WEDNESDAY 1/4/17; NIKK (Nikkei Index) Rallies +2.5%; PMI Services Indexes; UNF; Dow 20K Watch; FOMC Minutes; Mexican Peso Record Low; Bitcoin All-Time High; Record Auto Sales; NYA (NYSE Composite) Prints New All-Time Record Closing High; SONC

Euro 1.0415. Dollar/yen 117.63. Pound 1.2236. Canadian dollar 1.3421. The Mexican peso weakens to 21.1136 (a higher currency pair number reflects a weaker peso). President-elect Trump’s anti-trade and protectionist rhetoric yesterday creates the weakness in the peso. Dollar/yuan 6.964. Aussie dollar 0.7228. USD 103.20.

[Text is redacted. Purchase the 2017-01 chronology to enjoy January's economic and market history including Dow 20K and SPX 2.3K.]

Protestors demonstrate at the Goldman Sachs office lobby in New York City displaying a banner that says, “Government Sachs.” The protestors complain that Trump was supposed to drain the swamp but instead he is loading his cabinet with former Goldman Sachs investment bankers. Why is anyone surprised? In the crony capitalism system, the demopublicans and republocrats are simply two sides of the same coin.