MARKET MOVERS
- Elon Musk notifies Twitter he is terminating the deal. The billionaire wants to end his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Musk’s lawyer claimed Twitter failed to comply with its obligations in the merger agreement. Twitter’s board chair Bret Taylor said the company is still committed to closing the deal at the agreed-upon price and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement.
Read more here. - TSMC sales soar 44% in another sign of resilient tech demand. The world’s largest contract chipmaker booked NT$534.1 billion ($17.9 billion) of revenue for the second quarter, according to Bloomberg’s calculations, compared with the average analysts’ estimate of NT$519 billion. The results may allay investors’ worst fears about the impact of weakening demand and soaring costs on the $550 billion semiconductor industry.
- Memory-chip prices fall from pandemic highs. The average contract price for a major type of memory, called DRAM, fell by 10.6% during the April-to-June quarter versus the prior year, the first such decline in two years. Prices are expected to decline even more dramatically in the months ahead. It is the latest indication of a slowdown in the semiconductor industry that reaped major financial gains in recent years.
- Warren Buffett beefs up his Occidental bet again, pushing his stake to 18.7%. The conglomerate bought another 12 million shares of Occidental on Tuesday and Wednesday at a cost of about $698 million, according to a Securities Exchange Commission filing. The “Oracle of Omaha” had bought an additional 9.9 million Occidental shares last week. The conglomerate now owns 175.4 million common shares worth $10.8 billion, becoming the biggest shareholder by far. Read more here.
- Oil prices climb but head for weekly losses as recession fears swirl. Mounting fears of the recession were blamed for sinking crude prices this week, with WTI falling below $100 a barrel and entering a bear market. Crude and other commodities rebounded on Thursday, as news reports said China was considering a $220 billion stimulus. The physical market is pricing in scarcity while the financial market is pricing in a recession.
- June employment report: 372 thousand jobs, 3.6% unemployment rate. The headline monthly jobs number was above expectations; however, the previous two months were revised down by 74,000 combined. There are now fewer permanent job losers than prior to the recession. There are fewer part-time workers than prior to the recession. However, there are still 524 thousand fewer jobs than prior to the recession. Overall, a strong report. Read more here.
- June was Tesla's best sales month in China. Tesla sold 78,906 EVs manufactured in China, in the month of June. That's more than twice the 32,165 vehicles that Tesla was able to crank out in China in May. And to put the icing on the cake, Tesla's Model Y electric crossover was "the best-selling model among all passenger vehicles" in China for the first time ever in June.
WHAT TO WATCH
- Ethereum Merge achieves another milestone as ETH price climbs. Ethereum programmers have successfully completed deploying upgrades to the second of three public test networks to run through the Merge. This latest stage, known as Sepolia, paves the way for the final deployment across the Goerli testnet. Once all the testnet programming is cleared and glitch-free, the PoS enhancements are to rollout across Ethereum's mainnet later this year. Read more here.
- Cathie Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF could be headed for an explosive breakout. There is a “bullish ascending triangle” in place in Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF. The recent macroeconomic moves may also be confirming what the ARKK chart is saying in the charts. Both oil and rates have rolled over in the last one month, easing inflation fears that have wrecked growth stocks like the ones Wood owns. Read more here.
- Spirit Airlines delays shareholder vote on Frontier merger for the third time. In a statement, Spirit said the special meeting, which was due to take place on Friday morning, had been rescheduled for July 15. Spirit will continue to solicit shareholder proxies, the company added. A merger with either Frontier or JetBlue would create the fifth-largest U.S. airline.
