Wow, August 1st already!

Seems like just yesterday we were getting the summer 2016 kicked off, and already NFL Training Camps are open, buses are starting to roll in parts of the country, and we’re well into the second half of the trading year. In our neck of the woods, we actually saw a mechanic jump starting the school buses at the local high school this weekend in order to get them ready for the new school year in a couple of weeks — the audible groan from the kids in the back seat was palpable!

Last Friday marked the close to trading for the month of July and for the month the S&P 500 finished up 3.6 percent, which was better than the 2.8 percent move registered by the Dow Jones Industrial Average in July, but well below the 6.6 percent jump in the Nasdaq Composite Index.

Of course, we’re drowning in earnings reports, so let’s start things off with a swift kick to try and get our heads above water.

In this week’s Monday Morning Kickoff:

• BREXIT VOTE FALLOUT:  We suspect we are only beginning to uncover the signs of the true fallout to be had from the Brexit vote. As a result, the preliminary flash estimate GDP growth in the Eurozone wasn’t anything to get too excited about. Nor was the Italian Banking stress test results that were released at 4pm last Friday (the time to put things out that you hope don’t get noticed). We noticed and we break it all down.  Read More >>
• THE THEMATIC INDEX JULY NUMBERS ARE IN: We are generally not fans of braggarts, but we will let the performance of our investing themes in our recently release Thematic Index speak for itself —15 of our 17 proprietary investment themes in the index outperformed the major indices. Read More >>
• ANY UPSIDE LEFT IN THE MARKET? As of Friday’s market close left the S&P 500 trading at 18.3 times expected 2016 earnings. Given June quarter results, we see signs investors are reassessing and re-calculating second half 2016 earnings expectations. Read More >>

All that plus a full list of earnings reports we’ll be watching through our thematic lens, in what is a pretty jammed-packed Monday Morning Kickoff. Click below to download the full report:

Monday Morning Kickoff 08-01-2016