Good morning. Happy Thursday.
The Asian/Pacific markets did great today. China, Hong Kong, South Korea, India, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines each rallied at least 1%. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently doing just as well. The UK, Denmark, Poland, France, Turkey, Germany, Russia, Greece, South Africa, Finland, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Israel, Sweden and the Czech Republic are each up at least 1%. Futures in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: My Favorite Scan
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The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
Stories/News from Seeking Alpha…
U.S. stock indexes futures rose as much as 1% overnight as investors look ahead to two jobs reports for clarity on the economic situation. Alongside weekly unemployment claims data, the non-farm payrolls report will come a day early and will likely play a big part ahead of the Congressional debate on the next round of coronavirus stimulus. Forecasts for the jobs report are wide-ranging, but most economists predict 3M jobs were created in June, up from the 2.5M added in May (though that report was expected to show a steep loss of 8M jobs). The figures will also be backward looking, reflecting data through mid-June and not the latter part of the month when the resurgence of COVID-19 led to several shutdowns and delayed some economic reopenings.
FOMC minutes
The Fed’s monetary policy-setting arm doesn’t see the recovery in consumer spending being “particularly rapid beyond this year” and noted a need for “highly accommodative monetary policy for some time,” according to the minutes of the June 9-10 meeting. As for the potential use of yield-curve control — yield caps or targets (“YCT”), nearly all participants had “many questions regarding the costs and benefits of such an approach.” Many of the officials, though, didn’t see a need for YCT as long as the FOMC’s forward guidance, on its own, remains credible.
Checks? Benefits? Bonuses?
Details of the next coronavirus stimulus package are becoming a bit clearer as the House passed a bill extending the Paycheck Protection Program through August 8, sending it to President Trump’s desk for his signature. Over $130B in PPP funds are still available, which could help small businesses pay overheads and keep employees on payroll. Trump also said he supports another round of direct payments to Americans – larger than what Democrats have already proposed – but is against enhanced unemployment benefits that give “a disincentive to work.”
July 4th statistics
76% of Americans plan to celebrate Independence Day this year, down from 86% in 2019, as concerns run high over gathering in large groups or attending public events due to the coronavirus pandemic. Those who do have plans for the holiday are forecast to spend over $76 on average for food items – in line with historical trends – for a total of $6.52B. More than half of consumers are planning a cookout or BBQ and 28% of those celebrating expect to purchase additional patriotic items.
Next steps for Hong Kong
About 370 protesters were arrested in Hong Kong on Wednesday, including ten that were apprehended for breaching the new security law imposed by China. “We will not duck our historic responsibilities,” said the U.K. in response, offering around 3M Hong Kong residents – who are eligible for BN(O) passports – a path to citizenship (Britain transferred the territory back to China in 1997). The U.S. is also looking into helping those who want to leave Hong Kong via a bipartisan bill known as the “Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act” that would grant Hong Kongers priority refugee status.
Big Tech on Capitol Hill
The hearing is planned for later this month and will mark the first time the chief executives of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) testified together in front of Congress. It’s one of the final steps the House Judiciary Committee needs to complete an antitrust probe initiated in June 2019 and will likely produce new legislative proposals to reform and regulate the digital market. The Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general have also opened inquiries into the companies over markets like online advertising, online retail and smartphone apps.
Most valuable automaker
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) soared 3.7% to $1,120/share on Wednesday to trade at a higher market cap than Japanese carmaker Toyota (NYSE:TM). That makes the company the most valuable automaker in the world and caps off a 10-year run that went into Ludicrous mode over the last six months. Next on the dance card is Tesla’s Q2 deliveries report to be followed in a few weeks by the company’s earnings report. The party doesn’t stop… Shares are up another 4.4% in premarket trade to $1,170.
Latest pandemic bankruptcy
The franchisee operator was already in trouble before the coronavirus crisis, though restaurant shutdowns pushed it over the edge. NPC International, which runs more than 1,225 Pizza Hut (NYSE:YUM) and over 385 Wendy’s (NASDAQ:WEN) stores nationwide, has filed for bankruptcy, but said it will continue to operate while it navigates the Chapter 11 process. The company employs nearly 40,000 people in 27 U.S. states, according to its website.
What else is happening…
Optimism builds over Pfizer, (NYSE:PFE), BioNTech’s (NASDAQ:BNTX) coronavirus vaccine.
COVID-19 surge prompts McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) to halt reopening plans.
Coty (NYSE:COTY) sued over trade secrets in Kardashian-Jenner deals.
Novartis (NYSE:NVS) finalizes $678M settlement to resolve kickback claims.
