Trade Wall of Worry

(1) Channeling the chart of the S&P 500. (2) Market top or the pause that refreshes? (3) Climbing a trade wall of worry. (4) MEGA = Making Earnings Great Again. (5) Leading the Q2 earnings pack are Energy, Materials, IT, and Financials. (6) Analysts remarkably bullish on 2018 and 2019 S&P 500 revenues. (7) Fed officials see downside risks (flattening yield curve, escalating protectionism, European discord, and EM turmoil) and upside ones (fiscal stimulus and overheating economy). (8) Fed study questions usefulness of yield curve as recession warning signal. (9) No recession signal in “near-term forward spread.”