Market Rebound Continues

Charles Schwab: On the Market

Posted: 5/22/2017 4:15 PM ET

Market Rebound Continues

U.S. equities continued their rebound from last week's malaise that came amid a flare-up in domestic political uncertainty and volatility. Defense stocks got a boost from President Trump's deals with Saudi Arabia on his first overseas trip, and Ford announced a new CEO. Treasury yields and gold are moved higher, and the U.S. dollar was little changed, with the economic calendar empty today. Meanwhile, crude oil prices extended a run as of late amid continued production cut optimism.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) increased 90 points (0.4%) to 20,895, the S&P 500 Index added 12 points (0.5%) to 2,394, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 49 points (0.8%) to 6,134. In moderate volume, 792 million shares were traded on the NYSE and 1.7 billion shares changed hands on the Nasdaq. WTI crude oil rose $0.46 to $51.13 per barrel and wholesale gasoline was $0.01 higher at $1.66 per gallon. Elsewhere, the Bloomberg gold spot price increased $5.06 to $1,260.99 per ounce, and the Dollar Index—a comparison of the U.S. dollar to six major world currencies—was nearly unchanged at 96.98.

Ford Motor Co. (F $11) announced that President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Fields will retire and be replaced by Jim Hackett, who has led Ford Smart Mobility LLC since March 2016. Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Jim Hackett is the right CEO to lead Ford during a transformation period for the auto industry and the broader mobility space. Shares gained ground.

Huntsman Corp. (HUN $26) and Clariant AG (CLZNY $22) announced an agreement to combine in a merger of equals through an all-stock transaction, creating a global specialty chemical company with approximate annual sales of $13.2 billion. The merged company will be named HuntsmanClariant. Under the terms of the deal, Huntsman shareholders will receive 1.2196 shares of the new company for each share owned and each share of Clariant will remain outstanding as a share of the new company. Clariant shareholders will own about 52% of the company and Huntsman shareholders will own approximately 48%. HUN lost modest ground, while CLZNY moved nicely higher.

Amgen Inc. (AMGN $153) saw some pressure after a study of its osteoporosis treatment showed a newly observed cardiovascular safety signal that will have to be assessed, likely delaying approval in the U.S. Shares of AMGN's Belgian partner for the treatment, UCB SA (UCBJY $35), fell sharply.

Dow member Boeing Co. (BA $184) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT $277), along with other aerospace and defense companies, moved higher after several defense and commercial agreements were announced yesterday amid President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia as part of his first trip overseas.

Fed, housing and business activity reports set to join political focus this week

Treasuries dipped as the U.S. economic docket was void of any major releases today. The yields on the 2-year and 10-year notes, along with the 30-year bond, all ticked 1 basis point (bp) higher to 1.28%, 2.25% and 2.91%, respectively. For analysis of the bond markets, see our article, Mixed Signals: What Does Recent Economic Data Mean for Bonds?, on the Insights & Ideas page at www.schwab.com and follow Schwab on Twitter: @schwabresearch.

Along with continued focus on the political front, this week's economic calendar will bring looks at the housing sector, beginning with tomorrow's new home sales report, with economists expecting a 1.8% month-over-month (m/m) decline during April to a rate of 610,000 units, as well as Markit's preliminary Manufacturing and Services PMIs for May with both indexes forecasted to inch higher to 53.0 and 53.3, respectively, while the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index will round out the day, forecasted to move lower to a level of 15 for May. More housing data, manufacturing and business activity reports will come later in the in the form of existing home sales, the second read on Q1 GDP and preliminary durable goods orders. Schwab’s Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders notes in her article, ½ Full: Seeing Through a Weak Q1 leading indicators say a lot more about the economy prospectively than backward-looking measures like GDP, and they remain quite healthy. Liz Ann concludes that we are likely just experiencing yet another "soft patch" in an ongoing expansion; so for now, "I am seeing the glass as half full." Read more on the Markets & Economy page at www.schwab.com and follow Liz Ann on Twitter: @lizannsonders.

Moreover, the release of the Fed's May meeting minutes could command attention as the markets grapple with the path of future rate hikes and the expected beginning of the paring of the Central Bank's bloated balance sheet. For analysis, see Schwab's Vice President of Trading and Derivatives, Randy Frederick's and Chief Fixed Income Strategist, Kathy Jones' video, Fed Rate-Hike Cycle: How Can Bond Investors Prepare? on the Insights & Ideas page at www.schwab.com, where Randy and Liz Ann Sonders also offer the video, June Rate-Hike Highly Likely? Follow Randy and Kathy on Twitter: @randyafrederick and @kathyjones.

