Business

It was hard to find a bright spot for auto investors in July's auto sales figures released earlier today with GM down 15% YoY, Ford off 7% and Chrysler down 11%.

The companies blamed the drops on lower fleet sales but GM’s retail sales also fell 14.4% from July 2016.  Meanwhile, Ford and Fiat Chrysler retail sales had single-digit declines, and their fleet sales fell 26% and 35%, respectively.

Here's a recap of how each of the largest OEM's made out in July:

GM:

With Apple trading just shy of all time highs (and with a quarter trillion in cash on the books), the market was wondering if AAPL can once again surprise to the upside ahead of the all important iPhone 8 quarter, as well as provide some guidance what it plans to do with its cash hoard. And while, there was no explicit guidance on the now $260BN+ in gross cash, Apple has surged after hours on the strong top and bottom line beat, and just as strong guidance, despite a small iPhone sales miss in the current quarter.

Following the ugliest day in a month for WTI (on OPEC production increase survey), bulls hopes rest on tonight's API data confirming the recent trend of inventory draws but that was not to be. Against expectations of a 3.1mm draw, API reported crude inventories built by 1.78mm barrels last week. The kneejerk reaction was clear - down hard.

API

Authored by Lena Komileva, originally posted at The Financial Times,

The US Federal Reserve raised rates for the third time in six months in June, even though inflation had stayed below its 2 per cent target for much of the past decade. Why? The justification lies with the return to “economic normalisation” (a more normal US growth and credit cycle), a reflationary global environment and easy financial conditions all combining to banish the extreme “tail risks” of a deflationary slump that followed the financial crisis.

With oil crashing, 'hard' economic data slumping, political chaos ahead of the debt ceiling debacle, and The Fed about to embark on something no central bank has ever done (let alone done successfully), it should be no surprise that earnings expectations are being ramped exponentially higher and The Dow (thanks in large part to Boeing recently) has exploded near 22,000 today for the first time ever making yet another new record high...