09Jan2018 Market Update: Wall Street Edges Moderately Higher As Healthcare And Bank Stocks Gain, Cude Prices And The US Dollar Index Trends Higher, Gold Continues To Slide

Written by Gary

The US equities main benchmarks edged higher today (SPY +0.4%) as healthcare and bank stocks gained in the run up to the quarterly earnings season that is set to start later this week.

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money
	North and South American markets are mixed. The S&P 500 is higher by 0.33%, while the IPC is leading the Bovespa lower. They are down 0.70% and 0.48% respectively.

Looking at the last three columns (below), the first one (Actual), is what was reported this morning. The second column (Forecast) is what analysts had forecast and the third column is the previous report. Full calendar HERE.

Traders Corner – Health of the Market

What Is Moving the Markets

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	Wall Street edges higher as healthcare, bank stocks gain (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes edged higher on Tuesday as healthcare and bank stocks gained in the run up to the quarterly earnings season that is set to start later this week.
	IPhone addiction may be a virtue, not a vice for investors NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc investors are shrugging off concerns raised by two shareholders about kids getting hooked on iPhones, saying that for now a little addiction might not be a bad thing for profits.
	BOJ bond tweak buoys yen, stocks rally rumbles on LONDON (Reuters) – A tweak to the Bank of Japan’s bond-buying program shunted the yen higher on Tuesday, while gains from commodity stocks as oil hit its highest since 2015 helped world shares maintain their flying start to the year.
	GM races to build a formula for profitable electric cars DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra has made a bold promise to investors that the Detroit automaker will make money selling electric cars by 2021.
	Intel says Mobileye’s autonomous driving tech to be used in two million vehicles (Reuters) – Intel Corp Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said on Monday 2 million vehicles from BMW , Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Volkswagen AG would use its unit Mobileye’s autonomous vehicle technology to crowdsource data for building maps that enable autonomous driving.
	Infosys signs agreement with U.S. IRS; sees lower tax rate (Reuters) – Indian software services company Infosys Ltd on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), resulting in an effective tax rate of about 100 basis points lower going forward.
	Target lifts profit forecast after holiday sales jump (Reuters) – Target Corp reported strong same-store sales for November and December on Tuesday, more customer visits and higher online sales putting the United States’ second largest mass retailer on track for the best quarter in five years.
	Airbus says to boost China assembly, but wins no new jet order PARIS (Reuters) – European planemaker Airbus said it planned to boost the number of planes it makes in China under a deal signed in Beijing on Tuesday to expand co-operation at its Tianjin assembly plant.
	Boeing set to top Airbus with 763 jets in 2017 NEW YORK (Reuters) – Boeing Co said on Tuesday it delivered 763 jetliners in 2017, likely retaining the title of the world’s biggest plane maker compared with European rival Airbus SE .
	Sorry America, But Oprah 2020 Is Not The Answer Authored by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org, On Sunday evening at the annual Golden Globes award ceremony in Los Angeles, Oprah won hearts and minds with a rousing speech about speaking truth to power and advancing the position of women in society. It was an objectively powerful oration, and social media was promptly flooded with calls for Oprah to be the country’s next president. The newfound Oprah 2020 campaign drew support not only from NBC News, which eventually deleted a tweet referring to her as “our future president,” but also famous neoconservative war hawk Bill Kristol, who unleashed a Twitter storm of support for the beloved American icon. Oprah: Sounder on economics than Bernie Sanders, understands Middle America better than Elizabeth Warren, less touchy-feely than Joe Biden, more pleasant than Andrew Cuomo, more charismatic than John Hickenlooper.#ImWithHer — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) …
	Intel Tumbles After Microsoft Warns Fixes “Will Significantly Slow” Servers Intel shares are sliding this morning following a statement from Microsoft that warned that fixes for security flaws present in most processors may significantly slow down certain servers and dent the performance some personal computers. This was Microsoft’s first assessment of the global problem that Intel Corp. initially downplayed. As Bloomberg reports, Microsoft’s statement indicates slowdowns could be more substantial than Intel has indicated. While Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich on Monday said the problem may be more pervasive than first thought, he didn’t discuss the degree of impact — only that some machines would be more affected than others. Microsoft cautioned in a blog post that servers, the computers that underpin corporate networks, used for certain tasks may show “more significant impact.” Not all servers will be affected, it said. Microsoft, which didn’t provide specific numbers, said it is testing a variety of systems and will update users on what it finds. Here is the summary of what Microsoft have found so far: With Windows 10 on newer silicon (2016-era PCs with Skylake, Kabylake or newer CPU), benchmarks show single-digit slowdowns, but we don’t expect most users to notice a change because these percentages are re …
	Bill Gross Calls It: “Bond Bear Market Confirmed Today” With today’s spike in Treasury yields, perhaps triggered by BoJ’s taper, Bond guru Bill Gross has called the end of the 25-year bond bull market… In a tweet via Janus Henderson, Gross signals the bond bear has begun… Gross: Bond bear market confirmed today. 25 year long-term trendlines broken in 5yr and 10yr maturity Treasuries. — Janus Henderson U.S. (@JHIAdvisorsUS) January 9, 2018 Gross said last year that 10-year yields persistently above 2.4% would signal bear market. He is correct that trendlines have broken but we have seen the occasional false-alarm breakout in the last 25 years… 10Y Treasury Yields… 5Y Treasury Yields… Notably, the ‘other’ bond guru -Jeffrey Gundlach – has been flagging for higher yields for …
	Just 10 More Days Yesterday we showed that in this world where investors no longer sell, and where Goldman’s “risk appetite” indicator just hit an all time high, world stocks as measured by the MSCI World index have never had a longer stretch without a 5% correction. What about just in the US? Well, as discussed here previously, while US equity indices set a remarkable number of records for tight trading ranges in 2017 (e.g. in Jan-17 the Dow recorded its tightest trading range in 110 years and in Aug-17 the S&P 12-day close-to-close trading range fell to an all-time low of 0.32%), the S&P is also on track to set yet another record in early 2018. Since March 16, 2016, as of January 8, the S&P 500 has gone for 386 trading sessions without a 5% drawdown. If the trend persists, in just 10 more days this will be the longest stretch without such a drawdown in history. Can’t wait another 10 days to watch centrally-planned history being made? What about just 3? That’s how long you will will wait before we hit the longest stretch in history of subdued (
	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 JOLTS Job Openings Decline Written by Steven Hansen The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) can be used as a predictor of future jobs growth, and the predictive elements show that the year-over-year growth rate of unadjusted private non-farm job openings again declined. The headline view also shows a decline.
	Market Snapshot: Dow industrials see 100-point climb as banks, health-care stocks rally U.S. stock benchmarks on Tuesday set a series of intraday records, helping the Dow industrials to resume a pace that has quickly taken it above 25,000.
	Capitol Report: ‘Stable genius’ bill would require medical exams for presidential candidates President Donald Trump said he’s a “very stable genius” in response to questions about his fitness for office — and now one congressman wants to put such statements to the test.
	Europe Markets: European stocks extend win streak to 5 sessions European stocks climb for a fifth session on Tuesday, with German economic data and a major strategic move by French telecom Altice giving investors reason to keep regional equities at their highest since 2015.