Finally, following last week's brief spike in volatility, see the latest articles, Is The Stock Market Just Quiet Or Is It Too Quiet? from Schwab's Chief Global Investment Strategist Jeffrey Kleintop, CFA, and Liz Ann Sonders', Strange Brew: Heightened Uncertainties, Yet Plunging Volatility…What Gives? on the Markets & Economy page at www.schwab.com. Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffreykleintop.

Europe mixed on M&A, politics and euro strength, Asia mostly higher

European equities finished mixed, with the markets continuing the grapple with political uncertainty on both sides of the pond. The euro continued to climb versus the U.S. dollar, which has been pressured by ramped-up U.S. political uneasiness. The euro got a further boost from comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding the currency being "too weak," leading to Germany's trade surplus, per Bloomberg. However, the British pound dipped versus the greenback, as ongoing U.K. Brexit negotiations fostered uncertainty. Adding to the political risk, Germany, Italy and the U.K. face elections later this year. For analysis of the political uncertainty see Schwab's Jeffrey Kleintop's, CFA, and Randy Frederick's video, Political Risk: How Should Investors Respond? on the Insights & Ideas page at www.schwab.com, where you can also find our article, Brexit Begins: What's Next for the U.K?. Bond yields in the region were mixed. Telecommunications issues led to the upside to extend a recent rally, while oil & gas issues moved modestly to the upside as crude oil prices extended a run as of late on optimism the extension of production cuts will be announced.

Stocks in Asia finished mostly to the upside as the U.S. markets continued to recover on Friday from a midweek selloff that came as volatility spiked amid flared-up U.S. political uncertainty, which appeared to call President Trump's ability to pass pro-growth policies into question. The global markets are shrugging off lingering geopolitical uncertainty as North Korea conducted another missile test over the weekend, while paying attention to U.S. President Trump's first foreign trip. Japanese equities gained ground, with the yen stabilizing after last week's rally, while the nation's trade report showed exports grew at a smaller pace than expected and imports topped forecasts. Australian securities rose, with basic materials recovering and oil & gas issues gaining ground as crude oil prices extend a recent run on optimism of extended production cuts. South Korean listings showed some resiliency in the face of the North Korean missile tests and a deceleration in that nation's export growth, advancing 0.7%, and markets in India moved higher, back to near record territory as the markets cheered the finalization of rates for the national sales tax, per Bloomberg.

Chinese stocks finished mixed, with mainland stocks declining, amid festering regulatory crackdown concerns and economic uncertainty in the wake of recent soft data, but those traded in Hong Kong increased, with insurers getting a boost from some analyst optimism toward the group. For analysis of the global front amid the backdrop of trade and geopolitical uncertainty, see Schwab's Jeffrey Kleintop's, CFA, articles, Missiles and Markets: An investor guide to geopolitical risks on the Markets & Economy page at www.schwab.com, as well as, Top Five Trade Issues Investors Should Be Watching on the International Investing page at www.schwab.com.

The Markit Manufacturing and Services PMIs from around the globe will dominate tomorrow's international economic calendar, while other reports will include the All-Industry Index from Japan, the Ifo Business Climate survey, GDP and trade data from Germany, as well as Spain's trade balance.

Friday, August 22, 2014 - Be Careful Out There

Financial Review with Sinclair Noe

DOW – 38 = 17,001
SPX – 3 = 1988
NAS + 6 = 4538
10 YR YLD un = 2.40%
OIL - .46 = 93.50
GOLD + 4.30 = 1281.60
SILV un = 19.51

All three major indices posted gains for the week, with the Dow up 2%, the S&P up 1.7% and the Nasdaq up 1.6%. It was the strongest week of gains for both the Dow and the S&P since April, and the third straight week of gains for all three indices.

There is a lot to cover before we can wrap up the week. First we go to Jackson Hole Wyoming, where the Fed has been having a friendly get together of economists. Janet Yellen kicked off the event with a speech this morning. She said what you might expect: "There is no simple recipe for appropriate policy," and she called for a "pragmatic" approach that gives officials room to evaluate data as it arrives without committing to a preset policy path. And she backed up her comments with a new tool, the Labor Market Conditions Index, which measures 19 labor market indicators, and it isn’t new data, just combining it all together, but it showed she is monitoring the data.

