08Aug2018 Market Close: Wall Street Closes Mixed, Flat, DOW Ends Day Down 0.2%, China Slaps 25% Tariffs On $16 Billion Worth Of US Goods, Oil Drops On China Import Data, Weighing On Equities

Tesla board evaluating CEO Musk’s idea to take company private

Tesla Inc’s board said it was evaluating taking the company private, a day after Chief Executive Elon Musk surprised shareholders with the idea of launching the biggest leveraged buyout of all time.

Tronc weighing offer to sell newspaper business: report

Tronc Inc is weighing an offer to sell the Chicago Tribune and the rest of its newspaper holdings to a private equity firm, the Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday.

Beer drinkers lose U.S. appeal over Anheuser-SABMiller merger

A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected an antitrust challenge by 23 beer drinkers to Anheuser-Busch InBev SA’s $107 billion purchase in 2016 of SABMiller Plc, which they claimed would thwart competition and raise prices in the U.S. beer market.

Oil drops on China import data, weighing on equities

Oil prices slumped after Chinese import data showed a slowdown in demand and weighed on world equity markets, which traded near break-even as U.S. technology shares extended recent gains.

Wall St. dips as oil slide drags down energy shares

U.S. stocks were slightly lower on Wednesday as a steep fall in crude oil prices hit energy shares, more than offseting gains in technology and bank stocks.

China, Germany defend Iran business ties as U.S. sanctions grip

China and Germany defended their business ties with Iran on Wednesday in the face of President Donald Trump’s warning that any companies trading with the Islamic Republic would be barred from the United States.

Factbox: European companies respond to latest Iran sanctions

New U.S. sanctions against Iran took effect on Tuesday and President Donald Trump, who defied Washington’s allies to impose them, pledged that companies doing business with Tehran would be barred from doing business with the United States.

Tariffs on Chinese goods could batter the U.S. vaping industry

Proposed tariffs on U.S. imports from China of electronic cigarettes, known as vaping products, could not come at a worse time for the industry.

IKEA strives to keep prices low as it opens first store in India

IKEA will set some prices even lower in India than elsewhere when it opens its first store in the country on Thursday, as it woos cost-conscious shoppers unaccustomed to DIY furniture.

Nasdaq Bounces But Dollar, Ruble, Cryptos, China, Tesla, Italy, & Crude Crumble

Just because it makes me laugh…

The Great Fall Of China continues…

European stocks limped lower on the day…

But US Stocks miraculously bounced at the cash open once again…but ended ugly with only Nasdaq holding gains…

SEC Launches Inquiry Into Musk “Going Private” Tweet, Examining If Statement “Truthful”

With Elon Musk refusing to name any of the parties from whom he has allegedly “secured funding” after launching a huge short squeeze in Tesla yesterday with his now infamous Tesla “going private” tweet, it was only a matter of time before the regulators – who have so far stubbornly ignored Tesla – started asking questions. According to the WSJ, that time is now:

SEC Has Made Inquiries to Tesla Over Elon Musk’s ‘Taking Private’ Tweet —Sources

Regulator Examining Whether Musk’s Statement Was ‘Truthful’

SEC Also Inquired Why Disclosure Was Made on Twitter

One potential problem as we noted earlier, is that merely the intent of a “going private” transaction, triggers rule 13E-3, which requires the company to file a Schedule 13E-3 with the SEC as well as furnish the required disclosures to the company’s shareholders. Note: the rule is triggered in either case, even if the intent to go private is ultimately unsuccessful.

13E-3 or no, the SEC will demand to know just what is going on, what the Board knew and when – recall it stated today that it was made aware of Elon’s plans las …

Trump Hits Putin With New Sanctions Over Skripal Nerve Gas Attack

Trump must be getting really nervous about what Special Counsel Robert Mueller is about to announce, because on the same day that Russian assets plunged after the text of the proposed “crushing sanctions” contemplated by the Senate was leaked, sending the ruble, Russian stocks and bond plunging, moments ago the Trump administration announced it was hitting Russia with new sanctions punishing Putin’s government for the March 4 nerve-agent attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the U.K.

While Skripal and his daughter survived the attack attributed to the Russian nerve agent Novichok, a British woman died and her companion became gravely ill after coming in contact with the substance just miles from the site of the March attack.

The State Department said in a statement that under the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act, Russia was found to have “used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law or had used lethal chemical or biological weapons against its own nationals.”

No public evidence confirming Russia’s involvement has yet been released, and instead UK and US authorities hope the public will accept the conclusion on faith alone.

As a result, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on a determination that Russia violated international law by poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March. Although the U.S. joined European countries in publicly blaming Moscow within days of the attack, the Trump’s administration had never issued the formal determination that triggers automatic sanctions under a decades-old U.S. law on chemical weapons.

This was the second US response to the alleged Russian nerve-gas attack: in March, the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats as part of a joint response with allies to the novichok attack. Russia responded by ordering an equal number of US envoys to leave.

Bill Gross’ Fund Assets Plunge 50% In Just 5 Months

Ever since his acrimonious departure from Pimco in September 2014 (not to mention his messy divorce), former bond king Bill Gross has had a very difficult time rebuilding his reputation – and AUM – and after a series of dismal wrong way bets in the bond market, Bill Gross’ Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained fund has seen harrowing redemptions which one month ago we reported that just in the first half of the year, amounted to $580 million as a result of the worst performance of his peer group in that period, as the unconstrained fund slumped 6.3% this year through June.

As we noted at the time, June was the fourth straight month of withdrawals for Gross’s bond fund and with AUM tumbling from over $2 billion at the start of the year to just $1.48 billion in June, a quarter of Gross’ AUM has been withdrawn by anxious investors in just the past 6 months alone.

This is because Gross’s unconstrained fund – which unlike a traditional bond fund significant liberty in what to invert and relies on derivatives and options-based strategies to boost returns – was ranked dead last in first-half performance among 44 peers in its Bloomberg category.

Fast forward one month when Bloomberg reports that just months after its AUM hit an all time high of just over $2.2 billion in early 2018, investors pulled money from Bill Gross’s bond fund for the fifth consecutive month in July, reducing its assets under management to the lowest since November 2014. Last month, the Janus Henderson Global Unconstrained Bond Fund suffered more than $200 million in redemptions, which brought its assets to $1.25 billion, or nearly one half of its all-time high A …

Tesla’s Go-Private Dream Doesn’t Add Up

Tesla’s wildest day yet leaves far more questions than answers.

The Ratings Game: Papa John’s ‘drama’ weighs on earnings and guidance, sending shares down 5%

Papa John’s reported weak earnings and revised its guidance downward, which the company attributed to ongoing issues with the company’s founder, John Schnatter.

Demi Lovato’s ‘road to recovery’ through rehab will be costly

The cost of rehab for substance abuse varies dramatically by state and insurer.

Here’s one way to help refugee families that won’t cost you a dime

More people are helping to reunite children who were separated at the southern border with their parents.