Stocks closed higher yesterday with all of the major indexes in the green. The small-cap Russell 2000 was the biggest gainer adding 0.99%.

Big-bank earnings yesterday morning, once again, showed better-than-expected EPS results. Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs all posted positive EPS surprises. Although, Bank of America posted a half-percent negative sales surprise. Nonetheless, they all showed positive quarterly earnings and sales growth vs. this time last year with Bank of America up 7.23% on earnings growth and 4.26% on sales growth. Goldman Sachs was up 26.6% on earnings and 14.6% on sales. And Morgan Stanley was up 17.0% on earnings and 11.8% on sales.

Today we'll hear from another 68 companies on deck to report, including Taiwan Semiconductor, GE Aerospace and Abbott Labs before the open, and Netflix and Interactive Brokers after the close.

Yesterday's Producer Price Index (PPI ? wholesale inflation) came in better-than-expected with the headline number flat (0.0%) for the month vs. last month's 0.3% pace and views for 0.2%. The y/y rate eased to 2.3% vs. last month's 2.6% and estimates for 2.5%. The core rate (ex-food & energy) was also flat (0.0%) for the month, while the y/y rate softened to 2.6%, in line with the consensus and down from last month's 3.0%.

Stocks briefly dipped on a report that President Trump was ready to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But the President came out and said that report was not true. He voiced his displeasure with Mr. Powell not lowering interest rates yet, but said he was not going to fire him, or at least said it was "highly unlikely" he would. Stocks quickly recovered on that news.

In other news, MBA Mortgage Applications were down -10.0% w/w with purchases off -11.8% and refi's down -7.4%.

Industrial Production was up 0.3% m/m, beating the consensus for 0.1%. Manufacturing Output was up 0.1%, inline with views. And the Capacity Utilization rate was at 77.6%, up from last month's upwardly revised 77.5% (from 77.4%), and views for 77.4%.

Today we'll get Weekly Jobless Claims, Retail Sales, the Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index, Import and Export Prices, Business Inventories, and the Housing Market Index.

Should be a busy day of both economic reports and earnings reports.

The day could become even busier (in a good way) if we get any more announced trade deals. The August 1 deadline is fast approaching. Those without deals have been notified what their new tariff rate will be. Hopefully, deals can be struck with our largest trading partners before then.

In the meantime, the big 3 indexes are hovering near their all-time highs.

As more positive news comes in, that should help lift stocks even higher.

See you tomorrow,