09Nov2017 Market Close: Wall Street Closes Lower, So-called Investors Fret About Tax Cut Delays, DOW Down 101 Points, Weighed Down By Apple Inc And Other Technology Stocks, US Dollar Slides, Gold Trends Higher

Written by Gary

US equities market fell today as some analysts feel that investors are fretting about tax cut delays (SPY -0.4%). Our opinion is that the market slip is far more complicated than a proposed tax cut and further declines are probable.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	AT&T ready to fight U.S. on Time Warner deal: CEO WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – AT&T Inc will not sell cable network CNN to win antitrust approval of its proposed $85.4 billion purchase of media company Time Warner Inc and will fight the government in court if a negotiated settlement is not reached, the wireless company’s chief executive said on Thursday.
	Tech pulls Wall Street lower, investors fret about tax cut delays (Reuters) – Wall Street dropped on Thursday, weighed down by losses in Apple Inc and other technology stocks as investors turned their attention to a U.S. Senate Republican plan that would delay corporate tax cuts that investors want very much.
	Saudi Aramco signs engineering and construction deals worth $4.5 billion DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Saudi Aramco signed agreements on Thursday worth $4.5 billion with firms from Europe, the United States, China and the United Arab Emirates for work on a range of oil and gas development projects, mostly aimed at boosting gas production.
	Chip stocks tumble as top performer Nvidia set to report results SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of chipmakers slumped on Thursday ahead of a quarterly earnings report from Nvidia Corp , the star performer of the high-flying sector over the past year.
	Special Report: The decisions behind Monsanto’s weed-killer crisis (Reuters) – In early 2016, agri-business giant Monsanto faced a decision that would prove pivotal in what since has become a sprawling herbicide crisis, with millions of acres of crops damaged.
	Equifax to report post-hack financial results after market close NEW YORK (Reuters) – Equifax Inc reports quarterly financial results on Thursday, after the market close, for the first time since disclosing it was the target of a massive data breach that exposed deeply sensitive information on 145.5 million people.
	Boeing signs deal to sell 300 planes worth $37 billion to China (Reuters) – Boeing Co said it signed an agreement on Thursday to sell 300 planes to China Aviation Supplies Holding Company worth $37 billion at list prices, one of several deals announced during a state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing.
	Trump’s $250 billion China ‘miracle’ adds gloss to ‘off-kilter’ trade BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – President Donald Trump can return to the United States claiming to have snagged over $250 billion in deals from his maiden trip to Beijing. Whether those deals live up to the lofty price tag is another question altogether.
	‘We’re engaged’: Alaska gets China backing for natural gas project BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s biggest state oil company Sinopec, one of the country’s top banks and its sovereign wealth fund agreed on Thursday to develop a $43 billion natural gas project in Alaska, as the cash-poor U.S. state seeks to revive its dwindling energy industry.
	Tax Tantrum Sparks Stock Slump As Credit Crash Continues To the middle class… Before we start, don’t forget the chaos in Japan overnight… Gold remains the biggest winner in the post-Saudi-chaos world… The Dow’s 7-day win streak is broken… Trannies were worst VIX pushed higher on the Senate tax bill (topping 12), but soon enough the army of vol-selling-machines stepped in and righted the ship… ‘High Tax’ Companies dropped early but rebounded as details came out….
