- Asian Stocks Advance as S&P 500 Closes Above 5,500: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks in Asia rose as traders weighed prospects for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts after Jerome Powell cited signals that the US is back on a disinflationary path. Equity benchmarks climbed in Japan, Australia and South Korea, while futures for Hong Kong stocks pointed to a positive start. - Oil Trades Near Two-Month High on Signs of US Inventory Drawdown
(Bloomberg) — Oil steadied around a two-month high on signs of a significant drawdown in US crude stockpiles. Brent crude traded above $86 a barrel after slipping 0.4% on Tuesday, with West Texas Intermediate around $83. The American Petroleum Institute reported crude inventories shrank 9.2 million barrels last week, according to people familiar with the data. - China’s Detention of Taiwan Fishing Boat Risks Raising Tensions
(Bloomberg) — China detained a Taiwanese fishing boat and its crew, a move that risks worsening tensions with the island’s new president. The fishing vessel was stopped by the Chinese Coast Guard on Tuesday evening near the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, maritime authorities in Taipei said in a statement. Kinmen is roughly 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from China. - Skydance Media Is Said to Reach Paramount Merger Agreement
(Bloomberg) — Independent film and TV producer Skydance Media has reached a preliminary agreement to buy Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. and merge with Paramount Global, the parent of CBS and MTV, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. - Biden Blames Travel for Poor Debate as He Looks to Calm Revolt
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden blamed travel plans that took him to France and Italy in the weeks ahead of his disastrous debate against Donald Trump for his poor performance on stage, seeking to explain a moment that has upended the 2024 race and imperiled his reelection prospects. - China Can End War in Ukraine With One Phone Call, Finland Says
(Bloomberg) — Russia’s reliance on China has gotten to the point where Beijing could end the war in Ukraine if it chose to, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said. “Russia is so dependent on China right now,” Stubb, 56, said in an interview in Helsinki Tuesday. “One phone call from President Xi Jinping would solve this crisis.” - Powell Welcomes Recent Data But Fed Needs More Confidence to Cut
(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the latest economic data suggest inflation is getting back on a downward path, but emphasized officials need more evidence before lowering interest rates. While Powell declined to give any specific guidance on the timing of the first rate reduction, he did acknowledge the Fed has made “quite a bit of progress. - Trump New York Sentencing Put Off to Sept. 18 Over Immunity
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump’s sentencing in his New York hush-money case was delayed two months until Sept. 18 so the judge can review the impact of a landmark US Supreme Court ruling about presidential immunity. Judge Juan Merchan set the new date Tuesday after Trump’s team asked for the delay as part of a bid to overturn his conviction on 34 felony counts. - Traders Flock to a Trump-Fueled Bet on Higher US Treasury Yields
(Bloomberg) — Traders in the $27 trillion Treasury market are betting on higher long-term bond yields as Wall Street starts to adjust for Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House. Investors have been buying shorter-maturity notes and selling longer-term ones after Trump came out ahead of President Joe Biden in the first presidential debate. - Gold down as elevated bond yields weigh, U.S. jobs data in focus
Gold prices edged lower on Tuesday as Treasury yields held firm, while investors digested comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and looked forward to U.S. jobs data due later this week for more signals on U.S. interest rate cuts. Spot gold was down 0.21% at $2,326.90 per ounce. U.S. gold futures fell around 0.2% to $2,335.30. - China Bonds Seen Settling In Range With Yield Floor on PBOC
(Bloomberg) — China’s central bank’s plan to borrow bonds may slow but won’t quash their rally, as the fundamental reasons driving demand for debt are unlikely to reverse, according to analysts. The impact of the People’s Bank of China move may instead be to put a floor on yields and send them into a range, they said. - Citadel, Millennium Extend Streak of Gains in First Half
(Bloomberg) — Ken Griffin’s Citadel and Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management extended their year-to-date gains in June, underlining their reputations for delivering steady returns. Citadel posted an 8.1% return in its main Wellington hedge fund in the first half of the year, a person with knowledge of the matter said. - Brevan Cuts Fees for Biggest Fund to Make Up for High Costs
(Bloomberg) — Brevan Howard Asset Management cut fees for its biggest fund to make up for technology, infrastructure and talent expenses that pushed pass-through costs too high. The firm is scrapping the 1% management fee for its Alpha Strategies fund until the new year, according to people familiar with the matter. - Hedge Funds Cut Back China Stock Exposure, Again: China Today
(Bloomberg) — Hedge fund exposure to Chinese stocks is near the lowest in years, underscoring concerns that Beijing won’t do enough to jump start the economy. Global hedge funds were net sellers of Chinese equities last month, led by firms dumping shares traded in the US, according to Goldman Sachs’s prime services unit. It was the third month of net selling in the past. - Paramount in Talks to Sell BET Network for $1.6 Billion
(Bloomberg) — Paramount Global is in exclusive talks to sell its Black Entertainment Television network to buyers that include BET Chief Executive Officer Scott Mills and Chinh Chu, who runs the New York-based private equity firm CC Capital. The group has been discussing an offer of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion, people familiar with the matter. - Alameda-Backed Miner Genesis Digital Assets Said to Weigh US IPO
(Bloomberg) — Genesis Digital Assets is considering an initial public offering in the US, according to people familiar with the matter, as the crypto industry’s resurgence gathers pace. The crypto mining company, which counts Sam Bankman-Fried’s former hedge fund as an investor, is working with advisers on the potential listing. - STAAR Surgical ticks higher amid takeover speculation
Seeking Alpha Seeking Alpha designer491 STAAR Surgical (STAA) quickly edged higher by 1.3% amid some takeover speculation. An unidentified European company is speculated to be interested in STAAR (STAA) and is working with a bank to evaluate a potential deal, according to a Betaville “uncooked” alert on Tuesday, which cited people following the matter. - Market Chatter: Warner Bros. Discovery in Talks with Paramount Over Potential Streaming Platform Collaboration
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has expressed its interest in a streaming deal with Paramount Global (PARA), as the latter holds discussions with entertainment companies to potentially merge its streaming service, CNBC reported Monday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. - Tesla shares climbed 10.20% after it reported deliveries for the second quarter that beat the average analyst estimate.
