According to Financial Times, The Justice Department is demanding that Time Warner (TWX) sell CNN if a deal with AT&T is to be done, leading shares of TWX to tank even more.  AT&T’s Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said the deal is a “vertical integration” and there has not been a blocked “vertical” deal in 40 years.  Critics of the DOJ, state that this maybe a retaliation by the administration against CNN.   Stephens stated further, "We are in active discussions with the DOJ [Department of Justice]. Those are continuing on. I can't comment on those discussions, but with those discussions, I can now say that the timing of the closing of the deal is now uncertain." 

After being down this morning, the major indices have reversed and are relatively flat.  On the NYSE, decliners are leading advancers 1471/1391 and on the Nasdaq decliners outpace advancers 1590/1297.

Oil is down following the release of the EIA inventory report, which showed a build of 2.2 million barrels last week compared to expectations of a drawdown of 2.9 million barrels. Chinese crude oil imports also declined to a one-year low and fell to 7.3 million barrels per day down from its September near record high of 9 million barrels. 

US gas inventories; however, declined 3.3 million barrels to 209.5 million barrels, the lowest level since November 2014, compared to expectations of 1.9 million drop and distillates had a drawdown of 3.4 million barrels, greater than the 1.4 million barrel decline forecasted. 

On the housing front, mortgage applications were essentially flat from the prior week even as interest rates fell. According the Joel Kan, MBA Associate Vice President of Research and Economics, "Treasury yields weakened last week following the release of more details around the administration's tax reform plan and the announcement of a new Fed chair. The 30-year fixed rate fell for only the second time since September. Overall mortgage application activity was unchanged, as the rate movement did little to spur refinances, which fell slightly, and we saw a small increase in home purchase applications," he added.

Highlights:

• Market Composite Index Unchanged
• Refinance Index -1%
• Purchase Index +1 and +9% from the prior year
• FHA share of total applications +10.6 from +10.4
• Average 30-year fixed rate mortgage for loans of $424,100 or less declined to 4.18% from 4.22%
• Average contract

Financials are also weak again today.  The sector is down 1.9% so far, this week.  And the latest scoring from the CBO of the amended House tax reform bill shows it would increase the deficit by $1.7 trillion dollar over a decade.

Let’s not force the issue this afternoon.