THE OPEN

Same story today…financials strong, beta/growth bouncing after ugly Monday drop, semis strong but need pullback, transports strong.

Oils got overbought…normal pullback.

Will have a biog report over the weekend coming to you from beautiful Northern Ireland.

BERNIE SANDERS AND WALMART

Socialist Bernie Sanders who has never created a dime of wealth nor has he ever created a job, said this in a tweet recently:

“Meanwhile, the Walton family of Walmart has a net worth of $144 billion. This is what a rigged economy looks like.”

No Bernie, a rigged economy is when you and your buddies in Washington have spent $20 trillion more than you have taken in. A rigged economy is when a central bank has to keep rates at 0% for 8 years and print almost $5 trillion to keep things afloat and asset prices higher. A rigged economy is when an administration, on purpose, lied to the American public (see Gruber) about a healthcare bill that encompasses a large part of the economy. But you say the economy is rigged because of Walmart and the riches that the founder’s family has built up.

Walmart:

Has 2.2 million employees, 1.4 million in the U.S…the world’s largest employer, by far.

Has 11,695 stores, 6,306 in the U.S.

Has $$485.9 billion sales in fiscal 2017.

Has stores in 28 countries.

Has 260 million weekly customers.

Has 900 million square feet of retail space taking up 34 square miles or 1.5x the size of Manhattan.

If it was a country, would have the 28th largest economy in the world.

$1 out of every $4 Americans spend on groceries is spent at Walmart.

Average family of 4 spends $4,000 each year there.

90% of Americans live within 15 minutes of a Walmart.

Approximately 75% of Walmart management began as hourly associates.

Approximately 57% of employees are women.

Average # of associates that have been there for over 10 years: 300,000.

Walmart’s lower pricing has forced down prices everywhere for almost everything. The number of dollars the consumer has saved because of this throughout the years is said to be incalculable.

Hey Bernie, the Waltons earned their gargantuan wealth by creating a gargantuan company from square one, from one store, from one idea, from one man. They are the greatest job creating machine in history. They have changed millions of lives for the better. People that started as cashiers are now making big coin and own tons of stock because of this company. Suppliers have sold more of their goods beyond their wildest dreams because of Walmart…creating another avenue of massive wealth. Walmart has single-handedly cut the inflation rate because of their low pricing. Walmart has created millions of jobs and trillions of wealth yet you continue to piss all over great success stories like Walmart. Then again, you are a socialist that has never created anything but whines about everything as you continue to live off the taxpayer. You are a socialist that has no clue about hard work, sweat, toil, long hours, risk capital, failure, comebacks and everything that drives the human spirit. You are a socialist that believes you are smarter than the people that actually create a great economy. Walmart is the real economy. You and your buddies are the rigged economy.

PRE MARKET

Greetings. Heading to Ireland tonight…which means we will have a lot to write about as we love writing when we travel.

We will be writing about the NFL, tax reform, Bernie Sanders and whatever else comes to mind. The con artist Sanders actually said the Waltons (of WalMart fame) have too much money. This coming from someone who has lived ff the taxpayer his whole life, never created a dime of wealth or a job. Love these people.

Futures down. We suspect yesterday was a bit of end of quarter window dressing, which does not happen because it is illegal…and the tax reform. Futures are down today.

SEMIS had a HUGE day yesterday. MU moved to new highs off of strong earnings with others up in sympathy. Lots of set-ups in semisconductor-land.

OILS continue to be strong off of oil prices continuing to rise. That continues this morning but is overbought.

Yields on the long end continue up giving a good bid in the FINANCIALS. Right now, there is a 100% direct correlation between financials moving up or down and yields moving up or down. Yields bottomed Sept. 8. Financials bottomed SEPT. 8.

Lastly, we will write about the tax reform this weekend but loving how the socialist party is whining that tax cuts will add to the deficit and cost too much. Funny, never heard these hypocritical dolts yelling at Obama for his $8-9 trillion of debt and his profligate spending during his administration!

