Written by Gary
Wall Street fell today (SPY -0.2%), but the stock-market rally is unlikely to be derailed by the Flynn news. Stocks could surge by 17 percent, if tax reform passes, crude settles higher, US dollar fractionally weaker.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Wall Street falls on Russia probe, but tax hopes soften blow(Reuters) – Wall Street fell on Friday after an ABC News report that President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser was prepared to testify that before taking office Trump had directed him to make contact with Russians. | |
Exclusive: CVS eyes major expansion of health clinics with Aetna deal – sourcesNEW YORK (Reuters) – CVS Health Corp is planning to significantly expand health services at its retail pharmacies if it completes a more than $66 billion deal for insurer Aetna Inc , a move that could save more than $1 billion annually, people familiar with the matter said. | |
Bitcoin rebounds to $10,500 after U.S. regulator approves futuresLONDON (Reuters) – Bitcoin rebounded on Friday to hit the day’s highs above $10,500, recovering from an earlier dip below $9,500, after the U.S. derivatives regulator said it would allow CME Group and CBOE Global Markets to list bitcoin futures. | |
Sale of the century? $300-billion Saudi state sell-off moves slowlyDUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s $300-billion privatization program was billed as the sale of the century when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled his plan to great fanfare. Nineteen months later, it is moving at a snail’s pace, bankers, investors and analysts familiar with the process say. | |
New York Times cuts number of free articles on website(Reuters) – The New York Times on Friday reduced the number of free articles it will offer most non-subscribers to five from 10 in an effort to make more money from readers. | |
In a push upmarket, Wells Fargo gives top brokers raises in 2018NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co is giving its top brokers and advisory teams as much as a $40,000 raise next year in a broad strategy to go after wealthier clients, company executives said Friday. | |
Political risk on Wall Street? Buy the dip!SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – An abrupt stock selloff on Friday, sparked by a report that magnified concerns about President Donald Trump’s potential links with Russia, prompted Wall Street’s favorite reaction in recent months: “Buy the dip.” | |
Three Uber security managers resign after CEO criticizes practicesSAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three senior managers in Uber Technologies Inc’s security unit resigned on Friday, an Uber spokesperson said, days after the company’s new chief executive officer disclosed a massive data breach and criticized past practices. | |
Exclusive: Tezos founders push for legal bailout from Swiss foundationNEW YORK/ZURICH (Reuters) – The couple behind the embattled Tezos cryptocurrency tech project wants the Swiss-based Tezos Foundation to cover their costs for lawsuits accusing them of fraud related to an online fundraiser it ran, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. | |
Stock Markets Mueller’d As Yield Curve Collapse ContinuesSo to summarize – the former national security chief agrees to testify against the sitting president and The Dow drops 40pts… China stocks were mixed with CHINEXT surging overnight but CSI300 ending at the lows (worst week in 2017) Europe saw stocks and bond yields notably lower… But for US equities, overnight weakness (as Asian tech wrecked) was quickly dismissed into the US open thanks to Daines and Johnson saying “yes” to the tax bill. Everything was awesome for a while and then the Flynn headlines hit, plunging stocks lower. But then luckily, Europe closed and McConnell sais GOP had the votes for the tax bill and stocks took off again… On the week, Nasdaq ended lower – worst week in 3 months, Trannies soared most since the election… | |
Kunstler: Guilty Until Proven InnocentAuthored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, Whipping Post Politics Charlie Rose skulked offstage like a punch-drunk palooka with barely a whimper, and Matt Lauer offered up the now laughably pro forma press release of bathetic apology and contrition – no doubt micro-managed by his attorneys. But the hit on Garrison Keilor by his old friend Minnesota Public Radio seemed like a new low in the whipping-post politics of the moment. Unlike the cases of Rose, Lauer, Louis CK, Harvey Weinstein, and Kevin Spacey, there seemed next to nothing in the case against Keilor. He says he placed his hand on a lady’s bare back, someone on the crew or cast or a guest on The Prairie Home Companion radio show he hosted for close to forty years. Maybe