Business

Carl Icahn appears to be a big fan of Brent Saunders. After Icahn was instrumental in placing his favorite CEO at the top of Forest Labs before it was acquired by Actavis several years ago - a deal which made then Forest Labs investor Carl Icahn hundreds of millions in profit - the billionaire investor is now doubling down on Saunders, and moments ago the billionaire investor announced that he has acquired a "large position" in Allergan, and confirms he is "very supportive of CEO Brent Saunders."

Following February's disappointing slowdown in home price appreciation, March's S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City home price index stabilized, rising 5.43% YoY (beating 5.16% expectations by the most in 2 years). However, the national home price index slowed further from 5.32% YoY in Feb to 5.15% YoY in March with Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver seeing the greatest monthly increases.

Biggest beat in 2 years...

Submitted by Marc Faber via GloomBoomDoom.com,

WHEN A POLITICAL SYSTEM AUTHORIZES PLUNDER AND WHEN A MORAL CODE ENCOURAGES IT, MORAL DEGENERATION FOLLOWS SWIFTLY AFTER.

Montesquieu opined already in the 18th century that, “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.”

Traders gunned the market higher last week thanks to extremely low volume (most of Wall Street left early for the holiday weekend) and the usual performance (many funds have to record results at month end).

The S&P 500 has now slammed up against overhead resistance (red line). We are once again within spitting distance of the all-time highs.

Against this backdrop, earnings are in a free-fall. EPS are back at 2012 levels, while the S&P 500 is 70% higher than then:

Having disappointed in March (just +0.1% MoM), expectations for April's personal spending were sky high at +0.7% MoM, despite expectations of a 0.4% rise in incomes. Analysts were not disappointed as the headline spending print was a 7-year high +1.0% MoM spike driven by a 3.8% MoM surge in Energy spending. With income rising as expected at 0.4% MoM, and thanks to revisions, the savings rate tumbled to its lowest since 2015.

Sustainable? The 2nd biggest spike in spending since 2005...