 The Market Sum | Insight after the bell
By Caleb Silver, Editor in Chief Monday's Headlines 1. U.S. markets little changed as oil futures hit a 6-month high Markets Closed
 Markets Meander as Busiest Earnings Week Takes Off Happy Earth Day, Earthlings!
U.S. markets did very little today as investors brace for a wave of earnings results over the next several days. By the end of the week, more than 45% of the S&P 500 will have reported their earnings and we will have a good idea for the trend of corporate performance. So far, per Credit Suisse, 20.7% of the S&P 500's market cap has reported results. Earnings are beating estimates by 6.0%, with 77% of companies exceeding their bottom-line estimates. This compares to 5.4% and 71% over the past 3 years. It's good, but not great.
U.S. Tightens Ban on Iranian oil In an effort to drive Iranian oil exports to zero, the Trump Administration today announced an end to waivers it had granted eight countries to continue buying Iranian crude oil. Back in November, U.S. granted waivers to those countries to continue buying Iranian oil without incurring punitive sanctions, giving them time to find an additional supplier. The deadline for renewing the waivers would've been May 2nd, but the Trump Administration decided to act preemptively in order to put pressure on Iran to comply with its demands. Chief among those demands, a cessation of uranium enrichment to make nuclear weapons, the discontinuation of support for militant groups like Hamas, and an end to threats against Israel.
That was enough to drive Brent crude oil prices to a six-month high of $74.52 per barrel, the highest level since November 1, 2018. Brent crude is the international benchmark for oil prices since it is the most widely used and traded.
Who are Iran's Biggest Customers? As for those 8 countries still buying Iranian oil, today's move came as a surprise given that they thought they had an additional 10 days to prepare. There were also indications, according to the WSJ, that those exemptions would be extended again after May 2nd. Those 8 buyers include China, India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, Greece and Taiwan. As of 2018, China and India were Iran's biggest customers, by far. With the threat of U.S. sanctions hanging in the air for failing to comply with the Trump Administration's surprise decision, trade negotiations between the U.S. and China just got even more complicated.
Chart via Reuters  Who Stands to Benefit? Saudi Arabia, of course. The Kingdom has been curtailing oil production to help boost prices, but its economy has been suffering given lower oil prices over the last several years. Saudi Arabia has some of the richest oil fields in the world and an infrastructure to pump millions of barrels back into supply. President Trump took to Twitter to remind his followers that Saudi Arabia would be happy to pick up the slack. 
video via CNN Tesla Pushes an Autonomous Future Tesla hosted an "Autonomy Day", at its Palo Alto headquarters today, where Elon Musk and other executives provided details about the company's self-driving technology called 'Autopilot'. Autopilot is based on very advanced software that can process 2100 frames per second of incoming imagery from 8 cameras stationed on and around a vehicle that run continually. Musk says Teslas already have the chip in place to run the software, which is based in Artificial Intelligence (AI). He has indicated in previous interviews that Teslas should be able to navigate busy highways and crowded city streets without a human operator as early as next year.
More on Tesla's Autopilot program.
Today's event comes just as video of a Tesla allegedly exploding in a garage in Shanghai over the weekend has gone viral. Tesla has been beset by production, delivery and safety problems for its popular vehicles since the company started producing them en masse. The automaker will report first quarter results this Wednesday after the close.  Oil stocks are loving these higher prices!  It was a rough day for retail.  Word of the Day In honor of Earth Day, of course. Sustainable investing directs investment capital to enterprises that seek to not only earn profits, but to generate specific beneficial social, environmental or civic impacts.
Sustainable investing is not new, but it has become a powerful trend, especially among younger investors who are trying to align their money with their conscience. It's not that older investors don't want to do that...it's just that the industry has evolved over the last decade in order to allow investors more investing options, screens to select companies, mutual funds or ETFs to invest in, and better ways to measure the impact.
Within Sustainable Investing, there are subsets that investors can research and invest in. Those include:  Today in History On April 22, 1864, the U.S. Congress orders all U.S. coins to bear the motto "In God We Trust." This was not the first time this came up in U.S. history. As far back as 1861, Christian leaders were imploring the U.S. Congress to put that phrase on all coins. In a letter dates Nov 20, 1861, Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase ordered the head of the U.S. Mint to put that phrase on the one, two and three cent coins. (Who knew we had two and three cent coins?) By 1865, the phrase was on various other coins, including the gold-double eagle coin. On February 12, 1873, Congress passed the Coinage Act, allowing the Treasury to put In God We Trust on all coins.
Read more: History of The Coinage Act Read More: https://www.treasury.gov/about/education/pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx
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Monday, April 22, 2019
Happy Earth Day
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