Yellen referenced the possibility that labor markets may be a bit tighter than they seem and that the Fed may consider having to raise interest rates sooner than expected. At the last FOMC meeting in July, the Fed was still saying there was “significant” slack in the labor market, and today she confirmed that slack remains, saying: “Five years after the end of the recession, the labor market has yet to fully recover.” Another area of slack is wage deflation. Employers cut some wages during the downturn, or eliminated raises, and they aren’t offering raises now. Yellen said: “wages could begin to rise at a noticeably more rapid pace once pent-up wage deflation has been absorbed.”

So, today Yellen didn’t say anything radically different, just a hint less dovish, or at least not as dovish as Wall Street might have hoped for.  

Just in case you were wondering, there have been some protestors at Jackson Hole; one group could be spotted wearing T-shirts printed with graphs showing wage inequality; apparently, an attorney representing the protestors got to talk with Yellen for a minute or two. Meanwhile, investment bankers were noticeably absent from this year’s symposium; the invitation list is mostly devoid of representatives from big private-sector banks. The Fed finally figured out that rubbing elbows and special access wreaks of cronyism.

The Jackson Hole Symposium featured more than Yellen. There was a variety of papers on multiple subjects. A professor from MIT presented a paper detailing how robots and computers don’t steal as many jobs as you might think. Seems the robots are not good at jobs requiring judgment and common sense. So we aren’t obsolete just yet.

Another bit of research says we are less likely to switch jobs, or there is less labor market fluidity, and the reasons are that the workforce is getting older, and there is a shift to older businesses, which means fewer startups, and more startups tend to fail, and more jobs require occupational licensing or certification.

Yet another research paper concluded that the problem of long term unemployment is not necessarily terminal. The thinking has been that if someone loses a job and is out of work for a long time they have a harder time finding work, and eventually they lose their skills and fall out of the labor pool; the idea is called hysteresis, or the idea that cyclical unemployment becomes structural. The new research says it is only a moderate problem. So, the good news is that we are not obsolete and we are adaptable.  

And then European Central Bank President Mario Draghi delivered a speech following lunch. Draghi said European central bankers and politicians each have a role to play in boosting demand and reducing joblessness. For its part the ECB is willing to take more stimulus measures if needed to keep low rates of inflation from becoming embedded in expectations of future price growth but the ECB can't do it alone and governments must join in efforts to reduce unemployment.

For Draghi, this was a bigger shift in policy; for years the ECB has been preaching that governments needed to shrink deficits and undertake economic reforms even during times of economic weakness. The austerity measures did not work; the result has been stubbornly high unemployment, stagnation, and disinflation or low-flation bordering on deflation, with a dollop of double dip recession.

Draghi admitted as much, saying the GDP data "confirm that the recovery in the euro area remains uniformly weak, with subdued wage growth even in non-stressed countries suggesting lackluster demand." And so Draghi called on combining monetary and fiscal policies to stimulate demand with efforts to make labor markets more flexible. He also proposed a significant boost in public investment.

In June, the ECB approved a stimulus package that includes record low interest rates, new 4-year loans to banks, and a step toward large scale purchases of asset backed securities, although no new QE announcement was forthcoming in today’s speech. Draghi said today: "The risks of 'doing too little'" and allowing temporary unemployment to become more entrenched "outweigh those of 'doing too much’, that is, excessive upward wage and price pressures."

So, while Draghi firmly planted an anti-austerity flag, he also felt the ECB’s June stimulus will be all that they can do, and he recognizes the real risk that monetary policy loses effectiveness, and somebody needs to wake up the government.

There is a long tradition of the Jackson Hole symposium giving a little bump to the markets; not today, and the reason had less to do with the doves and hawks on the Fed and more to do with geopolitics.

Ukraine says Russian artillery is being used against Ukraine's forces, both from across the border and from inside Ukraine. In addition, NATO said it has seen "transfers of large quantities of advanced weapons, including tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery, to separatists." Moscow sent more than 130 trucks rolling across the border in what it said was a mission to deliver humanitarian aid. Ukraine called it a "direct invasion," and the US and NATO condemned it as well.

The trucks, part of a convoy of 260 vehicles, entered Ukraine without government permission after being held up at the border for a week amid fears the mission was a Kremlin ploy to help the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia claims the trucks are carrying food, water, and other humanitarian supplies. The city of Luhansk has been largely cut off for weeks and is without water and electricity as Ukraine forces fight rebels. Ukraine wanted the international Red Cross to inspect all trucks, fearful of a Trojan horse; but Russia lost patience and accused Ukraine of stalling. The Red Cross, which had planned to escort the convoy to assuage fears that it was a cover for a Russian invasion, said it had not received enough security guarantees to do so, as shelling had continued overnight.

