MARKET MOVERS
- Facebook's new design copies TikTok. The social media giant announced a makeover of its feed in order to capture a chunk of the burgeoning creator economy and its younger audience. Like every other social media company, it wants to grab the TikTok magic. Users’ “Home tab” will now prioritize short-form, algorithmically recommended video content from creators, while family and friends’ posts will appear in a separate “Feeds tab.” Read more here.
- American express revenue is up 31% as spending remains robust. The company said consumer spending in the category topped pre-Covid pandemic levels for the first time in April. Notably, there also was a significant uptick in corporate travel. The results were good enough for AmEx to raise its revenue forecast, and the company’s shares jumped more than 5% on the news.
- Ford secures batteries to build 600,000 EVs a year by 2023. The automaker has signed contracts with suppliers representing 60-gigawatt hours of annual battery capacity, enough to build 600,000 EVs a year, it said in a statement. Those suppliers include China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., or CATL, as Bloomberg previously reported. Read more here.
- Twitter blamed Elon for a disappointing earnings report. Twitter reported its Q2 earnings before markets opened Friday, falling short of analysts' expectations. Revenue: $1.18 billion versus $1.32 billion expected. Adjusted EPS: -$0.08 versus $0.14 expected. Monetizable DAUs: 237.8 million versus 237.5 million. They blamed Musk.
- Higher interest rates begin to impact multifamily. Apartment sales volume fell while both equity and debt financing became more costly, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions for July 2022. However, demand in most markets was still strong relative to supply. The apartment market recorded its sixth consecutive quarter of tightening conditions.
- Individual stock pickers no longer reign. Chamath Palihapitiya says that it's very difficult to be a public market individual stock picker in a world where the central banks are constantly meddling. Because when they do, the best thing that you can do is be long the market beta. The more concentrated you are, the better returns you would have delivered since 2008 when the central bank started to get aggressively involved. Source(1:19:05)
WHAT TO WATCH
- S&P 500 triggers a signal with a perfect track record for calling the end of bear markets. Recent momentum in stock trading has triggered a historically fail-safe sign that the bear market in stocks may be over. When the advancing volume on the New York Stock Exchange is 87% of total trading for two out of three days following a 52-week market low, the S&P 500 has never been negative a year later, according to Jason Goepfert of SentimenTrader. Read more here.
- Samsung floats nearly $200 billion spend on new Texas Chip Plants in the next decades. A mega splurge that if executed would dramatically boost its semiconductor foothold in the U.S. The spending proposals reflect the company’s long-term planning process to evaluate the viability of further U.S. expansion. Samsung’s potentially eye-popping spending comes as U.S. lawmakers weigh more than $50 billion in subsidies to boost American-based chip production and research.
- Deal on the table for release of millions of tonnes of grain from Ukraine ports. The two sides came to an agreement late last night in Istanbul in negotiations backed by Turkey and the UN. The goal is to avert a global grain crisis. Under the deal, Russia will end its blockade of Ukraine’s ports in the Black Sea. Cargo ships should be able to collect about 22mn tons of wheat, corn, and other crops from Ukraine’s coast. Russia has promised not to attack cargo ships or ports. Source(5:17)
- Amazon's purchase of One Medical could disrupt the healthcare industry. Scott Galloway says that there has never been a sector in the history of our modern economy that has been more disruptive than US healthcare. Its prices have increased faster than inflation for the last 40 years and 1 out of 5 people are satisfied with their healthcare. It's a huge social ill in the US that Amazon can profitably solve. Source(29:49)
