08Jan2019 Market Close: Wall Street Stocks Climb On Trade Hopes, Narrowing Trade Differences, DOW Closes Up 256 Points, S and P 500 Ends 1% Higher

Written by Gary

The S&P 500 climbed to a three-week high today (SPY +0.9%), led by Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.

The Market in Perspective

Here are the headlines moving the markets.
	On brink of demise, Sears to reconsider billionaire chairman’s bid Sears Holdings Corp agreed on Tuesday to consider a revised takeover bid from billionaire Chairman Edward Lampert, temporarily staving off a liquidation that would have spelled the end of the 126-year-old U.S. department-store chain.
	Tesla sued for passenger death due to defective battery Chicago law firm Corboy & Demetrio said on Tuesday it filed a lawsuit against electric carmaker Tesla Inc alleging that its 2014 Model S sedan had a defective battery pack that caused the death of an 18-year old passenger in an accident last year.
	Wall Street stocks climb on trade hopes The S&P 500 climbed to a three-week high on Tuesday, led by Apple, Amazon, Facebook and a rally in industrials on bets that the United States and China would strike a deal to end a trade war.
	Prospect of U.S. profit drop rises for investors Investors are growing more fearful that U.S. companies’ profits could shrink this year following Apple’s warning of soft demand in China, coupled with mounting evidence of a drag from tariffs, a global slowdown and fading tailwinds from tax cuts.
	Nissan’s Ghosn claims innocence in first appearance since November arrest Ousted Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn declared his innocence in his first public appearance since his November arrest, telling a Tokyo court on Tuesday that he had been wrongly accused of financial misconduct.
	Boeing delivers record 806 aircraft in 2018, shares jump 4 percent Boeing Co delivered a record 806 aircraft in 2018 as it overcame supplier woes, retaining the title of the world’s biggest planemaker for the seventh straight year.
	World stocks rise on U.S.-China trade talk hopes An index of world stocks rose for the third straight session on Tuesday, with investors hopeful that the United States and China would strike a deal to end their months-long trade war that has hurt sentiment in financial markets.
	Mercedes claims luxury car crown as analysts eye challenger Tesla Mercedes-Benz sold 2.31 million passenger cars last year, likely enough to make it the top-selling premium automotive brand in 2018, although some analysts are questioning how much longer German manufacturers can dominate the luxury car industry.
	Verizon adds more phone subscribers than expected in fourth quarter Verizon Communications Inc on Tuesday beat Wall Street estimates for net new phone subscribers who pay a monthly bill, adding 650,000 customers in the fourth quarter.
	Gundlach Live Webcast: What The “Bond King” Expects Will Happen In 2018 It’s the start of January, which means it’s time for Jeff Gundlach’s much anticipated “Just Markets” webcast, previewing what he and his DoubleLine fund expect from the capital markets. And if last year’s January webcast is any indication, this one is not to be missed considering just how many predictions Gundlach made one year ago that eventually came true. Courtesy of Bloomberg, here is a summary of what he predicted would happen last January, and the outcome as of Dec 31. U.S. Equities Call: Expect a run-up early in 2018, but an eventual reversal that would leave the market down for the year. Outcome: The S&P 500 Index peaked on Sept. 20 and finished with a loss of 4.4 percent, including dividends. Emerging-Market Equities Call: Not a great time for traders to be buying, but long-term investors may benefit from attractive valuations relative to the U.S. Outcome: The MSCI EM Index did worse than the S&P 500, dropping 14 percent on a total-return basis; price-earnings ratios still favor emerging markets. European Equities Call: A value trap. Outcome: The Euro Stoxx 50 Index lost 16 percent after dividends in dollar terms. Two-Year Treasuries Call: Two-year notes could exceed 2.5 percent, but they’re “actually a pretty no-brainer investment” because they offer positive returns if held to maturity, when other assets may be reasonably priced. Outcome: Yields stayed above 2.5 percent from June 11 to Dec. 28 and short-term bond funds generated positive returns. …
	Stocks Extend Gains Even As Market Prices Out Dovish Fed Terrible news from LG and Samsung and dismal German economic data… The world according to markets in 2019… Chinese stocks flatlined (almost oddly) overnight… European stocks closed higher, erasing yesterday’s losses. German industrial production collapsed… so BTFD – means The ECB won’t tighten as aggressively… The day’s price action was quite …
	Zuckerberg Distracts From Privacy Scandals With Pedantic “Personal Challenge” Mark Zuckerberg gingerly flipped the page from 2018 to 2019 on Tuesday with a progressive and forward looking blog post – as if his company’s ongoing data scandals didn’t just shave off 25% of his company’s market cap over the last year. The Facebook CEO posted a plucky “personal challenge” for the new year – committing to “host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society — the opportunities, the challenges, the hopes, and the anxieties,” which he will accomplish by speaking with “leaders, experts and people in our community from different fields” every few weeks. In prior years, Zuckerberg has made resolutions to build an artificial intelligence system for his home, learn Mandarin and visit every state in the US. For 2018, Zuckerberg said he would fix Facebook. This year, Zuck is focused on the big picture! In his blog post, Zuck writes: There are so many big questions about the world we want to live in and technology’s place in it. Do we want technology to keep giving more people a voice, or will traditional gatekeepers control what ideas can be expressed? Should we d …
	Baby Boomers Will Bust Bulls’ Best Laid Plans Authored by David Ader, op-ed via Bloomberg.com, Those who own the most equities don’t have a lot of time to recover before retirement, and are likely to sell into any rally… There’s been an abundance of analysis on the recent swoon in stocks, but there’s one key variable that often gets overlooked when determining whether and how fast the market rebounds: demographics. On that basis, the outlook isn’t very good. It hardly matters that the S&P 500 Index’s 19.8 percent plunge from its record high in late September to its low on Christmas Eve failed to meet the technical definition of a bear market, which is a peak to trough decline of 20 percent. The pain is real. Despite the big rally Friday in response to a better-than-expected jobs report and some dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, it’s still down 13.6 percent. Even something as simple as Vanguard’s Wellesley Income Fund, cited for its conservative allocation strategy with ju …
	November 2018 Headline Consumer Credit Growth Slowed Written by Steven Hansen The headlines say consumer credit rate of annual growth declined relative to last month. And again, the previous month’s total outstanding credit was revised significantly down.
	November 2018 Headline JOLTS Job Openings Little Changed Written by Steven Hansen The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) can be used as a predictor of future jobs growth, and the predictive elements show that the year-over-year growth rate of unadjusted private non-farm job openings slowed relative to last month.
	The Margin: Video: Unhinged traveler calls JetBlue agent a ‘rapist,’ says she has a gun Some people hit the bar. Others take in the latest Netflix or maybe catch a little shut-eye. Then there’s one woman in Florida (where else?) who took a unique approach to dealing with her travel frustrations: She climbed the desk, called the agent a rapist and said she had a gun.
	Economic Report: Consumer credit has second straight big jump in November Consumer credit grew $22.1 billion in November, marking the second straight month of strong credit growth, the Federal Reserve said Tuesday.
	Bond Report: Treasury yields climb as haven demand fades amid stock-market rally Treasury yields rise Tuesday as the upbeat tone over stocks diminishes the luster of haven assets.