*By Michael Teich*
U.S. stocks are just days away from recording their longest bull run in history, with Monday's gains putting the S&P 325 percent above its lows during the financial crisis.
And while M&A provided the latest market boost, JPMorgan ETF's global market strategist Samantha Azzarello said long-term stock appreciation will be buoyed by strong corporate earnings for the rest of the year.
"Really what's been supporting the market this year is earnings growth to the tune of 22 percent. This has really been an earnings story for 2018," Azzarello said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
Azzarello added the earnings growth will continue to be fueled by last year's tax cuts.
Stocks got a boost early Monday on the [news](https://cheddar.com/videos/pepsico-to-buy-sodastream-in-3-2-billion-deal) that Pepsi is acquiring SodaStream for $3.2 billion and Tyson Foods is snapping up Keystone Foods for $2.16 billion.
And unless there's a major turn around in the coming days, the current bull market will turn 3,453 days old on Wednesday, [surpassing](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/14/this-could-be-the-longest-bull-market-in-stocks-ever-and-it-still-has-.html) its old record ー October 1990 thru March 2000 ー by one day. Still its gains over that period do still lag the 417 percent returns notched during the dotcom boom.
Still, while recent geopolitical tensions with Turkey have weighed on stocks this month, Azzarello said investors may be overreacting to the headlines.
"They'll calm down," she said. "The main thing has been on European banks. But you look at that, and European bank exposure to Turkey is less than 4 percent ー that's the highest for Spain, and it's less for 2 percent for the rest. The main part of the market that should be impacted really isn't that much."
But the real focus for the markets should lie elsewhere, said Azzarello.
"We've been looking at Chinese tech. That's larger than Turkey's impact on all of this. The market's a bit misguided."
Shares of high-fliers like Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent are all down 15 percent or more since their highs of the year.
For full interview [click here] ( https://cheddar.com/videos/the-market-is-misguided-says-jpmorgan-strategist).
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
