S&P 500

With no North Korean nuclear test over the weeknd contrary to a Friday morning rumor, S&P futures rebounded and edged higher as European stocks gain, led by Spanish shares after mass demonstrations in favor of Spanish unity and speculation Catalonia may back down on unilateral independence demands, while Chinese mainland stocks reopened catching up to gains missed during the holiday week following last weekend's RRR cut.

It's that time in the quarter again: 3Q earnings season begins this week with Wall Street consensus expecting S&P 500 EPS growth of just 5% (3% ex-Energy), a sharp drop from the last two quarters (Q1 was+14% and Q2 +11%).

Via LPLResearch.com,

There have only been eight moves of at least 1% for the S&P 500 Index so far this year - the least since 13 in 1995. The all-time record was an incredible three in 1963.

What about a big move? The last time the S&P 500 moved at least 4% was nearly six years ago.

The market...

Trannies ended the week lower (first down-week in 7 weeks), Dow outperformed on the week (4th week up in a row)... The S&P record-high streak is over...

It should come as a surprise to precisely no one reading this post that wall street equity analysts have a 'slight' bias toward "Buy" ratings.  After all, equity analysts aren't really in the business of helping clients make buy/sell decisions, their only real value comes from acting as an intermediary to setup the coveted 1x1's at lavish conferences in Miami between the hedge funds who pay them and the management teams of the companies they cover.  And, of course, it's much harder to get those management teams to attend your conference if you spread too much truth about th