Ukraine said they would not shell the convoy but rebel forces took advantage of that promise to drive on the roads being used by the convoy.

Meanwhile, Hamas-led gunmen in Gaza executed 18 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel. The executions were held in a public square. I suppose that has a certain deterrent effect. The ceasefire, like others before it, did not last long. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to escalate the fight against Hamas after a four-year-old Israeli boy was killed by a mortar attack from Gaza. Shortly after his remarks, Palestinian officials said Israel had flattened a house in a Gaza City air strike, wounding at least 40 people. More than 80 rockets and mortars shot from Gaza hit Israel. Israeli forces carried out more than 25 air strikes in Gaza. Since the conflict began last month, 2,071 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have now been killed and around 400,000 of the enclave's 1.8 million people displaced. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers and four civilians in Israel have been killed.

Meanwhile, the quagmire in Iraq is sucking us in ever deeper. You will recall that just 2 weeks ago, President Obama announced “targeted airstrikes to protect our American personnel and a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death.” And it seemed to work, sort of. The Yazidis trapped on the mountain got off the mountain, most of them anyway.

And then there was the problem of ISIS controlling the Mosul Dam, and the threat of using the dam to flood the Tigris River valley, and that includes Baghdad; so there was some extra work to do there. And then there was the horrific beheading of American journalist James Foley, and yesterday Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel called ISIS an “imminent threat to every interest we have,” while Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey conceded that attacks on ISIS could not be limited to Iraq but would also spread into Syria; and Secretary of State John Kerry said ISIS “must be destroyed and will be crushed”.

And now Iraq has a new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi. The hope was that he could forge a new coalition government. Not exactly. Sunni lawmakers quit talks on forming a new Iraqi government after gunmen killed scores of worshipers at a Sunni mosque in a province neighboring Baghdad. Today’s strike took place after three roadside bombs targeted a Shiite political gathering.

Federal authorities today urged law enforcement across the country to be alert for possible attacks inside the United States in retaliation for US airstrikes against ISIS. In a joint bulletin issued to local, state and federal law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI said that while they are “unaware of any specific, credible threats against the Homeland” and find most threats to the U.S. homeland by supporters of ISIS “not credible,” they cannot rule out attacks in the United States from sympathizers radicalized by the group’s online propaganda.

Be careful out there.

Retailers have taken a recent hit, with weak earnings reports from the likes of Wal-Mart and Sears. Today Ross Stores posted better than expected second quarter results. The S&P Retail Index gained 0.6%, which doesn’t sound like much but it was the best week since February. The heavy promotional environment has been forcing retailers to offer discounts to stay relevant even as they deal with the growing shift to online sales. The big brick-and-mortar retailers have been trying to adjust to this shifting landscape. The labor market is no doubt improving, but wage growth has been essentially stagnant, restricting households’ buying power. In a nutshell, it has been a tough backdrop for retailers. No doubt the stock-price performance of the retail sector in the S&P 500 has been one of the weakest in the index – up +0.9% vs. a gain of +8.6% for the index as a whole.

Total earnings for the 490 S&P 500 members that have reported already are up +8.1% from the same period last year, with a ‘beat ratio’ of 65.5% and a median surprise of +2.6%. Total revenues are up +4.4%, with a very impressive revenue ‘beat ratio’ of 62.2% and a median surprise of 0.8%. So, this has been a strong earnings season, with the minor exception that guidance has been a little less than satisfying.

Stock prices of small-cap stocks have been underwater this year, with the S&P 600 down -1.2% vs. a gain of +8.6% for the S&P 500 in the year-to-date period. This underwhelming stock price performance is getting confirmed by the group’s mixed results thus far in the Q2 reporting cycle. As of Friday, August 22, we have seen Q2 results from 555 S&P 600 members or 92.5% of the index’s total members. Total earnings for these 555 companies are up +12.1% from the same period last year on +9.5% higher revenues, with 48.6% beating EPS estimates and 38.2% coming ahead of top-line expectations. 

Total earnings in Q2 are on track to reach a new all-time quarterly record, surpassing the last record set in 2013 Q4. That brings a good news/bad news conundrum. Is it just a one-time bounce of the low levels of the first quarter? It’s always difficult to top a record.

The S&P 500 is trading at 18.5x forward earnings, above the historical average of about 16.5x. The Shiller cyclically adjusted P/E ratio is currently about 26x the historical average of 16x. No matter how you manipulate the numbers, stock valuations are closer to the high end than the low end, and then the question is whether those valuations are justified in view of the risks facing stocks.

