Morning Memo: Friday, July 19, 2013

• ICYMI (in case you missed it), see our posts from yesterday: 
  

  Keep your eye on bank funding risks...and on banks.....

  Celebrating historic market highs with defensive positions and value hunting.....

"Morning Memo" begins below this "NOTE for  NEWCOMERS" to "Morning Memo"...... Each morning, we post a short bullet-point list of noteworthy events, data, etc that find their way into the assessment of global markets.  It's far from complete and is not meant to be an exhaustive reconciliation of all things that could possibly impact stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities!  Rather, it's best viewed as a cryptic memo of "highlights", noteworthy items that took place in Asia, European and US hours.....and color-coded 'Red' for seemingly negative impact on equity markets, 'Green' for positive.
This will also serve as a useful review mechanism, as scrolling through the series of "Morning Memo" posts over time ought to summarily highlight what generally drove price action.  
We hope you find this useful and informative....and as always, that you'll share feedback!! 

• Asia generally lower after late news in US re earnings.  Two big misses..Google and Microsoft.
• Nikkei closed lower by 1.5% after very volatile session ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections (Upper House) where Abenomics (LDP Party) is expected to be further endorsed.  (LDP already has majority in Lower House.  A majority outcome in the Upper House election is expected.)
• China imposes tariffs on solar panel inputs coming from the US, exacerbating an already tense trade relationship.
• Europe mostly lower on the open.
• Oil (WTI) hit new highs.
• US...reminder...late yesterday, Moody's affirmed AAA rating and raised outlook to 'stable'.  
• US...another reminder....later yesterday....Detroit filed for bankruptcy.
• more later...
• Spain..protests against PM Rajoy over allegations of corruption in a slush fund scandal turned violent.  Pressure on Rajoy to resign intensifies.
• China...announced changes to bank lending rules...the minimum rate on loans was eliminated (allowing lenders to lend to more credit worthy borrowers at lower rates).  Maximum rates and deposit rate curbs were not changed.  Part of financial market reform.
• Fund Flows...equity fund inflows this past week ($19.7b) was the most in six months and the highest since the '08 financial crisis!  Bond fund outflows were $700m)  
•  

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(Please note: This article is solely meant to be thought provoking and is not in any way meant to be personal investment advice. Each investor is obligated to opine and decide for themselves as to the appropriateness of anything said in this article to their unique financial profile, risk tolerances and portfolio goals).
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