Written by Gary
The three major US benchmark indexes closed lower with the DOW down 287 points (SPY -0.4%). The Russel 200 gained +0.1% while the trade wars escalate.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Wall Street falls, Dow gives up 2018 gains on trade war fearsNEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as a sharp escalation in the trade dispute between the United States and China rattled the markets, though the three major indexes pared losses from earlier in the session. |
| Trump threatens almost all imports from China as Beijing fires backWASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – China has underestimated President Donald Trump’s resolve to move forward with tariffs unless Beijing changes its “predatory” trade practices, a top U.S. trade advisor said on Tuesday, in comments that diminished the chances of a negotiated settlement to a looming trade war between the world’s economic superpowers. |
| ZTE, U.S. suppliers shares tank after Senate puts Trump reprieve in doubtHONG KONG (Reuters) – Shares of ZTE Corp and its American business partners took a hit on Tuesday after the U.S. Senate’s passage of a defense bill set up a potential battle with the White House over whether the Chinese telecoms firm can resume business with U.S. suppliers. |
| Britain happy with Murdoch’s Sky News guaranteesLONDON (Reuters) – Britain said Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox had answered its remaining doubts about the independence of Sky News if the U.S. company buys all of its parent Sky, paving the way for a takeover battle over the pay-TV group. |
| Ford to redevelop symbol of Detroit decline to house tech workersDETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co executives on Tuesday said the automaker will renovate and revamp Michigan Central Station, Detroit’s infamous blighted landmark, turning it into offices for up to 5,000 tech workers and software engineers focused on self-driving vehicles and ancillary technologies and services. |
| VW names interim Audi boss, seeking to steady brand after CEO arrestMUNICH (Reuters) – Volkswagen suspended Audi boss Rupert Stadler and announced an interim replacement on Tuesday, seeking to steady its most profitable business after German authorities arrested Stadler as part of an emissions probe. |
| New head of FDIC plans to review financial health rating systemWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The newly appointed head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said on Tuesday said she plans to review the decades-old system for measuring lenders’ financial health, which banks say is outdated. |
| Merrill Lynch to pay $42 million for misleading customers: SECWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp subsidiary Merrill Lynch will pay a $42 million penalty for lying to customers about how it handled their orders, the top U.S. securities regulator said on Tuesday. |
| Facebook expands offerings for video creators to cash in on viewsSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc launched a matchmaking system Tuesday to cultivate partnerships between advertisers and video creators as the world’s largest social media company tries to quickly parallel the variety of commercial opportunities offered by its video rival YouTube. |
| Trade War Worries Spark Dow’s Longest Losing Streak In 15 MonthsRemember the trade war shots fired yesterday that prompted a panic buying episode after a brief dip overnight, well the same thing happened again today… China was a bloodbath…
But, once again the smart American investing public bought Small Caps with both hands and feet (because hey, small caps are more domestically-biased and will therefore be immune to trade wars with China… right?) but The Dow ended down for the 6th day in a row – the longest losing streak since March 2017… |
| Covert Recordings Of Tesla’s New Model 3 Facility Reveal Something UnexpectedOver the past week Tesla stock has enjoyed a torrid surge, driven by a short squeeze following an email to employees by CEO Elon Musk, in which he updated workers of the company’s plan to produce 5,000 Model 3 cars per week by the end of this month, and warning short sellers “they have about three weeks before their short position explodes”, supposedly a warning that the company will surprise Wall Street with either stellar (or at least positive) cash flow or production numbers. Musk said the company is now producing “about 500” vehicles per day, or about 3,500 per week, adding that some parts of the production system have already reached the quota of 700 cars per day and praised staff for their hard work. “It’s getting very exciting! All parts of the Model 3 production system are now above 500 and some are almost at 700 cars already. Congratulations to all on making so much progress,” Musk said in the email sent Friday night. And yet, it wasn’t all clear skies, because Musk also said that there are a few bottlenecks preventing all parts of production from reaching the goal of 700 cars per day. “Radical improvements” are still needed on some parts of the production line, the real world Tony Stark lamented. That confused some investors: how can the company be on track to hit its quota yet be in desperate need of “radical improvements”? Adding to the bizarre narrative and the inherent contradictions in the story, the CEO told employees that he will be at the Fremont factory “almost 24/7 for the next several days” to make sure the teams that are behind — which include the paint shop and the end of the general assembly line — get “as many resources as they can handle.” The paradoxical twist, of course, was that one week ago, just as Tesla was entering the burst qua … |
| This 19-Year-Old Crypto Trading Wizard Is Launching A Fund Backed By Sequoia, CoinbaseThe recent bitcoin crash hasn’t slowed down the rapid developments in the world of cryptocurrency funds, at least not for 19-year-old Charles Noyes who, despite not being old enough to order a beer, has just made partner at a new crypto currency digital fund alongside two of the biggest names in the crypto space.
Noyes is coming from his former fund, Pantera Capital, where he rose through the ranks from intern to analyst to principal in less than two years. Bloomberg with more:
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| Amazon Creates 1,000 Jobs With 4th Michigan Warehouse After Receiving State GrantAfter receiving a $4 million “performance-based grant” from the Michigan Strategic Fund to build distribution warehouses and create jobs in the state, Amazon announced on Tuesday that it is opening its fourth Michigan warehouse in Gaines Township, a town in Western Michigan. The site will create more than 1,000 full-time jobs “with benefits and opportunities,” the company said. The company advertised the jobs, which appear to be standard fulfillment-center warehouse work, as working with “robotics” in a “highly technological” workplace.
Of course, these are the same – or at least similar – jobs that had some employees peeing in bottles during their shifts because they were afraid to ask for bathroom breaks, according to the Sun, which published an expose about working conditions at Amazon’s UK fulfillment centers (others have written about similar conditions at its “fulfillment centers” in the US).
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| The Other Yield Curve Investors Should Watch as Trouble MountsEscalating trade tensions have helped push the U.S. Treasury yield curve to its flattest in more than a decade. But another curve deserves attention—and it is getting steeper. |
| Xiaomi Will Have to Dial Down Valuation HopesThe tech company has postponed plans for a mainland Chinese listing—a blow to its hopes of a high valuation. |
| Can’t Anyone Here Cook Anymore?Delivery apps like Grubhub, meal kits and takeout are a rising threat to supermarkets like Kroger and Walmart and packaged food companies like Kraft Heinz |
| Tesla’s Elon Musk says Germany is leading choice for Europe GigafactoryElon Musk, apparently undeterred by President Donald Trump’s warnings of rising crime, said Tuesday he is eyeing Germany as a potential site for Tesla Inc.’s planned European Gigafactory. |
| The Tell: Hedge-fund boss who predicted ’87 crash says next recession will be ‘really frightening’Paul Tudor Jones, a hedge-fund luminary, says the next economic downturn confronted by the U.S. could be an ugly one. |
| The Ratings Game: Netflix stock surges above $400 in falling market as three analysts raise price targetsAnalysts continue to raise price targets for Netflix despite looming streaming challenges from Disney and other media giants. |
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