Written by Gary
The S&P 500 closed higher Thursday as an Apple-led rally in tech offset concerns over rising U.S.-China trade tensions. The Dow fell about 0.03%. The S&P 500 rose 0.53%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose about 1.24%. Apple became the first company ever to reach $1 trillion market cap. Oil settled higher with WTI just under $69. The dollar index returned to 95 and gold sold off.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
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The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Allergan sues Pfizer over costs of opioid litigationAllergan Plc on Thursday sued Pfizer Inc to force its rival to cover any damages Allergan is forced to pay as a result of hundreds of lawsuits claiming it deceptively marketed an opioid it acquired from a company Pfizer bought. |
| CBS beats Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenueCBS Corp , which has hired two law firms to investigate sexual misconduct allegations against its Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, on Thursday topped quarterly revenue estimates, helped by higher ad sales. |
| Apple breaches $1 trillion stock market valuationApple Inc became the first $1 trillion publicly listed U.S. company on Thursday, crowning a decade-long rise fueled by its ubiquitous iPhone that transformed it from a niche player in personal computers into a global powerhouse spanning entertainment and communications. |
| Cisco to buy cyber-security company Duo for $2.35 billionCisco Systems Inc said on Thursday it would buy Duo Security, a venture capital-backed cyber security company, for $2.35 billion in cash, as part of its push to expand into a faster growing area of software than its core business. |
| S&P 500 ends higher, driven by Apple, techTechnology stocks pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq higher on Thursday, driven by Apple shares as the iPhone maker became the first publicly traded U.S. company worth a trillion dollars. |
| Trade spat dogs markets, but Apple’s $1-trillion valuation boosts U.S. indexesA deepening trade dispute between the United States and China weighed on global stocks and bond yields on Thursday, but a rise in Apple shares took its valuation above a record $1 trillion and helped lift major U.S. indexes into positive territory. |
| Tesla shares surge as investors embrace cash comments, Musk apologyShares of Tesla Inc jumped more than 12 percent on Thursday, after the company convinced investors that it was able to yield positive cash flow and turn a profit, and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk apologized for past incendiary remarks. |
| Tesla shares spike, dealing short-sellers a $1.1-billion lossTesla Inc shares soared as much as 15 percent on Thursday, a day after the electric car maker reported surprisingly strong earnings, and financial analytics firm S3 Partners said short-sellers were slammed with more than $1.1 billion in paper losses on the day. |
| China stands its ground after Trump amps up tariff threatsChina vowed on Thursday to retaliate if the United States acted on a threat to raise tariffs on the Asian nation’s exports, fueling fears in financial markets that the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies would escalate. |
| Matt Taibbi: Beware The Slippery Slope Of Facebook CensorshipThe social network is too big and broken to properly function, and, as Matt Taibbi writes in the latest Rolling Stone, these “fixes” will only create more problems…
Excerpted from Rolling Stone… You may have seen a story this week detailing how Facebook shut down a series of accounts. As noted by Politico, Facebook claimed these accounts “sought to inflame social and political tensions in the United States, and said their activity was similar — and in some cases connected — to that of Russian accounts during the 2016 election.” … Read this jarring quote from Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) about the shutting down of the “inauthentic” accounts:
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| Tim Cook Rescues US Stocks As Trump Crushes China, TurkeyForget the “three comma club”… Tim Cook’s Apple just joined the four-comma-club…
AAPL rescued the entire market – “Thank you Tim Cook!!”
Apple has never been this big relative to the S&P 500… |
| CDC Urges America To Stop Re-Using CondomsIf the American economy is doing so well… and we are at full-employment… why do so many feel the need to “reuse” condoms?
In a somewhat shocking tweet, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a rather amusing reminder urging Americans to stop re-using condoms: “We say it because people do it: Don’t wash or reuse #condoms! Use a fresh one for each #sex act.”
Research has found that as many as three percent of people have tried to reuse condoms, and half us have put a condom on too late or removed it too soon, the < … |
| Russell Napier: “Let’s Ask Dr Copper If China Can Reflate The World”Submitted by Russel Napier of ERIC The Solid Ground has long speculated that, one day, the great reflation of the world will be driven by China and not the USA. Many will argue that the great reflation began in June 2009, when US GDP bottomed, but your analyst prefers to measure any successful reflation with reference to the global debt to GDP ratio. Only by reducing that ratio from record highs can any reflation be said to be undoing the structural risks of depression and deflation inherent in any highly geared economy. Globally credit to the non-financial sector as a percentage of GDP reached 218% in 4Q 2017 from 180% in 4Q 2007, at the peak of the last business cycle. This is not a successful reflation. Nominal GDP growth remains far too low, relative to the growth in debt, despite the now prolonged economic recovery. The structural risks from too high a debt and too low a cash flow are greater than ever. Now that the world’s second largest economy is attempting to reflate, can this finally bring the inevitable inflationary solution to the high debt problem? There were many causes of the GFC but primus inter pares was the then record high level of debt to GDP. The chances of a recession becoming a depression are much higher when an inability to service high debt burdens threatens to depress the value of bank assets below the value of their liabilities. When that happens a bank’s capital is expunged and, at least in theory, a major contraction in its balance sheet and a destruction of money should occur. That destruction of money causes the debt deflation and depression that will always be a clear and present danger when debt levels are too high and declining cash flows in any recession threaten default. … |
| Tesla Profits: Be Careful What You Wish ForTesla’s guidance has investors cheering, but the good news comes with strings attached. |
| Rail Week Ending 28 July 2018: July Growth Up 5.2% Year-Over-YearWeek 30 of 2018 shows same week total rail traffic (from same week one year ago) improved according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) traffic data.
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| June 2018 Manufacturing New Orders ImprovedWritten by Steven Hansen US Census says manufacturing new orders improved. Our analysis shows the rolling averages declined.
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| Why Sonos thinks its hardware IPO will be differentIt’s no secret that hardware companies haven’t had much success in the IPO market as of late, but Sonos Inc. thinks it can break from the mold. |
| Apple officially becomes first U.S. company with $1 trillion market capShares closed at $207.39, above the $207.04 threshold needed. |
| The Ratings Game: Elon Musk’s apology was worth more than $8 billion to Tesla shareholders—but questions lingerTesla Inc.’s Wednesday earnings call lacked the drama and hostility of the prior one, and that was exactly what investors wanted. |
Summary of Economic Releases this Week
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