Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:     

• China Clampdown Sparks a Pupil Exodus From Hong Kong Schools.  
• Emerging Markets Hardest Hit by China Crackdown, Virus Outbreaks.
• U.K. Eases Quarantine Rules, Opening Up to Travel With France.  
• Brazil Hikes Rates by 100 Basis Points, Pledges More to Come.
  
• Investors Are Ignoring a Dangerous Crackdown on Press Freedom.
  
• Infections Top 200 Million; WHO Seeks Booster Halt: Virus Update.
• U.S. Weighs Requiring Vaccinations for All Foreign Visitors.
• Asian Stocks Set to Dip as Traders Mull Fed Views: Markets Wrap.
• Cuomo Struggles to Hang On to Power as N.Y. Awaits Next Move.  
• Pershing Said to Seek $1 Billion to Fund Universal Music Bet.  
• Yellen Sees Inflation In Line With Fed’s Goal by End of Year.

Wall Street Journal:

• Businesses Load Up on Credit, Raising Spending Hopes.
• President Biden’s Lawless Eviction Ban.
• Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates Split Corporate America.
• Beirut Port Explosion Fuels Lebanon’s Collapse: ‘May God Save the Country’
• Eradication of Covid Is a Dangerous and Expensive Fantasy.
• Green New Deal, Part I.

Fox News:

• DeSantis earns praise across social media for his fiery response to COVID criticism from White House.
• CNN execs didn't just approve of Cuomo advising embattled bro — they pushed it.
• Vaccinated 'breakthrough' patients in cluster break silence on what happened.

NY Post: 

• US companies riddled with members of Chinese Communist Party: Devine. Boeing(BA), Qualcomm(QCOM) and Pfizer(PFE) are just three US companies that have employed dozens of CCP members in their Chinese facilities, the database reveals. 
  

CNBC.com: 

• Cramer urges investors to take profits in Robinhood as it becomes a meme stock.
• Roku stock sinks after reporting tight hardware margins, dramatic fall in streaming viewership.
• Etsy stock plunges as weak guidance suggests pandemic e-commerce boom is stalling.
• Americans are sharply divided over vaccine mandates, CNBC survey shows.
• Stocks making biggest moves after hours: Etsy, Electronic Arts, Roku & more.

Zero Hedge:

• "They Can't Arrest Us All" - Sen. Rand Paul Urges Americans To "Resist" Pelosi & The Petty Tyrants. 
• Investors Parse President Xi's Speeches For Clues About China's Next Target.
• Tenant Stampede Results In Largest-Ever Surge In Rents.
• China's "Social Credit" System Has Arrived In America.
• 'For $1/Day'... Double-Blind Ivermectin Study Reveals COVID Patients Recover More Quickly, Are Less Infectious.
• Watch: Judge Orders Bailiff To Remove Maskless Top Dallas Official From Meeting.
• Boston Mayor Indicates Opposition To Vaccine Passports, Comparing Them To Slave Papers.
• China Suspends Travel, Ramps Up Testing As Delta Outbreak Hits Wuhan.
• Meet Your New Feudal Overlords.
• White House Ready To Lift Ban On Foreign Travel But Only For The Vaccinated.
• DoubleLine Round Table: Commodities, Futures And Stocks.
• Cuomo Defies NY Democratic Chairman, Refuses To Resign.
• Uber Plunges On Huge EBITDA Miss.
• Senator Introduces Legislation To Mandate Voter ID For States That Mandate Vaccine Passports.
• Twitter Suspends Journalist Who Repeated CDC Fact On Vaccines.
• Stocks Slump, Bonds Pump'n'Dump, Crypto Jumps On Jobs & Jawboning.

Newsmax:

• Rep. Mike McCaul: COVID 'Worst Cover-Up in Human History'.
• Former Military Leaders Say: 'Deceitful' China 'Cheating the System'.
  

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• CodeMonkeyZ Speaks with Gateway Pundit: “What I Put Out on the Dominion Evidence is Roughly 1% of What We Are Holding”.
• McConnell and the ‘Republicans’ in the Senate Continue to Be Outmaneuvered by Democrats and Then They All Laugh About It.
• McAllen Constructs Emergency Shelters For Illegals Released by Border Patrol: ‘Alarming Number of Illegals Released Into US Are NOT Tested For Covid’.
• DeSantis Destroys Biden: Why Don’t You Do Your Job and Secure the Border? Until You Do That, I Don’t Want to Hear a Blip About Covid (VIDEO).
• Latest Poll: 90% of Voters Concerned About Election Cheating — 74% Support Voter ID.

The Epoch Times:

• CRT Shares the Same Ideology as China’s Cultural Revolution, Chinese American Warns.

Covid-19(Data, Maps, Graphs):

• Our World in Data:  New Global Covid-19 Cases(7-day rolling average graphs). New Covid Hospital Admissions/ICU Admissions/Deaths
  
• FT.com:  Fully Vaccinated by Country(graph). Global Lockdown Stringency Index(map).
  
• NYTimes.com:  County Trends and Clusters.
  
• Brown School of Public Health:  Covid Severity by State/County(map).  US Hospital Capacity.
  
• CovidActNow:  Covid Severity/Infection Rate by Metro Area.
  
• KFF:  US Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity.
  
• Carnegie Mellon: Covid-Like Symptoms in Community. Covid Symptom Searches on Google. Covid-Related Dr.Visits.  Restaurant Visits. Wearing Masks. (graphs)
  
• Safegraph.com:  Commerce Patterns(graphs).

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.25% to +.5% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 89.0 -.25 basis point.

• China Sovereign CDS 39.0 +.25 basis point.
  

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 60.05 -.01%.
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 2,639.0 +72.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 21.7 -.5%.
• FTSE 100 futures +.08%.

• S&P 500 futures +.20%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures +.17%. 

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (APTV)/.64
• (BDX)/2.44
• (CAH)/1.20
• (CARS)/.41
• (CHH)/.91
• (CI)/4.97
• (DDOG)/.03
• (DUK)/1.11
• (ITRI)/.48
• (K)/1.03
• (MRNA)/5.86
• (PZZA)/.72
• (PH)/4.34
• (PENN)/.89
• (PWR)/1.04
• (REGN)/17.71 
• (THS)/.26
• (VIAC)/.99
• (W)/1.17
• (YETI)/.56
• (ZTS)/1.09
  

After the Close:

• (AIG)/1.20
• (AMN)/1.46
• (BGS)/.48
• (BYND)/-.23
• (BRKS)/.69
• (CVNA)/-.40
• (CGNX)/.42
• (ED)/.62
• (DBX)/.33
• (LOCO)/.26
• (FEYE)/.09
• (ILMN)/1.36
• (LTHM)/.02
• (MTW)/.09
• (MTZ)/1.23
• (MNST)/.67
• (NVAX)/-3.25
• (QDEL)/1.19
• (RDFN)/-.33
• (SHAK)/-.08
• (SFM)/.45
• (STMP)/1.84
• (OLED)/.88
• (SPCE)/-.32
• (YELP)/.34
• (ZG)/.23
  

Economic Releases

7:30 am EST

• Challenger Job Cuts YoY for July.
  

8:30 am EST

• The Trade Deficit for June is estimated to widen to -$74.1B versus -$71.2B in May.
• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 383K versus 400K the prior week. 
• Continuing Claims are estimated to fall to 3255K versus 3269K prior.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Fed's Waller speaking, BofE rate decision, Eurozone Factory Orders report, weekly Langer Consumer Comfort Index and the weekly EIA natural gas inventory report could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly higher, boosted by technology and industrial shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly higher and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.