18Jan2019 Market Close: Wall Street Ended The Week Higher, DOW Closed Near Session Highs Up 336 Points, WTI Settles At 53.72 Unchanged By Baker Report, SP 500 Climbs 1.3%, Nasdaq Adds 1%

Wall Street rises over 1 pecent, posts fourth straight week of gains

U.S. stocks rose on Friday, helping Wall Street’s major indexes advance for a fourth consecutive week, as increased hopes that the United States and China would resolve their trade dispute lifted shares across sectors.

Avianca Brasil’s legal fight with plane leasing firms escalates

Avianca Brasil’s battle with its aircraft leasing firms intensified on Friday after Brazil’s aviation regulator said it would no longer ground 10 of the struggling carrier’s planes and another lessor renewed its effort to repossess 10 others.

U.S. regulators discuss fining Facebook for privacy violations: report

U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a fine against Facebook Inc for violating a legally binding agreement with the government to protect the privacy of personal data, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing three people familiar with the discussions.

Netflix shares fall as weak forecast dampens investor optimism

Shares of Netflix Inc fell nearly 5 percent on Friday, as investors looked past its record subscriber numbers and instead focused on its lower-than-expected revenue forecast for the first quarter.

Facebook sheds gains after report on potential major fine

** Shares of Facebook paring gains on Friday after a report that U.S. regulators discussed fining the co for privacy violations

Shutdown clouds outlook for consumer-driven U.S. economic growth

After tax cuts, rising incomes and buoyant stock markets set off a consumer boom in 2018, signs are emerging that the main engine of U.S. economic growth could sputter, and a record-long government shutdown further muddies the waters.

Apple ordered to pull part of press release in Qualcomm case

Apple Inc has been ordered by a German court to stop using part of a press release claiming all iPhones would be available in the country through carriers and resellers, a copy of the ruling seen by Reuters showed.

Exclusive: U.S. pushing for regular review of China trade, reform progress

The United States is pushing for regular reviews of China’s progress on pledged trade reforms as a condition for a trade deal – and could again resort to tariffs if it deems Beijing has violated the agreement, according to sources briefed on negotiations to end the trade war between the two nations.

U.S. consumer sentiment at two-year low, manufacturing rebounds

U.S. consumer sentiment tumbled in early January to its lowest level since President Donald Trump was elected more than two years ago as an ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government and financial market volatility stoked fears of a sharp deceleration in economic growth.

Small Caps Soar To Best Start Since 1987 As China Adds Record Liquidity

Wondering why stocks are soaring?

Simple really – Global Central Bank balance sheets are soaring again…

And China just injected a record 1.16 trillion yuan into the financial system… (yea trillion with a ‘t’)

Sigh…

Which lifted Chin …

Friday Humor: Progress On Toxic Masculinity Turns Woman’s Boyfriend Into “Weepy Little Pansy”

Via The Onion,

APPLETON, WI – Expressing disbelief at her romantic partner’s dramatic behavioral shift, local woman Emily Kittleson, 30, told reporters Friday that she had not expected her boyfriend’s attempts to recognize and curtail toxic masculinity would eventually turn him into a “weepy little pansy.”

“Christ, I know the dope is trying to be conscious of the effects of his words and actions and to be more open and honest with his emotions, but there’s got to be a limit,” said Kittleson of her boyfriend Shane Magnusen, 31, whose efforts to reject toxic masculinity have begun to irritate her as she claims he has evolved into “a fragile fucking flower about everything” in recent weeks.

“Of course I’m happy for social progress and all, but this ineffectual shit is not what I signed up for.

Instead of suppressing his emotions about major issues in his life, he cri …

DOJ To Interrogate Ecuadorian Embassy Staff After Dubious Manafort-Assange Report

The US Department of Justice has issued formal requests to six current and former staff from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London following a controversial article in The Guardian claiming that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the Embassy right around the time he joined the Trump Campaign.

According to the Defend Assange Campaign, the DOJ “has issued an international subpoena for six diplomatic staff who were in the embassy with Julian Assange.”

We can confirm that the U.S. Department of Justice has issued an international subpoena for six diplomatic staff who were in the embassy with Julian Assange following a false story planted in Guardian of secret meetings between Assange and Manafort in 2013, 2015 and 2016. https://t.co/PQBj3HLLBy

— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange)

Hedge Funds Suffer Massive $22.5 Billion In Q4 Outflows

While there were countless argument offered to explain December’s near-record market drubbing, we said on several occasions last month that the simplest reason for last month’s plunge was also the simplest one: faced with a mountain of redemption requests, hedge funds were forced to sell their holdings into a market that had never been more illiquid, which meant hitting each and every bid and culminating with the brief, December 24th bear market.

We now have confirmation, because according to Hedge Fund Research, investors fled hedge funds as markets plunged in the fourth quarter (or is that markets plunged as investors fled hedge funds), pulling a massive $22.5 billion, the most in more than two years. The exodus added to the total withdrawals of $34 billion in 2018, or about 1% of hedge fund industry assets, the largest quarterly outflow since Q4 2016 when investors redeemed about $70 billion.

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Cryptos: Here’s an argument for tokenizing assets on the blockchain

To crypto proponents, blockchain technology offers more than just a ledger to trade cryptocurrencies and one facet that is growing increasingly popular with distributed ledger proponents is asset tokenization.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulator discussing plan to end conservatorship

The acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has told the agency’s employees that the regulator will announce a plan within weeks to take the government-sponsored enterprises out of conservatorship.

Trump Today: President to take part in a 2nd summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are due to take part in a second summit in late February, as the Trump administration also deals with a bombshell BuzzFeed report and Day 28 of the partial government shutdown.