Tuesdays Market Prepper

Economy

The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all closed higher by over 1% on Monday, for only the second time this year, as the UN voted unanimously for fresh sanctions against North Korea. The measures will cap oil imports to the isolated country, impose an embargo on all textile trade, and require inspections and monitoring of Pyongyang's sea vessels. U.S. stock index futures are staying green on the relief.

Theresa May has welcomed a vote in the U.K. parliament backing legislation to sever ties with the European Union, stating the decision meant "we can move on with negotiations with solid foundations." The Withdrawal Bill will formally end Britain's EU membership and overturn the supremacy of European law in the country. It will now go on to face days of line-by-line scrutiny.

Economic data out of Scandinavia: Norway's Central Bank has released its latest survey on the country's economy, which expects the pace of output growth for companies to fall over the next six months. Meanwhile, Sweden's inflation again topped estimates in August, adding to speculation the central bank will move forward an end to some of its unprecedented stimulus.

OPEC's estimate of its oil production is expected to show a decrease in August as the group's biggest member, Saudi Arabia, pared output, sources told Bloomberg. Crude futures are heading lower, however, dipping 0.5% to $47.81/bbl, as refiners in the U.S. continue to come back online after Hurricane Harvey forced them to shut down two weeks ago.

Nearly half of Florida is now in the dark, with more than 7.4M homes and businesses without power following Hurricane Irma. The storm, currently south of Atlanta, has been downgraded to a tropical depression, but it's still disrupting the U.S. food industry. Besides whipping orange trees in the Sunshine State, Irma has prompted Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSM) to shut its meat plants in the region, and the Port of Savannah, which exports almost a third of all U.S. poultry, will remain closed for today.

The total value of the U.S. national debt has surpassed the $20T mark for the first time in the history of the nation. The problem isn't likely to get better anytime soon; the 2017 fiscal year budget ends Sept. 30, and is slated to add another $700B deficit. U.S. debt also exceeds GDP, which was estimated to be roughly $19.23T in the second quarter of 2017.

Stocks

A group including Western Digital has won the bidding for Toshiba's (OTCPK:TOSYY) chip unit for somewhere around ¥2T ($18.3B), according to Nikkan Kogyo. Toshiba plans to make a formal decision tomorrow, with the signing of an agreement to come after a board meeting on Sept. 20. WDC+4.4% premarket.

Pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 8 have hit the highest-ever for the premium smartphone series, according to Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF), beating its predecessor Note 7 over five days by about 2.5 times. The company is also aiming to launch a foldable Note smartphone next year, but disclosed that it has several bendable display hurdles still to overcome.

Already offloading assets? Just hours after appointing a new CEO, Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE:TEVA) agreed to sell Paragard, its intrauterine copper contraceptive brand, to CooperSurgical for $1.1B in cash. The sale is the first step in the planned divestment of non-core assets and includes the drugmaker’s manufacturing facility in Buffalo, NY.

More than 30 lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. against Equifax (NYSE:EFX), pulling shares down 8% on Monday, after the credit reporting company said thieves may have stole the personal information of 143M Americans. Many of those raising similar claims will likely be combined into a single, nationwide case. EFX -1.2% premarket.

Facing off in court... Twenty-First Century Fox (FOX, FOXA) has joined a challenge to rival CBS's proposed buyout of Ten Network Holdings. The fight centers around creditors and bid prices after the Australian television broadcaster went into administration three months ago following long declines in viewership and ad revenue.

People who are tired of paying for TV sports channels they don't watch will soon have a new option, WSJ reports. Cable channels owned by Discovery Communication (NASDAQ:DISCA), Viacom (VIA, VIAB), AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX), Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE:SNI) and A&E (NYSE:DIS) will be part of a new streaming service expected to have a "soft launch" in coming weeks. Subscriptions will cost less than $20/month.

Cries for the skies! Theresa May personally asked President Trump last week to intervene in a dispute between Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Bombardier (OTCQX:BDRAF) in order to safeguard the latter's U.K. operations from potential job losses. Earlier this year, Boeing complained that Bombardier was dumping passenger jets on the U.S. market and claimed it received illegal subsidies from Canada.

The U.S. Transportation Department will unveil streamlined safety guidelines today for automakers that want to deploy self-driving vehicles, as members of Congress push to remove regulatory barriers for the technology. A Reuters source said the new document is titled A Vision for Safety, and will be less "burdensome" and half the length of the Obama administration guidelines released in September 2016.

Separately, the NTSB is expected to release findings today that suggest Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) Autopilot was a contributing factor in the May 2016 death of a motorist. That case has highlighted concerns about the design of systems that automate some, but not all, driving tasks. Tesla said at the time that its Autopilot "is not perfect and still requires the driver to remain alert."

The world's automakers are at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, grappling with challenges, including energy efficiency, autonomous cars and changing consumer desires. Electric is definitely the buzzword, but others are speaking out against the global push to scrap conventional engines. The current discussion regarding diesel cars is "unjustified," VW (OTCPK:VLKAY) CEO Matthias Mueller declared, stating that the diesel engine has a "great future" ahead.