{"id":13352,"date":"2019-08-08T07:30:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T12:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=13352"},"modified":"2019-08-08T07:30:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T12:30:57","slug":"before-the-open-aug-8-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=13352","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Aug 8)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific<\/strong> markets closed mostly up. China, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia all did very well. Europe, Africa and the Middle East<\/strong> are mostly up. Denmark, Poland, France, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Israel and Sweden are all posting solid gains. Futures in the States<\/strong> point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market. <\/span>
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\n The dollar is up. Oil and copper are up. Gold and silver are down. Bonds are down. <\/span>
\n Stories\/News from Seeking Alpha…<\/span>
\n Following a bout of market volatility, stocks across the world are attempting to stabilize amid stronger-than-expected Chinese trade data that eased concerns about a sharp deterioration in the global economic outlook. U.S. stocks whipsawed yesterday, with the DJIA swinging more than 600 points at its widest span, while Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said trade headwinds could justify additional rate cuts. Ahead of the open, the Dow and S&P 500 are up 0.4%, while the Nasdaq is ahead by 0.7%. Bond yields have also rebounded from significant lows, with the 10-year advancing 4 bps to 1.73% after tumbling as low as 1.53% on Wednesday.<\/span>
\n Crude comeback<\/span>
\n Saudi Arabia has reportedly phoned other oil producers to discuss possible policy responses following crude’s 4.7% plunge on Wednesday to seven-month lows. The kingdom, which has already cut production more than required under the OPEC+ agreement, said it won’t tolerate a continued slide in prices and is considering all options. The U.S. benchmark crude rose 3.2% to $52.72\/bbl after the Saudi efforts were revealed. Planned OPEC+ gatherings are also set for the week starting Sept. 9 in Abu Dhabi.<\/span>
\n Suspending trade ties<\/span>
\n Pakistani stocks dropped for a sixth straight day after the government suspended bilateral trade with India in a deepening spat over the disputed Kashmir region. The benchmark KSE-100 Index fell 2.2%, sliding to a new four-year low. On Monday, India said its central government would scrap Article 370, a constitutional provision that allowed the state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws and granted special rights and privileges to permanent residents.<\/span>
\n Uber vs. Lyft<\/span>
\n Uber (NYSE:UBER) is in the hot seat as it gears up to report financial results after the market close. Expectations are for a rise in second-quarter revenue as growth in Uber Eats offsets a decrease in riders. Investors will also look for comments on the company’s timeline on turning a profit and updates on the recent protests by drivers against low pay and working conditions. On Wednesday, rival Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) boosted its outlook for the year, as the company gained more riders and amid new signs that the once-raging price war with Uber is abating.<\/span>
\n Meatless craze<\/span>
\n Burger King (NYSE:QSR) will bring the Impossible Whopper to all of its 7,200 U.S. locations today after a successful test run in seven markets. The nation’s second-largest burger chain began testing the plant-based burger from Impossible Foods at locations in St. Louis in April. Those outlets saw traffic outperform national averages by 18.5% that month, according to a report from inMarket.<\/span>
\n Salesforce wallet still open<\/span>
\n Just a week after Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) completed the $15.3B purchase of big data firm Tableau – its biggest deal ever – the company is again in the M&A groove. It has agreed to buy Israeli field service company ClickSoftware for $1.35B in cash and stock. Salesforce hopes the purchase will accelerate the growth of its Service Cloud platform and it expects to close the deal during its fiscal quarter ending Oct. 31.<\/span>
\n Gun purchases<\/span>
\n Unlike PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Square (NYSE:SQ), Visa (NYSE:V) will continue to facilitate gun purchases as long as it is legal for people to buy guns. “We are guided by the federal laws in a country, and our job is to create and to facilitate fair and secure commerce,” said CEO Alfred Kelly, the latest corporate leader to address the issue of gun control after the weekend mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. “We shouldn’t tell people they can’t purchase a 32-ounce soda. We shouldn\u2019t tell people they can’t buy reproductive drugs.”<\/span>
\n Internet companies to the White House<\/span>
\n The Trump administration has invited internet and technology companies to a roundtable discussion on violent online extremism tomorrow after coming under growing pressure to deter mass shootings tied to internet-fueled racism. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear, though, which companies would be involved in the meeting. A Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) spokesperson declined to comment, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) did not immediately respond to requests.<\/span>
\n What else is happening…<\/span>
\n Above $1,500… Gold has a better return than stocks YTD.<\/span>
\n Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) unveils latest Galaxy Note 10 models.<\/span>
\n FDA investigating 127 reports of seizures after vaping.<\/span>
\n First look at the Huawei ban?<\/span>
\n Venezuela government skips talks in protest of U.S. sanctions.<\/span>
\n Puerto Rico gets its third governor in a week.<\/span>
\n Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) probed over unfair competition in Russia.<\/span>
\n Wednesday’s Key Earnings<\/strong>
\n AIG (NYSE:AIG) +3.6% AH blowing out expectations.
\n CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL) -0.7% AH missing revenue estimates.
\n CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) +7.5% beating Q2 consensus.
\n Energy Transfer (NYSE:ET) +2.6% AH as EBITDA hit record.
\n Lyft (LYFT) +4% AH adding more riders, lifting outlook.
\n New York Times (NYSE:NYT) -12.3% amid ad revenue scare.
\n Roku (NASDAQ:ROKU) +12.4% AH sailing over Street’s Q2 bar.
\n Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ:SWKS) -7.4% AH on downside forecast.
\n Teva Pharma (NYSE:TEVA) +3.3% amid Q2 beat, CFO resignation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Today’s Economic Calendar<\/strong>
\n 8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
\n 10:00 Wholesale Trade
\n 10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
\n 1:00 PM Results of $19B, 30-Year Note Auction
\n 4:30 PM Money Supply
\n 4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Thursday. The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia all did very well. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are mostly up. Denmark, Poland, France, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Israel and Sweden are all […]<\/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\/13352"}],"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=13352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}