Friday’s Market Prepper

Economy

Stock index futures are inching up as the all-stars of central banking meet in Jackson Hole. Speeches by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and ECB President Mario Draghi will be scrutinized for hints on the path of monetary policy, but neither of them are expected to give fresh guidance. The bond market is calm at the moment, with the 10-year Treasury yield flat at 2.2%.

Ahead of a looming intraparty fight, House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted the U.S. will raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default and "there are many different options... on how we achieve that." The comments came after President Trump tweeted that Congress could have avoided a "mess" if Ryan and Mitch McConnell had taken his advice to link the debt ceiling and veterans' funding measure.

"Starting next week, the president's agenda and calendar is going to revolve around tax reform," National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn told FT. "He will start being on the road making major addresses justifying the reasoning for tax reform and why we need it in the U.S." The current American tax system has remained largely unchanged for three decades.

German business sentiment in August eased only marginally from July's record, slipping to 115.9 points from 116.0, a sign that Europe's largest economy continues to stay on a solid growth path. It comes after three months of record high readings for the index. "The sentiment among German businesses remains very strong," said IFO President Clemens Fuest.

Following repeated missile launches and an unresolved abduction issue, Japan is imposing fresh sanctions on North Korea by freezing the assets of Chinese and Namibian firms that trade with the reclusive state. The move comes days after Washington expanded its own punitive measures against Chinese and Russian businesses linked to Pyongyang.

Stocks

A court in South Korea has sentenced Samsung's (OTC:SSNLF) de facto chief Jay Y. Lee to a five-year jail term following a trial where he was accused of paying bribes to gain government favors for the conglomerate. While the case will be appealed, Samsung shares fell by 1% as investors wondered what's next for South Korea's biggest and most well-known business empire.

Fiat Chrysler has issued a statement to the Italian stock exchange following an 18% rise in the company's share price since Monday. "From time to time, FCA may receive inquiries about potential strategic transactions... as a matter of policy, FCA (NYSE:FCAU) does not comment on market rumors." Recent reports suggested that the automaker held talks with VW (OTCPK:VLKAY) and China's Great Wall Motor (OTCPK:GWLLY).

Marking its entry into the commercial freight market, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) next month plans to unveil an electric big-rig truck with a working range of 200 to 300 miles, Reuters reports. CEO Elon Musk has expressed hopes for large-scale production of the Tesla Semi within a couple of years as it accelerates production of its new Model 3 sedan. TSLA shares are up about 65% YTD.

The American steel industry is appealing directly to President Trump for immediate import restrictions as a Commerce Department probe languishes and steel imports rise back to 2015 levels. "The need for action is urgent. Since the 232 investigation was announced in April, imports have continued to surge," executives from companies including Nucor (NYSE:NUE), U.S. Steel (NYSE:X), ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) and Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) said in a letter.

Spotify has come to a long-term licensing deal with Warner Music, clearing the last big hurdle in its path to a public listing. The agreement ends more than two years of tough negotiations that pitted the company against the world's largest record labels over payments for their songs. Spotify (Private:MUSIC) has been rapidly adding paid subscribers, reaching 60M in July.

Twitter shares slipped 1% during AH trading after the social media giant was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies. The research note said Twitter's (NYSE:TWTR) "monetization is slipping" despite broad engagement and declared Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) the "clear winner" of social media. However, it didn't go so far as to rate it Sell, since it's looking to management changes to arrest a falling ARPU.

With funding coming from the Vision Fund and its own coffers, SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY) has placed $4.4B into commercial office space company WeWork (Private:VWORK). $3B of the funds will go for general corporate growth and the remaining $1.4B on expanding through China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. SoftBank board members Ronald Fisher and Mark Schwartz will join WeWork's board as part of the financing.

Stocks of major food retailers collapsed yesterday, erasing nearly $12B in market value, after Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) said Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM) will cut prices on many of its best-selling grocery products starting Monday. Prime members will also receive additional savings and in-store benefits once Amazon and Whole Foods' technologies are fully integrated. KR -8%, SFM -7%, SVU -6%, COST -5%, TGT -4%, WMT -2%.

A 53-year-old man convicted of killing two men in 1987 was executed on Thursday evening with a lethal injection that included a drug never before used in a U.S. execution. Etomidate replaced midazolam, which Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) stopped making last year as it weighed into the capital punishment debate. "We do not condone the use of our medicines in lethal injections," said Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).

Saturday's showdown between boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and MMA wunderkind Conor McGregor is already shattering records, UFC President Dana White told CNBC. The fight, produced by Showtime Sports (NYSE:CBS) and UFC, will be distributed in "over 200 countries" and could rake in $700M in pay-per-view revenue alone. Ticket sales to the event will bring in another $70M.