The biggest risk to stocks is the Fed ending its unprecedented experiment in easy money. Stock market investors have benefitted from ZIRP, zero interest rate policy, far longer than anyone might have imagined, and maybe Draghi was right when he talked today about the risk that monetary policy can lose its effectiveness. Now, maybe the Fed can exit QE and ZIRP and the markets will achieve liftoff; I just don’t know where we’ll find the fuel for liftoff.

The second most significant risk is the geopolitical havoc occurring around the world. And most of that havoc seems to be in or near areas with oil. From the heady days of mid-2008 when it traded at nearly $150 a barrel, crude oil has had quite a rocky ride. After sliding down to the $30s and rallying back around $120, crude has settled in around the $90 to $110 range for the past two years.  Commodity traders have wondered why oil hasn’t gone higher. Geopolitical tensions abound across the world; the Middle East seemingly hasn’t been this unstable in years. There may be reasons why oil prices have moved lower, including the renaissance in oil and gas exploration and development in the US; lower demand brought about by great efficiencies and conservation; also, the big investment banks have exited the oil  trading business and the oil  marketing business, and they have not been replaced by new players. A dip in oil prices could send some smaller exploration companies to the mat. A spike in oil prices could send stock investors to the exits. Geopolitical stability is decidedly bad for stocks, particularly stocks that are trading at very high valuations.

A third risk to stocks is that earnings will not keep pace. Corporations may have squeezed about all of the cost savings they can out of their businesses. While companies continue to "beat" expectations, the truth is that they are more leveraged than they were in 2007 on the cusp of the financial crisis, and they live in fear that interest rates are going to rise and they will not be able to service their debt. Meanwhile, consumers tend to hold onto a dollar until the eagle grins.

And then there is always the possibility of a black swan event, which could pop up almost anywhere, including the financial markets where big banks are bigger than ever, and money markets are now poised to close their vaults rather than risk a run, which is  just the sort of thing that creates a run; or maybe it will be a geopolitical mis-step – a bomb that lands in the wrong place, or a crazy Russian who turns off the nat gas spigot for the Eurozone.

An expensive market is always vulnerable to bad news and sell-offs. And so it is now more important than ever to be diligent, and don’t be afraid to lock in the hard won gains of the past 5 years.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - Curb Your Enthusiasm

Financial Review with Sinclair Noe

DOW + 61 = 17,113
SPX + 9 = 1983
NAS + 31 = 4456
10 YR YLD - .01 = 2.46%
OIL - .17 = 104.42
GOLD – 4.70 = 1308.50
SILV + .04 = 21.07

We start with a couple of economic reports. The National Association of Realtors reports existing home sales were up 2.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.04 million, compared to 4.91 million in May. Sales in June were 2.6% higher than last month, but were 2.3% below the June 2013 rate. Total inventory rose 2.2% in June to 2.3 million existing homes for sale; unsold inventory is up 6.5% from a year ago.

At June’s pace of sales, there was a 5.5-month supply of homes for sale. The Realtors’ group considers a 6-month supply to be a balanced market. Higher supplies favor buyers and lower supplies favor sellers. The Federal Housing Finance Agency says home prices in May rose 0.4% from the prior month and were 5.5% above their level of May 2013. Distressed sales accounted for just 11% of sales in June, down from 15% last year, 25% in 2012, and 30% in 2011. Fewer distressed sales probably explain why there were fewer sales than June of last year.

The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, measures inflation at the retail level; the CPI increased 0.3% in June. The core CPI looks at prices excluding food and energy, which is important for people who don’t eat food or drive cars or use electricity; core CPI was up 0.1% in June. On a year over year basis, CPI is up 2.1%, and the core CPI is up 1.9%. The big driver for the increase in June was higher prices for gasoline.

In earnings reports:

Quarterly profit at McDonald's fell more than expected. Second quarter net income fell almost 1% to $1.3 billion, or $1.40 per share. Sales at McDonald’s restaurants in the US dropped for a third straight quarter.

Coca Cola’s 2Q net income dropped to $2.6 billion from $2.68 billion a year earlier.

Verizon reported second quarter earnings nearly doubled, but it was a confusing report because Verizon paid for Vodaphone shareholders in the quarter, plus they sold some of their wireless spectrum to T-Mobile; cutting through the clutter, Verizon added 1.4 million devices; Verizon added three tablets for every new smartphone. Earnings were just a smidge above expectations.

Comcast reported net income of almost $2 billion for the second quarter, with total revenue of $16.8 billion, up 3.5% from the same period last year. The revenue increase came from high-speed internet service. Comcast lost cable video customers, as more people bypass cable and satellite subscriptions in favor of cheaper streaming alternatives.