American (NASDAQ:AAL) warns it’s overstaffed by 8,000 flight attendants.
Nio (NYSE:NIO) posts Q2 delivery growth of 190% to 10,331 vehicles.
Wednesday’s Key Earnings
Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) +6.3% AH as spirit sales offset a miss in beer.
General Mills (NYSE:GIS) -2% declining to give specific guidance.
Macy’s (NYSE:M) -4.4% with sales dropping 45% in Q1.
Today’s Economic Calendar
Auto Sales
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
8:30 Non-farm payrolls
8:30 International Trade
10:00 Factory Orders
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
SIFMA close 2:00 PM
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Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets leaned up. China, India, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand all did well while Japan and New Zealand were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are mostly down. The UK, Poland, France, Turkey, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Finland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Austria are down moderately. Futures in the States point towards a moderate down open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: My Favorite Scan
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The dollar is up. Oil is up; copper is down. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
Stories/News from Seeking Alpha…
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement includes tighter North American content rules for autos, new intellectual property protections, prohibitions against currency manipulation and new laws for digital commerce. American companies can also launch disputes with Canada and Mexico over access to dairy, energy and the biotech market. It comes as all three countries are mired in a deep recession, cutting their April goods trade flows – normally about $1.2T annually – to the lowest monthly level in a decade. USMCA will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which took effect in 1994 and has been lambasted by President Trump as the “worst trade deal ever made.”
Where are stocks headed for the third quarter?
Many traders and investors have been asking that question over the past few weeks, but the moment has finally arrived. So far equities appear to be starting on a tepid note, with futures largely unchanged for most of the night following the best three months in more than 20 years (the massive rally has been fueled by the Fed’s aggressive support for financial markets and signs of an early recovery in economic activity). Later in today’s session we’ll get minutes of the FOMC’s most recent monetary policy meeting, when the central bank signaled plans to keep rates close to zero for years, as well as the latest monthly data on U.S. manufacturing.
Record amount of unemployment benefits
The U.S. Treasury paid $108.5B in unemployment benefits in June, the highest amount for a single month since the COVID-19 pandemic started. For the government’s fiscal YTD, it has paid out $267.2B. The average weekly claim amounts to a little less than $1,000, which includes a temporary $600 pandemic benefit that is set to expire on July 31. If the benefit is extended, payouts could continue to climb into August and beyond.
Sweden launches probe of controversial COVID-19 response
Taking a different path compared to most European countries, Sweden has kept much of its society open by recommending social distancing and self-isolation rather than imposing a lockdown. The strategy has resulted in a much higher death rate than in neighboring countries, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Sweden’s top epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has defended the strategy, arguing that it’s the only practical way to handle the pandemic in the long run, and that lockdowns come at an avoidable cost and won’t prevent the virus from returning.
New York adds eight states to quarantine list
“You must self-quarantine for 14 days,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told prospective travelers to the Empire State. The list of those so-warned now includes California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, and Tennessee. New U.S. coronavirus cases rose by more than 47,000 on Tuesday according to a Reuters tally, the biggest one-day spike since the start of the pandemic, while Dr. Anthony Fauci warned lawmakers that daily COVID-19 infections could climb to 100,000.
Midas Touch
Gold’s rally continued yesterday as the yellow metal changed hands above $1,800 an ounce. The safe haven asset last traded above that level in 2011, and bulls are hoping history doesn’t repeat (the cross over $1,800 then was roughly the peak of a major, multi-year run higher – four years later it fell to just above $1,100). Demand appears to be driven by fresh coronavirus outbreaks, as well as a need for inflation hedges due to expansionary monetary policy.
First arrest under new security law
“#BREAKING: A man was arrested for holding a #HKIndependence flag in #CausewayBay, Hong Kong, violating the #NationalSecurityLaw. This is the first arrest made since the law has come into force,” according to a tweet from the Hong Kong Police Force. The new law stipulates that a person who “undermines national unification” of Hong Kong with the mainland will face punishment of up to life in prison, depending on the severity of the offense. The development is likely to add to the recent tensions seen between the U.S. and China. Overnight, the FCC officially designated Huawei and ZTE (OTCPK:ZTCOY) as national security threats to “America’s communications networks – and to our 5G future.”
…And Beyond
Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) is entering grocery stores in mainland China through a partnership with Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), which will begin selling the meatless burger patties at its innovation-driven Freshippo chain. The company already entered the mainland via a restaurant deal with Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) back in April and has expanded its products to Yum China’s (NYSE:YUMC) KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. The news may go some way in helping shares of Beyond Meat, which have slipped about 10% over the past week after McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) ended a trial of its meatless burger in Canada.