MinnPR has a file full of complaints against the old trooper, but if so they’ve released nothing, no details whatsoever, and unlike the previously “outed” line-up, in Keilor’s case no other “victims” have come forward on their own to establish anything like a pattern of truly bad behavior. I happen to admire Keilor’s substantial body of work in print and radio, and the public persona he presented, which portrayed a lot of what was honorable, intelligent, charming, and funny in our national character, something we need to be reminded of in this new era of pervasive racketeering, affronts to the first amendment, ubiquitous porno-culture, and Deep State mischief. This may amaze some of you, but to me Keilor deserves to be ranked with Mark Twain as a literary icon. What he gave to his large radio audience over a very long run was of uniformly high quality — something manifestly absent in so many other areas of contemporary life and art. Keilor was reputed to be a cold-fish backstage and offstage … | |
Asian ‘FANG’ Stocks Suffer Worst Week In HistoryRepresenting a major segment of EM stocks, TATS are the Asian ‘FANGs’, and they just suffered their worst week on record. Taiwan Semi, Alibaba, Tencent, and Samsung are TATS and account for over 16% of the MSCI EM Stock index (considerably more than FANG stocks represent in the S&P). TATS have traded lower for 4 of the last 5 days – tumbling almost 8% to one month lows… Tencent is the biggest loser… The biggest weekly drop in the history of the 4 stocks… Overnight no BTFD in these names.
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The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Being An IdiotAuthored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com, There are many things that could be said about the GOP tax bill. But one thing is certain. It has been a great show. Obviously, the time for real solutions to the debt problem that’s ailing the United States came and went many decades ago. Instead of addressing the Country’s mounting insolvency, lawmakers chose the expedient without exception. They kicked the can from yesterday to today. Presently, there are no good options left to fix the mathematics bearing down on us all. Hence, in the degenerate stage of an overburdened nation-state, style over substance is what counts. Without question, Congress and President Trump played their parts to push the bill with much bravura. On Tuesday, for example, President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan held a White House meeting with two empty chairs. Apparently, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi didn’t want to participate in a “show meeting.” Thus, they made a spectacle of themselves and ditched the meeting. Indeed, their absence was all part of the show. Moreover, the entire episode was show; nothing more. At the time of this writing (Thursday night), the show continues on. The last we heard, the Senate vote had been delayed until Friday. By the time you … | |
Chinese Battery Champion Has Fully Charged IPOChina has the world’s largest market for electric cars and wants its companies to dominate globally when it comes to the batteries that power these vehicles. That makes the initial public offering of a turbocharged player at the center of that effort well worth watching. | |
Surprise! Why Economists Can’t Be Optimistic EnoughThe current bout of more synchronized growth around the world offers economists more reasons to be cheerful. But they find their habitual pessimism is hard to shake. | |
When Memory Fades for ChipsFresh off another yearlong rally, semiconductor stocks are more vulnerable to fears that memory prices have peaked. | |
Mylan and Teva stocks rise on report about Amazon’s pharmacy aimsShares of generic drug manufacturers are rising on a report stating that Amazon.com held talks with Mylan and Novartis’ Sandoz about entering the pharmacy business, while shares of distributors and drugstores are falling. | |
In One Chart: Reports of a new tech bubble may have been exaggerated: Deutsche BankAs tech stocks have been hands-down the best performers of 2017, boosting the broader stock market to new records, the trend has given some investors a sense of déjà vu of the halycon days preceding the dot.com crash at the beginning of the century. But Deutsche Bank says it isn’t all that scary when one put it in perspective. | |
Currencies: Dollar down as political turmoil roils marketsThe dollar suddenly swung lower against its rivals on Friday after former national security adviser Michael Flynn has entered a guilty plea to charges he lied to investigators and a news report that he will testify he was directed by President Donald Trump to make contact with Russian officials. |
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