Credit Suisse reported a second quarter loss of $779 million, the largest loss since 2008; reflecting the charge of $2.6 billion related to the settlement with US law enforcement for a guilty plea to conspiring to aid tax evasion in helping American customers hide money in Swiss accounts. On the other hand, another way to look at it, they were one criminal conviction away from a $1 billion quarterly profit. Credit Suisse also announced it would exit the commodities trading business.

Meanwhile, it looks like bond traders are exiting the bond trading business. Trading in US government bonds has dropped 25% in the past few weeks compared to the same period a year ago. Since the end of the second quarter, trading in investment grade bonds has dropped 17% and trading in junk bonds has dropped 8%.

Last week, Fed Chair Janet Yellen talked about overvaluation in the biotech and social media sectors. One of the most common measures of value is the P/E, or price to earnings ratio; there are certainly other measures of value, but PE is common. Generally, a low PE can point toward value, while a high PE might indicate overvaluation, or even an unprofitable company. Currently the S&P 500 trades at 16.1 times forward 12-month consensus earnings per share. Therefore, you might think a PE of 165 would mean a stock was extremely overvalued, ready to crash; or not. In September 2003, Apple had a PE of 165; since then it has gained about 6,000%.

After the close of trade today, Apple posted fiscal third quarter results. Revenue came in at $37.4 billion versus $38 billion expected; EPS was $1.28 versus $1.23 expected; iPhone sales were on track; iPad sales were a little weak; Mac sales were a little better than expected. Apple posted profit of $7.75 billion, up from $6.9 billion in the year-ago period. Apple announced a new iPhone 6, not yet available, but ready to swamp stores before the end of the year; it will have a bigger screen. Curb your enthusiasm.

Also after the close, Microsoft posted profit of $4.6 billion, or 55 cents a share, on revenue of $23.4 billion. During the year-ago period, the world's largest software company earned $4.97 billion, or 59 cents a share, on $19.9 billion in sales. So, sales were up, profit was a slight miss, due to the Nokia acquisition. Bing search ad revenue is up 40%, and Bing now has about 20% of the market share for search engines. Microsoft is big in the cloud, where revenue is up almost 150%, topping 4 billion.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman went on CNBC yesterday and promised he would deliver the deathblow against Herbalife. Ackman has been shorting the stock for about a year; a $1 billion bet the company would crash. Then he delivered a 3-hour diatribe with 250 slides in his PowerPoint presentation, alleging that Herbalife is not just a multi-level marketing nutritional club, it is a pyramid scheme preying on minorities, and the biggest fraud since Enron. Ackman did not present a great deal of evidence. Today the stock was up 15%, for no apparent reason, other than surviving an Ackman deathblow.

There were two rulings from two federal appeals court panels on Obamacare today. The question was whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for people in states that use the federal insurance exchange; 36 states use the federal exchange, while the other states set up their own state exchanges. This goes back to wording in the original law that says subsidies can be applied to state exchanges.

 The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that the government could not subsidize insurance for people in states that use the federal exchange. That decision could potentially cut off financial assistance for more than 4.5 million people who were found eligible for subsidized insurance in the federal exchange, or marketplace.

A couple of hours later, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, upheld the subsidies, saying that a rule issued by the Internal Revenue Service was “a permissible exercise of the agency’s discretion.”

For now, nothing changes, with the exception that there will be many more billable hours for the attorneys.

Bloomberg reports that regulators are ready to label MetLife a potential threat to the financial system, subjecting the insurer to oversight by the Federal Reserve. MetLife, the biggest US life insurer, could be subjected to stricter capital, leverage and liquidity requirements as a result of Fed supervision. A decision by the Financial Stability Oversight Council may come as early as July 31, and MetLife would have 30 days to request a hearing before the FSOC to contest the decision.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is now 4 years old, even though it isn’t really in effect; just 52% of the rules mandated under Dodd-Frank have been finalized by regulators; Another 23% have been proposed but they’re still working out details, and regulators haven’t even gotten around to 24% of the rules. A recent report by consumer watchdog Public Citizen called out the Securities and Exchange Commission as a particularly egregious delayer, noting that it had pushed back the deadlines for 13 of the 23 rules it was supposed to finalize this year.

City workers and retired city workers in Detroit have agreed to pension cuts to help bailout the city from bankruptcy. General retirees would get a 4.5% pension cut and lose annual inflation adjustments. They accepted the changes with 73% of ballots in favor. Support for the pension changes triggers an extraordinary $816 million bailout from the state of Michigan, foundations and the Detroit Institute of Arts. The money would prevent the sale of city-owned art and avoid deeper pension cuts.

