Tuesdays Market Prepper

Economy

The Federal Reserve's two-day meeting is set to kick off, with officials expected to take further steps to normalize policy and unwind the bank's $4.5T balance sheet. The yield on U.S. 10-year paper hit a month-high as investors awaited the Fed, but the rise was on thin volume, and is now back at the flatline at 2.22%.

China's central bank is drafting a package of reforms which would give foreign investors greater access to the nation's financial services industry, Bloomberg reports. The PBOC convened an internal meeting today to discuss its proposals and get feedback from Chinese institutions, as well as discuss the lessons learned from previous cooperation with foreign firms.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has hinted about the existence of military options on North Korea that might spare Seoul from a brutal counterattack. Pressed on whether that might include so-called "kinetic" options that use lethal force, he said: "I don't want to go into that." President Trump also spoke about Korea yesterday with China's President Xi, who will not be attending this week's UN General Assembly.

The value of Norway's sovereign wealth fund has hit a major milestone. "I don't think anyone expected the fund to ever reach $1T when the first transfer of oil revenue was made in May 1996," said CEO Yngve Slyngstad of Norges Bank Investment Management, which operates the fund. It has grown to become one of the world’s largest investors, owning on average 1.3% of every listed company on the globe.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has formally demanded the suspension of next week's referendum on Kurdish independence, while the Supreme Court ordered the poll must be postponed until questions over its legality were addressed. The Kurds have so far ignored the last-ditch efforts to stop them from carving out a new country, while U.S. and international diplomats persuade them to wait on the vote, scheduled for Sept. 25.

Hurricane Maria has hit the island of Dominica, becoming the second category five storm to hit the Caribbean this month and prompting President Trump to declare a state of emergency in Puerto Rico. The U.S. territory has imposed a rationing of basic supplies including water, baby formula and canned foods as the "extremely dangerous hurricane" barrels towards it and other Irma-battered islands.

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee will hold a Sept. 25 hearing on the latest Graham-Cassidy bill to overhaul Obamacare, the first public hearing all year on any Republican effort to gut the healthcare law. The CBO also "aims to provide a preliminary assessment" next week. The Senate must vote on the bill by Sept. 30 to be able to pass it with a simple majority of 51 votes.

Stocks

Toys "R" Us is officially bankrupt. Facing imminent deadlines to pay off hundreds of millions in debt, the largest U.S. toy store chain has filed for Chapter 11. Buyers have moved online over the years, as well as choosing home delivery, while discounters like Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT) have captured market share. On watch: Shares in toymakers Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT), Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) and JAKKS Pacific (NASDAQ:JAKK).

Equifax has acknowledged that it faced a security issue earlier this year, sources told Bloomberg, in a breach that's separate from the one that has dominated headlines for the past several days. Equifax (NYSE:EFX) brought in FireEye-owned (NASDAQ:FEYE) Mandiant to help investigate the first event, which came to light in March, and did the same thing after it discovered the hack on July 29.

Amazon Web Services is taking on its competitors by announcing pricing by the second for EC2 instances. AWS (NASDAQ:AMZN) originally charged by the hour, but changed after Google's (GOOG, GOOGL) cloud started charging by the minute in 2013, with Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure quickly adopting the same pricing strategy. According to Canalys, Amazon held 30.3% of the cloud infrastructure services market in Q2 compared to 13.8% for Azure and 5.9% for Google.

U.S. food stamp recipients are required to pay for their purchases at the "actual time and place" of sale, but Wal-Mart (WMT) is removing a hurdle that has long prevented them from using its online platform. Shoppers will be allowed to use EBT to order items through its website, then pay in-person when they pick up their groceries. According to the USDA, about 44M individuals benefit from food stamps in the U.S.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has signed a bill that would give Taiwan's Foxconn (OTC:FXCOF) $3B in economic incentives to open a mega LCD plant in the state, which could employ up to 13,000 workers over a period of six years. The package garnered pushback from Democratic lawmakers, who said the deal was bad for taxpayers, but the GOP-controlled state legislature easily passed the measure.

Canada's Justin Trudeau has shot back at Boeing (NYSE:BA), stating his country will not purchase any Super Hornet jets if it continues to pursue a lawsuit against aircraft builder Bombardier (OTCQX:BDRAF, OTCQX:BDRBF). His comments come after meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May, who joined the Canadian leader in saying she would work with him to oppose Boeing's move against Bombardier.

"EVs are in focus at the moment but customers and the market will ultimately decide which powertrains will be successful," Toyota (NYSE:TM) President Akio Toyoda declared, as tighter global regulations prompt automakers to develop more electric vehicles. "Toyota will continue to focus on powertrains that focus on hybrid technology, including fuel cell vehicles, plug-in hybrids and - although we were a bit late to the game - EVs."

Uber grounded its fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh for a few hours yesterday as the company investigated a fender bender involving one of its vehicles. UBER, which last week celebrated the one-year anniversary of its autonomous car pilot program in the city, has reported more than 1M self-driving miles and more than 30K rides to customers in Pittsburgh, Tempe and San Francisco.

Intel has announced a collaboration with Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Waymo self-driving unit, saying it had worked with the company during the design of its computer platform to allow autonomous cars to process information in real time. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is also investing over $1B in AI startups, supporting a number of financing rounds for Data Robot, Mighty AI, and Lumiata.

Florida policyholders have so far filed nearly $2B in claims to insurers for damage from Hurricane Irma, according to the state's insurance regulator. About 88% of the total number of claims were from residential property owners, of which only 3.8% have been closed. Shares of Florida-based insurers Heritage Insurance (NYSE:HRTG) and Universal Insurance (NYSEMKT:UVE) fell on the news on Monday, as well as HCI, Federated National (NASDAQ:FNHC) and United Insurance (NASDAQ:UIHC).

Creditors of Australia's Ten Network have voted in favor of a takeover offer from CBS, while the latter increased its bid for the bankrupt television broadcaster ahead of an overnight creditor vote. The meeting showed CBS won support from creditors both in value terms and by number, said Michael Smith, a spokesman for administrator KordaMentha.

The cable news wars just went into full battle mode. Starting next week, Sean Hannity is moving to the 9 p.m. ET slot to take on MSNBC's (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Rachel Maddow directly in anticipation of the Fox News Channel (FOX, FOXA) debuting Laura Ingraham's new show on the day before Halloween. Maddow had the most-watched show in cable news in August, ending the month with 2.783M total viewers, and also held the No. 1 spot in July.