| Wednesday's Headlines 1. US markets end mixed on choppy day 2. China and India clash in Galwan Valley 3. Surprising leaders in the Nasdaq 100 4. What CFOs are worried about 5. Credit card defaults on the rise Markets Closed
 Image courtesy bytepark/Getty
Markets Today U.S. markets struggled with gains and losses today like a soap opera star on a diet. An early broad-based rally gave way to losses for the DJIA and S&P 500, while the Nasdaq managed gains, as has been the pattern when the broader market is weak. There were no major news catalysts to propel markets either way, and after three furious days of gains, investors may be fatigued.
We are in a bit of an in-between news cycle with two weeks to go before the end of the rockiest second quarter in history. Companies usually enter "quiet periods" around now as they close the quarter and prepare their earnings reports for investors. We are two weeks out from the June employment report, which will let us know if May's hiring trend has legs. We'll get an early indication of that tomorrow AM with weekly U.S. unemployment claims, which have been trending lower.
There is plenty of geopolitical uncertainty adding even more instability to the mix, including China's recent skirmishes with India in the Himalayas and North Korea's recent provocation of South Korea. Those would be major headlines in a normal year.
This is not one of those.
(Map of Galwan Valley, where Chinese and Indian forces are skirmishing, courtesy of BBC.co)  [NEW READER SURVEY: As promised, we are running another two-week survey of our U.S.-based readers to gauge your sentiment and see what moves, if any, you have been making with your money given the market recovery. We'll share the results, as always, and we thank you for your time and participation.]
Headlines:
 It's a Market of Stocks Technical analysts like to remind us that it's a market of stocks, and not just a stock market. 2020 has proven that thesis true, as the leading stocks in the major indexes have been driving most of the gains, especially in the market-cap-weighted indexes like the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
Even in the DJIA, which is a price-weighted index, Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) were the only two stocks that made gains over the past three days coming into today. That helped lift the whole index, given their size.
In the tech-heavy Nasdaq, the axiom is even more acute. The Nasdaq 100 is up more than 15% in 2020, which seems miraculous. That is, until you look at the performance of some of the strongest stocks within it:
I'll bet these were not on many people's top stock picks for 2020.  chart courtesy BofAResearch
What's Worrying CFOs? Plenty, according to PWC's latest survey of the top finance executives in U.S. public companies. PWC fielded this in March and again in June, and the change in tone for CFOs is notable.
According to the survey, a new wave of COVID-19 infections tops the list of threats to business recoveries—a concern for 59% of CFOs. The financial impacts of COVID-19, including on liquidity and capital resources, remain a top concern for 42% of CFOs—down from 75% in April. The shift to remote working made cybersecurity threats a top risk, with nearly one in five (19%) currently worried about it, which is more than three times higher than in the April survey.
In terms of how this all translates to their businesses, cost containment is still job number one, with most still planning to rein in spending. A notable percentage, however, are moving ahead with planned investments, which is one positive note in this survey.  Warning Signs From the Consumer CFOs might want to start paying attention to this data point, as well. Those CFOs in consumer-facing businesses likely are, and it's not good. Consumer credit accounts going into default for the first time hit an eight-year high last month.
While we have seen the personal savings rate rise as many people got a direct $1,200 direct deposit from the U.S. Treasury via the CARES Act, the rise in bankruptcies, foreclosures, and now credit card delinquencies belies the strength we may have seen in those blow-out May retail spending numbers.
Spending was strong, but if defaults are on the other side of that, this recovery will get even rockier, fast. 
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(chart courtesy YCHARTS)  Shares of Activision Blizzard are up nearly 3.5% as the video game company approaches its highest close since Oct. 17, 2018. Lowe's stock price rose 3% today. Investment banking company Stifel stuck to its Buy rating for the home improvement retailer and raised its price target from $149 per share to $156.  Shares of H&R Block are up 8.5% amid the tax preparation company's Q4 results showing a year-over-year EPS and revenue decline by 30.3% and 22.3%, respectively. Cruise line stocks, such as Norwegian (8.5%), Royal Caribbean (nearly 7.5%), and Carnival (nearly 7%), fell after Norwegian announced that voyages won't resume until October at the earliest. Word of the Day Prior to a company's initial public offering (IPO), the quiet period is an SEC-mandated embargo on promotional publicity. This prohibits management teams or their marketing agents from making forecasts or expressing any opinions about the value of their company.
For publicly-traded stocks, the four weeks before the close of a business quarter is also known as a quiet period. Here again, corporate insiders are forbidden to speak to the public about their business to avoid tipping certain analysts, journalists, investors, and portfolio managers to an unfair advantage—often to avoid the appearance of insider information, whether real or perceived.  Image courtesy C-Span.org
Today in History June 17, 1999: Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan asks whether the U.S. stock market is a bubble about to burst. "[H]uman nature has exhibited a tendency to excess through the generations with the inevitable economic hangover," drones Greenspan. "There is nothing in our economic data series to suggest that this propensity has changed." While new technology has enhanced productivity, it's "another question altogether" if investors have "appropriately priced assets which are involved in this new set of technology." After Greenspan's remarks, speculators give their answer: They drive NASDAQ another 1% higher, to a new record high of 2544.15.
The Wall Street Journal, June 18, 1999.
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Wednesday, June 17, 2020
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