13Apr2018 Midday Update: Wall Street Again Slips From Session Highs As Investors Are Skeptical Of Big Bank Profits, Russia’s Plan Banning US Imports Getting Raspberries From Analysts.

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

Wall St. drops as JPMorgan leads bank stocks lower

(Reuters) – Banks led a slide in U.S. stocks on Friday, as results from big lenders including JPMorgan failed to enthuse investors keeping a wary eye on Russia’s plan to consider banning some U.S. imports.

Trade war backfire: Steel tariff shrapnel hits U.S. farmers

KANE COUNTY, Ill. (Reuters) – Lucas Strom, who runs a century-old family farm in rural Illinois, canceled an order to buy a new $71,000 grain storage bin last month – after the seller raised the price 5 percent in a day.

Wells Fargo faces $1 billion fine from loan abuses

(Reuters) – Two U.S. regulators have proposed Wells Fargo & Co pay $1 billion in penalties to resolve probes into auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses at the third largest U.S. bank, overshadowing its first quarter results.

JPMorgan profit just below estimates on weak investment banking

(Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co’s quarterly profit fell short of Wall Street expectations on Friday as lower revenue from investment banking ate into gains from stock trading and higher interest rates.

Citigroup profit beats on strength in consumer banking, equity trading

(Reuters) – Citigroup Inc reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday, driven by strength in its consumer banking business and a surge in equities trading.

Musk says Tesla will be profitable in third-quarter, fourth-quarter

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc will be profitable in the third and fourth quarters of this year and will not have to raise any money from investors, billionaire Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Friday, driving shares in the electric carmaker up to 3 percent higher.

Trump says U.S. will only rejoin Pacific trade pact if terms are improved

WASHINGTON/TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States would only join the Trans Pacific Partnership, a multinational trade deal his administration walked away from last year, if it offered “substantially better” terms than those provided under previous negotiations.

Trump orders review of U.S. Postal Service following criticism of Amazon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the creation of a task force to study the U.S. Postal Service and its financial difficulties, after recently claiming without evidence that deliveries for Amazon.com Inc were costing the service money.

Volkswagen’s new CEO treads carefully on road to reform

WOLFSBURG/BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s new Chief Executive Herbert Diess embarked on the most far-reaching shake-up in the carmaker’s history on Friday, seeking to unite a company whose feuding factions have often slowed reform.

Who’s Driving The Mysterious Swiss Franc Slump?

The last couple of weeks have seen something mysterious occur in the Swiss Franc, Amid all the chaotic economic, geopolitical, and military machinations – that have sparked a bid for gold and bonds – the Swissy, a traditional safe-haven currency, has weakened notably.

In fact the weakness has been going on since Davos in February…

So who is selling swiss francs?

Bloomberg ventures to suggest nervous …

The Risk Of Algos

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

“Mike ‘Wags’ Wagner: ‘You studied the Flash Crash of 2010 and you know that Quant is another word for wild f***ing guess with math.’

Taylor Mason: ‘Quant is another word for systemized ordered thinking represented in an algorithmic approach to trading.’

Mike ‘Wags’ Wagner: ‘Just remember Billy Beane never won a World Series .’ – Billions, A Generation Too Late

My friend Doug Kass made a great point on Wednesday this week:

“General trading activity is now dominated by passive strategies (ETFs) and quant strategies and products (risk parity, volatility trending, etc.).

Active managers (especially of a hedge fund kind) are going the way of dodo birds – they are an endangered species. Failing hedge funds like Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square is becoming more the rule than the exception – and in a lower return market backdrop (a …

Russia Has “Irrefutable Evidence” UK Staged Syrian Chemical Attack

As the blame game over the alleged chemical attack in Syria escalates ahead of what is expected to be an imminent, if contained, air strike campaign by the US, UK and/or France against Syria, on Friday morning, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow had “irrefutable evidence” that the attack – which allegedly killed more than 40 people in an April 7 chemical weapons strike on the former rebel outpost of Douma -was staged with the help of a foreign secret service.

“We have irrefutable evidence that this was another staged event, and that the secret services of a certain state that is now at the forefront of a Russophobic campaign was involved in this staged event,” he said during a press conference according to AFP.

Speculation that said “certain state” was the UK was confirmed shortly after, when Russia’s defense ministry alleged that Britain was involved in the suspected chemical attack. According to defense ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Kremlin has evidence that Britain was behind the attack.

Trump Reportedly Weighing Full Pardon For Scooter Libby

National Security Advisor John Bolton has barely been working in the West Wing for a week, but already his influence is being strongly felt.

In addition to pushing out a handful of security advisors who had been brought in either by his predecessor, HR McMaster or former President Barack Obama, Bolton has apparently convinced President Trump to consider issuing a full pardon to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby – who famously took the fall for the Valerie Plame scandal following an investigation by a special prosecutor who many of Libby’s allies have accused of overreaching (sound familiar?).

Libby was convicted on four felony counts in 2007 for perjury before a grand jury, lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice. George W Bush commuted Libby’s 30-month prison sentence, but refused to offer a full pardon – a decision that strained Bush’s relationship with his Vice President, Dick Cheney, per the New York Times.

Pardoning Libby has long been a priority for conservatives – particularly the neoconservatives like Bolton who helped push the War in Iraq on the American people. Though such a pardon would put Trump in a potentially awkward position: Absol …

Is the Yuan in China’s Trade-War Arsenal?

China’s currency, formerly a hot-button topic, has been mostly out of the limelight in the current trade fight. Could that change if things escalate?

Chip Makers Are Better off Without Crypto Miners

Miners of cryptocurrencies may soon stop buying chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. But some businesses are more trouble than they are worth.

How Big Biotech Can Win Back Investors

Big biotech stocks are trading at their lowest valuations in years, but don’t underestimate their ability to turn things around quickly.

Key Words: Head of world’s largest asset management firm says this is key for stock-market investors

The market is in the late stages of an economic cycle nearing its ninth year, but Larry Fink, CEO of asset management behemoth BlackRock Inc., says investors ought to forgo attempts to time the market and stay invested.

Mark Hulbert: Here’s what to do with your stocks if the U.S. military strikes Syria

Markets in crisis typically recover quickly from investors’ panic, writes Mark Hulbert.

FDA bans sale of pure caffeine in bulk quantities after two deaths

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it is banning the sale of dietary supplements that contain high levels of concentrated or pure caffeine in bulk quantities direct to consumers after at least two deaths of otherwise healthy individuals.