17Jul2018 Market Close: Wall Street Ends Solidly Higher, DOW Up 55 Points, Nasdaq Closes Up 0.6%, WTI Crude Settles In The Low 67 Handle

Written by Gary

Wall Street pushed higher today (SPY +0.4%) as investors looked to Fed Powell’s optimistic view of the US economy. Nasdaq hits all-time high after Amazon reaches record, Netflix rebounds well off lows.

Todays S&P 500 Chart

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	UK PM May narrowly avoids defeat in parliament on EU trade laws British Prime Minister Theresa May narrowly avoided a defeat in parliament at the hands of pro-EU lawmakers from her own party on Tuesday, fending off a rebellion that had threatened to deepen a crisis over her Brexit strategy.
	Social media companies defend filtering practices before Congress Facebook Inc , Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc told a U.S. House panel on Tuesday that the social media companies are not discriminating against content for political reasons.
	Boeing lifts industry demand forecast as air show deals roll on Boeing raised its rolling 20-year industry forecast for passenger and cargo aircraft on Tuesday, as a steady flow of deals on day two of the Farnborough Airshow underscored the industry’s resilience to rising global trade tensions.
	U.S. airline Republic Airways to buy 100 Embraer jets U.S. regional airline Republic Airways signed a letter of intent to buy 100 E175 passenger jets made by Brazil’s Embraer SA , the two companies said at the Farnborough Airshow on Tuesday.
	Boeing CEO eyes supplier price cuts after Embraer deal Boeing will press for deeper price cuts from some suppliers once it completes its planned acquisition of the regional jet business of Brazil’s Embraer , Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told Reuters on Tuesday.
	General Atomics to provide drones to the Netherlands air force General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc said on Tuesday it had been selected by the Dutch Ministry of Defence to provide unmanned aircraft to the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
	Next Goldman CEO to take on old problems, new businesses Goldman Sachs Group Inc named David Solomon as its next chief executive officer on Tuesday, ushering in a new era for the Wall Street bank as it expands into different businesses and revamps familiar ones.
	Wall St. gains on Powell comments, rosy earnings expectations Wall Street pushed higher on Tuesday as investors looked to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s optimistic view of the U.S. economy and as solid earnings supported expectations of a strong second-quarter reporting season.
	Goldman Sachs pressed on strategy as new CEO confirmed Goldman Sachs Group Inc was pressed for details on new businesses after an uneven second-quarter performance, a likely preview of challenges incoming Chief Executive David Solomon will face as he leads the Wall Street bank’s overhaul.
	Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain Added To CFA Exam Everyone has been watching regulators closely over the last year for their take on such upstart financial products as digital currency, initial coin offerings and blockchain, and how these may end up affecting the future for the financial industry. Now, one major financial institution – the CFA Institute – thinks they are legitimate enough to be included on the prestigious CFA examination. In the financial world, the CFA is one of the more respected abbreviations one can have next to their name, more so than MBA according to many. The CFA exam is a grueling three part examination that has a pass rate of only near 50%. That said, if cryptocurrencies, blockchain and similar technology are being included on the exam, they are clearly becoming of significant prominence to the financial world. Bloomberg has more: The CFA Institute, whose grueling three-level program has helped train more than 150,000 financial professionals, is adding topics on cryptocurrencies and blockchain to its Level I and II curriculums for the first time next year. Material for the 2019 exams will be released in August, giving candidates their first opportunity to start logging a reco …
	The Defeat Of Sorosism Via Vox Populi blog, George Soros is going to his grave knowing that he was ultimately a massive failure: In London in the 1950s, Soros was a student of the expatriated Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, who championed the notion of an “open society,” in which individual liberty, pluralism and free inquiry prevailed. Popper’s concept became Soros’s cause. It is an embattled cause these days. Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has reverted to autocracy, and Poland and Hungary are moving in the same direction. With the rise of Donald Trump in the United States, where Soros is a major donor to Democratic candidates and progressive groups, and the growing strength of right-wing populist parties in Western Europe, Soros’s vision of liberal democracy is under threat in its longtime strongholds. Nationalism and tribalism are resurgent, barriers are being raised and borders reinforced and Soros is confronting the possibility that the goal to which he has devoted most of his wealth and the last chapter of his life will end in fa …
	Obama “Surprised” At The $20 Million He Made In Washington Former President Barack Obama told an audience in Johannesburg, South Africa that he’s “surprised” by how much money he’s made over the years. “Right now, I’m actually surprised by how much money I got,” the ex-commander in chief said while speaking at the 2018 Nelson Mandela Lecture. “And let me tell you something — I don’t have half as much as most of these folks, or a tenth, or a hundredth,” Obama told the crowd, discussed the wealth gap. “There’s only so much you can eat … There’s only so big a house you can have. There’s only so many nice trips you can take.” We should probably note that money can certainly buy Obama a very big house, such as the 8,200-square-foot Tudor style mansion he bought in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood for $8.1 million.
	“Detente Bad, Cold War Good” Authored by Craig Murray, The entire “liberal” media and political establishment of the Western world reveals its militarist, authoritarian soul today with the screaming and hysterical attacks on the very prospect of detente with Russia. Peace apparently is a terrible thing; a renewed arms race, with quite literally trillions of dollars pumped into the military industrial complex and hundreds of thousands dying in proxy wars, is apparently the “liberal” stance. Political memories are short, but just 15 years after Iraq was destroyed and the chain reaction sent most of the Arab world back to the dark ages, it is now “treason” to question the word of the Western intelligence agencies, which deliberately and knowingly produced a fabric of lies on Iraqi WMD to justify that destruction. It would be more rational for it to be treason for leaders to blindly accept the word of the intelligence services. This is especially true on “Russia hacking the election” when, after three years of crazed accusations and millions of man hours by lawyers and CIA and FBI i …
	Big Tech’s Growth Comes With a Big Bill Tech giants like Amazon, Apple and Google are delivering above-average growth, but the cost of staying competitive is rising more.
	Netflix’s Intermission Was Long Overdue The streaming company’s market value has become too rich, despite strong growth.
	Why Tapping the U.S. Oil Reserve Is an Awful Idea Using the reserve to curb summer pump prices at a time the economy is booming and midterm elections loom would be a strategic blunder, leaving the country exposed in the event of an actual oil shortage.
	June 2018 Sea Container Movements Show Good Growth Written by Steven Hansen The June year-over-year export counts were marginally weaker than last month, but still up 7.2 % year-over-year. Imports were up 8.5 % year-over-year.
	June 2018 Industrial Production Improved Written by Steven Hansen The headlines say seasonally adjusted Industrial Production (IP) improved month-over-month. Our analysis shows the three month rolling average was little changed.
	Jeff Reeves’s Strength in Numbers: Buy Microsoft, not IBM — and find the winners in six other sectors In this earnings season, investors should be more discerning and unload the losers, says Jeff Reeves.
	Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks rally after earnings and Powell testimony; Nasdaq hits record U.S. stocks rise Tuesday afternoon, extending a recent upswing after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated the U.S. central bank wouldn’t move too quickly in changing monetary policy, and that it would be flexible in the face of changing conditions.
	Vitaliy Katsenelson’s Contrarian Edge: Why my firm sold short-term bond ETFs and bought U.S. Treasury bills Government-backed cash-equivalent offers more yield and greater liquidity.