DOW + 92 = 21,328 (record)
SPX + 10 = 2440 (record)
NAS + 44 = 6220
RUT (NYSE:IWM) + 6 = 1425 (record)
10 Y un = 2.21%
OIL – .13 = 45.95
GOLD + .60 = 1267.10
BITCOIN + 1.48% = 2779.42
ETHEREUM – 1.97% = 387.89
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index ended at all-time highs, while the NASDAQ 100 bounced back from its biggest two-day drop since September.
European and emerging-market equities advanced. Sterling rose for the first time since the U.K. election. Ten-year Treasury yields held near 2.21 percent and the dollar slipped versus major peers before the Fed is projected to raise rates Wednesday.
Tech stocks enjoyed a bit of a rebound but there are still concerns about valuations. A Bank of America Merrill Lynch report found a record 44 percent of fund managers polled in a monthly survey see equities as overvalued, up from 37 percent in May.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was named the most crowded trade, with 57 percent of investors saying Internet stocks are expensive and 18 percent calling them “bubble-like.’’ In the ninth year of a bull market, stocks are expensive.
So, what was behind the recent two-day sell-off in tech? Did investors just get nervous? Are tech stocks fundamentally overvalued? Computer says…. No. The quants were just rebalancing.
According to a new report from JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) quantitative investing based on computer formulas and trading by machines directly are leaving the traditional stock picker in the dust and now dominating the equity markets. The report estimates “fundamental discretionary traders” account for only about 10 percent of trading volume in stocks. Passive and quantitative investing accounts for about 60 percent, more than double its share a decade ago.
Figures from market structure research firm TABB Group point to similar gains in machine-driven trade volume, while the overall number of shares traded has declined. A subset of quantitative trading known as high-frequency trading accounted for 52 percent of May’s average daily trading volume.
Crude tumbled in early trading on a report that at the same time as OPEC and its partners agreed last month on prolonging production cuts, the group’s output was climbing the most since November as members exempt from the deal restored lost supply. Oil then reversed and gained amid estimates that U.S. supplies declined.
The producer price index was flat last month following a sharp 0.5% increase in April. Still, inflation is more widespread after being largely invisible in 2016. The 12-month rate of wholesale inflation stood at a 2.4% in May, up from zero a year earlier and just a notch below a five-year high.
The flat reading in wholesale inflation in May, as expected, was tied to falling prices for gas and fuels used to heat and cool homes. The wholesale cost of gasoline sank 11.2%. The wholesale cost of food also fell for the first time in six months. Core wholesale costs slipped 0.1% in May, when stripping out the volatile categories of energy, food and retail trade margins.
The core rate of inflation was up 2.1% over the past 12 months.
The Corelogic Home Price Index shows home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased year over year by 6.9 percent in April 2017 compared with April 2016 and increased month over month by 1.6 percent in April 2017 compared with March 2017. Corelogic forecasts that home prices will increase by 5.1 percent on a year-over-year basis from April 2017 to April 2018.
Arizona posted 6% year-over-year growth in home prices, with 0.7% increase March to April. Corelogic forecasts Arizona home prices will increase 6.3% over the next 12 months.
The National Federation of Independent Business said its small-business optimism index held steady at a seasonally adjusted 104.5 in May from the prior month. In May, five of the 10 index components gained, four declined and one remained unchanged. A net 28% of owners reported plans to make capital outlays, well below historic levels.
Duke University/CFO Magazine conducted a survey of US chief financial officers. The share of CFOs who are more optimistic about the economy is the lowest since before the presidential election. A jump in sentiment about near-term fixes to tax and health-care policy has given way to increased doubt as Congress stays fixated on investigating Russia’s role in the U.S. election.
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee met today. Tomorrow they will conclude their meeting and issue a statement – almost certainly announcing a 25-basis point increase in the fed funds target rate. Fed officials have penciled in three rate hikes this year. A rate hike tomorrow would be the second rate hike of the year.
Fed officials have said they are not worried about the strength of the economy. They view weak first quarter growth as transitory and believe inflation will resume rising toward the central bank’s 2% target. The interest-rate decision is straightforward. Monetary policy works with a lag, so the Fed must think ahead.
The big question is whether the central bank will start to shrink its $4.5 trillion balance sheet in September or December, assuming the economy stays on course. The balance-sheet decision is slightly more complicated. It has three parts: The Fed must choose when to start shrinking its holdings, how quickly to shrink them once it has started, and how small the balance sheet should be when the holdings are back to normal.
When to start shrinking the balance sheet is partially dependent on the path of interest rate hikes. Once interest rates are at more normal levels, the Fed will likely begin to let its bond holdings mature and fall off the balance sheet based on a set timetable. This coming policy shift isn’t yet imminent, because interest rates need to rise a bit more first. But it’s fast approaching, and this week isn’t too soon for the Fed to start being clearer about its intentions.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered an aggressive defense of his conduct surrounding the Russia investigation, telling an open Senate hearing any allegations he had colluded with Moscow to undermine the election were an “appalling and detestable lie”. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March, citing his role as a key foreign-policy adviser in the Trump campaign.
His abstention came one day after The Washington Post reported Sessions, during his Senate confirmation process, had failed to disclose two meetings during the presidential campaign with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Meanwhile Bloomberg is reporting Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported.
In all, the Russian hackers hit systems in a total of 39 states. The new details, seem to confirm a classified National Security Agency document recently disclosed by the Intercept.
In November, Steven Mnuchin pledged the wealthy would not see “an absolute” tax cut under the administration’s developing tax plan. That is, whatever reduction in tax rates would be offset by fewer deductions, so the net result would be the same for the wealthy. During Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing to become Treasury Secretary, Mnuchin repeated his pledge, earning the nickname “The Mnuchin Rule”.
Today, during a Senate Budget Committee hearing Mnuchin walked back the rule, indicating tax reform might result in a windfall for the wealthy.
Verizon (NYSE:VZ) has completed its purchase of Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) internet business for $4.48 billion. The acquisition, which was first announced last July, aims to combine Yahoo’s operating business with AOL, which it purchased in 2015. The merger will form Oath, a division of Verizon that is expected to house more than 50 media and technology brands.
Verizon plans to layoff more than 2,000 people, or the equivalent of 15 percent of Oath’s new workforce. Tim Armstrong, AOL’s former chief executive, will lead Oath as its CEO. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, is out.
Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick, will step away from the company for an unspecified period. But that won’t likely change the day-to-day lives of the more than 5,000 Uber employees as much as the changes the company is committing to make to their recruiting, retention, and workplace-culture policies, detailed in a report known as the Holder Report.