optimism about extracting better terms for the United States. |
| United Airlines reaches settlement with passenger dragged from plane(Reuters) – United Airlines has a reached a settlement for an undisclosed sum with the passenger who was dragged from a Chicago flight earlier this month in an incident that sparked international outrage, an attorney for the passenger said on Thursday. |
| U.S. business spending likely gained momentum in first quarterWASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S.-made capital goods rose less than expected in March, but a second straight monthly increase in shipments suggested business investment accelerated in the first quarter amid a recovering energy sector. |
| Iran says potential deal for early jet delivery falls throughANKARA (Reuters) – IranAir has abandoned plans to take early delivery of a Boeing 777-300ER jetliner because the passenger plane is no longer available, the head of the Islamic Republic’s national flag carrier was quoted as saying by Iranian media. |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co leaves blockchain consortium R3NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co has left the mammoth bank blockchain consortium led by New York-based startup R3 CEV, the latest member to depart over the course of the company’s fundraising process, R3 confirmed on Thursday. |
| Apple in talks to launch money-transfer service: Recode(Reuters) – Apple Inc has held talks with payments industry partners about launching a money-transfer service, technology news website Recode reported on Thursday. |
| Elemetal Gold Tries to Cover its Tracks, and Why Isn’t Gold higher – Update 1What Does Elemetal Imply for Precious Metals? Gold smuggling accounts for up to 75% of all LATAM Gold imported in the US Disruption of this augmented Gold supply is Bullish for Gold Elemetal is running for corporate cover No-one cares UPDATE 1 – DGSE a publicly traded retailer, just signed an LOI to buy Elemetal, LLC. It gets better. DGSE is #2 on the S&P list of likely retailers to default. Wait, there’s more. Elemetal is actually majority shareholder in DGSE. Essentially, Elemetal, which controls DGSE would rather default, then have the real depths of its activities revealed. Details and Elemetal structure at bottom. Gold Supply Augmented with illegal Supply via the Soren K.Group and Marketslant In the past decade and a half, global gold consumption has risen by almost 1,000 tons a year, to about 4,300 tons, according to the World Gold Council, a London-based industry group. Legal mining operations haven’t kept up with demand, so illegal mines controlled by criminal gangs, from the Amazon to |
| United Passenger Who Was Dragged Off Plane Settles With AirlineThe saga of Dr. David Dao is over. The 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor was infamously hospitalized after Chicago aviation police dragged him from the plane to make space for four crew members on the flight from the city’s O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky, sparking international outrage. While some may have been expecting a lawsuit to emerge from the affair, United Airlines announced that it has reached a settlement for an undisclosed sum with Dao. Dao’s attorney, Thomas Demetrio, praised the airline in a news release for taking full responsibility in its handling of the incident. “Mr. Munoz said he was going to do the right thing, and he has,” Demetrio said in a news release, referring to the United CEO. “In addition, United has taken full responsibility for what happened on Flight 3411, without attempting to blame others, including the City of Chicago. For this acceptance of corporate accountability, United is to be applauded.”
While the actual amount was undisclosed, we are confident that Dao is now several million dollars richer. |
| BofA Capitulates: “The Trump Put Is Over”, It’s Time To Sell Small CapsDespite the rough start to the year, Bank of America had maintained its tactically bullish stance on US small cap equities on the idea that small caps are the best-positioned to benefit from increasing optimism around stimulus and tax reform. And it has been right: as we showed earlier, Russell hit a fresh all time high…
… facilitated by the recent influx of bears who brought net specs positioning to the shortest on record, and have been once again squeezed.
Yet even BofA’s optimism ended overnight when the bank officially capitulated on its bullish call. In a note released overnight by BofA’s Dan Suzuki tited “Back to bearish on small caps”, the bank’s equity strategist writes that with the failure to repeal Obamacare and the intensifying opposition to some of the key revenue raising policies of the Blueprint tax reform proposal (i.e. border adjustment taxes), there have been growing doubts on the probability of getting tax reform done this year. As a result, while the bank still shares many of those same doubts, “we recently highlighted Policy as one of the three catalysts (along with Profits and Positioning) that could drive near-term small cap outperformance. On the back of the news around tax reform, the Russell 2000 closed at an all-time high yesterday, and small caps have retu … |
| No Roads Needed: Google-Backed Flying Cars For Sale By End Of 2017Via TheAntiMedia.org, Ever wanted to ride a flying drone? Well, if you’ve got the money, you might get the chance to by the end of the year. ABC News reported Monday that a Google-backed Silicon Valley startup has just completed testing on an “octocopter” that’s all-electric, can seat one person, and fly up to 15 feet in the air. The company, Kitty Hawk, says all the necessary legal steps have been taken, and the Kitty Hawk Flyer — designed only for use over water — is just about ready for production. The company says it will begin selling the Flyer this year.
On its website, Kitty Hawk says life for human beings will fundamentally change when people have the ability to freely travel at will:
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| What Can Stop the World’s Best Selling Drug?AbbVie rides its blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug, Humira, to another strong quarter, but the question remains: How long can this juggernaut can last? |
| First 100 Days: The Trump Trade’s ‘Ridiculous Standard’Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office have produced a strong stock market but weak economic growth; he should get an incomplete for both |
| Samsung Needs to End Its Old-Fashioned WaysSamsung Electronics’ decision against converting to a holding-company structure is disappointing. |
| American health care is so messed up that a whole industry has been created to help navigate itMedical bill advocates and other such third-party businesses have sprung up in the gaps and blind spots of America’s complicated, fragmented health care system. These services make sense of health bills for consumers and even fix errors in them. But many people don’t even know they have access to this. |
| Adding calorie counts on menus might make Americans eat better — but not in the way you’d thinkThe idea is simple enough: if consumers see calorie information, they’ll eat better, advocates say. But the research suggests otherwise. |
| This expensive risk lurks in nearly every medical experience you haveMost people don’t even know this is possible — until they get a surprise bill. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
Earnings Summary for Today
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