 

TAX REFORM

Corporate tax rate to be lowered to 20% from 35%. 
WE SEE NO DOWNSIDE ON LOWERING THE CORPORATE TAX RATE!
Pass through corporations taxed at 25% (instead of top tax rate small businesses pay!)
WE’LL TAKE IT. TONS OF THESE CORPORATIONS. BUT IS THERE REALLY A BIG BENEFIT?
Tax brackets from 7 to 3. Top tax rate lowered to 35% from 39%. The other brackets will be 12% and 25%. This means the bottom tax bracket goes from 10% to 12% but the standard deduction is doubled to $24,000 for married and $12,000 for single filers.
WILL NEED TO SEE THE FINE PRINT ON WHAT THE HIGHER BRACKETS HAVE TO GIVE BACK AND WHAT THE LOWER BRACKET GETS.
Elimination of the state and local tax deduction. States like NY and Cal will not be happy about this.
SOMEONE IS GOING TO BE PISSED OFF!
Increase the child tax credit.
OK
Repeal the alternative minimum tax.
LONG TIME COMING!
Eliminate most itemized deductions but retains home mortgage and charitable deductions.
LET’S SEE WHAT “MOST” MEANS!
Repeal the death tax.
YEAH…NEVER UNDERSTOOD “RE-TAXING” EARNINGS THAT WERE ALREADY TAXED!
Deduction of net interest expense incurred by C Corporations will be partially limited.
WOULD LIKE TO SEE WHAT THEY MEAN BY “PARTIALLY!”
End the incentive to keep foreign profits offshore by exempting them when repatriated back to the U.S.
YEAH! THE RIGHT TYPE OF INCENTIVE!
Allow businesses to write off the cost of new investments. 
GOOD ON THIS!
WE SUSPECT THE LEFT IS GOING TO HAVE FITS AS THEY HATE “THE PRIVILEGED FEW” KEEPING MORE OF THEIR MONEY. WE ALSO SUSPECT THE MEDIA’S VEINS WILL BE POPPING OUT OF THEIR HEADS AS YOU WILL HEAR THE WORDS “TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH” 1400X EACH DAY.

PRE MARKET- THE BOND MARKET

Futures up nicely after market was all over the map yesterday, opening strong but finishing flat…but:

The bond market is decently lower today as rates on the long end back up. This means we will get a little gap to the upside in financials. A few big financial names set up well with the best looking name continuing to be Citi (C). This will only help the market.

After a gross Monday for growth/beta, things seem to have stabilized for the second…for the second. We say that because we know what period we are in…the end of quarter window dressing period where the boys paint the tape in order to make things better. Of course, painting the tape is illegal so it does not happen. On top of that, Yellen was quite the market friendly yesterday. Blah blah we will take our time raising rates…blah blah roll back printing money but slowly…blah blah. Bottom line, we remain in the easiest monetary policy in history period as Europe and Japan still negative and still printing not to mention others. On top of all this, other fedheads along with Yellen have freely stated if things headed south, they can ramp up the printing presses in a nanosecond.

Notes:

The SOX remains above the 50 day but trading more wide and loose. MU is gapping up 5% on strong numbers.

The Russell is at new highs as stronger oils have helped a lot.

The Transports at highs. Lagging to leading in weeks.

Would continue to screen oils/energy on a daily basis. Did not have to do that for about 8 months.

Most major indices above support/50- day avgs except the NDX as a few big names now an anchor. Of course, that can change.

Republicons could not get healthcare done. Not sure you can blame whole party as they missed on one vote. As much as I love McCain as a man, seems like he voted no out of spite. Go look at his rhetoric for past many years. He was all for a bill like this.

Tax proposal coming out today. I repeat…seems like a fly on an elephant’s ass and nothing…I repeat nothing about the size of government, the amount of government spending or the massive debt and deficits foisted upon the American public by politicians through the years, many still in office.

Heading to Ireland/Scotland tomorrow for some business and of course, lots of golf and touring. When the brains clear up, will have my thoughts on the NFL/Trump nonsense and the continued bs spewed by the national media who are trying to pin what is happening in Puerto Rico as Trump’s Katrina. As much as I am displeased with a lot of things with the President, enough is enough.  The best of of best job has been done by all considering 3 huge hurricanes as well as Puerto Rico being an island.

 

 

PRE MARKET

Yesterday, we stated that a bunch of glamour growth names were either breaking support or pulling back heard. BUT…we were not saying any additional selling in other areas. Of course, that could change but as of the close, nothing doing. A few thoughts:

OILS now extended and overbought from this recent move. Suspect pullbacks are better for probing.

GOLD held the 50 day yesterday. It will need to continue to hold.

TRANSPORTS didnt budge. SMALL CAPS didnt budge.

Seeing good patterns in some hotels, housing, transport-types.

NDX futures up nicely this morning as worst names from yesterday bounce. Will know more by the bounce.