28Sep2017 Market Close: GDP Buoys Stocks, Dollar Slips As Investors Not Buying Tax Cuts And Rate Hikes

Written by Gary

U.S. stocks closed higher on Thursday as upbeat economic data showing the U.S. economy expanded at a faster pace than expected in the second quarter offset investor uncertainty over how President Donald Trump’s plans for tax reform will evolve into legislation.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	U.S. economy accelerates in second quarter; hurricanes expected to slow growth WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy expanded a bit faster than previously estimated in the second quarter, recording its quickest rate of growth in more than two years, but the momentum likely slowed in the third quarter due to the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
	Roku connects with investors in debut, shares up 16.6 percent (Reuters) – Shares of Roku Inc , a Fox-backed video streaming firm, rose as much as 16.6 percent in their market debut on Thursday, giving the U.S. IPO market a much-needed shot in the arm.
	S&P ekes out record on healthcare gains, tax plan hopes (Reuters) – Wall Street edged higher on Thursday, as the S&P 500 eked out a record on gains in McDonald’s and healthcare names, while investors continued to hope President Donald Trump will be able to make progress on tax reform.
	Wealthy financiers could gain from Trump’s proposed tax cut for small businesses WASHINGTON (Reuters) – High-income Wall Street financiers could be unintended winners from a section of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax-cut plan that is meant to help mostly small, “mom-and-pop” businesses.
	Britain’s May fires warning to Boeing over Bombardier trade dispute LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May told U.S. planemaker Boeing on Thursday that its behaviour in a trade dispute with Canada’s Bombardier was undermining its commercial relationship with Britain.
	Toshiba $18 billion sale of chip unit signed, but discord emerges immediately TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Toshiba Corp said on Thursday it had signed an $18 billion deal to sell its chip unit to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP, overcoming a key – albeit not its last – hurdle as it scrambles for funds to stave off a potential delisting.
	Exclusive: Lyft close to selecting IPO adviser – sources SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Lyft Inc is close to hiring an initial public offering (IPO) advisory firm, in the first concrete step by the second biggest U.S. ride service company to become publicly listed, according to people familiar with the matter.
	Aramco listing reshapes Saudi Arabia’s OPEC oil policy DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s plans to float state oil titan Aramco are prompting the country to think the unthinkable.
	Abbott wins U.S. antitrust approval to buy Alere with conditions WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Abbott Laboratories has won U.S. antitrust approval to buy Alere Inc on condition that it sell two point-of-care medical testing businesses, the Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday.
	“There’s A Scare Coming This Fall” – Gordon Long Warns, The Public Is In A “Delusional Phase” Authored by Greg Hunter via USAWatchdog.com, Private investor Gordon Long contends the price of gold will shock the world when it revalues to reflect the massive amount of currency that has been printed globally. Long explains, “That is correct, and it won’t be something that is gradual, it will be very abrupt. The system will break… and the financial markets will freeze up. When they come out of the other end of that freeze, and it may be a number of weeks because the next crisis will be global and much more complex than 2008. We could control that with the Federal Reserve . . . and this one you cannot do because you cannot get agreement with all those countries. Never mind understanding the complexity. So, when we come out on the other side . . . there will be a massive revaluation in the U.S. dollar. . . . Gold could jump to $5,000 or $10,000 an ounce or something like that. . . . It will be massive. They will have to put some stability in the monetary system, and the only way they can do it is having something they cannot print. This is what has gotten us into this problem. We have to get back to sound money. It will have to be gold. What percentage of backing will determine what the value the gold will be.”