Brand names and logos
“Mrs. Butterworth’s was really architected to resemble a loving grandmother, but we can understand how some people may view it differently, may find it offensive,” Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) CEO Sean Connolly told CNBC, explaining the company’s brand review. “The horrific violence, the racial justice, we and other companies have to up our game when it comes to diversity and inclusion, and that starts with listening and it starts with being more aware and sensitive.” Aunt Jemima (NASDAQ:PEP), Uncle Ben’s and Cream of Wheat (NYSE:BGS) have also revealed plans to rebrand in recent weeks, while several companies have either pulled or said they will alter the names of their skin-lightening creams.
What else is happening…
Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY) slashes 15,000 jobs amid a collapse in travel.
Aeromexico (OTCPK:GRPAF) next Latin American airline to file for bankruptcy.
Report says Boeing (NYSE:BA) kept FAA in the dark on key MAX design changes.
Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) expects key FAA license within 1-2 spaceflights.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) accelerates 5G iPhone mass production – Nikkei.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) taps vet of Uber (NYSE:UBER), Apple (AAPL) to lead marketing.
Tuesday’s Key Earnings
Conagra Brands (CAG) +4.4% with organic volumes up 21% on at-home demand.
FedEx (NYSE:FDX) +9.1% AH as residential deliveries boosted results.
Today’s Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
7:30 Challenger Job-Cut Report
8:15 ADP Jobs Report
9:45 PMI Manufacturing Index
10:00 ISM Manufacturing Index
10:00 Construction Spending
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
2:00 PM FOMC minutes
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Good morning. Happy Tuesday.
The Asian/Pacific markets did well today. China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines each posted a decent gain. Europe, Africa and the Middle East currently lean down. Turkey is doing well, but the UK, Finland, Hungary, Spain and Saudi Arabia are down. Futures in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: My Favorite Scan
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The dollar is . Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are up. Bonds are down.
Stories/News from Seeking Alpha…
After testifying before the Senate last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are in the hot seat again today as they appear before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. Testimony will cover the coronavirus response detailed in the CARES Act, under which the Fed set up several new lending facilities to bolster the economy (of particular note will be the PPP and Main Street Lending Program). In prepared testimony released on Monday, Powell noted that the economic recovery had begun sooner than expected, but the path forward is “extraordinarily uncertain and will depend in large part on our success in containing the virus.”
Closing out the second quarter
U.S. stock futures drifted overnight, though equities are still set to end the quarter having erased most of the losses accrued in the first three months of the year. It’s still been quite a volatile June for the markets, with shares rallying yesterday – as certification flights began for Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) 737 MAX – after a steep selloff on Friday. Fresh data overnight also pointed to a strengthening recovery for China’s manufacturing sector, while investors stay tuned for the latest on the earnings front, with results today from FedEx (NYSE:FDX) and Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG).
Ignoring threats to impose security law
China’s top legislative body has approved a landmark national security law for Hong Kong on the eve of the 23rd anniversary marking the territory’s return to Chinese rule. The new law puts limits on civil liberties and Hong Kong’s independent judicial system, which has helped attract hundreds of international companies and could endanger the city’s appeal as a financial hub. The U.S. on Monday began eliminating Hong Kong’s special trading status, halting defense exports and restricting the territory’s access to high technology products. “Any action on sanctions will not scare us,” declared Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, while Beijing announced a visa ban on U.S. citizens who interfere with the legislation.
How severely has the coronavirus crisis hit Big Oil?
Here’s a clue: Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) is writing down between $15B-$22B of assets in the second quarter. The pandemic has hammered every part of the energy giant’s sprawling business including oil production, fuel sales and shipments of everything from LNG to petrochemicals (it even predicts that Oil Products sales volumes will be 3.5M-4.5M barrels a day in Q2, down from 6.6M a year earlier). Looking to counter the pain, the company in April cut its dividend for the first time since WWII and announced a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
Bank dividends maintained
Dividend investors are breathing a sigh of relief after most of largest U.S. banks said they scored well enough on the Fed’s most-recent stress test to maintain their current quarterly payouts. Among them are Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Citigroup (NYSE:C), who were quick to drop stock buybacks at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Only Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) said the Fed’s assessment will result in a reduction to its quarterly dividend.
Go public or be acquired?
