Friday Morning Market Prepper

Friday Morning Market Prepper

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World stocks are falling for a fourth day after President Trump doubled down on his North Korean rhetoric, stating his "fire and fury" statement "wasn't tough enough." He also warned that if Kim Jong-un's regime "does anything" to the U.S. or an ally, "things will happen to them like they never thought possible." Another threat to Pyongyang? China state media said the country should remain neutral if North Korea fires first on U.S. territory.

Economy

"We're going to be increasing our budget by many billions of dollars because of North Korea and other reasons having to do with the anti-missile," President Trump said at his New Jersey golf club. Current components of the U.S. National Missile Defense program are made by Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Raytheon (NYSE:RTN), Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), Orbital ATK (NYSE:OA), Engility (NYSE:EGL), Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Honeywell (NYSE:HON).

A final reading of Singapore's economy showed a faster pace than expected in Q2 due to a manufacturing boost, as gross domestic product rose 2.9% on-year. "Barring unexpected outcomes in the global economy and key sectors in the domestic economy, GDP growth for the full year is likely to come in at around 2.5%," said Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro has called on President Trump to engage in a "personal conversation" just days after being hit with new U.S. sanctions for his creation of an all-powerful legislative assembly. "If he [Trump] is so interested in Venezuela, here I am," he said during a lengthy address. "Mr. Donald Trump, here is my hand."

The oil market is re-balancing but output from non-OPEC producers will continue to expand over the coming years, according to the latest report from the International Energy Agency. It comes as OPEC announced a continued rise in its collective output, which jumped by 173K bpd to almost 32.9M barrels in July, undermining its efforts to reduce production and boost prices. Crude futures -1% to $48.11/bbl.

Stocks

Snap tumbled over 14% in after-hours trading, with the firm reporting a decrease in its daily active users. Its quarterly loss nearly quadrupled amid slowing revenue, adding to fears the social media company could be succumbing to competition from Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). SNAP is "still in the very early stages" of monetizing, CEO Evan Spiegel said on an earnings call.

The exodus at Uber continues... Ryan Graves, who serves as senior vice president of operations and is on the executive leadership team, will relinquish those positions in mid-September. Meanwhile, one of UBER's largest shareholders, Benchmark Capital, has sued co-founder and ousted CEO Travis Kalanick, claiming he has not honored the terms of his resignation to force him off the board.

A consortium has been formed by Toyota (NYSE:TM), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and other technology and auto companies to create an ecosystem for big data used in connected cars. "It's estimated that the data volume between vehicles and the cloud will reach 10 exabytes per month around 2025, approximately 10,000 times larger than the present volume," the group said in a statement.

It would represent Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) latest attempt to use its massive customer base, tech savvy and bargaining power to shake up a big market. The world's largest online retailer is seeking to partner with U.S. venue owners to sell event tickets, sources told Reuters, a move that could loosen Ticketmaster's (NYSE:LYV) powerful grip on the lucrative business.

The hacker who stole TV show scripts from HBO (NYSE:TWX) has leaked an email, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, showing a company executive offering a "bounty payment" to the cyber-thief. "As a show of good faith on our side, we are willing to commit to making a bug bounty payment of $250,000 to you as soon as we can establish the necessary account and acquire bitcoin."

Investigators have uncovered a global financial network run by a senior Islamic State official that funneled money to an alleged ISIS operative in the U.S. Mohamed Elshinawy had pretended to sell computer printers on eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) as a cover to receive payments through PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), according to a recently unsealed FBI affidavit.

On watch... Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) is banning its traders from dealing with certain Venezuelan bonds, fearing any potential reputational fallout from supporting the government of Nicolas Maduro. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) came under political pressure for buying a reported $2.8B in Venezuelan bonds at a significant discount.

China's cyber regulator is investigating the country's top social media sites over content banned by the Communist Party. The Cyberspace Administration said WeChat (OTCPK:TCEHY), Tieba (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) have users spreading "violence and terror, false rumors, obscene pornography and other hazards to national security, public safety and social order."

Citing concerns about online harassment, Google (GOOGGOOGL) has canceled a company-wide meeting scheduled to discuss the controversy over a recent employee memo opposing diversity policies. "Googlers are writing in, concerned about their safety and worried they may be 'outed' publicly for asking a question in the Town Hall," declared CEO Sundar Pichai, saying the company was exploring other forums for the discussion.

President Trump has declared the opioid crisis a national emergency, a designation that would offer states and federal agencies more resources and power to combat the epidemic. "We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had." Related tickers: JNJENDPTEVAABCMCKINSYDEPOAGNALKSMNKAMPHPFEBDSIDRRXCARACOLLEGLTPTIEACURPTXACRXIPCIKMPHTRVN

Thursday's Key Earnings
Kohl's (NYSE:KSS-5.8% on its latest revenue drop.
Macy's (NYSE:M-10.3% with falling comparable sales.
Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN+2.8% AH boosting same-store sales.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA-4.3% AH as server growth slowed down.
Snap (NYSE:SNAP-14.4% AH amid slowing user growth.
Today's Markets 
In Asia, Japan closed. Hong Kong -2%. China -1.6%. India -1%.
In Europe, at midday, London -1.2%. Paris -1.1%. Frankfurt -0.3%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow -0.1%. S&P -0.1%. Nasdaq -0.2%. Crude -1% to $48.11. Gold +0.3% to $1293.60.
Ten-year Treasury Yield -2 bps to 2.19%Today's Economic Calendar
8:30 Consumer Price Index
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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