….Harvey update. North Korea fires missiles, Wall Street rolls on. Case-Shiller home sales solid. Consumer confidence strong. Freeport-McMoran signs over Grasberg. UTX closing in on Rockwell. Buffett banks on BofA. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-29-2017 DOW + 56 = 21,865 SPX + 2 = 2446 NAS + 18 = 6301 RUT + 2 = 1384 10 Y – .02 = 2.14% OIL – .11 = 46.33 GOLD – .90 = 1309.60 A pair of 70-year-old reservoir dams that protect downtown Houston and a levee in a suburban subdivision began overflowing Tuesday, adding to the rising floodwaters from Harvey. The dams did not break, but they are overflowing, meaning the flooding is just getting worse. Brazoria County authorities posted a message on Twitter – “GET OUT NOW!!!”  (all caps – 3 exclamation points). A weather station southeast of Houston reported 49.32 inches of rain as of Tuesday morning. Already 14 sites in Houston have recorded more than 40 inches of rain and 36 different locations have recorded more than 3 feet. Harvey now officially holds the US record for most total rainfall from a tropical system, and it hasn’t left the area yet. Rivers around Houston crested last night and today, several areas are reporting water 25 feet above flood level. At least 14 people are reportedly dead in the Houston area, including a family of six who are thought to have drowned in a van and a police officer who drowned in his patrol car. Many folks have lost touch. Undoubtedly, the ...

….Harvey hits Houston, oil refiners, commodities, and the economy. An ounce of prevention vs a pound of cure. Day One, Amazon-Whole Foods. North Korea fires a missile over Japan. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-28-2017   DOW – 5 = 21,808 SPX + 1 = 2444 NAS + 17 = 6283 RUT + 4 = 1382 10 Y – .01 = 2.16% OIL – 1.06 = 46.81 GOLD + 18.70 = 1310.50 The Weather Company’s chief meteorologist called it “a tragedy of epic proportions.” The National Weather Service said it was “unprecedented” and “beyond anything experienced.” National attention has been focused on Texas since Friday, when Hurricane Harvey hit the coast. The hurricane is now a tropical storm and it has moved back out over water. The storm is expected to head back to land over the next 48 hours, skirting Houston to the east and taking dead aim at Beaumont. The problem with this storm is not so much the winds which devastated Rockport Texas, but the rains which are expected to continue for the next 3 to 4 days. Houston has already received more than 2 feet of rain. So much rain has fallen, the National Weather Service had to update the color charts on their graphics, anything over 20 inches is deep purple. According to the National Hurricane Center, 50 inches of rain in total could end up falling on Houston and Galveston and other cities along the coast. That means the already serious flooding will only get worse. ...

Sinclair Noe interviews James Thomson, co-author with Joseph Hansen, of “The Amazon Marketplace Dilemma: A Brand Executive’s Challenge Growing Sales and Maintaining Control”

…..Here comes Horrible Harvey. Yellen’s last hurrah in Jackson Hole. Cohn hangs in. Mnuchin expects tax reform by end of year. Investors pull money out of US stocks. Samsung’s Lee sentenced. YouTube TV covers half the country. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-25-2017.   DOW + 30 = 21,813 SPX + 4 = 2443 NAS – 5 = 6265 RUT + 3 = 1377 10 Y – .02 = 2.17% OIL + .43 = 47.86 GOLD + 5.00 = 1291.80   For the week, the Dow rose 0.65 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.72 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.79 percent. The weekly gains for equities snapped a two-week skid of declines for the Dow and S&P 500 and a four-week drop for the Nasdaq.   Hurricane Harvey projected to make landfall around Corpus Christi, Texas between 10 PM and midnight but it is now hitting the Texas coast with heavy wind and rain.  The storm is more accurately stretched along a wide swath of the coast, with heavy rains as far east as New Orleans and inland beyond San Antonio. Harvey is now a Category 3 storm, meaning the government now classifies it as a “major” hurricane with 120-mph winds and gusts over 150-mph. Harvey, the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since Wilma in 2005, is forecast to inundate Houston, Corpus Christi and Galveston, cities with more than 2.6 million people combined, with drenching rain and dangerous flooding. Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster for ...

….Stocks drift lower. Congress to tackle debt ceiling and tax reform. Yellen final hurrah at Jackson Hole. Amazon swallows Whole Foods on Monday. Existing home sales slide. Harvey goes to Texas. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-24-2017   DOW – 28 = 21,783 SPX – 5 = 2438 NAS – 7 = 6271 RUT + 4 = 1373 10 Y + .02 = 2.19% OIL + .24 = 47.64 GOLD – 4.50 = 1286.80   Stocks drifted in an aimless manner today, meandering from positive to negative and back and forth again. The good news is that the market has made it through most of August without freaking out – and there have been a few opportunities for a freak. But the markets have been well behaved and orderly, with a slight downward bias.   Soon, August will end and Congress will return and they will have a plate full of issues including the debt ceiling and tax reform. Trump picked a new fight today with fellow Republicans over the debt ceiling, blaming congressional leaders for not including funding for veterans’ affairs as part of the debt ceiling package. Trump tweeted that debt ceiling approval is now a mess. Earlier in the week, Senate Majority Leader McConnell said the debt ceiling would be raised. Today at a town hall meeting in Washington state, House Speaker Paul Ryan confirmed debt ceiling legislation would be passed in time. And it probably will. It is not complicated. Write a clean bill, no ...