Deliveries came in at 443,956 vehicles, beating estimates of 439,302. While sales were down 4.8% from a year ago, Tesla improved on a sequential basis from the 386,810 vehicles delivered in the first three months of the year. Elon Musk announced that the company will roll out new and more affordable models by early next year. Tesla will also prioritise building a fully autonomous robotaxi and plans to hold an event to unveil the vehicle on 8 Aug 2024. - Shares of obesity drugmakers fell on Tuesday trading after US President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders said Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly & Co. must substantially reduce the price of their blockbuster weight-loss drugs.
Lilly fell 0.8% while Novo Nordisk dropped 1.1% in Copenhagen. Other obesity drug developers were also trading lower. The companies are charging “unconscionably high prices” that are above those paid in other countries, Biden said in an editorial with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders published in USA Today. If “pharmaceutical companies refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them,”. - Homebuilder-stock analysts are increasingly worried about signs of softening in key hot spots like Florida and Texas.
Lennar Corp. and D.R. Horton Inc. were downgraded by Citigroup Inc. analyst Anthony Pettinari on concerns the housing market could stay “sluggish” in the second half of the year. “We see softness in data – permits, starts, sales and prices all recently below expectations – potentially continuing” in the second-half of the year, Pettinari wrote in a Tuesday note to clients. “New and existing home inventories are ticking up and the ‘twin engines’ of the hot US housing market – Texas and Florida – are seeing some areas of softening.” - Pure Storage stock fell 4.2% Tuesday, after UBS downgraded the data storage company on elevated valuation and competition concerns.
UBS analyst David Vogt lowered his rating on shares of Pure Storage to Sell from Neutral while slightly increasing his price target to $47 from $44, which implies a 28% decrease from the stock’s closing price of $65.51 on Monday. “We rate Pure shares Sell as share loss in Pure’s core all-flash market along with increased competition from well capitalized private competitors should pressure growth,” Vogt wrote. Vogt’s downgrade comes after shares have surged 74% this year. The company reported first-quarter earnings and revenue in May that beat Wall Street estimates. Chief Financial Officer Kevan Krysler said on the earnings call that “while storage spending for AI is still in its early stages, we believe that we are well positioned as demand for data storage accelerates.” - Michelin shares fell 3.1% with analysts citing a call with the company after markets closed on Monday.
CIC Markets says 1H results “are likely to disappoint on volume, but reassure on mix,” citing the call.
Says Michelin is not expected to change its guidance when it reports 1H results. Oddo says in a note that the call allowed the tire maker to “unsurprisingly” confirm its full-year targets despite weaker-than-expected volume dynamic. - The U.S. needs more of this critical metal — and China owns 80% of its supply chain
Tungsten is nearly as hard as diamond and has a high energy density, making it an important material in weapons, autos, electric car batteries, semiconductors and industrial cutting machines. Chipmakers TSMC and Nvidia both use tungsten. While the Biden administration raised tariffs on imports of tungsten in May, China this past weekend did not include the metal in new regulations for boosting its oversight of domestic rare earths production. - The ‘death knell’ sounded for the Conservative Party long before the UK election
The U.K.’s ruling Conservative Party looks to be standing at the precipice of a momentous electoral defeat in the July 4 vote, with the country’s top polling guru putting the party’s demise down to two majorly damaging events in recent years. “This is not an election about the ideological position of the parties, this is an election about competence,” John Curtice, the U.K.’s go-to polling expert, told CNBC. - US Job Openings Unexpectedly Increase from a Three-Year Low
(Bloomberg) — US job openings unexpectedly rose in May, interrupting a months-long downtrend that underscored a gradual slowdown in labor demand. Available positions increased to 8.14 million from a downwardly revised 7.92 million reading in the prior month that was the lowest in three years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
Menu