Market Continues To Set New Records -- July 14, 2016

I was late getting to this because there was too much other stuff to check up on and blog, and then I went biking. But it was obvious that we would see another Dow record when earnings for JPMorgan were announced earlier this morning, before the market open. All things being equal the past two weeks, the market was "holding its breath" waiting to see how Brexit would affect the banks. Of course, Brexit hasn't even occurred yet -- just the vote -- so it would have had no effect on JPMorgan's 2Q16 earnings. But for the record, JPMorgan easily surpassed Wall Street estimates of $1.43/share when it reported $1.55/share in earnings. JPMorgan's consumer bank deposits climbed 10% from one year ago to a record high, while merchants' credit card processing volume rose 13%. Jamie Dimon earned his bonus this quarter.

With regard to the market at midday, the Dow is up another 144 points, setting yet another record. The S&P 500 is up almost 13 points.

NYSE 52-week highs: 222

• Becton Dickinson
• Cabela's
• Chevron (a big whoop) 
• XOM (a big whoop)
• General Electric
• Helmerich & Payne (who wudda thought?)
• TransCanada (the Keystone folks)

NYSE 52-week lows:  0

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Making Bubbles

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The Seven Deadly Sins of Wine-and-Food Pairing

From The Everyday Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking, Chef Bill Briwa, The Culinary Institute of America, c. 2012.

The seven types of food that are hard on wine and should be avoided when serving wine. But there are solutions.

First, the seven types of foods: chiles, vinegar, eggs, spinach, artichokes, asparagus, and soup.

Chiles: chiles are an irritant. If serving wine with chiles, choose a wine that has low alcohol, no astringency, no tannin, and maybe a little bit of sweetness. I wonder if the kabinet or spatlese wines of Germany would work?

Vinegar: vinegar is spoiled wine. If a dish is prepared with a small amount of vinegar and the vinegar does not define the dish, then wine should be fine. Does this not suggest, one should not drink wine with some salad dressings?

Eggs: an exception. Because eggs don't define a quiche, it should be okay to pair wine with quiche.

Spinach: for spinach to work with wine, it must be "redefined" such as adding it to stir-fry or sauteed with garlic and herbs.

Artichokes can make wine taste sweet because of an enzyme called cymarin. The solution: steam artichokes; take off the petals, and dip them in mayonnaise. Of course.

Asparagus: redefine asparagus by grilling it; sprinkle some parmesan cheese and some thyme on top.

Soup: in classical French cuisine, one does not pair a beverage (soup) with another beverage (wine). CIA suggests that this probably pertains to consomme. It should be fine to pair wine with rich, hearty soups, along with a piece of cheese and/or some crusty bread.