{"id":13309,"date":"2019-07-18T07:41:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T12:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=13309"},"modified":"2019-07-18T07:41:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T12:41:50","slug":"before-the-open-jul-18-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=13309","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Jul 18)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific<\/strong> markets closed mostly down. Japan and China posted big losses; India, Hong Kong and Malaysia were also down. New Zealand did well. Europe, Africa and the Middle East<\/strong> are currently mixed with a lean to the downside. Turkey, the UAE, Greece, South Africa and Switzerland are up, while the UK, Germany, Finland, Norway, Spain, Israel , Austria and Sweden are down. Futures in the States<\/strong> point towards a slight down open for the cash market. <\/span>
\n—————
\nBLOG: <\/strong>The Small Caps are Lagging \u2013 Is This a Problem?<\/a>
\n—————<\/span>
\n The dollar is down slightly. Oil is up; copper is flat. Gold is down; silver is flat. Bonds are down. <\/span>
\n Stories\/News from Seeking Alpha…<\/span>
\n U.S. equity futures suggest a third session of declines on Wall Street, down 0.2%, as Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) plunged 12% AH following a rare loss in U.S. subscribers and a large miss on international customer adds. The poor start to second quarter FAANG earnings unnerved the tech sector, while reports that U.S.-China trade negotiations are at standstill – due to Huawei restrictions – further weighed on sentiment. Be on the lookout today for the next wave of earnings, with reports from UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), Honeywell (NYSE:HON), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).<\/span>
\n More on Netflix (and IBM)<\/span>
\n Too many streaming services? Increasingly expensive? Past its peak? It’s likely a combination of factors for Netflix (NFLX), which tanked after the company reported global net adds of 2.7M, well below guidance of 5M. The company also lost more than 100K subscribers in the U.S. – where it was expected to gain over 300K – marking its first dip in eight years. Netflix is still projecting a stronger Q3 on the heels of heavy viewership of the third season of Stranger Things. In other earnings news, IBM (NYSE:IBM) reversed earlier gains after staying tight-lipped on how its acquisition of Red Hat will boost its cloud business.<\/span>
\n Instagram test will hide like count<\/span>
\n A new trial by Instagram (NASDAQ:FB) will see the social networking service hide the number of likes on posts in several countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Brazil. “We hope this test will remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love,” said Mia Garlick, Facebook Australia and New Zealand director of policy. Users will still be able to see a list of likes on their posts, just not the overall number, while video views will also be hidden.<\/span>
\n Digital tax challenges<\/span>
\n In addition to warning on the “serious risks” posed by Facebook’s (FB) Libra and other digital coins, G7 finance ministers agreed to tackle digital tax challenges at a meeting outside of Paris. “Ministers agreed that a minimum level of effective taxation, such as for example the U.S. GILTI regime, would contribute to ensuring that companies pay their fair share of tax,” according to a draft of the chair’s summary. The ‘global intangible low-taxed income’ regime aims to subject overseas intangible income to 10.5% to discourage companies from shifting profits abroad instead of the nominal U.S. corporate tax rate under the Trump tax cuts of 21%.<\/span>
\n Fannie, Freddie reforms delayed<\/span>
\n The Trump administration’s highly anticipated blueprint for overhauling mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae (OTCQB:FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTCQB:FMCC) may not be published until September as the U.S. Treasury “juggles a number of balls.” Those include the ongoing trade war with China, debt ceiling negotiations with Congress and imposing sanctions on Iran. FHFA Director Mark Calabria, who oversees the government-sponsored enterprises, said in an interview it was his “hope” that they would have exited or be ready to exit conservatorship before his term ends in 2024.<\/span>
\n Halting no-deal Brexit<\/span>
\n The U.K.’s House of Lords has backed an amendment designed to block the country\u2019s next prime minister from pushing through a no-deal Brexit by suspending Parliament, boosting the increasingly volatile pound 0.3% to $1.2467. The measure will still have to be approved by MPs today in order to make it into the final version of the bill. Tory leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson has not ruled out the maneuver to ensure the U.K. leaves the EU by an October 31 deadline.<\/span>
\n Russia backs Iran trade vehicle<\/span>
\n Russia is prepared to join an EU payments channel designed to circumvent U.S. sanctions banning trade with Iran, but has called on Brussels to expand the new mechanism to cover oil exports. The vehicle, known as Instex, intends to allow for imports and exports without direct financial flows. “The more countries and continents involved, the more effective will the mechanism be as a whole,” the Russian foreign ministry told the FT.<\/span>
\n WHO sounds Ebola alarm<\/span>
\n The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo to be a “public health emergency of international concern” after the spread of the virus to the city of Goma and into Uganda. The designation signals risk that a disease could spread globally and is meant to corral political and financial support to stop it. Responders have been using an experimental vaccine made by Merck (NYSE:MRK) in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus, with more than 140,000 people in the DRC immunized so far.<\/span>
\n What else is happening…<\/span>
\n Bank of Korea next to jump on the rate cut bandwagon.<\/span>
\n Boeing (NYSE:BA) to give $50M to families of 737 MAX crash victims.<\/span>
\n U.S. solar firms seek to preserve a key subsidy.<\/span>
\n Coming today… Qualcomm’s (NASDAQ:QCOM) second EU antitrust fine?<\/span>
\n Waters calls for Facebook’s (FB) Zuckerberg to testify on Libra.<\/span>
\n Vodafone (NASDAQ:VOD) wins EU approval for Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) deal.<\/span>
\n Wednesday’s Key Earnings<\/strong>
\n Abbott (NYSE:ABT) +3.1% raising guidance for 2019.
\n Alcoa (NYSE:AA) -2.7% AH cutting its industry outlook.
\n Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) +0.7% helped by consumer banking.
\n BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK) +2.3% beating earnings estimates.
\n eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) +6% boosting FY EPS view.
\n IBM (IBM) -1.3% AH posting another revenue drop.
\n Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) -2.1% AH missing analyst expectations.
\n Netflix (NFLX) -12% AH as subscriber count came up short.
\n PNC Financial (NYSE:PNC) +0.7% amid loan, NII growth.
\n U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) +2.2% increasing loan, deposits.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar<\/strong>
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 8:30 Philly Fed Business Outlook
\n 10:00 Leading Indicators
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 2:15 PM Fed’s Williams: Monetary Policy
\n 4:30 PM Money Supply
\n 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday. The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Japan and China posted big losses; India, Hong Kong and Malaysia were also down. New Zealand did well. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently mixed with a lean to the downside. Turkey, the UAE, Greece, South Africa and Switzerland are up, while the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}