19Oct2017 Market Update: Wall Street Pulled Back From Record Highs, Apple Leads The Decline In Technology Stocks, US Jobless Claims Hit A 44-year Low, US Crude And The Dollar Still Show Fractional Signs Of Weakness

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

Verizon quarterly revenue tops estimates as subscribers rise

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Verizon Communications Inc’s quarterly revenue topped Wall Street analyst estimates on Thursday and the company added more phone subscribers than expected, sending shares of the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier up in mid-morning trading.

Apple stalls Wall Street’s record run

(Reuters) – Wall Street pulled back from record highs on Thursday with Apple leading a decline in technology stocks and a bunch of weak corporate results adding to the dour mood.

Japan carmakers vouch for safety of Kobe Steel’s aluminum parts

TOKYO (Reuters) – Four Japanese automakers on Thursday said they found no safety issues with aluminum parts supplied by Kobe Steel Ltd , allaying some concerns that falsified quality data on products from the steelmaker had compromised their vehicles.

U.S. jobless claims hit more than 44-year low

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to its lowest level in more than 44 years last week, pointing to a rebound in job growth after a hurricane-related decline in employment in September.

Thirty years ago this week, Wall Street slid into the abyss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thirty years ago, before heading to work at the New York Stock Exchange, Peter Kenny left his home in lower Manhattan and made a detour to the nearby Our Lady of Victory church to pray to St. Jude, the Roman Catholic patron saint of desperate and lost causes.

Could the 1987 stock market crash happen again?

NEW YORK (Reuters) – On the 30th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash, U.S. stocks are at a record high and investors are concerned that steep valuations may mean a correction is overdue, despite healthy corporate earnings and economic growth.

Saudi needs Aramco billions as recession slows austerity drive

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s plans to sell state assets – including a stake in energy giant Saudi Aramco – are becoming even more important to its finances as a recession slows Riyadh’s effort to close a budget deficit caused by low oil prices.

Nissan to suspend domestic production of cars for Japan market

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co Ltd is suspending domestic production of vehicles for the Japanese market for at least two weeks to address misconduct in its final inspection procedures that led to a major recall, it said on Thursday.

Rosneft’s Sechin says no watershed in oil market, U.S. shale oil a risk

VERONA, Italy (Reuters) – A global deal to cut oil output has not led to a breakthrough on high inventory levels, while an expected rise in U.S. shale oil output may destabilize the market in 2018, the head of Russia’s Rosneft, Igor Sechin, said on Thursday.

One Trader Warns “The Game Is Starting To Change Before Your Eyes”

In a market that can barely fog a mirror with its heartbeat, a sudden lurch lower – as we experienced overnight across all global risky asset classes – especially on the 30th anniversary of Black Monday, has sparked a cavalacade of “this is it” narratives as well as “this time is different” memes. However, as former fund manager Richard Breslow notes, no matter how much traders may want to ignore reality, the game is starting to change before our eyes…

As BlackRock CIO Rick Reider noted earlier, major central banks flooded the global financial system with nearly $10 trillion in liquidity since 2008, but now we’re beginning to unwind…

Via Bloomberg,

If Catalonia didn’t exist, we would have to invent it. If only for a day…

Stocks are down today and someone has to be assigned the blame.

It’s a shame that we always need to find the whipping boy du jour in order to avoid confronting the possibility of the impossible – that asset bubbles may be made of tough stuff but they’re called bubbles for a reason.

Are the problems in Spain for real? Certainly. As is their unemployment rate, but nobody has given a damn. But failure to place blame on something that everyone assumes will be a one-hit blunder risks a level of investor introspection that must be avoided, especially as we inch closer to the holiday season. Which is a more genteel way of saying toward high water-mark calculations.

What’s causing this particular setback, if indeed it can be …

Papers Filed To Disbar James Comey Following “False Testimony To Congress”

Ty Clevenger, the “crusading lawyer” who has been trying for months to get Hillary and several members of her campaign staff disbarred in every jurisdiction from Little Rock, Arkansas to New York, has now set his sights on a new target: Former FBI Director James Comey. According to the Washington Times, Clevenger filed a bar grievance in New York this week accusing Comey of lying to Congress and destroying potential evidence in the Clinton email scandal, in a process that could end up costing him his law license.

Ty Clevenger filed the grievance in New York, where Mr. Comey was a former U.S. attorney and is licensed to practice law.

Mr. Clevenger said Mr. Comey’s testimony to Congress that he did not predetermine the outcome of the FBI’s probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is belied by revelations this week that he in fact started drafting an exoneration months before even speaking with Mrs. Clinton.