Most people travel to or from Israel by air, and the major airport, really the only airport is Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv; last year, 14 million people went through Ben Gurion Airport, in a country with a population of 8 million.  Yesterday a rocket from Gaza landed about one mile from the airport; we don’t have further details on that rocket; it did not hit the airport; it was a mile away. When news spread, Delta diverted a flight to Paris. United airlines cancelled flights. The Federal Aviation Administration banned all US passenger and cargo flights to and from Tel Aviv for at least the next 24 hours. European airlines cancelled flight to Israel. The possibility of a passenger jet being shot down over a war zone is a very realistic and fresh memory.

US and United Nations diplomats are in Israel, trying to broker a ceasefire of some sort. Israel continues to pound targets across the Gaza Strip. It does not appear a ceasefire is near. If there is any light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel will be destroyed.

The European Union today threatened Russia with harsher sanctions if Russia does not cooperate in the investigation of the downing of the Malaysian flight 17 and if Russia does not stop sending weapons to Russian backed separatists in Ukraine. However, it was just a threat, and they will get together later in the week to draft proposals for sanctions.

Monday, July 21, 2014 - A Three Legged Stool

Financial Review with Sinclair Noe

DOW – 48 = 17,051
SPX – 4 = 1973
NAS – 7 = 4424
10 YR YLD - .01 = 2.47%
OIL + 1.46 = 104.59
GOLD + 1.30 = 1313.20
SILV + .04 = 21.03

First leg:

Let us start with earnings reporting season, which kicks into full gear this week with 140 of the S&P 500 companies posting results.

Netflix reported a profit of $71 million, or $1.15 a share, on revenue of $1.34 billion. This was in line with expectations, but for Netflix, an important component is how fast they are adding subscribers; turns out – fast; 1.69 million new net streamers in the second quarter; 570,000 in the US and 1.12 million international subscribers; now topping 50 million worldwide.

Allergan, the botox company, posted better than expected 2Q profits and sales but also announced it is cutting 1,500 jobs in a restructuring.  BB&T, the southeastern financial company, posted weak 2Q results as mortgage activity lagged; this has been a theme among banks for the second quarter, but the bigger banks have been compensating with profits in investment banking and trading; smaller, regional banks find it harder to compete in that arena. Chipotle Mexican Grill, theme park operator Six Flags, oilfield services company Halliburton, Manpower Group, and chipmaker Texas Instruments all reported better than expected results.

Tomorrow we will get the earnings report from McDonalds; after the close, we will get earnings from Microsoft and Apple. Wednesday’s results include Facebook. Thursday we will hear from General Motors and Amazon.com.

So far, earnings season has been strong, of the S&P 500 companies that reported through the end of last week, earnings are up 7.6% from the same period last year on 4.2% higher revenues, with 65.9% beating EPS estimates and 68.2% coming out with better than expected revenue. This is better performance than we have seen at this stage in other recent reporting cycles. The +7.6% earnings growth at this stage in Q2 compares to an earnings decline of -3% for the same group of companies in Q1 On the revenue side, the +4.2% growth thus far compares to growth rates of +1.7% and +3% in Q1. The earnings and revenue beat ratios for these companies are similarly tracking better relative to Q1.

Second leg:

Israel and Hamas continue to battle in the Gaza Strip and Russian separatists continue to impede Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 investigation efforts. President Obama delivered a statement this morning on the geopolitical hotspots. Secretary of State John Kerry was dispatched to Cairo to discuss cease-fire negotiations with international officials. Though Obama cited Israel’s “right to defend itself” against Hamas missile strikes that now number in the thousands, he said he has instructed Kerry to prioritize de-escalation.

Obama said investigation efforts into what caused the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 have been impeded by pro-Russian separatists, who have assumed control of the crash site and have begun removing evidence. “Unfortunately, the Russian-backed separatists continue to block the investigation,” Obama said of the militants. “All of which begs the question, what exactly are they trying to hide?” Obama said responsibility lies with the Russian government, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, to convince the separatists to cooperate with an international investigation.

A train carrying the remains of most of the almost 300 victims of the Malaysia Airlines plane downed over Ukraine left the site on Monday, after the Malaysian Prime Minister reached a deal with the leader of pro-Russian separatists controlling the area. The aircraft's black boxes, which could hold information about the crash in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, will be given to the Malaysian authorities.

