Friday Morning Reads, News, Charts

Economy

In a setback for the ECB, eurozone inflation in June fell to the lowest level in 2017, sinking to 1.3%, despite signs of a continuing pickup in economic growth. That edged the annual rate of inflation further away from the ECB's target of just below 2%, a goal it has spent three years trying to reach using a variety of stimulus measures.

Theresa May's Conservative minority government has secured lawmakers' backing for its legislative plans by a narrow margin, but only after making a sudden concession on abortion funding to stave off defeat. The U.K. House of Commons voted by 323 to 309 to approve last week's Queen's Speech, which laid out the government's agenda for the next two years and Brexit negotiations.

The U.K. and U.S. will begin "actual discussions" over a post-Brexit trade agreement on July 24, U.K. Trade Secretary Liam Fox told BBC TV's Question Time. Britain cannot formally sign trade deals with other countries until it leaves the EU in March 2019, but can prepare the groundwork for them to be ratified soon after.

China's manufacturing activity accelerated more than expected in June, suggesting the world's second-largest economy continues to confound expectations for a slowdown. The official manufacturing PMI rose to 51.7, compared to a reading of 51.2 in May. Investors also digested economic data out of Japan, but local equities sold off following the fall in tech stocks overnight.

Islamic State is on the cusp of defeat in Mosul and close to being driven out of Iraq, after the country's military seized a mosque in the city where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi first proclaimed a caliphate. "We are seeing the end of the fake Daesh state," Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Twitter. "The liberation of Mosul proves that. We will not relent."

House Republicans have taken action to crack down on illegal immigration. The "No Sanctuary for Criminals Act" would cut federal grants to states and "sanctuary cities" that refuse to cooperate with law enforcement, while another, called "Kate's Law," would increase the penalties for deported aliens who try to return to the U.S.

"We will be dominant. We will export American energy all over the world," President Trump said at the "Unleashing American Energy Event." "But this full potential can only be realized when government promotes energy development... The golden era of American energy is now underway." Crude futures are presently on track for their biggest weekly gain since mid-May, ending five weeks of losses.

Stocks

The U.S. Interior Department is rewriting a drilling plan established by the Obama administration, with an eye toward opening areas in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans that now are off-limits to drilling. It comes as the U.S. State Department issued permits for three NuStar Logistics (NYSE:NS) pipelines crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, adding to the raft of energy deals announced this week.

While the first day of trade is no death sentence, Blue Apron (NYSE:APRN) had a dismal debut session on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares spiked in the morning, but the gains were soon pared back, closing the day unchanged at $10. The IPO raised about $300M that the U.S. meal kit provider plans to use for expansion.

Elon Musk will reveal the release date of the Model 3 on Sunday, which already has more than 400,000 pre-orders. Is a configurator in store? Will a final production version of the car be unveiled? When will deliveries start? The vehicle, which starts at around $35,000 - making it the cheapest in Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) range - was unveiled last year.

"In late 2015, we hit a big milestone: one billion trips. Six months later, we crossed two billion," UBER wrote in a blog post. "And just a few weeks ago, on Saturday, May 20, 156 trips started simultaneously at 7:29:06am GMT, putting us over the five billion mark. Moving forward, we're more focused than ever on building features for riders and drivers that will get us to the next five billion."

New troubles? Boeing (NYSE:BA) briefly suspended flights last month of its new 737 Max jetliner because of a possible flaw in an engine part produced by Arconic (NYSE:ARNC), Bloomberg reports. The revelation could prove another blow to Arconic, which is facing possible lawsuits for supplying panels linked to this month's deadly London high-rise fire.

Citing privacy laws, Deutsche Bank's (NYSE:DB) external counsel in Washington, D.C., rejected demands by U.S. House Democrats to provide details of President Trump's finances. "We respectfully disagree with the suggestion that Deutsche Bank freely may reveal confidential financial information in response to requests from individual members of Congress," the counsel wrote in a letter.

Despite calling bitcoin "a bubble," Mark Cuban is looking to take part in one of the hottest trends in the digital currency world right now: the initial coin offering. The company he's involved with is Unikrn, a platform for eSports betting. An ICO is a fundraising process for blockchain-based projects that allows investors to own part of a project through a digital network token.

Alibaba plans to introduce a voice-controlled speaker product in China that is similar to the Amazon Echo (NASDAQ:AMZN), according to The Information. The new product could allow consumers to shop through the e-commerce giant's virtual assistant, but would only speak Mandarin. Shares of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) are up 57% YTD.

Sprint used confidential information from its alliance with RadioShack (NYSE:RSH) to open competing mobile phone stores, dooming the comeback by the electronics retailer, according to a lawsuit filed by RadioShack creditors. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2015 with a deal to co-brand about 1,400 stores with Sprint (NYSE:S); however, by early 2017, RadioShack had returned to bankruptcy and is liquidating.

Rapper Jay-Z dropped his new album 4:44 at the stroke of midnight, exclusively on the streaming platform he co-founded and to subscribers of Sprint (S). Since its 2015 launch, the digital music service TIDAL has battled bigger names, including Spotify (Private:MUSIC) and Apple Music (NASDAQ:AAPL). TIDAL's recent tie-up with telecom company Sprint is seen as a bid to develop its distribution.

Greta Van Susteren is out at MSNBC (NASDAQ:CMCSA) less than six months after she started at the cable channel. She joined the network from Fox News (FOX, FOXA) in January to host For the Record with Greta, but the show has struggled in the ratings. Taking over the 6 p.m. slot is Ari Melber, MSNBC's chief legal correspondent and host of weekend show The Point.

New York Times staffers held a walkout on Thursday afternoon to protest pending job cuts expected to affect the newspaper's copy editing staff. "In an age of fake news, we need copy editors more than ever," said Josh Austin, a spokesman for the NewsGuild union. In late May, New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT) said if enough people didn't accept buyouts, part of a broader restructuring, it would be forced to lay off staff.