Fridays Market Prepper

Fridays Market Prepper: Reads, News, Charts, and More

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The VIX - 1yr chart

 

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AT&T lawyers are talking with the Justice Department about terms of its $85B takeover of Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), The Wall Street Journal reports, hitting a key milestone suggesting the deal's success is imminent. Time Warner shares, down as much as 0.7% earlier, have jumped back to the flat line. Talks are progressing despite the lack of an antitrust chief at the department; the Senate adjourned for its August recess without confirming Makan Delrahim for the position. The Senate returns Sept. 5. It also suggests that the much-publicized opposition to the deal from the candidate and President Trump might not endanger the deal after all. And the deal-risk gap has narrowed to about 5% difference between Time Warner's share price and AT&T's (NYSE:T) offer value, from about 20% when the deal was announced last fall. The government is examining issues including AT&T's treatment of content makers that compete with Time Warner, and its control of customer data.

Economy

Spanish security forces are searching for the driver of a van-ramming attack at Las Ramblas, a busy pedestrian mall in Barcelona, Spain, that killed at least 13 people and injured over 100. According to witnesses, the attacker has escaped on foot following the attack, responsibility for which has been claimed by ISIS. European travel stocks are declining overseas amid a global selloff.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak at Jackson Hole next week. The subject of the speech will be "Financial Stability," and it will happen on August 25 at 10 ET. The talk comes a couple of weeks ahead of the FOMC's next policy meeting, at which most are currently expecting another rate hike and the start of the wind-down of the central bank's balance sheet.

Stocks

Do small caps lead? Lag? Not matter? The major averages have been rocking pretty much all year, but the Russell 2000 lagged by a pretty nice measure - peaking with about a 6% YTD advance in late July, and swooning since. With Thursday's 1.4% decline, the small cap index is in the green for the year by just a handful of basis points. The S&P 500 remains higher by nearly 9%, and the Nasdaq by 16%.

Ousted Uber CEO Travis Kalanick calls an investor lawsuit against him a meritless "public and personal attack," according to court documents. The plaintiff, venture capital firm Benchmark Capital, seeks to remove Kalanick from the company board, accusing the Uber (Private:UBER) co-founder of fraud and deception.

WSJ reports that Energy Capital Partners is near a deal to acquire power generating company Calpine Corp. (NYSE:CPN) for $15.25/share, which could be announced as soon as Friday. The deal would value CPN at $5.5B; including debt, the enterprise value would be ~$17B. CPN, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2008, has been cutting costs and selling off non-core assets as the company and its peers struggle with historically low natural gas prices.

Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys (NASDAQ:INFY), has unexpectedly stepped down, citing a "continuous drumbeat of distractions and negativity" that "inhibits [Infosys'] ability to make positive change." In recent months, the India-based IT services giant has been battling company founders and former executives over a number of board decisions. The stock is plunging some 10%in overseas markets.

Home Depot has announced that GE's (NYSE:GE) Current unit and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will install solar systems on 50 of its stores and sell the power output to the retailer; financial terms have not been revealed. Home Depot (NYSE:HD) has said the project will reduce electricity grid demand by 30-35% annually at each store, the equivalent of powering 2,300 average U.S. homes for a year. The solar addition will bring HD's alternative energy footprint to more than 130 MW as it pursues a goal of utilizing 135 MW of alternative and renewable energy by 2020.

The first preliminary settlements - $48.5 million for Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) and $17 million for Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) - have been filed in a lawsuit over a "brazen conspiracy" to rig the government agency bond market, according to court documents. The lawsuit accuses 10 banks in all of colluding to force unfair bond prices on customers from 2005 to 2015. The other defendants include BNP Paribas (OTCQX:BNPQY), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), HSBC Holdings (NYSE:HSBC), Nomura (NYSE:NMR), Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD).

Chris Wanstrath says he will step down as CEO of developer platform GitHub (NYSEARCA:GIT) as soon as a replacement is found. Wanstrath, who says he has been contemplating the move for months, plans to then take an executive chairman role and "focus on product strategy and the GitHub community," according to Forbes.

Thursday's Key Earnings
Zoe's Kitchen (NYSE:ZOES-4.4% AH on earnings miss, fall in number of transactions.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) +4.9% AH on earnings beat.
Gap (NYSE:GPS+5.5% AH on earnings beat, improved FY guidance.
Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST+10% AH on earnings and revenue growth.

Today's Markets 
In Asia, Japan -1.2%. Hong Kong -1.1%. China flat. India -0.9%.
In Europe, at midday, London -1%. Paris -1.1%. Frankfurt -0.9%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow +0.1%. S&P +0.1%. Nasdaq +0.2%. Crude +0.6% to $47.34. Gold +0.6% to $1,300.60.
Ten-year Treasury Yield -5 bps to 2.19%

Today's Economic Calendar
10:00 Consumer Sentiment
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count

Known to most as Uranium Pinto Beans, Jason has more than 15 years under his belt of trading stocks, options and currencies. His expertise primarily lies in chart analysis, and he has a strong eye for undervalued stock. Because he’s got the ability to identify great risk/reward trades he usually enjoys taking the path less traveled and reaping the benefits from the adventure.

He is a co-founder of Option Millionaires, and he is best known for his weekly webinars with Scott, as well as his high level training webinars and charts found in the forums.

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