Notes From All Over -- Part 1, July 16, 2019

Later:

• Wells Fargo's top and bottom lines beat estimates. Link here. 
• earnings, $1.30 vs estimates of $1.15 
• Goldman Sachs, link here. 
• early winner of earnings season
• surpassed expectations on both top and bottom lines, but also hiked its quarterly dividend to $1.25 from 85 cents

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US equity markets: futures suggest the three indices will again set all-time intra-day records; if so, this will be the fifth time in about ten days this has happened for at least one of the three indices on any given day (if that makes sense)

Director's Cut, May, 2019, data to be released at 9:00 a.m.

Earnings: we've been inundated with stories that 2Q19 earnings will be awful. And then about 48 hours ago, we were told "to watch the banks." The banks, we were told, would report great earnings. Well, yesterday, Citi early in the earnings season, surprised analysts on the upside; now, today, the same thing with JP Morgan. Link here. Data points:

• surpassed analysts' expectations 
• earnings: $2.82/share vs $2.50/share forecast -- Finance!Yahoo could have inserted "whopping" in this story -- that's a huge beat
• helped by a nearly $800 million tax boost (the president, of course, not given any credit)
• revenue: almost $30 billion vs almost $29 billion forecast
• JP Morgan second bank to report earnings this week, and the second to beat estimates
• Jamie Dimon: guidance -- upbeat; sees more of the same going forward
• credit card sales saw double-digit growth, as did merchant processing volumes
• "healthy consumer spending" -- again, the president not given any credit -- it's the economy stupid
• mobile customers up 12% year-over-year
• the bank has opened over 2 million accounts digitally
• great news for investors: investment banking revenue fell 9% -- brokers, banks, etc., due to competition, charging less for their services 
• but apparently this was not good enough for investors: right now JPM is down almost 2%; LOL -- Trump: "welcome to my world" 

FWIW: US sees drop in CO2 emissions. But look at the reason -- "global warming" has become "global cooling. Link to the story here. Key paragraph in entire story:

The EIA is basing this optimism for lower CO2 emissions on the mild temperature forecasts for the remainder of the year, which it expects will keep energy demand below that of 2018. 

Atmospheric CO2, link here:

• For those keeping score at home, the "number" was 410.79
• the narrative is starting to change. Note this at the linked story:
• April: coldest April since 1880
• May: there have been three previous months of May that were hotter (since 1880)

Re-posting:

Let Me Go My Merry Way, Charlie Rich
Prince Andrew: I did not have sex with that girl.