…..Trump visits Phoenix, hilarity ensues. New home sales down. Lowe’s earnings miss. WPP miss. Google & Walmart v Amazon. Good luck. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-23-2017   DOW – 87 = 21,812 SPX – 8 = 2444 NAS – 19 = 6278 RUT – 1 = 1369 10 Y – .04 = 2.17% OIL – .06 = 48.35 GOLD + 5.90 = 1291.30 Stocks fell for the first time in three days, the dollar slumped and Treasuries gained.   So, Trump was in Phoenix yesterday. Maybe you heard about that. He spoke for a little over an hour at a campaign rally at the Civic Center. We won’t try to recap everything he said (full transcript here), but there were a couple of important lines that have received particular attention. First, in what almost seemed like an aside, Trump said, “If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall. One way or the other, we’re going to get that wall.” Needless to say, that’s not what markets wanted to hear. Congress needs to pass a spending measure by September 30 to keep the government open —the same time it’s facing a deadline to raise the nation’s debt limit. Failure to do so could cause a multitude of problems, as we have seen in the past. Fitch Ratings  warned the country risks a review of its sovereign rating if it fails to raise the limit next month. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said there was zero chance ...

….Stock uptrend continues. Afghanistan, again. Trump in Phoenix. Tax reform, maybe. iPhone 8. Warren wins when he loses. Wells Fargo, again. National Park pass reminder. Facebook says eclipse eclipsed Super Bowl Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-22-2017 DOW + 196 = 21,899 SPX + 24 = 2452 NAS + 84 = 6297 RUT + 14 = 1371 10 Y + .03 = 2.21% OIL + .28 = 47.65 GOLD – 6.90 = 1285.40   The stock market is overvalued. Price to earnings ratios are too high. Investors are too complacent; the volatility index is still below historic average. The Federal Reserve isn’t just planning to raise interest rates but plotting a reduction of its $4.5 trillion balance sheet, which can add to the effect of monetary-policy tightening, further increasing borrowing costs. All good reasons why the stock market could collapse. Instead the Dow Industrial Average has the best single day of trading since April. Here is the key point, the thing that really does matter – the trend is up. The trend has been up for 8 years. A trend in place is more likely to continue than it is to reverse. A trend can keep going for a long, long time. At some point, the trend will indeed reverse but that was not the case today. The market has slogged along the past 2 weeks with a minor pullback – yesterday we called that a pause and sure enough, today the market hit the play button – but ...

….Markets on pause. Fed labor survey slack. Afghanistan strategy. Trump to Phoenix. No climate assessment. No debt default, maybe. Sempra busy Oncor. Total buys Maersk oil. Chinese Jeeps. The ultimate photobomb. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-21-2017 DOW + 29 = 21,703 SPX + 2 = 2428 NAS – 3 = 6213 RUT – 0.89 = 1356 10 Y – .01 = 2.18% OIL – 1.11 = 47.40 GOLD + 7.10 = 1292.30 Since August 7, the Dow Industrials have given back 397 points or 1.7%. The S&P 500 has slipped 0.08%, and the technology-weighted Nasdaq has led the way lower with a 2.6% move. Second-quarter results from S&P 500 reporting companies have been solid with 65% beating expectations. Guidance has largely also been quite positive. The recent price action in equities has left the uptrend under pressure but at this point it doesn’t look like anything more than a pause – at least for the big Blue Chip names. Small caps are having a tougher time. The Russell 2000 index of small and mid-cap companies moved into negative territory year-to-date.   Most recent economic data suggest the US economy is on better footing that it was in the first half of the year; which seems to be part of a trend for the past few years. This week, the markets are waiting to hear from Fed chair Janet Yellen; she delivers a speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Summit on Friday. We know that the Fed has been raising ...

….Bannon blows out. Stocks drift lower. Continued WH fallout. China trade war in the offing. Corinthian student debt relief. Foot Locker falls. Chicken Soup-y IPO. Waiting on the Eclipse. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-18-2017   DOW – 76 = 21,674 SPX – 4 = 2425 NAS – 5 = 6216 RUT – 1 = 1357 10 Y – .01 = 2.19% OIL + 1.64 = 48.73 GOLD – 3.30 = 1285.20   Stocks drifted lower into the close, wrapping up a rough week. While the day’s losses were small, Friday marked the first time stocks haven’t risen the day after a more than 1 percent drop since Nov. 8. For the week, the Dow was down 0.8 percent, the S&P 500 was down 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.6 percent. With a decline of more than 2 percent for the last two weeks, the S&P marked its weakest two-week period since before Trump was elected on November 8. The S&P 500 closed roughly 1 percent below its 50-day moving average, the furthest below that key technical measure since mid-April. Today also marked the eighth straight day in which the NYSE and Nasdaq had more stocks making new 52-week lows than highs.   Stocks started the trading session in negative territory then struggled into the green, with a sharp spike on word that Trump had fired chief strategist Steve Bannon; that news sent up a cheer on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange but stocks ...

Sinclair Noe interviews author Ellen Brown, from www.WebofDebt.com