…..Stocks higher. Earnings challenged. Charlottesville reax. Merck CEO makes a stand. GoDaddy finally takes a stand. Apple watches for Aetna. Vanguard’s climate change economics. Financial Review by Sinclair Noe for 08-14-2017   DOW + 135 = 21,993 SPX + 24 = 2465 NAS + 83 = 6340 RUT + 20 = 1394 10 Y + .03 = 2.22% OIL – 1.32 = 47.50 GOLD – 7.10 = 1282.60   Stock were broadly higher, with the S&P 500 Index gaining the most since April. Volatility was in retreat, as the CBOE Volatility Index fell below 12.5 after topping 16 last Thursday. After a week of market jitters, investors were calmed after South Korea’s president said resolving North Korea’s nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully and U.S. officials played down the risk of an imminent war.   With more than 90 percent of the S&P 500 members having reported second-quarter results, earnings growth is tracking at a 12.2 percent pace year-over-year, much better than the 8.4 percent expected at the start of the quarter. This marks the second straight quarter of double-digit growth – the fastest two quarters of growth since 2011. More than half of S&P companies topped forecasts, the highest percentage since the second quarter of 2010, although the average upside surprise was 4%, slightly below the long-term average of 5%. All sectors of the benchmark are on pace to beat projections, except energy, where less than 40 percent of companies topped earnings forecasts. Technology and health care continue to lead upside ...

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