…..S&P 500 slides for 8 straight. Brexit sent to parliament. Productivity increase, finally. ISM service sector slips. Factory orders up. Jobs report tomorrow. Generic drug makers under investigation. UPS couldn’t quit cigs. Charge up across America. Other stuff up for a vote. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 11-03-2016   DOW – 28 = 17,930 SPX – 9 = 2088 NAS – 47 = 5058 10 Y + .01 = 1.81% OIL – 66 = 44.68 GOLD + 6.30 = 1303.80   Yesterday, the S&P 500 index posted its 7th consecutive loss; that has only happened 4 times in the last 20 years. Today the market made it 8 in a row, matching the longest losing streak – last seen in 2008 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Still, this isn’t something we see often. Before 2008, we go back to 1980 for an 8 day string of losses. The current streak has been fairly tame, the index is down about 3% on low volume; and while the selloff has been persistent it has also been orderly. The next level of support is the 200 day moving average at 2082.   Crude oil has fallen about 14% from the most recent peak reached two weeks ago.   Today the Bank of England kept interest rates on hold and signaled there would be no further easing in 2016, citing stronger-than-expected economic data. The central bank’s policy makers voted unanimously to maintain the benchmark rate at a record low of 0.25% and keep ...

…..Fed leaves rates unchanged; wait for December. S&P 500 down 7 straight. Facebook tops 1 billion daily. ADP says 147k jobs last month. Alibaba grows earnings. A new KFC every 5 hours. Wells Fargo again. Colorado River is drying up. I’ll watch the game on TV. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 11-02-2016 DOW – 77 = 17,959 SPX – 13 = 2097 NAS – 48 = 5105 10 Y – .02 = 1.80% OIL – 1.16 = 45.51 GOLD + 8.70 = 1297.50   The Federal Reserve wrapped up a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee, and delivered the expected news that it would not adjust rates during the final days of a presidential election. However, the Fed’s post-meeting statement reinforced expectations that Fed officials do not plan to wait much longer. The Federal Open Market Committee issued a statement that said: “The committee judges that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has continued to strengthen but decided, for the time being, to wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives,” adding “The Committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate.”   The Fed’s assessment of economic conditions was also just a little more upbeat than the September statement. The most significant change reflected evidence of stronger inflation. The November statement said inflation “has increased somewhat,” rising closer to the Fed’s preferred annual pace of 2 percent.   The health ...

…..Stock break support. Fed starts FOMC meeting. BOJ holds steady below zero. ISM manufacturing up. Obamacare open enrollment starts. Construction spending drops. Corelogic home price index up. Cars sales down in October. Gas pipeline blowout in Alabama. Oil drops. Shell makes more than Exxon. Freddie Mac pays off. Valeant under investigation but they can still sell their assets. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 11-01-2016 DOW – 105 = 18,037 SPX – 14 = 2111 NAS – 35 = 5153 10 Y – .02 = 1.84% OIL – .53 = 46.33 GOLD + 10.80 = 1288.80 Stocks started the session in positive territory but slippage was immediate; slow at first then picking up momentum. The Dow Industrial Average dropped below 18,000 for the fourth time since September 12, at one point posting a 200 point loss.   The S&P 500 took out the lows of September at the 2120 level. We had talked about 2020 being a level of support, which has now been broken. The next levels of support are 2080 (representing the 200 day moving average) and 2040 (representing lows from April and May). The point here is that today’s trading did some serious technical damage; the other point is to remind you to keep an eye on the charts; they are very effective at cutting through the chatter and the clutter.   The Fed began its 2-day FOMC meeting.  Treasury yields climbed early toward the highest since May on speculation the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates ...