“Insofar as Mr. Comey gave materially false testimony to Congress, it appears that he violated Rules 1.0(w), 3.3(a)(1), and 8.4 of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct,” Mr. Clevenger wrote.

Clevenger also asked to renew grievances in New York against former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, saying that Comey’s claim that she tried to pressure him to downplay the Clinton probe should subject her to scrutiny.

As you may recall, Clevenger is also the lawyer who convinced Maryland judge Paul Harris Jr. to order the Maryland state bar to investigat …

O’Keefe Drops Part IV: 20-Year NYT Veteran Exposes “Culture Of Anti-Trump Bias”

First it was Audience Strategy Editor, Nick Dudich, who admitted to repeatedly promoting content that intentionally sought to, among other things, damage President Trump’s businesses as a means towards forcing his resignation.

Next came the NYT’s senior Home Page Editor, Des Shoe, who described Trump as an “oblivious idiot” and Pence as “f***ing horrible” while admitting that her company’s perpetual bias and ‘shocking’ headlines were often nothing more than click-bait designed to attract readers in a hyper-competitive industry.

Now, James O’Keefe and the team at Project Veritas would like for you to meet Todd Gordon, a 20-year veteran IT consultant at the New York Times who says the “culture of anti-Trump bias” has become so pervasive at the Times that not a single person within the organization has a positive opinion of the President.

PV Journalist: “Have you ever had anybody in New York Times’ office come up to you and say, I actually enjoy Trump?”

Todd Gordon: “No, no, no.”

PV Journalist: “Really?”

Todd Gordon: “Not one person.”

PV Journalist: “Not one person?”

Todd Gordon: “Not one, not one. Everyone hates him. They hate him like the plague dude. I’m like, beautiful day, today. And they’re like, as good as it could be, fuck Trump. Everywhere I go, everywhere I go they’re like as good as it could be, but we’re fucked.”

“They unfairly, yes. …

Krugman And The “Heroic” Fed

Authored by Bill Anderson via The Mises Institute,

Once an avid reader of Paul Krugman’s New York Times twice-weekly columns, I admit to rarely even glancing at his work now, since I know that anything he writes is going to have the theme of “Trump evil, Democrats good” each time, and it doesn’t take long to get one’s fill of that, even if one disagrees with Donald Trump’s policies or cringes at some of his public statements. The real problem, however, is that Krugman also manages to endorse unsound and inflationary economic policies as a “solution” to what he calls “Trumpism.”

If one reads Krugman to see what “vulgar” Keynesian fallacies he is promoting, the man rarely disappoints, and a recent column in which he attacks what he believes will be Trump’s future choice to head the Federal Reserve System only burnishes Krugman’s Keynesian credentials. After claiming that Trump has been like a “Category 5 hurricane sweeping through the U.S. government, leaving devastation in his wake,” Krugman then worries if the Fed will suffer the same fate. One only could hope….

Before looking at Krugman’s worshipful commentary on the current Fed leadership, a brief point is in order regarding the rest of official Washington that Trump allegedly has devastated. People like Krugman believe that Washington and its gaggle of Alphabet-Soup agencies regulating nearly every aspect of individual lives is the very source of social stability and economic prosperity in this country – provided there are little or no restraints on what government agents can do. As Krugman and his fellow progressive …

Box Stacks Up its Cloud Gains

Young tech companies like to move fast and break things, but humbled upstart Box has discovered the value of taking things slow and steady.

Unilever Cost-Cutting Turns Out to Be Twisty Path to Profits

The Anglo-Dutch consumer giant has been hit by upstart competitors like ice-cream brand Halo Top, as brand-building is a less predictable business than it used to be.

For a Profitable Tech Stock That’s Still Cheap, Look to Taiwan

TSMC stands to benefit from the hottest tech trends, from new smartphones to cryptocurrencies.

September 2017 Leading Economic Index Declined

Written by Steven Hansen

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the U.S declined this month – and the authors say “Despite September’s decline, the trend in the US LEI remains consistent with continuing solid growth in the US economy for the second half of the year”.

: Standoff in Spain intensifies, as government gears up to strip autonomy from Catalonia

Spain’s crisis with Catalonia deepens Thursday as the government says it will take action to start implementing Article 155 in which it removes powers from the region. That comes after the Catalan government refused to back away from an independence proclamation.

Outside the Box: Americans are still terrible at investing, annual study once again shows

It’s not about fees or unscrupulous advisers — it’s that we lack the patience to hold investments for more than a few years. By Lance Roberts.

NewsWatch: Black Monday anniversary: How the 2017 stock market compares with 1987

It is the 30th anniversary of Black Monday, and while worries about market structure abound, investors shouldn’t compare the 2017 rally to the 1987 surge that preceded the most cataclysmic single day in Wall Street history.