Employers Kicking In More

Some good new for employees: The average company contribution to 401(k)s rose to an estimated 4.7 percent of employee salaries in 2016, up from 3.9 percent in 2015, according to workplace retirement savings plans run by fund giant Vanguard Group. It was the highest percentage and biggest year-to-year jump since at least 2007.

Here’s why this is happening: Some companies in certain industries say they need to spend more to retain the best employees and motivate staff. In 2009, when unemployment was sky-high, the average company contribution was just 3.0 percent.

But many U.S. workers still aren’t saving enough on their own. The average percentage they set aside among Vanguard-run retirement accounts has dropped since 2007. largely because new 401(k) savers were enrolled at lower initial savings rates. The average total employee and company contributions to workplace savings plans among workers who participate hasn’t moved above 11 percent of salaries for at least a decade.

Making Bank

Here's an unlikely indicator: Deposits are growing at banks, credit unions and so-called thrifts, a term for savings and loans associations. At those financial institutions, deposits reached their highest levels since 2006 in the first quarter of 2017, according to a new report from Moebs Services, an economic research firm.

In the first quarter of 2017, deposits reached a level of 77.6 percent, when measured as a percentage of the institutions’ total assets. Deposits are up 10.2 percent at all banks since 2006, and up 17 percent at thrifts.

At the same time, those institutions are lending less money to customers. The ratio of loans to assets at those same three financial institutions fell to 54.9 percent in the first quarter of 2017, a decline of 9.7 percent since 2006. Bank loans have fallen 5 percent since 2006.

Neither Bulls Nor Bears

It's now been 132 weeks it has been since bullish sentiment in the weekly AAII sentiment survey has been above 50 percent, and this week it wasn’t even close. Bullish sentiment declined from its already depressed level of 29.58 percent down to 28.24 percent, its lowest point since the start of June.

But there was really no boost to bearish sentiment either. In this week’s survey, the percentage of bearish respondents declined from 29.86 percent down to 29.63 percent, the sixth straight week where bearish sentiment has been below 30 percent. That’s the longest streak since last August.

That means there are a lot of investors who just can’t make up their minds. The percentage of neutral investors came in at 42.13, the second highest weekly reading in neutral sentiment this year.

The Steady Dow

Yesterday the Dow Jones industrial average rose 123 points to finish at  a new all-time closing high. It was the 31st 100-point move for the Dow industrials this year (either up or down), which is oddly enough the fewest number of 100-point moves through July 12 since 2012, according to the Journal’s Market Data Group.

It’s all the more interesting given that 100-point moves for the Dow mean far less than they used to. A 100-point move today would mark a gain or loss of less than 0.5 percent for the day. During the depths of the financial crisis just eight years ago, 100 points meant a move of more than 1 percent.

On a more positive note, the Dow Jones has had only ten days with 100-point declines in 2017. That's the fewest through July 12th for any year since 1998.

Millennials' Favorite Stocks

A new study from TD Ameritrade looks at the investing habits of the millennial generation. Not surprisingly, nearly half of the firm’s millennial clients trade on their mobile devices, twice as much as the overall customer base.

And what are they buying? It's mostly the same stocks they see on those smartphones. According to TD Ameritrade, the top five holdings for millennials are:

1. Apple
2. Facebook
3. Amazon
4. Tesla
5. Netflix

High Expectations for Earnings

This could be a banner earnings season for the S&P 500, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. The company forecasts second-quarter earnings will grow at least 6.2 percent on a year-over-year basis. The increase would boost S&P 500 operating earnings per share for the trailing 12 months to an all-time high of $123.61 a share.

The most favorable sector? Wall Street consensus is that technology firms in the S&P 500 will report a 10.5 percent increase in earnings from the same period a year earlier. That’s the second-largest earnings growth of the 11 sectors, trailing only the volatile, beaten-down energy sector, where earnings are projected to grow nearly 400 percent.

The expectations for the tech sector are even more remarkable when you consider what it's already done in 2017. Tech is already the best-performing sector in the S&P index this year, up 18 percent.

The Dow and the S&P Diverge

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index, the most popular stock-market gauges, usually move in lockstep. After all, they're both baskets of some of America's largest stocks, even though the Dow has just 30 and the S&P has 500 of them.

But in recent trading days, they have seen the lowest level of correlation since 2003, according to data from WSJ Market Data Group. A 15-year average of the Dow and the S&P 500 shows that the relationship is nearly perfect, at a correlation of 0.9557 on a scale from 0 to 1. However, the rolling 20-day period shows  a reading of 0.4655. That's the lowest level of correlation between the S&P and the Dow industrials since August 4, 2003.

What's behind it? The recent tech slump has hit the S&P harder than the Dow, for one thing. And the financials, which are a huge part of the Dow, have been overperforming at the same time.