The markets are mixed at midday with the Nasdaq now in the red, and the Dow and S&P in positive territory. The markets were higher during earlier hours after Senate Cornyn said that a tax bill may be coming out today.  However, Senator Rand Paul said he wouldn’t vote for a bill that ups the national debt, and hot off the press, the Treasury Budget for November showed a deficit of $138.5 billion versus a deficit of $136.7 for November 2016. 

The Dow is the standout, helped from strong performances from Boeing (BA), which announced a 20% increase to its quarterly dividend along with an $18 billion share repurchase plan, Goldman Sachs (GS) and Verizon (VZ).  Decliners now lead advancers 1464/1414 and 1477/1349 on the Nasdaq.   Financials, Real Estate and Telecom Services are strong while Energy, Technology and Utilities lag.  And in case you are wondering about Bitcoin, well its up again trading around $17,500. 

On the economic front, the November Producer Price Index (PPI) final demand, was up 0.4%.  Core PPI, which is less food and energy, increased 0.3% beating the expectation of +0.2%.  Year over year, PPI is up 3.1%, the largest twelve month increase since January 2012.  Core PPI year over year is unchanged from October and is up 2.4%.  A 15.8% increase in gasoline prices was a key contributor to the increase in prices.  The numbers suggest that either corporate profits will get squeezed or there is inflation on the horizon and consumers are going to being paying more.

Let’s not force the issue this afternoon.