Today's Markets
gm all and have a nice weekend :)
In Asia, Japan -0.8%. Hong Kong +0.2%. China +0.5%. India +0.7%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.8%. Paris +0.8%. Frankfurt +0.4%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow +0.5%. S&P +0.5%. Nasdaq +0.4%. Crude +1.1% to $66.29. Gold flat at $1270.50. Bitcoin -5.5% to $6349.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +2 bps to 2.92%
Today's Economic Calendar
9:45 PMI Composite Flash
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
Laying the groundwork all week for today's biannual meeting in Vienna, OPEC members, Russia and major producers are likely to ease supply constraints that have been in place since January 2017. Expecting a large oil deficit in the second half of this year - due to outages in Venezuela and Libya - as well as calls from top consumers to cool down prices, consensus among the group is to raise production by a combined 1M barrels per day. However, Iran has expressed opposition to such a deal, facing U.S. sanctions that threaten to keep buyers away.
Economy
Adding another front to the trade war... The EU is making good on its threats to retaliate against the Trump administration's tariffs, slapping penalties on $3.2B of iconic American products like bourbon, jeans and motorcycles. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the bloc was "left with no other choice" after the "unilateral and unjustified decision of the U.S."
Keep up to date on market anomalies and investing opportunities.
Visit 'On The Move' to see Real-Time Analytics and news as they happen.
Shaking off a sluggish start? Business activity in the eurozone picked up in June for the first month in five, with IHS Markit's composite PMI climbing to 54.8 from 54.1 in May. The eurozone economy had entered 2018 on a high, having recorded its fastest expansion in a decade during 2017 as it outpaced the U.S. for the second straight year.
After hours of talks that stretched into the night, eurozone governments have brokered a long-awaited and historic debt relief deal for Greece. The pact involves a 10-year extension of maturities on loans from the European Financial Stability Facility and a 10-year deferral on interest payments. It also includes a new disbursement of €15B and will allow Greece to issue bonds across the yield curve.
Lira traders are bracing for turmoil this weekend as Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands for re-election in a vote that could cement Turkey's switch from a parliamentary to executive-style presidential system. The economy has become a major issue thanks to inflation that's running at 12%, and the currency that has dropped to a record low against the U.S. dollar. Erdogan has also suggested he wants to control interest rates.
States have the authority to make online retailers collect sales tax, according to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. "Big victory for fairness and for our country," President Trump wrote on Twitter. "Great victory for consumers and retailers." The 5-4 decision opens the door to a new revenue stream to fill state coffers - up to $13B annually, according to a federal report.
Stocks
The 35 largest U.S. banks have all cleared the first stage of an annual stress test, showing they would be able to maintain enough capital in a severe global recession. The Fed increased the difficulty of the test this year as the broader economic environment improves. Variables included the U.S. unemployment rate rising by almost 6 percentage points to 10%, accompanied by a steepening Treasury yield curve.
Following downgrades from Standard & Poor's and Moody's, Fitch cut its outlook on Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) to negative from stable, citing risks tied to the German lender's turnaround plan. CEO Christian Sewing, who was appointed in April, is accelerating cost cuts and a pullback from various investment banking activities, but investors seem skeptical he can deliver, with the bank's shares down more than 20% since he took office.
Stamps.com tumbled more than 10% on Thursday as the White House took aim at revamping the U.S. Postal Service. While the proposal examines ways to "return it to a sustainable business model or prepare it for future conversion from a Government agency into a privately-held corporation," any reorganization would require congressional approval. The decline was Stamps.com's (NASDAQ:STMP) largest single-day percentage drop since November 2017.
Newly approved copyright rules by the European Parliament committee is sparking a backlash from tech giants, with criticism focused on two parts of the proposed new law. Article 11 could force Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and others to pay publishers for showing news snippets, while Article 13 would require online platforms like YouTube, Instagram and eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) to install filters to prevent users from uploading copyrighted materials.
Disney roundup: 2018 isn't even halfway done and the company has already crossed the $2B mark at the domestic box office - on track to break its $3B industry annual record posted in 2016. ABC is also planning a spinoff of Roseanne without Roseanne Barr, tentatively titled The Conners, while Disney (NYSE:DIS) said it was willing to offload businesses that generate as much as $1B in EBITDA to secure its deal for Fox (NASDAQ:FOX).
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has resigned after an investigation found he had a consensual relationship with an employee in breach of the company's non-fraternization policy. CFO Robert Swan will become interim CEO effective immediately. The change in leadership comes as Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) expands beyond personal computers and servers into areas such as artificial intelligence and self-driving cars.
The NSA has moved most of its vast data resources to a classified cloud computing environment known as the Intelligence Community GovCloud. It will allow analysts to rapidly "connect the dots" across all of the agency's sources, according to CIO Greg Smithberger. Four years ago, the CIA awarded a $600M contract to Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ:AMZN) to develop the commercial cloud environment.
Tesla's recent move to cut 9% of its workforce will sharply downsize SolarCity - the residential solar business it bought two years ago in a controversial $2.6B deal. The latest cuts will close about a dozen installation facilities, according to Reuters, and end a retail partnership with Home Depot (NYSE:HD) that generates about half the Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) division's sales. About 60 other locations will remain open.
Even before launching for a second time, SpaceX's (SPACE) Falcon Heavy rocket has won U.S. Air Force's certification, as well as a $130M contract from the DoD to launch a space command satellite into orbit. At a fraction of the cost, Falcon Heavy is both more powerful and capable of lifting more weight than the biggest rockets offered by United Launch Alliance - a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT).
Airbus has threatened to pull out of the U.K. after Brexit, warning that under "any scenario Brexit has severe negative consequences for the U.K. aerospace industry and Airbus in particular." It's among the strongest warnings yet by the business community over the impact of Britain's departure from the EU, with Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY) making wings for all its passenger jets in the country.
Thursday's Key Earnings
Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) -3.9% on declining comp sales.
Kroger (NYSE:KR) +9.6% posting strong earnings.
Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) -12.5% AH following downside guidance.