	Las Vegas’ New Self-Driving Shuttle Involved In Accident On Its First Day That didn’t take long. Two days after Alphabet’s Waymo subsidiary announced that it would begin testing a fully autonomous taxi service on the streets of suburban Phoenix, Ariz. – provoking warnings from safety groups who claim Waymo’s own data show its cars are not yet prepared to safely operate on public roads – another self-driving shuttle service being tested in Las Vegas, Nevada created a local controversy when one of its shuttles collided with a human driver. And what’s more, the accident occurred on the project’s first day in operation. As the Verge notes, within an hour of starting its new expanded operation today, following a two-week pilot test back in January, the shuttle hit the front end of a large delivery truck as the human driver pulled out into the street from a loading bay. Luckily, all eight people aboard the shuttle were wearing their seatbelts. However, a spokesperson for AAA, which is working with the city of Las Vegas and Keolis – the private French transportation company that’s been responsible for testing the driverless cars – to sponsor the program and survey driver attitudes toward autonomous vehicles, confirmed that the accident was actually the truck driver’s fault. The shuttles operate in a 0.6 mile loop around Las Vegas offering free rides. Luckily, only the front bumper of the shuttle was damaged, and none of the eight passengers or the truck driver were injured. A representative of the Las Vegas city government provided more details about the incident in a tumblr post published by the city:
	Saudi Billionaires Scramble To Move Cash Offshore, Escape Asset Freeze Over the weekend, Saudi King Salman shocked the world by abruptly announcing the arrests of 11 senior princes and some 38 ministers, including Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the world’s sixty-first richest man and the largest shareholder in Citi, News Corp. and Twitter. The purge was orchestrated by a new “supreme committee” to investigate public corruption created by King Salman but under the control of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who chairs the committee and is widely suspected of being the driving force behind the purge. In addition to the arrests, two Royals have died since the purge began. Prince Mansour bin-Muqrin reportedly perished in a helicopter crash near the Yemen border earlier this week, and Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd – killed during a firefight as authorities attempted to arrest him. For all the chaos, Saudi Arabia is benefiting from the climb in oil prices over the past week. However, signs of stress are showing up elsewhere in regional markets, as Bloomberg points out in a recent piece.
	1 In 3 Millennials Would Rather Own Bitcoin That Stocks Having ‘dabbled’ in what they know best – Snap – Millennials are increasingly turning their back on stocks and buying bitcoin… In March of this year Millennials piled in to Snap shares… … the median age among Snap buyers on Thursday was even younger, at 26. “I wanted to test the waters and play around with some money I wouldn’t be too devastated to lose,” Ms. Shoenthal said. “I think I’m going to stick it out for at least a few years.” Ms. Shoenthal, who uses Snapchat every day, said this was her first big stock pick. She’s gotten interested in stocks this semester because of classes she’s taking on personal finance and branding. She thinks the prospects for Snap are bright, particularly given that Snapchat is changing the way many young people, including her friends, read the news. “I have high hopes” for Snap, Ms. Markley said. “I think they are doing really cool things.” She doesn’t do much investing generally, citing student loans and the high cost of living in the Bay Area, but got excited by the talk of the IPO. One promising sign of the company’s growth prospects, she said: Even her parents are using it now. That has not ended so well…
	A Bit of Holiday Cheer From Retailers Retailers are confident that shoppers will visit their stores during the holiday season. Investors who procrastinate may miss out.
	Salesforce Won’t Let Age Slow It Down The acquisitive cloud software giant expects to double its revenue without relying on M&A deals.
	Time to Remove Italian Banks from List of Global Worries Here’s one less thing for global investors to worry about: Italy’s once-tottering financial system isn’t nearly as scary as it was.
	September 2017 Headline Wholesale Sales Improved Written by Steven Hansen The headlines say wholesale sales were up month-over-month with inventory levels remaining elevated. Our analysis shows the rolling averages were unchanged.
	Currencies: Dollar extends slide as Senate tax plan delays corporate tax cut The U.S. dollar index sags throughout Thursday trading, marking its biggest pullback of the week after a Senate tax bill called for delaying a cut in the corporate rate until 2019.
	Deep Dive: Thinking of buying gun-maker stocks? You better be careful Shares of some weapons manufacturers have soared, but sales numbers don’t look very good.
	Deep Dive: Here are the S&P 500 companies with the best and worst earnings surprises Good or bad surprises might prompt you to reconsider stocks you own, says Phil van Doorn.