17Jul2017 Market Update: Wall Street Trading At Record Highs, WTI Crude Off Session Highs And Trading At The Low 46 Handle, Gold Showing Strength Again

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are mixed. The S&P 500 is higher by 0.09%, while the Bovespa is leading the IPC lower. They are down 0.21% and 0.07% respectively.

Wall Street slightly up as earnings season picks up pace

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks edged higher and stayed near record levels in early afternoon trading on Monday, with investors waiting for big U.S. companies to report their quarterly earnings.

Trian launches public fight to add Peltz to P&G’s board

(Reuters) – Activist fund Trian Fund Management LP launched its public push for changes at Procter & Gamble Co on Monday, nominating its Chief Executive Officer Nelson Peltz to the board in a bid to press for more drastic steps to revive sales and profits.

Lack of voting rights may keep Snap, others from MSCI indexes

BOSTON (Reuters) – MSCI Inc has proposed leaving shares of Snap Inc and other companies including Eaton Vance Corp out of stock indexes because they lack voting rights, a sign of the rising skepticism facing corporate structures that boost the power of insiders.

Low-fee BlackRock funds reel in cash but earnings disappoint

NEW YORK (Reuters) – BlackRock Inc’s second-quarter results failed to impress Wall Street on Monday as the world’s biggest asset manager cut fees to lure a wave of investor cash into its exchange-traded funds, sending shares down 3 percent.

Major tech firms urge U.S. to retain net neutrality rules

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group representing major technology firms including Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc urged the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Monday to abandon plans to reverse the landmark 2015 rules barring internet service providers from blocking or slowing consumer access to web content.

Qualcomm loses appeal against EU threat of daily fine

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm faces the threat of a daily fine of 580,000 euros ($665,000) for failing to provide EU antitrust regulators with information after losing an appeal against the penalty in a European Union court on Monday.

ECB eyes review of Deutsche Bank shareholders: source

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Europe’s top banking regulator, the European Central Bank (ECB), is considering carrying out a review of Deutsche Bank’s two largest shareholders, a regulatory source said on Monday.

UK senior lawmakers call on government to release Toyota investment reassurances

LONDON (Reuters) – Two British parliamentary committees said on Monday that the government should reveal what post-Brexit reassurances it offered Japanese carmaker Toyota ahead of a 240-million pound ($313 million) investment in its English car plant.

Landis+Gyr set to opt for IPO over straight sale of company: sources

ZURICH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Landis+Gyr is almost certain to opt for a planned public listing of its shares instead of a straight sale of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

A Former Lehman Brothers Trader: It’s Time To Buy Brick And Mortar

Authored by Jared Dillian via MauldinEconomics.com,

Everyone thinks it is only a matter of time before Amazon puts every department store, every mall, every brick-and-mortar retailer out of business. Amazon gets an infinity market cap and everyone else gets zero.

Sound familiar?

That’s the accepted wisdom.

Is Amazon a great business? Yes.

Is a department store a bad business? Probably.

Does Amazon get 100% market share, with department stores getting zero? Probably not.

Amazon has over 80 million Prime subscribers in the US. It’s not quite saturated, but it’s getting close.

Source: Business Insider

I admit to being a Prime member, a late adopter.

It is pretty cool. Stuff shows up on my doorstep in two days, for free. The huge poker chip set I just ordered probably weighs about 40 pounds—free shipping! And I get all the Prime movies and TV shows.

But here is my thesis: Amazon will grow and grow, but there will always be a role for physical retailers. A reduced role, for sure, but there will always be a role.

From a capital markets standpoint, now might be the time to put on the trade.

The Bottom of Brick and Mortar

Th …

Real Fake News: Science Used as Propaganda

Via The Daily Bell

Did you know that doctors and scientists can be corrupt or simply wrong?

People seem to give doctors and scientists the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their findings and opinions on things like global warming, genetically modified organisms, pesticides, chemicals, and how unhealthy certain foods and habits are.

But like any other humans, scientists and doctors are, well, human. They can be misguided, confused, corrupt, and stubbornly opinionated.

According to Natural News, as many as 20,000 doctors once recommend …

Auto Defaults Soar On The Back Of “Hasty Loans And, At Times, Outright Fraud”

In the years after its 2009 bankruptcy, Chrysler looked for a dedicated lender to help customers “finance their cars quickly”…which was code for a lender who could help the struggling OEM expand their market share by making extremely risky loans to subprime borrowers all while laying off the credit risk to unsuspecting pension funds. As such, Chrysler ultimately picked Santander due to its expertise in “automated decisioning”…which was code for the ability to advance credit without actually performing income verification tests on borrowers.

For a time, Chrysler and Santander enjoyed a perfect symbiotic relationship as it offered Santander an opportunity to aggressively expand in the U.S. subprime loan market, and Chrysler, the perennial third wheel among the “Big Three,” was able to target customers that were previously deemed untouchable by lenders. Of course, as Bloomberg points out today, the problems surfaced almost from the start.

Many of them, detailed in the settlement between Santander and authorities in Delaware and Massachusetts, recall some of the excesses of the subprime housing era.

Attorneys general in both states alleged Santander enabled a group of “fraud dealers” to put buyers into cars they couldn’t afford, with loans it knew they couldn’t repay. It offloaded most of the debt, which often had rates over 15 percent, reselling them to yield-hungry ABS investors.

State authorities also said an internal Santander review in 2013 found that 10 out of 11 loan applications from a Massachusetts dealer contained inflated or unverifiable incomes. (It’s not clear …

Growing Number Of Companies Complain About Inability To Find Workers: So Why Is Wage Growth So Low?

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Since 2010, the highest year-over-year wage increase in any month for production and nonsupervisory employees is near 2.6%.

For a two-year stretch between summer of 2011 and summer of 2013 wage increases less than 2% were the norm.

Yet, firms complain about labor costs while simultaneously complaining about the lack of workers.

Bloomberg reports Firms Under Pressure as Labor Drought Grows, U.S. Survey Shows.

A growing number of companies are finding it difficult to recruit skilled workers, which threatens to curtail profits and growth, according to a quarterly survey conducted by the Washington-based National Association for Business Economics.

The results of NABE’s July Business Conditions Survey published on Monday showed that 34 percent of respondents have had trouble hiring skilled employees over the last three months, up from 27 percent in January. The Washington-based association polled 101 panelists, who are economists from companies and industry associations.

In response, companies are sponsoring foreign workers, expanding their search and hiring more independent contractors, according to the survey. T …

The Vanishing Reward for Buying High-Yield Bonds

A closer look at high-yield bonds shows the reward on offer isn’t quite what it seems.

China’s Growth Is Still on Borrowed Time

The Chinese economy is performing better than expected—that gives regulators more time to crack down on leverage. Donald Trump or the Fed could upset the party, however.

How New Rules Could Pinch Health Stocks

The latest Senate bid to overhaul the Affordable Care Act contains a benefit to health insurers. That boon may come at the expense of providers.

The Tell: What stock market’s string of all-time highs says about the future

The S&P 500 is on track for its 26th record close of 2017. Should investors cheer or fear?

Capitol Report: Here’s each state’s ‘Made in America’ product highlighted by the White House

Here are the selected products from each state the White House is highlighting as part of its “Made in America” product showcase.

The Wall Street Journal: Valuable lessons in the finances of a surviving spouse

A financial expert offers insights into transitioning a surviving spouse—or yourself—to a new life.