25Jun2018 Market Close: Wall Street Pummeled By Escalating Trade Threats, Closed Down Over 1% Amid Rising Trade Tensions, WTI Slides Down From $69 To The 67 Handle

Wall Street pummeled by escalating trade threats

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An escalating trade dispute between the United States and other leading economies battered U.S. stocks on Monday, driving benchmark indexes lower by around 2 percent to their steepest losses in more than two months.

Trump tariffs force companies to rework supply chains

CHICAGO (Reuters) – From global manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson Inc to small tech startups, companies are scrambling to rework supply chains built for an era of stable, open trade policy that is now under threat.

CBS expands NFL streaming rights to include mobile devices

(Reuters) – CBS Corp on Monday expanded its streaming agreement with National Football League to include mobile devices and extended the rights through the 2022 season, the media company said.

Harley-Davidson to move some production out of U.S. to avoid EU tariffs

(Reuters) – Harley-Davidson Inc said on Monday it would move production of motorcycles shipped to the European Union from the United States to its international facilities and forecast the trading bloc’s retaliatory tariffs would cost the company $90 million to $100 million a year.

SEC fines Wells Fargo Advisors over investment sales

(Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday said Wells Fargo Advisors LLC agreed to pay more than $5.1 million to settle charges of misconduct in the sale of so-called market-linked investments to retail investors.

Exclusive: North American, UK, Asian regulators press EU on data privacy exemption

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Financial watchdogs from North America, Britain and Asia are urgently seeking a formal exemption from the European Union’s tough new data privacy law to avoid hampering cross-border investigations, regulatory officials told Reuters.

Rebound in South powers U.S. new home sales, dampens prices

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of new U.S. single-family homes increased more than expected in May as transactions in the South surged to near an 11-year high and dampened prices, but the overall housing market remained constrained by a dearth of properties for sale.

We’ve changed, Uber tells court in London license battle

LONDON (Reuters) – Uber [UBER.UL] accepted it had made mistakes but said it had changed on Monday in a court challenge to a decision stripping it of its London license after it was ruled unfit to run a taxi service in its most important European market.

Ex-State Street executive pulled ‘bait-and-switch’ on clients: U.S. prosecutor

BOSTON (Reuters) – A former State Street Corp executive engaged in “bait-and switch” by promising to charge several of the bank’s clients low fees to execute billions of dollars of trades before secretly applying commissions to them, a U.S. prosecutor said on Monday.

Dollar Dumped, Copper Clubbed, FANG Fubar, & Tech Wrecked

Artist’s impression of Peter Navarro’s role this afternoon…

China started off well on the RRR Cut – then it went pear-shaped…

European stocks erased all the hopeful bounce from Friday and then some…

US Futures were ugly overnight and as everyone waited for the ubiquitous buying panic at the open, it never occurred and every bounce was offered… Nasdaq 100 dropped 3% – the biggest drop since April 2nd.

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Stocks Surge After Navarro Says “No Plan For Investment Restrictions”, Calls Market Slide “Overreaction”

With stocks threatening to collapse into the close, just after 3:30pm Trump’s trade advisor, and the alleged brain behind the Chinese trade war, emerged with some soothing words for stocks, saying that there are no plans to impose investment restrictions – even though Steven Mnuchin clearly said there are, and not just China but all countries – and that today’s market slide is an overreaction, clearly unable to grasp that for the US trade position to be taken seriously, the markets have to dump.

Here are the highlights:

NAVARRO SAYS NO PLANS TO IMPOSE INVESTMENT RESTRICTION

NAVARRO SAYS TODAY’S MARKET SLIDE IS AN OVERREACTION

NAVARRO: THERE’S MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT TRUMP’S TRADE POLICY

NAVARRO: U.S. HAS THINGS TO WORK OUT WITH CHINA; TRUMP ISN’T SINGLING OUT CHINA

Peter Navarro tells @CNBC there are “no plans” to impose widespread investment restrictions, contradicting @WSJ report

It seems like Trump didn’t like the big market sell off today and WH is bowing to Wall Street pressure on this… at least for today.#stocks #TradeWar pic.twitter.com/7OgldwkdLu

— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) June 25, 2018

And while he is clearly trying to reverse the market slide on trade war fears, his core argument appears to be tangential: that the US economy is s …

What Can Flip The “Market’s Most Important Correlation”

Two days before the February 5 volmageddon, and before everyone became an overnight expert on inverse VIX ETFs, CTAs an risk parity funds, we showed two charts which we then said presaged a turning point for markets and vol-targeting funds, and hinted at an imminent risk-parity tantrum.

The first showed the unmistakable correlation shift between 10Y yields and the S&P, which we said is “considerably worrisome for investors.”

Meanwhile, we also showed that the bond-equity correlation, which has been predominantly negative since the Lehman crisis – had started creeping up towards positive territory. Specifically, we said that “the 90-day correlation between stock (SPY) and bond (TLT) markets has surged ominously in the last few weeks.”

“Bait And Switch”: Trump Tower Meeting May Have Been A Russian Trick

The intermediary who set up the Trump Tower meeting, Rob Goldstone, said during Congressional testimony reviewed by Breitbart that he believes the June 9, 2016 meeting was a “bait and switch” by a Russian lobbyist who promised “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, and admitted that he used hyperbolic language on purpose to ensure that the meeting would take place.

“I, therefore, used the strongest hyperbolic language in order to secure this request from Donald Trump Jr. based on the bare facts I was given,” said Goldstone, a UK publicist and music manager.

“It was an example of, I was given very limited information, and my job was to get a meeting, and so I used my professional use of words to emphasize what my client had only given bare-bones information about, in order to get the attention of Mr. Trump Jr.” -Rob Goldstone

Goldstone then said “it appeared to me to have been a bait and switch of somebody who appeared to be lobbying for what I now understood to be the Magnitsky act,” – which sanctions Russian officials thought to be involved in the death of a Russian tax accountant.

Why Size Alone Won’t Help Old Media Beat Netflix

Even if incumbents such as Disney and AT&T bulk up, tech companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple will still have more leeway to spend.

The Trade War’s First Casualties

With their escalating trade feud showing little evidence of hurting their economies, the U.S. and China aren’t close to backing down. Investors may get squeezed between the two giants before one of them cracks.

CEO Loss Forces Intel to Face Its Future

The surprise resignation of Intel’s CEO means the chip maker needs to deal with longer-term challenges now.

Project Syndicate: Trump bets that power politics can offset weakening U.S. economic fundamentals

Donald Trump overestimates his power to block China’s ascendancy, writes Stephen Roach.

The Tell: Even the highest flying tech stocks aren’t immune to trade worries: economist

Until now, investors in highflying tech stocks largely ignored escalating trade tensions. That can’t continue, says one economist.

Economic Report: New-home sales rebound in May on hearty demand

Sales of newly-constructed homes were stronger than expected in May, offsetting prior months’ revisions, and pointing to firm underlying demand for housing.