	Stocks Up, Bonds Up, Gold Up, & Dollar Down But ‘Middle-Class-Miracle’ Fades Odd day. Low volume, small range in stocks. Good macro. Some questions over just how ‘miraculous’ Trump’s tax plan will be for the middle-class… but the day’s trend across FX, bond, and commodities was set early on when Asia closed and dollar-sellers, bond-buyers, and precious-metal-purchasers came back to play… Risk is “Contained”… Tech stocks disappointed today (Nasdaq was red until the panic-buying into the close) as Trannies outperformed…new record for Russell 2000, S&P and Trannies VIX was clobbered again desperate to keep S&P green above 2507.5… Value slightly outperformed Growth today… …
	Networks Told NFL Cameramen To Avoid Shots Of Booing Crowds President Donald Trump’s feud with the NFL erupted nearly a week ago when he demanded that NFL franchise owners should “get that son of a b***h off the field” when they see players kneeling during the national anthem. Since then, league owners have discovered, to their surprise, that millions of Americans – and more importantly, millions of NFL fans – agree with the president, who encouraged them to boycott the league until it agrees to ban kneeling during the anthem. So far, evidence suggests that fans have heeded the president’s call to boycott the league. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” last weekend recorded its worst weekly ratings in years. Overall, ratings are down 11% from last year, according to the Associated Press. And while mainstream media outlets have insisted that there’s “no evidence” to suggest that the protests have impacted television ratings, at least one survey suggests that there’s a direct link. In what was perhaps an attempt to obscure this fact, NFL camera operators were instructed by the networks to avoid crowd shots during last weekend’s games to avoid capturing images of fans counterprotesting the protests, which involved both players and, in many cases, team owners, a few of whom locked arms with their players. Sporting News reports that while some fans che …
	We Are Already In Depression (If Borrowing Money Is Not Income) Via Baker & Company Advisory Group, The U.S. economy is not as solid as it appears. Statistical anomalies hide profound weakness. I will examine actual GDP and actual employment. Warning: not for the faint of heart. Do you consider debt as income? Before you answer that, let’s perform a thought experiment. Imagine that you had taken a long cruise last fall and charged $10,000 to an American Express card. When you did your taxes this year, would have told the IRS that you had $10,000 income from American Express? Of course you wouldn’t. Suppose a major oil company issues $800 million worth of bonds to develop a new old field. Would the company report that as income to the stockholders or the IRS? Of course they wouldn’t. I am sure those sound like silly questions as the answer is a self evident “NO!” We do not consider borrowed money as income. It is a liability that must be paid back. Then why do we count Federal Government debt when measuring national income? I will leave speculation as to the “why” to the readers and focus on the fact that we do count new Treasury Debt as income. The modern concept of GDP was first developed by the Department of Commerce in 1934. Commerce commissioned Nobel Laureate Simon Kuznets of the National Bureau of Economic Research to develop a set of national eco …
	Screen Blues Aren’t Over for Many of Apple’s Suppliers Display makers such as Japan Display, LG Display and Sharp are falling behind in the screen arms race as Apple shifts to OLED technology.
	GoPro Needs to Tame the Thrills GoPro wants to be a little boring. For investors, that is not such a bad thing.
	Massachusetts Takes on the Drug Industry Massachusetts Medicaid system said it wants the right to refuse to reimburse for some drugs, citing rising costs. Investors should take note because it could imperil smaller drug companies, and other states could follow suit.
	September 2017 Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Remains Positive And Improves Of the five regional manufacturing surveys released for September, all were in expansion.
	Third Estimate 2Q2017 GDP Improves to 3.1%. Corporate Profits Up. Written by Steven Hansen The third estimate of first quarter 2017 Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased marginally to 3.1 %.
	The New York Post: British retailer may buy sneaker chain Finish Line Struggling sneaker chain Finish Line is in talks to sell itself to a Europe-based retailer, The Post has learned.
	Market Extra: Low volatility, correlations, and other confounding market riddles Looking at the trends of the market that make little obvious sense.
	Capitol Report: Price says he’ll reimburse taxpayers, stop taking private charter flights Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price says he’ll reimburse taxpayers for the charter flights he has taken on official business and that he’ll stop taking such flights while at HHS.