08Jan2018 Market Close: Wall Street Closes With Mixed Performances, DOW Down 13 Points, Nasdaq And SP 500 Close With New Historic Highs, Oil Mostly Flat As Rising US Output Offsets OPEC Worries

Written by Gary

The US stock market has hit a record every day of 2018, its longest such streak since 1964 (SPY +0.2%). Crude prices are little changed today as healthcare, banks weigh on the markets.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Wall St. rally eases up as healthcare, banks weigh NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 barely rose on Monday while the healthcare and financial sectors weighed and investors took a breather ahead of earnings season and after the strong rally that marked the start of 2018.
	U.S. bank gains from tax law start with red ink NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. bank executives and investors expect a long-term boost from the new federal tax code, but the biggest lenders will first need to book multi-billion-dollar charges that will muddle fourth-quarter results.
	Berkshire may get $37 billion book value boost from U.S. tax cuts: Barclays (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the conglomerate run by Warren Buffett, may see its book value grow by $37 billion because of U.S. tax law changes enacted by President Donald Trump, Barclays Capital analysts estimated on Monday.
	French prosecutor launches probe into Apple planned obsolescence: judicial source PARIS (Reuters) – A French prosecutor has launched an investigation of U.S. tech giant Apple over alleged deception and planned obsolescence of its products following a complaint by a consumer organization, a judicial source said on Monday.
	GoPro considering selling itself, hires J.P. Morgan: source (Reuters) – GoPro Inc is considering selling itself and has hired J.P. Morgan to help it with the process, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
	Bitcoin slides as website drops South Korea prices from virtual currency rates NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bitcoin sank on Monday after website CoinMarketCap removed prices from South Korean exchanges from its calculations of digital currency rates without any warning, resulting in a steep drop in all virtual coins they track.
	Ex-Google engineer fired over gender memo sues for discrimination SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The former Google engineer fired after he asserted in a memo that biological causes were behind tech industry gender inequality sued his former employer on Monday, saying he was discriminated against as a white man with conservative political views.
	Oil mostly flat as rising U.S. output offsets OPEC worries NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices were little changed on Monday, trading near their highest since May 2015, as political concerns in some OPEC nations offset projections for higher U.S. oil production.
	Visa to boost contribution to U.S.-based employees’ retirement plan (Reuters) – Visa Inc said on Monday it would increase contributions to its U.S.-based employees’ retirement savings plans as the world’s largest payment processor benefits from a new tax law.
	Cryptocurrencies Stage Dramatic Comeback After Flash Crash Update (1605ET): Prices for some of the most popular cryptocurrencies dropped sharply Monday One apparent reason for the sudden plunge: an adjustment from a popular website on its digital-currency price quotes. A website called coinmarketcap.com on Monday removed data from some South Korean exchanges from its price quotes for a range of virtual currencies including bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP. The move followed a South Korean government crackdown on cryptocurrencies. More than $100 billion of the sector’s total market value was erased over the last 24 hours, according to the site. On Sunday, it stood at $835 billion. On Monday, it fell to as low as $683 billion, and lately was at $722 billion. * * * Update (1050ET): Ripple crashed down over 30% after the initial headlines then exploded back higher… and Ethereum is now unchanged on the day… * * *
	Ripple Rebounds After Rout As S&P Gains ‘Guarantee’ 2018 Up-Year For Stocks It’s official – 2018 is a lock for stock investors. Thanks to today’s gains, the S&P 500 is up 2.5% – doubling the gains in gold – as bonds are suffering so far…which means, as Ryan Detrick notes, “since 1950, when the first 5 days are up over 2%, the S&P 500 is higher for the year 15 out of 15 times with an average return of +18.6%. “ Unless, of course, this time is different. On the day, The Dow managed to scramble back to unchanged then stick there before closing lower… Trannies (blue) were best, Nasdaq continued higher with more record highs… This is the first day of the year so far that we did not gap higher at the open. There has been a notable regime shift from December as late-day buying returns…
	Bitcoin – The End Of The Beginning Authored by Ian King via BanyanHill.com, Bitcoin surged a mind-blowing 1,500% last year, leading many experts to call for “the end of bitcoin.” But this rally isn’t over yet. This isn’t the end; it’s only the end of the beginning for cryptocurrency markets. Everyone has heard of bitcoin. But few people own it. Even fewer understand it. That’s going to change in 2018. Author Malcolm Gladwell defines “the tipping point” as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point” in which “ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses.” Crypto assets reached this tipping point in 2017. Bellwether crypto bitcoin surged nearly 1,500%, and total market cap of the crypto space surged from $18 billion at the start of the year to over $600 billion. But while bitcoin put in a stellar year, that doesn’t mean Main Street investors have missed the boat yet. 2018 makes the perfect time to jump into cryptocurrencies… The Crypto Game Has Changed In just nine years, crypto assets have ballooned from a tiny project among libertarian-minded cryptography experts to a global phenomenon. Corporations and governments are hiring blockchain experts to figure out how to integrate this new technology into their existing busine …
	“Everything’s Overbought” And There’s “Too Much Optimism” “The most hated rally” this is not… As Bloomberg writes, equity euphoria has gripped most of the world to kick off 2018, with the 14-day relative strength index for major stock markets surging to overbought levels. And it doesn’t look like slowing down, based on sentiment, but optimism about U.S. stocks among investment advisers is so prevalent that investors may end up disappointed this year, Doug Ramsey, chief investment officer at Leuthold Group LLC, wrote in a report Friday. Ramsey cited figures that showed 76.7 percent of bullish or bearish newsletter writers were bulls last year on average, based on weekly surveys by Investors Intelligence. In fact, as Bloomberg points out, in years after the sentiment gauge exceeded 70 percent, the S&P 500 Index has averaged a 0.2 percent decline since the 1960s. Finally, BAML notes that its Global Financial Stress Index sank to its lowest level since July 2014 as volatility eased across most asset classes and geographies last week.
	The Price Gap That’s Squeezing the Auto Market The widening difference in prices between new and used cars augurs pain for auto-makers profits in the U.S.
	Why Everything Is Still Awesome in Global Markets The calendar has rolled over but global markets are still thriving on the 2017 playbook. That means that big questions over why growth and inflation are so out of whack with each other remain unanswered.
	GoPro: Too Focused Struggling camera maker’s failed efforts at diversification leave investors with little to hang on.
	November 2017 Headline Consumer Credit Growth Rate Significantly Grows Written by Steven Hansen The headlines say consumer credit rate of annual growth SIGNIFICANTLY increased from last month. Our analysis sees only marginal improvement.
	In One Chart: Why the gain on Monday, a ‘big day for bulls,’ could suggest stock gains of nearly 20% in 2018 The U.S. stock market has been strong in the few trading sessions of 2018, with major indexes rising in each of the five days of the year thus far, hitting multiple records along the day.
	Economic Report: Consumer borrowing grows at its fastest rate in 16 years Outstanding consumer credit rose by $28 billion in November, the most in 16 years, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.
	Market Extra: The S&P 500 has hit a record every day of 2018, its longest such streak since 1964 The U.S. stock market hasn’t just started 2018 off on a good footing, it has started it with what is by one standard the best out-of-the-gate performance in more than 50 years.