At the United Nations, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution demanding those responsible "be held to account and that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability". It also demanded that armed groups allow "safe, secure, full and unrestricted access" to the crash site. It will be difficult to use the forensic evidence at the site to determine exactly what happened, but it is becoming increasingly obvious the plane was shot down with Russian weaponry.

Clearly, Putin did not want nearly 300 civilians to die, but it happened and it probably happened because of things he set in motion. If Russia is even loosely tied to the destruction of the passenger plane, even if it was an accident, the incident could represent another escalation of Russian aggression and mark a major turning point in how Russia is perceived around the world.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will urge other European leaders to consider imposing tougher sanctions Russian oil, gas, defense, and banking sectors at an EU meeting tomorrow. However, EU diplomats made clear today that sectorial sanction would still be extremely difficult for some of Europe's poorer nations. They are especially nervous about the energy sector, central to the Russian economy, but also to the European Union.

EU nations rely on Russia for about 30% of their gas demand and have intertwined interests based on decades of energy reliance. Russia exports around $60 billion a year in gas and the Netherlands was Russia's biggest export destination last year, mostly oil and metals. Energy sanctions would most likely derail the fragile European recovery in general and might even lead to a complete economic collapse in certain member states. Many Eurozone countries see sanctions as collective economic suicide that helps no one. What they should see is that dependence on imported fossil fuels has made them economically weak and subservient. As long as the Eurozone relies on Russian gas to heat their homes in the winter, Putin can get away with murder.

Third leg:

Financial markets have been largely whistling past geopolitical hotspots, with just the occasional jittery pullback. The simple fact is that the Federal Reserve and all other global central banks have been providing the markets with unusually accommodative monetary policy; which is to say, the central banks have been throwing easy money at the markets. In addition, there is growing concern that the continuation of this “unconventional” and “extraordinary” state of affairs involves an entirely new set of risks.

Clearly, the Fed would like to do what it can to prevent bubbles from forming while they hold off on raising rates; it is a delicate balancing act. If the Fed raises rates too soon, it risks a downturn in the economy, just as the Fed expects the economy is ready for liftoff. If the Fed continues with its easy money policies it risks the chance of bubbles; already Fed Chair Janet Yellen has acknowledged pockets of overvaluation. Last week, during Humphrey Hawkins testimony of Capitol Hill, Yellen singled out social media stocks and biotechs.

What does Yellen know about social media and biotech valuations? Probably not a great amount, but that doesn’t devalue her perspective; there may be some kind of asset bubble taking shape in at least some corners of the financial market. Moreover, do not think Yellen just tossed out the overvaluation comment in a flippant or offhand manner. She is well aware of Alan Greenspan’s notorious remarks about “irrational exuberance”. This was a chance for Yellen to jawbone the markets. The very fact that she’s doing so means that she probably sees good reason for speaking out.

Yellen knows she is walking a very narrow line as she tries to guide monetary policy back toward some kind of “new normal” for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis. Yellen seemed to be saying that if small corners of the market over-inflate and pop, well tough luck; it will not change the Fed’s path toward escape velocity. You might want to buckle your seat belts and get ready for a bumpy ride.

One reason for the overvaluation has been that the Fed has pumped up markets to such a point where it has been a bad trade to try to fight the Fed, and this has removed normal checks on overvaluation. Under normal market conditions, short sellers provide the right amount of pessimism to temper the optimism that leads to a wildly overvalued stock market. Short positions help keep companies with weak earnings potential and bad management from riding the bull market herd mentality to unjustifiably high share prices. However, this market is far from normal. The stock market has climbed to fresh new highs, not today, but the Dow has hit record highs 15 times this year, even with geopolitical hotspots and negative first quarter GDP.

Short sellers are in retreat. It’s hard to fight the Fed and a bull market. The proportion of shares in short positions is at its lowest level since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with short interest on the S&P 500 index hovering around 2%.

Shorting a stock involves borrowing it from a broker at one price with the promise to return those shares after a certain period. The short seller will then sell the borrowed shares, and if the stock price goes down, they can buy them back, return them to the broker, and pocket the difference. When shorting, the risk is that the price goes up and you have to buy back the shares at a higher price. Shorting can be a good way to make big money fast. If a stock drops 50%, the short seller stands to make 100% on the trade; and when a stock starts to fall, it can fall fast.

Some traders like to look at the charts for short targets, and that is important; you never want to short a stock that is in a strong uptrend; you want to wait for it to turn over. You can also look at the fundamentals, and earnings season is a great time to look for really high price to earnings ratios, heavy debt burdens, downward guidance, or anything else that might raise a red flag. It is good to remember shorting, especially if one of the three legs starts to wobble.