…July was a good month on Wall Street. Apple beats. Facebook does something about bad actors. Home prices up, but construction loses workers. Consumer confidence up. PCE up. Spending up. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 07-31-2018 DOW + 108 = 25,415 SPX + 13 = 2816 NAS + 41 = 7671 RUT + 17 = 1670 10 Y – .01 = 2.96% OIL – 1.70 = 68.43 GOLD + 2.40 = 1224.40   Today was the last trading day of July, and the major averages posted solid monthly gains. The Dow rose 4.7% and S&P 500 was up 3.6%, their biggest monthly gains since January. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, climbed more than 2% in July and notched its fourth straight monthly gain. About 60 percent of the S&P 500 companies have released quarterly results, with 82 percent of those companies posting better-than-expected earnings. The corporate earnings season continued today with Dow components Procter & Gamble and Pfizer reporting better-than-expected earnings. Shares of Procter were up 0.9 percent, while Pfizer’s stock gained 3.5 percent.   After a few days of sharp declines, especially in the tech sector, the bargain hunters stepped in to fill the void. Since the financial crisis, the Nasdaq has posted three straight losses of 1 percent or more on five occasions. Following those drops, the Nasdaq has risen more than 5 percent over the next month. And we might see another bounce tomorrow, thanks to Apple.   After the closing bell, Apple posted a solid earnings report. ...