29Jun2018 Midday Update: Wall Street Opened Higher, Trades Mostly Sideways, DOW Surges Nearly 300 Points Mid Morning, WTI Crude Move Upward To The 74 Handle, Bitcoin Falls To 5863

Here is the current market situation from CNN Money

North and South American markets are broadly higher today with shares in Brazil leading the region. The Bovespa is up 1.25% while Mexico’s IPC is up 0.87% and U.S.’s S&P 500 is up 0.76%.

Nike, financials push Wall Street higher

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks further extended gains on Friday, as Nike shares hit an all-time high after the world’s largest shoe maker posted a strong earnings report and as banking stocks surged on clearing the Federal Reserve’s stress test.

China’s ZTE shakes up board in bid for U.S. ban lift

SHENZHEN, China/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese telecoms giant ZTE Corp announced a new board on Friday in a radical management shakeup as part of a $1.4 billion deal with the United States, moving it closer towards getting a devastating American supplier ban lifted.

Bitcoin skids below $6,000, hits lowest level since November

LONDON (Reuters) – Bitcoin’s value slid to its lowest level since November on Friday, as waning investor interest and recent negative headlines from global regulators weakened demand for the cryptocurrency and most of its rivals.

Treasury chief Mnuchin slams report that Trump wants to exit WTO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Friday a report by the Axios news website, that cited sources as saying President Donald Trump wanted the United States to withdraw from the World Trade Organization, was wrong.

Canada strikes back at U.S. over tariffs, unveils aid package

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada struck back at U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Friday, vowing to impose punitive measures on C$16.6 billion ($12.63 billion) of American goods and unveiling a C$2 billion aid package for affected industries and workers.

Lawsuit targets ‘hidden fees’ in Wells Fargo finance programs

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co has been hit with a lawsuit by a Texas jewelry company accusing it of encouraging thousands of retailers nationwide to charge hidden fees to customers using financing programs created by the bank.

Nike shares hit record as investors cheer North America rebound

(Reuters) – Nike Inc’s shares jumped 12 percent to their all-time high on Friday after the world’s largest shoe maker saw a major sales rebound in its North America business and forecast strong growth for 2019.

U.S. core PCE price index hits 2 percent; spending slows

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices accelerated in the year to May, with a measure of underlying inflation hitting the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target for the first time in six years.

German data, not politics key for trade war watchers

DUBLIN (Reuters) – While German politics may dominate the headlines again in the coming week, the less attention grabbing release of industrial data could offer a better indication of the headwinds facing the European Union and its largest economy.

“Reject ‘Group-Stink'” – Doug Kass Reflects On A Wild Q2

Submitted by Seabreeze Partners’ Doug Kass,

Looking in the past and looking forward — politics has become more important than the central banks’ actions in determining stock market behavior

CCAR results set the stage for an extended period of higher banks stock performance

“It was all night pouring, pouring rain, but not a drop on me.”
– Grateful Dead, Bertha

As of 5:30 am, S&P futures (+13 handles) are nearly +40 handles above the premarket lows of Thursday (where we covered our (SPY) short position). This may be testimony to:

Quite a bit of luck.

The willingness to unemotionally trade within an expected trading range during non traditional market trading hours (” I am a pajama trader and proud of it”).

A positive market reception to good CCAR results – and an after market climb in bank stocks.

A marked reversal from general m …

BofA: It Feels Just Like Before LTCM And The 1998 Asia Crisis

In recent weeks, Bank of America’s strategists have turned decidedly gloomy on the market and the economy, warning on one hand that Europe simply can not be allowed to enter a recession as some 800BN in BBB-rated debt risks becoming a “falling angel” and flooding the junk bond market, while at the same time also warning that the global liquidity ushered in by QE has already turned negative.

Now, in the latest “scare piece” by the bank’s Chief Investment Strategist, Michael Hartnett – who correctly predicted the February market tumble to the dot – puts together all the recent events that have troubled markets, namely: Fed tightening, US decoupling, flattening yield curve, collapsing EM, outperforming levered quant funds, and says that these are “all echoes of 20 years ago.”

He is, of course, referring to the 1998 Asia/LTCM crisis, which he defines as a perfect example late-cycle global cr …

US Charges Over 600 “Despicable, Greedy People” In Multi-Billion Dollar Healthcare Fraud

With the opioid crisis still in full swing (and researchers reporting on Wednesday 70,000 opioid-related deaths that were not added to official statistics over the past 20 years) The Department of Justice announced on Thursday the conclusion of a year-long crackdown on opioid overprescribers that led to the indictment of more than 600 people – including 76 doctors – on health-care fraud charges. All told, the DOJ found that the crimes resulted in more than $2 billion in losses for Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare, as well as private insurers.

Medical professionals were also charged with contributing to the country’s opioid epidemic by unlawfully distributing millions of opioid pills.

“The perpetrators really are despicable and greedy people,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said at a press conference.

According to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the investigation represents the biggest health-care fraud case the DOJ h …

France’s Macron Plans Compulsory Military Service “For Social Cohesion”

Authored by Frank Sellers via The Duran,

Perhaps he should crack open a history book…

French President Emmanuel Macron is floating the idea of reintroducing compulsory military service. The plan intends on introducing youths to military life and service from the age of 16 for both girls and boys. The unpopular programme is expected to cost the French government nearly $2 billion.

The BBC reports:

The French government has introduced a plan to bring back national service for all 16-year-olds.

It was an idea put forward by Emmanuel Macron in his presidential campaign, to promote a sense of civic duty and national unity among French youth.

But some remain unconvinced of the benefits.

The new national service will cover all 16-year-olds, girls as well as boys, and will be divided into two distinct phases.

National service in two parts

The first phase is a mandatory one-month placement with a focus on civic culture, which the government says w …

Bank Stress Tests Don’t Instill Confidence

Setbacks are minor for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, but gaps with the Fed’s view raise concerns.

How Amazon Made Pharmacies Ill

Amazon’s purchase of online pharmacy PillPack sparked a sharp selloff in drug supply chain stocks, as the deal shows the retailing behemoth is serious about entering the pharmacy business.

The Trans-Atlantic Catch-Up Trade Has Gone Awry

This was supposed to be the year global markets moved in sync, Europe following the U.S. with higher bond yields and stock prices. But at halftime things don’t look so simple.

Why there may never be a Netflix of videogames

Plenty of companies, from multibillion-dollar tech titans to startups, are trying to develop a streaming service for videogames that could do to consoles and individual videogame sales what Netflix did to DVDs and the cable bundle. But the issues that stand in the way could keep it from ever happening as imagined.

Currencies: Dollar slips, but on track to book nearly 5% quarterly gain

A popular gauge of the U.S. dollar against major rivals is on track for a 4.9% rise in the second quarter, which would be its first positive quarterly stretch since late 2016.

Europe Markets: European markets rally as EU hammers out migration deal

European stock markets rallied on Friday after EU leaders after an all-night meeting knocked out a deal on refugees, seen as removing some political risk that had been hanging over the stock markets.