Market Alert - Pre-Market

Futures vs FV: SP +2.37; DJ _6.09; NASDAQ +6.83

A tale of two views. Trump tweets about Mexico taking advantage of US in trade, not helping with the border. CNBC is somber over the ramifications of Trump doing what he said he would do. Fox Business views it as a good thing. What is it really? Trump negotiating as Trump negotiates deals. That is how he does it. It isn't 'elegant' or the 'way it is done,' but that is what the people electing him elected him for. Not saying it is right or wrong, but that is what is happening. It darn sure makes getting up in the morning much more interesting.

GDP Q4 advance: 1.9% vs 2.2% exp vs 3.5% prior. Total for 2016 is at paltry 1.6%, the worst since 2011.

Consumption: 2.5% vs 3.0% prior


Durable Goods, December: -0.4% vs -4.8% November
Ex-transports: +0.5%
Private investment: -1.5%
Business investment: +0.8%

A miss of course but I suppose not as bad as in November. While optimism is high, reality of course is not there yet because you have to convert optimism into action and businesses need to see the policies.

Earnings
BEATS: INTC, MSFT, JNPR, VMW

MISSES: HON (TL); GD (TL); CG (TL); SBUX (TL); GOOG (TL).

See a pattern here? Sales are falling back into the 'miss' category.


OTHER MARKETS
Bonds: 2.503% versus 2.512% 10 year

EUR/USD: 1.0698 vs 1.0684

USD/JPY: 53.05, -0.73, dropping toward the open.

Gold: 1186.50, -6.00


Futures are trading up and down in a narrow range, below FV, into the open. Thursday was a day off from the nice Wednesday break higher by the indices. The market looks as if it is not ready to reaffirm the Wednesday move, for now looking as if it wants to limp home for the weekend.

It does need to at least limp home holding the gains. Investors don't want to see the market cough up the Wednesday gains as that puts the entire breakout back to square one.

As with Thursday, we will see if the bids come back in off of some of the gloom some of the financial stations are running with this morning.

Jon Johnson, Chief Market Strategist
InvestmentHouse.com
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