Written by Gary
US equities markets fell moderately today as a US Supreme Court ruling on state sales tax collection pulled Amazon down (SPY -0.6%). DOW closes down almost 200 points.
Todays S&P 500 Chart
The Market in Perspective
| Here are the headlines moving the markets. | |
 | Supreme Court lets states force online retailers to collect sales taxWASHINGTON (Reuters) – States may force online retailers to collect potentially billions of dollars in sales taxes, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a major ruling on Thursday that undercut an advantage many e-commerce companies have enjoyed over brick-and-mortar rivals. |
| Wall Street declines as Amazon, Intel fall; trade worries persistNEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks dipped on Thursday as a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on state sales tax collection pulled Amazon and other online retailers lower while industrials continued to falter on concerns over trade war concerns. |
| U.S. labor market tightening; mid-Atlantic manufacturing coolsWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, pointing to a further tightening of labor market conditions. |
| Trade pressures deepen as Daimler warns on salesBRUSSELS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler shocked investors on Thursday with a warning that trade tensions would hit sales, while fears of a “tit-for-tat” trade war grew as Europe readied retaliatory tariffs against the United States. |
| Exclusive: Canada could make it harder for U.S. to win fighter bid – sourcesOTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada is discussing changes to a multibillion-dollar fighter jet procurement process that could make it harder for a U.S. company to win the order as trade relations between the neighbors sour, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions said. |
| Washington’s ‘capricious’ trade actions will hurt U.S. workers, China warnsBEIJING (Reuters) – China’s commerce ministry on Thursday accused the United States of being “capricious” over bilateral trade issues, and warned that the interests of U.S. workers and farmers ultimately will be hurt by Washington’s penchant for brandishing “big sticks”. |
| Intel CEO resigns after probe of relationship with employee(Reuters) – Intel Corp Chief Executive Brian Krzanich resigned on Thursday after a probe found a consensual relationship with an employee violated company policy. |
| Investor Odey says Sky could be worth as much as 50 billion poundsLONDON (Reuters) – Top-20 Sky investor Crispin Odey said he expects the bidding war for the media company to carry on over the summer and that the European broadcaster could be worth as much as 50 billion pounds ($65.5 billion). |
| Linde, Praxair offer concessions in bid to win EU okay for mergerBRUSSELS (Reuters) – German industrial gases company Linde and U.S. peer Praxair have offered concessions in a bid to address EU antitrust concerns and secure approval for their merger. |
| Dow Ties Worst Losing Streak In 40 YearsThis is easy… The brief respite for Chinese stocks disappeared overnight…
And it appears to be finally leaking into American stock markets too…
The Dow closed red… again… for the 8th day in a row… |
| US Members Of Congress Must Now Disclose Crypto Holdings Above $1,000Authored by Marie Huillet via CoinTelegraph.com, The Ethics Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has issued a memorandum requiring all House Members to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings worth over $1,000, Bloomberg reported yesterday, June 20.
image courtesy of CoinTelegraph The memo, dated June 18, outlines a range of d … |
| Melania Sent To Border For Charm Offensive As Trump Promises To Reunite Separated FamiliesFirst Lady Melania Trump made an unannounced visit to a Texas social services center on Thursday amid a crisis over migrant children who have been forcibly separated from their parents as part of the DOJ’s “zero-tolerance” enforcement of preexisting laws.
“I’m glad I’m here and I’m looking forward to seeing the children,” said the First Lady at a roundtable with doctors and other employees of the Upbring New Hope Children’s Center, which is a subsidiary of Lutheran Social Services of the South. “But first of all, let me begin to recognize each of you and thanking you for all that you do, for your heroic work that you do every day and what you do for those children. We all know they’re here without their families, and I want to thank you for your hard work.” |
| BofA: 40% Of Margin Expansion In The Last 20 Years Is From GlobalizationRoughly around the time David Rosenberg “calculated” the contribution of the Fed’s unprecedented monetary policy on the S&P (which he estimated at roughly 1,000 points, which is about half of what Albert Edwards believes the Fed “added” to the stock market), Bank of America was out with an analysis, this time looking at the contribution “globalization” has had on global corporate margins. The reason: an attempt to handicap the potential risks from all-out trade war which leads to the unwind of “globalization”, by which we assume the bank refers to global supply chains, JIT procurement, lower wages for US-based workers, grassroots anger with the status quo, and so on. As BofA’s Savita Subramanian writes, the key risk to equities following Trump’s election “was a shift from globalization to protectionism, which could choke off growth for a very global index – one-third of sales are from overseas, and indirect exposure via commodities, FX, etc. is inestimable.” As for the key reason why corporations, banks and shareholders everywhere are terrified by the prospect of “globalization” going in reverse is because as noted above, BofA calculates, it has boosted 40% of the rise in S&P500 margins over the last two decades, largely due to lower taxes from offshoring and, of course, lower compensation, i.e. wages – the biggest catalyst behind the ongoing nationalist/populist tide against the status quo. Visually: |
| Japan’s Yen: A Currency for All Seasons?It’s been a stormy 2018 for markets, with volatility returning, trade tensions ratcheting higher and global growth proving less solid than expected. Investors looking for the financial equivalent of all-weather gear might find it in the Japanese yen. |
| Beauty Stocks’ Rise Is Looking Increasingly CosmeticChinese shoppers have boosted the likes of Estée Lauder and Shiseido, but investors should remember fashions can be fickle. |
| Why Disney Can Afford to Pay More for FoxDisney’s blockbuster track record, along with some unique quirks of comic book history, explain why it can top Comcast’s bid for 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets. |
| Intel CEO Krzanich steps down after company uncovers past relationship with employeeIntel Corp. Chief Executive Brian Krzanich has resigned from the company effective immediately, the tech giant said Thursday, after he was found to have violated company policies through a past relationship with another employee. |
| Key Words: Johnny Depp says his spending problem was misreported — it was much worseLast year, some eye-popping details emerged in the legale tussle between Johnny Depp and his management firm. Now, Depp is setting the record straight in a sad Rolling Stone profile. |
| The Ratings Game: Micron stock gains as upbeat outlook, strong earnings praisedMicron Technology Inc.’s strong stock rally kept going on Thursday, after the company’s latest earnings report provided enough reassurance to investors that demand for its memory products was here to stay. |
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