…..Merger Monday: GE Oil-Baker Hughes, CenturyLink – Level 3, Blackstone-TeamHealth. On the hitter’s deck; Draftkings-FanDuel, Brocade, Broadcom. Consumers spend more, save less. Fed FOMC Wednesday; Jobs report Friday. Bond markets are rattled. OPEC and non-OPEC can’t agree on output cuts (shocking!). Moodys includes climate change in bond ratings. Happy Halloween. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 10-31-2016 DOW – 18 = 18,142 SPX – 0.26 = 2126 NAS – 0.97 = 5189 10 Y – .01 = 1.83% OIL – 1.94 = 46.76 GOLD + 2.30 = 1278.00 Another Merger Monday. For the second consecutive week, we have a batch of big mergers announced. US mergers and acquisitions activity in October was already at a record high before these deals were announced, led by AT&T’s giant deal for Time Warner. GE is merging its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes. GE will own 62.5% of the new publicly traded company, which will have combined revenue of $32 billion, while Baker Hughes shareholders will own 37.5% and will receive a one-time special dividend of $17.50 a share when the deal closes. The combination of GE Oil & Gas and Baker Hughes will create the second-largest player in the oil-field services industry in terms of revenue after Schlumberger. Telecommunications company CenturyLink said it would buy Level 3 Communications in a cash-and-stock deal with an equity value of about $24 billion, or about $34 billion, including debt. The deal implies a purchase price of $66.50 per share – a premium of approximately 42% above where Level ...

…..Clinton emails hit trading. 3Q GDP 2.9%. October was a little bad for stocks and bonds but great for M&A. Google Fiber on pause. Exxon just lost 4.6 barrels of in-ground reserves. Earnings pull out of a long decline. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 10-28-2016 DOW – 8 = 18,161 SPX – 6 = 2126 NAS – 25 = 5190 10 Y un = 1.85% OIL – 1.03 = 48.69 GOLD The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reopening its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of private e-mail while secretary of state, a politically explosive development less than two weeks before the presidential election.  Stocks erased gains on the news. FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to a Congressional committee saying, “In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” and so he is reopening the investigation. Comey gave lawmakers no indication in his letter about the importance of the new information. We have learned that the FBI found new emails which were not found on private email server in Clinton residence. The newly discovered emails under FBI investigation were found on separate device in unrelated probe. Apparently the device in question belonged to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner, and was part of an FBI investigation into Weiner’s sexting problems. The Clinton campaign has asked the FBI to provide more details about the discovery. Hillary Clinton has not made a public ...

…..A bad month for bonds. Qualcomm buys NXP. Alphabet/Google beats. Amazon misses. Deutsche Bank posts profit and angst. Wallonia relents. UK GDP grows. Durable goods orders fall. ZTO IPO thud. Exxon must turn over documents on climate change. The forecast for winter – warm and dry. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 10-27-2016   DOW – 26 = 18,169 SPX – 6 = 2133 NAS – 34 = 5215 10 Y + .05 = 1.84% OIL + .44 = 49.62 GOLD + 2.10 = 1240.00   This has been a tough month for global bonds and the selloff continued today. Treasuries tumbled and the dollar rose to a seven-month high amid increasing wagers the Federal Reserve will boost borrowing costs in December. Tomorrow we’ll get the first read on third quarter GDP, and it is expected to show a notable improvement after a sluggish first half. Traders sent bonds toward their worst month since 2014. A few days ago we told you that Qualcomm was in talks with NXP Semiconductor; today they announced a deal. Qualcomm will acquire NXP for about $38 billion, or $47 billion including debt. Qualcomm will pay $110 a share in cash for each NXP share outstanding, which represents an 11% premium to Wednesday’s closing price. Qualcomm has been a leader in chips for smartphones, a market which is starting to cool off. NXP, based in the Netherlands, became the world’s biggest maker of automotive electronics after it bought U.S.-based Freescale Semiconductor for about $12 billion ...

