It took stocks only a few minute to "price in" the latest political shock out of Washington, and as of this morning Emini futures no longer care that Mueller has a grand jury, trading 0.08% in the green with European stocks and Asian shares all little changed as investors await the looming July jobs report, which is expected to show a slowdown in hiring from 222K to 180K but will have little impact on either the Fed's thinking or the market.
While hard data has been hovering at 2-year lows, soft data has been rebounding recently... until today - The ISM Services index saw its steepest m/m decline this month since the financial crisis.
Mueller headlines spooked stocks at the end of the day but the machines had one message for investors...
From Art Cashin of UBS:
We've noted over the last two weeks that the Dow Industrials have been diverging from most other indices and particularly the Dow Transports. An important part of the divergence has been the relative narrowness of the rally in the Dow. In today's WSJ, Justin Lahart took note of the narrowness:
Via Global Macro Monitor,
Stephen Gandel of Bloomberg out with a good piece this morning on:
…shares of companies that have reported both better-than-expected profits and sales for the second quarter have barely budged this earnings season.
It’s the least fist-bumping investors have done for great quarters in 17 years. – Bloomberg
Is this the beginning of a catch up trade?
E-mini futures are fractionally lower this morning (0.08%) after Apple's surge helped the DJIA climb above 22,000 for the first time on Wednesday; Global shares declined for the first time in 4 days pressured by tech stocks: Asian shares fell, while Europe pared opening losses to trade unchanged.