Written by Gary
All three major benchmarks achieved record closing highs today (SPY +1.2%), as the latest round of strong earnings reports, including from Intel and AbbVie , along with continued weakness in the dollar lifted each of the major Wall Street indexes to closing records today.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | U.S. trade body backs Canada’s Bombardier over Boeing in tariff spatWASHINGTON/MONTREAL (Reuters) – Canada’s Bombardier Inc on Friday won an unexpected trade victory against U.S. planemaker Boeing Co as a U.S. agency rejected imposing hefty duties on sales of Bombardier’s new CSeries jet to American carriers. |
| Wall St. climbs to new highs on strong Intel, AbbVie earningsNEW YORK (Reuters) – The latest round of strong earnings reports, including from Intel and AbbVie , along with continued weakness in the dollar lifted each of the major Wall Street indexes to closing records on Friday. |
| State of the Union more likely to raise eyebrows than stocks(Reuters) – Anybody hoping for a replay of the stock market advance that followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s first address to Congress may be disappointed. This time around, shares could suffer if Trump does not tread carefully on hot-button issues. |
| Robust imports slow U.S. economic growth in fourth quarterWASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth unexpectedly slowed in the fourth quarter as the strongest pace of consumer spending in three years resulted in a surge in imports. |
| As NAFTA talks drag, Mexico suggests timeline could be extendedMONTREAL (Reuters) – Mexico on Friday suggested talks to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement could be extended to give officials more time to address disagreements threatening to undermine the $1.2 trillion trade pact. |
| Honeywell to repatriate $7 billion over two years(Reuters) – U.S. industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc said on Friday that it expected to bring back at least $7 billion of the $10 billion in cash held overseas in the next two years, taking advantage of the newly enacted tax law. |
| Exclusive: U.S. gunmaker Remington turns to debt restructuring advisors – sources(Reuters) – Remington Outdoor Company Inc, one of the largest U.S. makers of firearms, is working with investment bank Lazard Ltd on options to restructure its $950 million debt pile, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. |
| Wynn Resorts CEO calls sexual misconduct accusations ‘preposterous’(Reuters) – Wynn Resorts Ltd Chief Executive Steve Wynn said on Friday that accusations of sexual misconduct made against him that were reported by the Wall Street Journal were “preposterous.” |
| U.S. stocks, VIX dance in tandem in break with historyNEW YORK (Reuters) – A rising U.S. stock market normally reduces fear among investors, but the blistering pace of the current rally has instead also driven up the anxiety factor in the market. |
| Stocks Storm To Best Start Since 1987 Amid Dollar-DevastationAfter that week, we suspect more than a few FX traders feel the same way… Let’s get a little context before we start – this is the most overbought (by a bloody mile) that US equities have ever been…
And…98% of global equity markets trading above 50 & 200 day moving averages. This is the best start to a year for the Dow and the S&P 500 since 1987…
While Nasdaq is 2018’s big winner, this is only its best start to a year since 2004. S&P, Dow, & Nasdaq have only seen 4 down days in 2018 On a side note, China’s H-share index broke its record daily streak this week, but…with its seventh week of gains, the Chinese index reaches its longest run of gains since October 2010. |
| California Considers $1,000 Fine For Waiters Offering Unsolicited Plastic StrawsAuthored by Christian Britschgi via Reason.com, Ian Calderon wants restaurateurs to think long and hard before giving you a straw.
Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California’s lower house, has introduced a bill to stop sit-down restaurants from offering customers straws with their beverages unless they specifically request one. Under Calderon’s law, a waiter who serves a drink with an unrequested straw in it would face up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
This isn’t just Calderon’s crusade. The California cities of San Luis Obispo and Davis both passed straws-on-request laws last year, and Manhattan Beach maintains a prohibition on all disposable plastics. And up in Seattle, food service businesses won’t be allowed to offer plastic straws or utensils |
| One of BofA’s “Imminent Market Crash” Indicators Was Just TriggeredEarly last month, we showed that one of Bank of America’s “guaranteed bear market” indicators, namely the three-month earnings estimate revision ratio (ERR) which since 1988 has had a 100% hit rate of predicting upcoming bear markets, was just triggered. As Bank of America explained at the time, “since 1986, a bear market has followed each time that the ERR rule has been triggered.”
The only weakness of that particular signal is that while a bear market has always followed, the timing was unclear and the bear could arrive as late as two years after its was triggered. Well, fast forward to today when overnight another proprietary “guaranteed bear market” indicator created by the Bank of America quants was just triggered. As we explained earlier today, as part of the unprecedented, historic rush to dump cash and buy any risk assets that one can find, BofA’s “Bull & Bear indicator” surged to 7.9 – effectively 8 – a level that is indicative of broad market euphoria, and the highest it has been since March of 2013, or nearly 5 years ago. |
| Kunstler On What Happens Next: Blow-Off Orgies & Financial Smash-UpsAuthored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, The blow-off orgy in the stock markets is supposedly America’s consolation prize for what many regard as the electoral bad acid trip of the Trump presidency.
Sorry to tell you, it’s just another hallucination, something you’re going to have to come down from. Happy landings!
While the markets have roared parabolically up, in Technicolor, with sugar-on-top; that ole rascal, Reality, is working some hoodoo in the other rings of this psychedelic circus: namely the dollar and the bond market. The idiots on NPR’s Marketplace and the Cable TV financial shows haven’t noticed the dollar tanking the past several months or the interest rates creeping up in the bond markets. Well, isn’t that the point of living as if anything goes and nothing matters, the mantra of the age? |
| A Huge Bet That Movie Theaters Aren’t Going the Way of the DodoThe takeover of Regal Entertainment by a much smaller European cinema chain is turning into a financial thriller. Working title: “The Big Long.” |
| Why Consumers Can’t Keep Driving the EconomyThe personal saving rate fell to its lowest level since 2005. But if the recent burst of corporate largess proves to be more public relations than real wage increases, look for consumers to pull back. |
| Colgate’s Checkup Doesn’t Go WellA disappointing fourth quarter at Colgate-Palmolive shows the company isn’t immune to the weak pricing and intense competition that has dogged rivals like Procter & Gamble. |
| The Wall Street Journal: Bombardier jet sales didn’t harm Boeing, panel saysThe U.S. International Trade Commission rejected Boeing’s claim that Montreal-based Bombardier unfairly won the U.S. sale of its new line of jets to Delta Air Lines |
| Market Snapshot: Dow climbs 200 points as tech, health-care stocks rallyThe main three U.S. equity benchmarks on Friday are set to end at all-time highs after a reading of fourth-quarter gross domestic product came in slightly softer than expected but remained likely healthy enough not to derail the perception that the U.S. economy is on firm footing. |
| Bond Report: Treasury yields climb after U.S. economy posts fourth-quarter GDP readingTreasury yields on Friday rise after a reading of U.S. gross domestic product for the fourth quarter showed no signs that the economic expansion in the U.S. was letting up |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
Earnings Summary for Today
leading Stock Positions
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