There might be some big plans in store for Postmates (POSTM) amid a surge in demand for food delivery services due to the coronavirus pandemic. Just Eat Takeaway.com’s (OTCPK:TKAYY) $7.3B deal to acquire GrubHub (NYSE:GRUB) earlier this month, as well as recent fundraisings by peers, convinced the company the time had come to press ahead with an IPO, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, the NYT reported that Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER), which lost out to Just Eat Takeaway.com in its bid to acquire GrubHub, has also made an offer to buy Postmates. The company was last valued at $2.4B and accounts for 8% of the U.S. meal delivery market.
Space a target for cloud expansion
Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ:AMZN) will formally establish a dedicated segment, called Aerospace and Satellite Solutions, at an online summit today focused on business with the public sector. The group will be run by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Clint Crosier, who, until recently, was in charge of setting up the Space Force, the newest branch of the U.S. military. “Amazon is anticipating a huge increase in space-related cloud-computing contracts globally with a market size estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Teresa Carlson, AWS’s vice president in charge of public sector business. AWS has faced increasing pressure from rivals, and last year lost out to Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) for the Pentagon’s JEDI cloud computing contract – a deal that could be worth up to $10B over 10 years.
‘Go all out’
“Breaking even is looking super tight. Really makes a difference for every car you build and deliver. Please go all out to ensure victory!” Elon Musk wrote in an email to employees on Monday. It’s not clear whether “breaking even” refers to the company’s profit margin, or another metric, like production numbers. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is expected to report its Q2 vehicle output and delivery figures this week, while a profit would be a major surprise for Wall Street, which is currently estimating a quarterly loss of $1.45 per share. Turning a profit for Q2 would also see the company eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500, which requires a minimum of four consecutive quarters of profitability.
What else is happening…
India bans TikTok, other Chinese apps amid border tensions.
Wirecard North America is seeking a buyer.
Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) prices treatment regimen for COVID-19 at $2,340.
Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) acquires at-home fitness company Mirror for $500M.
Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) resumes quarterly dividend.
WarnerMedia (NYSE:T) is selling the CNN Center in Atlanta.
Several more advertisers pull social media ad spending.
Bloomberg subscription growth moderates, NYT (NYSE:NYT) cuts ad headcount.
Monday’s Key Earnings
Micron (NASDAQ:MU) +4.8% AH posting quarterly beats, upside outlook.
Today’s Economic Calendar
8:55 Redbook Chain Store Sales
9:00 S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index
9:45 Chicago PMI
10:00 Consumer Confidence
11:00 Fed’s Williams: “U.S. Recession and Policy Response”
11:05 Fed’s Brainard: “A Decade of Dodd-Frank”
12:30 PM Powell Testify Before House Financial Services Committee
2:00 PM Fed’s Bostic: “Race, Mobility, and Fairness in the U.S. Economy”
2:00 PM Fed’s Kashkari: “Race, Mobility, and Fairness in the U.S. Economy”
3:00 PM Farm Prices
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Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. New Zealand posted a gain, but Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and the Philippines were weak. Europe, Africa and the Middle East currently lean up. The UK, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Italy and Israel are leading. Futures in the States point towards a slight up open for the cash market.
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VIDEO: My Favorite Scan
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The dollar is down. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down.
Stories/News from Seeking Alpha…
Organizers of the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign against Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) are preparing to take the battle global, as well as emboldening regulators in Europe to take a harder stance on the social media giant. Since the campaign launched on June 17, more than 160 companies, including Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Unilever (UN, UL) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ), have pledged to stop buying Facebook ads for the month of July, and some have gone even further. While CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out some policy changes on Friday, the boycott publicity sent Facebook’s stock down 8%, wiping out $56B in market capitalization. What does the campaign want from Facebook? Solutions include a separate moderation process to help users who are targeted by racism, more transparency on how many incidents of hate speech are reported and to stop generating ad revenue from harmful content. FB -2.6% premarket.
Chesapeake Energy files for bankruptcy
The U.S. shale industry pioneer, long rumored to be seeking a bankruptcy filing, has formally commenced the process after filing for Chapter 11 proceedings. What happened? Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) amassed a huge land position that came with a lot of debt and commitments to drill, as well as long-term contracts with pipeline companies that turned into liabilities. The firm has $925M in debtor-in-possession financing to get through the bankruptcy process, while creditors will likely expect it to emerge as a much smaller entity. According to analysts, more than 200 shale companies may file for bankruptcy over the next two years if oil and gas prices stay around current levels.
Struggling for direction
Following a brutal selloff on Friday, U.S. stock index futures seesawed overnight as investors digested the latest coronavirus infection rates and what it will mean for the economy. At the time of writing, Dow futures are up 128 points, the S&P 500 is ahead by 0.4%, while contracts tied to the Nasdaq are dipping into the red due to troubles at Facebook (FB). Over the weekend, coronavirus cases worldwide passed 10M, with more than 500K deaths (2.5M infections were confirmed in the U.S. and more than 125K deaths were from COVID-19). On Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also warned that the “window was closing” for the U.S. “to take action and get the coronavirus pandemic under control.”
