Written by Gary
US equities markets ended sharply higher today (SPY +1.3%), with the SP 500 and DOW registering their biggest daily percentage gains since May 4, as an easing of political turmoil in Italy and a surge in oil prices boosted energy stocks.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
Wall St. rebounds; worries over Italy easeNEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended higher on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Dow registering their biggest daily percentage gains since May 4, as signs emerged of an easing of political turmoil in Italy and a surge in oil prices boosted energy stocks. | |
China vows to protect its interests from ‘reckless’ U.S. trade threatsBEIJING (Reuters) – China lashed out on Wednesday at renewed threats from the White House on trade, warning that it was ready to fight back if Washington was looking for a trade war, days ahead of a planned visit by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. | |
Trump’s auto tariff plan threatens GM’s $7 billion South Korea rescueSEOUL (Reuters) – Fresh off a $7 billion rescue for its loss-making South Korean operation, General Motors faces a new threat as U.S. President Donald Trump considers higher vehicle import tariffs that could “make or break” its Asian subsidiary. | |
How Kinder Morgan won a billion-dollar bailout on Canada pipelineOTTAWA/HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. energy firm Kinder Morgan’s C$4.5 billion sale of an oil pipeline to Canada’s government marked an extraordinary escape from months of fraught negotiations among warring camps of Canadian officials. | |
Fox sets Disney deal vote for July 10(Reuters) – Twenty-First Century Fox Inc will hold a special meeting on July 10th for its stockholders to vote on a proposed merger with Walt Disney Co , the company said on Wednesday. | |
U.S. first-quarter growth trimmed on weak consumer spendingWASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth slowed slightly more than initially thought in the first quarter as consumer spending rose at its weakest pace in nearly five years, but activity is already picking up against the backdrop of a tightening labor market and tax cuts. | |
Exxon CEO urges New York prosecutor to rethink climate change probeDALLAS (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp’s chief executive said on Wednesday that he hopes the new attorney general in New York “comes to a different conclusion” than predecessor Eric Schneiderman on a climate change probe into the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer. | |
Uber seeks to cut pricing on $1.13 billion term loanNEW YORK (LPC) – Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies Inc is asking lenders to lower pricing on its $1.13 billion term loan due in 2023, sources said. | |
Consumer Reports recommends Tesla’s Model 3 after braking fix(Reuters) – Influential U.S. magazine Consumer Reports said on Wednesday that it now recommended Tesla Inc’s Model 3 sedan after its latest tests showed that a firmware update improved the car’s braking distance by nearly 20 feet. | |
US Stocks Soar… Because Nothing’s Fixed In Europe & US Growth SlowedEquity investors are convinced… Does this look like Italy is ‘fixed’? US Bank stocks bounced but remain notably red on the week… In fact the big US banks are still notably weaker… | |
This Is The New ItalyAuthored by Attilio Moro via ConsortiumNews.com, Years of neoliberal economic policies imposed by Brussels and by Italian politicians alike have devastated numerous industrial towns and the very fabric of Italian society. Sesto San Giovanni, a town on the outskirts of Milan, used to be one of the industrial capitals of Italy. With around 200,000 inhabitants (45,000 blue collar workers, and a robust middle class), it was the headquarters of some of the most dynamic Italian companies, including Magneti Marelli, Falck, Breda and many more. Today Sesto is an industrial desert – the factories are gone, the professional middle class has fled, many stores have shut down, and the city is trying to reinvent itself as a medical research center. Twenty-three kilometers (14 miles) to the north of Sesto, the town of Meda was the seat of various symbols of Italian excellence: Salotti Cassina and Poltrona Frau, both of which exported high-quality furniture all over the world and employed tens of thousands of workers and designers. They fed a number of small family-based companies providing parts and highly qualified seasonal labour. Today both companies are gone. | |
Mortgage Refi Activity Plunges To 18 Year Lows (And It’s About To Get A Lot Worse)It appears The Fed’s desperate efforts to normalize interest rates (and its balance sheet) before the next recession strikes is reflexively driving a significant part of the economy towards that very end. As the Mortgage Bankers Association reports, mortgage applications decreased 2.9% from one week earlier. The Refinance Index decreased 5% from the previous week to its lowest level since December 2000.
And given the recent surge in mortgage rates, it’s about to get a lot worse… | |
Central Banks Haven’t Always Been Quite As Bad As They Are NowAuthored by Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna via The Mises Institute, Long ago, in a universe of sane fiscal policy far far away, there existed an institution, then new to the world of international banking and finance, called the Federal Reserve Bank, whose primary concern of the day – the day being its founding on December 13, 1913 – was to have very large reserves of cash backed by even larger reserves of gold that were enough “to earn the public trust.” It was an unusual kind of organization, where crude, simplistic policy directives such as “safety and sound judgement”, “lawful money” and “normal monetary order” possessed none of the sophisticated reasoning of “zero-interest rate policy”, “helicopter Ben” and “quantitative easing’ characterizing that Bank’s latter day ne’er-do-well progeny. Few American bankers at the time really even wanted a “Fed”, fearing that the public – and the bankers themselves – would not understand what its mission was not: that is, to not be an endless source of easy credit and bail-outs. Indeed, it was altogether another world. | |
The Real End Game for CBS-ViacomA little-noticed part of lawsuit says Redstone could sell a combined company and give up control. | |
Hong Kong’s Stock Market Is Running Short of IntegrityLeading lights of the hedge fund world have gathered in Hong Kong to float their big bets on stocks at the annual Sohn conference. One of their biggest challenges: The local market’s setup. | |
Red Flags Are Suddenly Rampant in MarketsEurope’s deepening troubles and disappointing global growth signals are sparking a sudden rally in haven bonds like U.S. Treasurys: Risk aversion is back. | |
June 2018 Economic Forecast: Again StrengthensWritten by Steven Hansen Econintersect’s Economic Index (EEI) improvement cycle continues and remains well into territory associated with normal expansions. | |
The Moneyist: I paid my boyfriend’s rent and bills to improve his credit score — then he bought a house without telling meThis New Jersey woman wonders whether her partner is using her for a mortgage. | |
Chase axes perk from its Sapphire Reserve card—why your issuer could do the sameIssuers are quietly scaling back some of their perks after the fanfare surrounding their cards’ release. | |
Yes, Sears is likely to collapse, but its biggest stakeholder will be just fineAfter years of asset sales, store closures, debt exchanges and real estate moves, Sears is still suffering huge losses and declining sales and analysts say bankruptcy is very likely. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
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