…..A deluge of earnings reports. The end of Google Fiber? New home sales up, inventories tight. Trade deficit declines. NATO flexes muscle. Microsoft wants to be cool. Watson aims at ubiquity. Friends don’t tag friends on Facebook. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 10-26-2016 DOW + 30 = 18,199 SPX – 3 = 2139 NAS – 33 = 5250 10 Y + .03 = 1.79% OIL – .76 = 49.20 GOLD – 6.40 = 1267.70   After the closing bell yesterday, Apple reported its first decline in annual revenues in over a decade, profit just barely beat expectations. Apple forecast higher sales in the holiday quarter but that doesn’t seem to be enough to motivate investors. Meanwhile, iPhone sales continued their decline, falling 5% from the previous year, although that’s an improvement from the 15% drop seen in fiscal Q3. Apple’s cash pile also continued to swell to a record of over $237 billion – if that was its own public company it would be the world’s fourteenth largest. Apple is still making money, about $9 billion in profits in the last quarter, but the bigger question is “what’s next?” The answer comes tomorrow, as Apple introduces the next generation of its MacBook laptop. And maybe something to do with Apple TV – possibly a playlist for TV. We’ll see.  Apple sank 2.3 percent in today’s trading.   Boeing shares were trading at their highest level this year, after the world’s largest plane maker reported a jump in quarterly profit ...

…..Earnings season heats up. Apple is weak. VW reaches a settlement. Takata heads to BK. Driverless beer. Home prices rise, inventories are tight. Consumer confidence drops. Obamacare premiums will jump. Renewable energy installations pass fossil fuel. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 10-25-2016 DOW – 53 = 18,169 SPX – 8 = 2143 NAS – 26 = 5283 10 Y un 1.75% OIL – 1.22 = 49.30 GOLD + 8.70 = 1274.10       More than 90 companies delivered quarterly results today. Dow components 3M, Caterpillar and DuPont reported earnings before the bell. Caterpillar and 3M posted mixed results, as both beat estimates on the bottom line, while missing on revenues. Caterpillar also lowered its 2016 earnings per share guidance. DuPont posted better than expected quarterly earnings and raised its yearly profit forecast.   The largest S&P 500 stock by market capitalization – Apple – is the highlight of today’s earnings reports. After the closing bell, Apple reported net income per share of $1.67, down from $1.96 a share a year earlier. Revenue fell 9 percent to $46.9 billion. Analysts expected profit of $1.66 a share on sales of $46.9 billion. Apple experienced its first annual sales decline since 2001. For the third consecutive quarter, iPhone sales were down from the year-ago period. Apple sold 45.5 million iPhones, down from last year’s sales of 48 million. But only a few weeks of iPhone 7 sales were included in this quarter. Next quarter is the holiday quarter, which is Apple’s biggest quarter, and it will be the first full ...

…..AT&T-Time Warner; TD Ameritrade-Scottrade; Rockwell Collins-BE Aerospace; HNA Group-Hilton Worldwide/Blackstone; Genworth-China Oceanwide Holdings; American Midstream-JP Energy. Whew! Visa beats. T-Mobile beats. Busy week for earnings, including the A+ list (Apple, Alphabet, Amazon) plus car companies (new and old). Goldman cuts outlook for S&P earnings. Support holds for now. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 10-24-2016 DOW + 77 = 18,223 SPX + 10 =  2151 NAS + 52 = 5309 10 Y + .02 = 1.76% OIL – .36 = 50.49 GOLD – 1.30 = 1265.40 Merger Monday is alive and well. AT&T announced it will acquire Time Warner for $85 billion; or at least it will try. The biggest deal in the world this year will give AT&T control of cable TV channels HBO and CNN, film studio Warner Bros and other media assets. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, and right now it looks like it will face opposition. The Justice Department has the power to reject such a deal if it violates antitrust laws. AT&T said it is unclear if the Federal Communications Commission will also have jurisdiction to review the deal. Remember that regulators blocked Comcast’s planned acquisition of Time Warner.   AT&T has described the deal as a “vertical merger” because there is no overlap between the two companies and hopes that such a tie-up will get the regulatory green light by the end of 2017. The reason we are seeing this deal now is because in the next couple of years, wireless will be ...

Sinclair Noe interviews Timothy Sandefur, author of “The Permission Society: How the Ruling Class Turns Our Freedoms into Privileges and What We Can Do About It”.