737 MAX recertification
Boeing (NYSE:BA) and the FAA today will begin a three-day certification test campaign for the 737 MAX, which has been grounded for nearly 15 months. “Likely weeks later, after the data is analyzed and training protocols are firmed up, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson will board the same plane to make his assessments,” Reuters reports. “If all goes well, the FAA would then need to approve new pilot training procedures, among other reviews, and would not likely approve the plane’s ungrounding until September.” Based on those projections, the jet would be on a path to resume U.S. service before year-end, though the process has been plagued by delays for more than a year. BA +3% premarket.
Future of travel
Historic changes may be coming to the travel sector as the coronavirus pandemic reverberates to all areas of the industry. Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY) is assuming a 40% drop in production over the next two years as it draws up rapid restructuring plans to deal with the upcoming slump. “I will go on the record to say that travel will never, ever go back to the way it was pre-COVID. It just won’t,” Airbnb (AIRB) CEO Brian Chesky told Axios. “There are sometimes months when decades of transformation happen.” He predicts that vacationers will stay closer to home in the near future, largely limiting their travel to places within driving distance, though “people will, one day, get back on planes.”
Fed reveals corporate bond purchases
The central bank has purchased the bonds of 794 different companies, with the paper of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (NYSE:T), and the U.S. divisions of Toyota (NYSE:TM), Volkswagen (OTCPK:VWAGY), and Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIF) making up 10% of the amount spent. The plan is to buy $250B of debt already issued, and $500B in newly issued bonds. Fed officials have said the goal of the buying is to maintain liquidity in the market for corporate debt, so that issuers are able to access capital despite the economic downturn created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Modernizing bank data collection
The FDIC is kicking off a competition among 20 data and technology firms to develop a new reporting prototype from the more than 3,200 community banks the agency oversees. “What we would like to do is frankly make the [quarterly] call reports obsolete, and not because we wouldn’t have the data but because we would have better data and we would have more timely data,” Chairman Jelena McWilliams said in a WSJ interview. The coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated how bank reporting can be out of date. For example, the FDIC wasn’t able to brief the public on the first-quarter health of the industry until earlier this month, and that briefing didn’t include data past March.
Brand names and logos
“The L’Oréal Group (OTCPK:LRLCY) has decided to remove the words white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening from all its skin evening products,” the cosmetics company said in a statement on Saturday. The announcement follows a decision by Unilever (UL, UN) on Thursday to rename their India-marketed “Fair and Lovely” skin-lightening cream for the same reason. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) made a similar decision earlier this month, saying it would stop selling skin-lightening products under its Clean & Clear and Neutrogena brands.
All in the family
Cosmetics maker Coty (NYSE:COTY) has agreed to buy a 20% stake in Kim Kardashian West’s make-up brand KKW for $200M, according to the FT, though details on sales and profits were not disclosed. The deal values the three-year-old company at $1B, slightly less than the $1.2B valuation Coty put on Kim’s younger sister Kylie Jenner’s business when it bought a 51% cent stake last year. Meanwhile, shares of Gap (NYSE:GPS) soared nearly 20% on Friday after the retailer announced a 10-year deal with the Yeezy fashion brand of Kanye West, who is married to Kim Kardashian.
End of record apparel deal
Under Armour (NYSE:UAA) is discontinuing its partnership with UCLA – a 15-year, $280M contract announced in 2016 that was billed as the biggest apparel deal in the history of American collegiate sports. The company had agreed to design and supply shoes, gear and uniforms for all 25 of the university’s men’s and women’s varsity athletic teams, replacing the university’s deal with Adidas (OTCQX:ADDYY). “We have been paying for marketing benefits that we have not received for an extended time period,” Under Armour said in a statement, while UCLA said it was “exploring all our options to resist Under Armour’s actions.”
What else is happening…
Guidance doesn’t come easy in the coronavirus era.
BP (NYSE:BP) exits petrochemical business in $5B deal.
Gunmen killed after attack at Pakistani Stock Exchange.
First profits in half a year for China’s industrial firms.
Nokia (NYSE:NOK) wins Taiwan Mobile 5G contract worth $450M.
AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) inks COVID-19 vaccine deal with Brazil.
Today’s Economic Calendar
10:00 Pending Home Sales
10:30 Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey
3:00 PM Fed’s Williams Speech
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