The Market At Midday -- July 6, 2016

The US Fed given "cover": the Fed probably won't raise rates until Brexit impact clearer. It could take several years for the Great Britain / EU relationship to unwind.

**********************************

Even with a struggling market, we have 180 NYSE issues hitting new 52-week highs, including:

• AEP (a big whoop)
• Duke Energy
• MDU (a big whoop)
• NextEra Energy (so, what's with NextEra Energy -- day-after-day of new highs)
• SRE (wow, another big whoop)
• TransCanada (the Keystone folks)
• UnitedHealth Group (the folks who dumped ObamaCare)

New lows: 46 -- a bit more than the last few days.

********************

GDP Now -- 2Q16

Link here, July 6, 2016:

The GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the second quarter of 2016 is 2.4 percent on July 6, down from 2.6 percent on July 1. The forecast for second-quarter real consumer spending growth ticked down from 4.4 percent to 4.3 percent after yesterday's light vehicle sales release from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The forecast of the contribution of net exports to second-quarter real GDP growth declined from 0.25 percentage points to 0.15 percentage points after this morning's international trade report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

And didn't Janet Yellen suggest there's a 60% chance of rain a recession? Oh, I'm sorry, it was Deutsche Bank but there was a big picture of Ms Yellen at the story/link. The 60% chance for a recession is for the next 12 months.

*****************************

Cape Cod and Rising Sea Levels 

From The New York Times, byline Provincetown:

It is a simple pleasure in a classic summertime locale: Pull a car between the stripes on the parking lot here, a ribbon of asphalt parallel to the water atop a sloped wall in the sand, and look right out over the beach, where one can see Cape Cod Bay meeting the Atlantic Ocean.

Here amid the unearthly dunes, Herring Cove Beach — and especially its north parking lot — draws locals from just down the road and travelers from hundreds of miles away, who might arrive in camper vans studded with American flags. Some come for a quick swim, others to watch the sublime sunsets, famous in New England because the beach faces west, not east.

But there is a problem, evident in the chunks of asphalt lying on the sand and the deep fissures in the lot, parts of which are so damaged that they are off limits to parking: The beach is eroding, and parts of this beloved spot, built in front of the dunes, not behind them, are slowly crumbling into the ocean.

The result here at the Cape Cod National Seashore raises a practical dilemma in a setting meant to be a place to escape: how to react to rising seas and eroding coastlines as climate change looms for coastal communities across the nation. The decision here was to demolish the parking lot and construct a new one 125 feet behind it, allowing for a restored shoreline in front of it.

If I had "all the money in the world" or better said, if "money was not an issue," I would have a home in Provincetown.