19May2017 Market Close: Dow Up Triple Digits But Down For Week; Dollar Down To Low 97 Handle; Commodities Rally; Trump Turmoil A Damper

Written by Gary

Technology, financials and energy, led the rally, as the latter benefited from a surge in crude futures, which settled above the $50 level for the first time since April.

The rally eased later during the session, after a report from The Washington Post revealed that the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign identified a current White House officials as a “significant person of interest“.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Wall St. ends off session highs after fresh Russia probe reports NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks rose but closed below their session highs on renewed concerns about Donald Trump’s presidency, after two new reports related to a federal investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s election campaign.
	About 37,000 AT&T workers go on three-day strike (Reuters) – About 37,000 AT&T Inc workers, or less than 14 percent of the company’s total workforce, began a three-day strike on Friday after failing to reach an agreement with the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier over new contracts.
	Fiat Chrysler to modify 104,000 U.S. diesel vehicles: company WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV plans to update software that it expects will resolve the concerns of U.S. regulators about excess emissions in 104,000 older diesels, the Italian-American automaker said on Friday.
	Wells Fargo’s suffers slump in muni bond underwriting CHICAGO/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co is paying a price in the U.S. municipal bond market for the bogus customer accounts scandal that hit the bank last year and led to bans by some cities and states, an analysis of Thomson Reuters data shows.
	U.S. regulators approve VW diesel fix for 84,000 vehicles WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board on Friday announced approval of a fix for about 84,000 older Volkswagen diesel vehicles that can emit excess emissions.
	U.S. tax cut hopes sent state collections down in April CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. states collected less personal income tax revenue in April than they did a year earlier, a Reuters analysis shows, and analysts said they believed high earners were shifting income to next year, hoping for tax cuts from the federal government.
	CBS’ CEO Moonves says Viacom undervalued NEW YORK (Reuters) – CBS Corp Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said in response to a shareholder question on Friday that he believed shares of Viacom Inc , which the network considered merging with last year, were undervalued.
	Boeing seeks talks with Canada over threat to scrap jet purchase: source OTTAWA (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s defense unit wants talks with Canadian officials as it tries to fend off a government threat to scrap the purchase of 18 Super Hornet jets, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.
	Ford using first over-the-air software updates to its 2016 cars SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Friday it would delve into the growing arena of “over-the-air” software updates, adding Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to its Sync 3-equipped 2016 vehicles for the first time via a wireless software update.
	Talking Of ‘Obstruction Of Justice’… “probably nothing…” Source: MichaelPRamirez.com
	“Syrian Rebels” Subreddit Continues To Offer Forum To Al Qaeda Affiliates Via Disobedient Media A “Syrian Rebels” forum on Reddit has chosen to once again host a question and answer session with a “journalist” who worked for an extremist television channel in the United Kingdom and has been accused by mainstream media reporters of being an Al-Qaeda affiliate. The subreddit r/SyrianRebels had previously faced criticism after an investigation by Disobedient Media revealed that they had been planning to host an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session with Shaykh Abu Sulayman, (real name Mostafa Muhammed) who has been described as the most senior Australian member of Al-Qaeda by the press and is labeled a terrorist by the United States Department of the Treasury. r/SyrianRebels cancelled the planned AMA in the aftermath of Disobedient Media’s report. Reddit’s administration team declined to take action against the subreddit at the time, saying that it did not violate Reddit’s
	Weekend Reading: End Of Trumpflation? Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Interesting…. For the last few months, there have been ongoing issues surrounding the “Russia Connection” and the underlying, and ongoing, investigations into the potential involvement/interference into the Presidential elections. The market hasn’t cared. Until Wednesday. As I noted last Friday: “This…has…to…be…the…most…boring…market…ever.” As suspected, it did end with a bang on Wednesday as markets dropped sharply on the news of a “leaked” memo to the New York Times. James Comey, former head of the FBI, will now be questioned by Congress next week and asked to provide that memo, but in the mean time the Justice Department has now appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the “Russia Connection.” While the Washington intrigue is certainly interesting, the question is “why after all these months did it matter to the markets now?” The answer is simple …
	Trump’s First Foreign Trip: 10,000 Cops, Bomb-Proof Hotel Rooms, Robots, Steak With A Side Of Ketchup Over the past week a lot of digital ink has been spilled trying to preview and predict what will take place during Trump’s first official mammoth visit abroad, when over the next 8 days after an overnight flight on Air Force One, Trump will hopscotch from Saudi Arabia to Israel to the Vatican. He’ll close his trip with a pair of summits in Brussels and Sicily. The stakes are great for Trump who makes his debut on the international stage: he’s the first president since Jimmy Carter to not travel abroad during his first 100 days in office. And he’ll depart under a cloud of controversy, even as his media troubles intensified with fresh news on the Russia probe and his “Comey is a nut job” remark. There is just one problem with all of these nuanced, carefully constructed previews of Trump’s trip: they will all end up wrong, as there is simply no possible way of knowing or predicting all the potential permutations that could emerge from unleashing one President Trump upon the world. Trumps board AF1 for first foreign trip pic.twitter.com/KcK7FRNOUL — Margaret Talev (@margarettalev) May 19, 2017 What we do know, however, is that never before has so much planning and organization gone into the diplomatic visit by a US head of state (and not only: nearly all of Trump’s senior White House officials are …
	What Delinquent Auto Loans Say About Loose Lending Auto loans are getting worse, and while the delinquency rate remains low, the increase is surprising given the strong employment picture.
	Better Late Than Never for Oil-Service Providers Analysts and investors got ahead of themselves when translating a drilling boom to oil-field-services companies’ profits, but the bonanza is merely delayed, with executives are sounding more bullish, especially when it comes to red-hot U.S. shale plays.
	Don’t Count on the Fed If the Market Tumbles A healthy economy and high stock valuations mean the central bank won’t be quick to step in to calm volatile markets.
	19May2017 Market Update: Wall Street Investors Happy With Latest Batch Of Corporate Earnings Reports, WTI Crude Climbs Into The Mid 50 Handle As The US Dollar Trends Further Downward Written by Gary US stocks are trending higher (SPY +0.9%) in early afternoon trading. The DOW is up triple digits after a set of strong corporate earnings lifted investor spirits. The Fed’s expected plans is making the case for a go-slow approach as inflation progress stalls.
	Here’s How Much Damage A Stun Gun Does To Your Brain And Body The effects that stun guns cause to your body are – literally – shocking. Following is a transcript of the video.
	The Tell: Man who called Dow 20,000 says stock market could see 1,000-point surge if Trump resigns Life without President Donald Trump. On Wall Street, recently this idea is being bandied about increasingly, as the commander-in-chief, who has seen his credibility as leader of the free world assailed relentless over the past week; ultimately, spurring Wall Street stocks into the worst tailspin in months.
	Bond Report: Treasury yields suffer largest weekly fall in a month, as stocks stage a rebound Treasury yields edged up on Friday to snap a weeklong slump after a surge in equities
	NewsWatch: Current White House official is target in Russia probe, and Trump told Lavrov that Comey was a ‘nut job’: reports A pair of published reports say that an investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a person of interest and that the president told the Russian foreign minister that fired FBI Director James Comey was a “nut job.”