Friday Morning Reads

Laura weakens and moves inland

Hurricane Laura appears to have narrowly missed the heart of the U.S. fuel-making and chemicals infrastructure along the Gulf Coast, and caused less mayhem than forecasts predicted. Officials still had to cope with a chlorine leak and fire at BioLab, a chemical manufacturing facility the Lake Charles, La., area, and Motiva Enterprises reported a leak at its Port Arthur, Tex., refinery, but said it occurred during the shutdown of the refinery before the hurricane had arrived. While Laura has been downgraded to a tropical depression, almost 800K homes and businesses across Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas are still without power.

Interest rates to stay low

The fun in Jackson Hole wraps up today as the two-day virtual symposium concludes with the last livestreams from central bankers and other influential officials. Nothing is likely to compare to yesterday's speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which will have a transformative effect on U.S. monetary policy for the foreseeable future. The central bank said it will keep interest rates low to help prop up the pandemic ravaged economy even if inflation rises above its target level of 2% for periods of time. Prices of stocks, bonds and gold all made several U-turns on the news, while equities attempted another green session overnight. Dow and S&P 500 futures are up 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, while Nasdaq futures are hugging the flatline.

Abe ends run as Japan's longest-serving premier

The resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe due to health reasons saw the Nikkei fall 1.4% overnight, while the safe haven yen strengthened 0.5% against the dollar as the political uncertainty might prompt money to come back home. "Monetary and fiscal policies will remain intact for now, but the mood will sour like it did last time," said Tsutomu Soma, a bond trader at Monex in Tokyo. "It is going to take a long time for Japan to see a long-standing administration again." Abe, who has battled the chronic disease ulcerative colitis for years, returned as prime minister for a rare second term in December 2012, pledging to revive growth with his "Abenomics" mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, fiscal spending and reforms.

Rapid coronavirus tests

In a move that would substantially expand the nation's capacity for rapid testing, the Trump administration has unveiled a $750M deal to buy 150M rapid COVID-19 tests from Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT). "This is a major development that will help our country to remain open, get Americans back to work and kids back to school," White House senior adviser Alyssa Farah declared. Abbott said the new antigen test (about the size of a credit card) has demonstrated sensitivity of about 97% and could returns results in 15 minutes.

NBA set to resume playoffs?

After sitting out two days of playoff games in protest, NBA players will reportedly take to the court again on Saturday and Sunday. The Milwaukee Bucks refused to play their playoff game against Orlando on Wednesday as a response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wis. Hours later, players from 13 teams, coaches and league officials held a late-night meeting that reportedly ran off the rails. Related names ESPN (NYSE:DIS), TNT (NYSE:T), Nike (NYSE:NKE), DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG).

Look out, Fitbit!

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has introduced a wristband for health and fitness tracking called Halo, priced at $64.99, alongside a subscription service and smartphone app. It brings some new offerings, including technology to track people's body fat percentages, sleep temperature and their emotional state, as well as two microphones and an LED indicator light, but notably lacks a screen. It's Amazon’s first significant move into wearables, which Gartner estimates will be a $52B market in 2020.

Europe to start 737 MAX test flights

Boeing's (NYSE:BA) grounded 737 MAX is taking a major step toward returning to the skies after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said it would send pilots to Canada to conduct test flights, bypassing coronavirus-related travel curbs. EASA will carry out the validation flights from Vancouver during the week of Sept. 7, two months after the FAA and Boeing completed certification test flights in the U.S., followed by Canada this week. Boeing recently reeled in its first 737 MAX order this year, as Poland's Enter Air placed an order for two jets with options to buy two more. BA +1% premarket.

Go Deeper: Manufacturing defect found in Boeing Dreamliners

What else is happening...

Overlooked bond market stars may be winners in new Fed policy.

Amazon (AMZN) orders 1,800 electric vans for European deliveries.

Hertz (NYSE:HTZ) seeking up to $1.5B in bankruptcy financing - WSJ.

Israel lists first commercial passenger flight to UAE.

United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) warns pilots may be furloughed in October.