There are a couple of things to look at today as we try to understand the message of the market. 

American Businesses

Business learn to adapt and weather difficult times, which is what Proctor and Gamble (PG) has done.  The company posted a strong earnings beat driven by the ultimate combination of higher volume and sales.  The biggest negative was currency (see table), but overall, the news underscores the strength and confidence of the American consumer.

Is the Fed Blowing it?

The worse news of the day is existing home sales, which came in below consensus.  The news lends credence to the notion that maybe President Trump is right about the Federal Reserve needing to put the brakes on and move away from their rigid determination to hike rates.

Existing Home Sales

• Missed consensus estimates
• Down six straight months
• Sales -3.4% month over month
• Sales -4.1% year over year
• Lowest since November 2015

The news in housing (ITB) is hurting a wide swath of names in the food chain, especially homebuilders, which are hitting new 52-week lows today:

• DHI
• LEN
• PHM
• KBH

The board market rally also lost some altitude when a report came out that Xiamen Airlines was considering ordering from Airbus rather than Boeing.   According to Bloomberg, this could impact an $18 billion deal.

This is interest considering on their home page Xiamen mentions:

Established in 1984 and with its headquarters located in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian in Southeast China, Xiamen Airlines is China’s first airline company operating under the modern enterprise system. Through 34 years of steady development, Xiamen Airlines is “an epitome of China's civil aviation development” as praised by President Xi Jinping and has become the most distinctive airline company in China's civil aviation industry.

Summary

Market jitters are here for now, and they play an important and necessary role in any bull market.

Have a good weekend.