Friday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:    

• Xi and Putin to Attend G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesian President Says.  
• Xi Starts March to Third Term in China Facing Problems at Home and Abroad.  
• China’s Banks Set to Cut Key Rates Amid Covid, Property Slumps.
• Tesla Asks China for Help as Summer Power Crunch Hits Suppliers.
  
• Japan Inflation Continues to Accelerate Beyond BOJ’s 2% Goal.  
  
• UK Consumer Confidence Falls to Lowest Since 1974 as Prices Jump.
  
• Fertilizer Usage Is Being Pummeled by Europe’s Energy Crisis.
  
• Stocks Set for Firm Asia Open, US Futures Steady: Markets Wrap.
• Cohen Makes Millions on Bed Bath & Beyond as Meme Traders Recoil.
  
• Layoffs Are in the Works at Half of Companies, PwC Survey Shows.  
• Fed Officials Offer Mixed Signals on Size of September Rate Hike.  
• Outrage at Hedge Fund Proves Futile as US CEOs Reap Record Pay.
• Fed Eyes Bank Reserve Risks That Triggered End to QT Last Time.

Wall Street Journal:    

• Wall Street Bets the Fed Is Bluffing in High-Stakes Inflation Game.
• Fed’s Bullard Leans Toward Favoring 0.75-Percentage-Point September Rate Rise.
• The Centers for Disease Politics. The agency offers a mea minima culpa for its manifest Covid failures.
• Twitter Becomes a Tool of Government Censorship. Alex Berenson was kicked off the site at the White House’s urging. That’s a violation of the First Amendment. 
• U.S. Plans to Shift Bill for Covid Shots and Treatments to Insurers, Patients.
• China, U.S. Trade Climate Barbs as Ties Fray.
• U.S., Taiwan Set for Trade, Investment Talks This Fall.

Fox News:

• LIVE UPDATES:How Garland may have hurt the DOJ's fight to keep Trump raid affidavit sealed.
• Have an iPhone? Millions of users warned to change settings now.
• Parents put elite all-female school staff on notice over controversial trans policy.

CNBC.com:

• Activist investor Ryan Cohen completes planned sale of Bed Bath & Beyond stake, stock falls 30%.
• Home sales fell nearly 6% in July as housing market slides into a recession.
• Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Bed Bath & Beyond, Applied Materials and more.
• Home Depot CEO Ted Decker to replace retiring Craig Menear as chair.
• Home Depot and Lowe’s cite strong demand in earnings reports, but softening could be ahead.

MarketWatch:       

• You should proceed with caution if you trade stocks based on this popular market signal.  
  
• Bed Bath & Beyond stock sinks after Ryan Cohen discloses plan to unload stake; cash remains a worry, say analysts.

Zero Hedge:

• Blood, Bath And Bankrupt? BBBY Hires Restructuring Advisor.
• As If Millions Of Apes Suddenly Cried Out In Terror: Ryan Cohen Dumps Entire BBBY Stake.
• Brian Stelter Out At CNN.
• Amazon Accuses FTC Of Issuing 'Unfair, Unreasonable' Demands As Part Of Probe Into Prime.
• US stocks finished mildly higher and the dollar strengthened amid encouraging data - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open.
• China Condemns Newly Announced Formal US-Taiwan Trade Talks.
• Beyond boring equities - BIG stuff is moving.
• Data Shows Number Of Low-Income Audits Could Triple As IRS Grows.
• Waiting for the expirationzzzzz....
• Dollar surges vs Euro and Pound after strong US data and Schnabel's warning for Europe - Newsquawk US Market Wrap.
• The 6 Things That Matter For Markets, And What Goldman's Traders Think.
• Brace For Even Higher Beef Prices As Texas Cattle Industry Faces Historic Drought Crisis.
• Multiple Explosions Rock Russia's Crimean Port City Of Sevastopol.
• Stocks Stumble, Memes Mauled In Sleepy Session Fit For Sandman.

Newsmax:

• Rep. McCaul: US ‘Needs to Wake Up’ to China’s Goal of World Domination.

TheGatewayPundit.com: 

• Newly-Obtained Moderna Documents Show mRNA COVID Vaccines Cause ‘Skeletal Malformation’ – Here’s What Happened To The Offspring Of Lab Rats Who Were Jabbed.
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Announces 20 Arrests For Voter Fraud (VIDEO).
• Prominent Podcaster Sam Harris Admits a Conspiracy to Prevent Trump Presidency was “Warranted” and “Would Not Have Cared” if Hunter hid Corpses of Children.
• Facebook and Instagram Take Down Bobby Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense Fund Pages Over Bogus “Misinformation” Accusations.
• Luke Knox, Florida College Football Player and Brother of Buffalo Bills TE Dawson Knox, Dies Suddenly at the Age of 22.
• Whose Side Was She On? Biden Called Liz Cheney After Defeat.
• CHANGE: Nearly 2 Million Kids Left Public Schools Between 2020 And 2021.
• “I Don’t Know What’s Happening. I Don’t Know Why the Policy Has Not Changed” – Lt. John Bowes Discusses Challenges of 700 Unvaccinated US Pilots with TGP’s Jim Hoft (VIDEO).
  

The Epoch Times:

• China to Take Part in Military Drills With Russia, Starting This Month.

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 854,081 Reports(+2,712 from prior week) Through August 5th, 2022.

SKirsch.com:

• Using the MGH numbers with our own VAERS queries, we have 247 cases per million doses from the MGH study divided by 5.97 cases per million doses from VAERS. 247/5.97 = 41. This suggests that the VAERS under-reporting factor (URF) is 41X.

Covid-19(Data, Maps, Graphs):

• Our World in Data:  New Global Covid-19 Cases(7-day rolling average graphs). New US Covid Hospital Admissions/ICU Admissions/Deaths
  
• FT.com:  Fully Vaccinated by Country(graph). Global Lockdown Stringency Index(map).
• Bloomberg.com:  International Travel Restrictions.  Case Graphs by State.
  
• NYTimes.com:  County Trends and Clusters. Local ICU Occupancy.
  
• Brown School of Public Health:  Covid Severity by State/County(map).  US Hospital Capacity(region).
  
• 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 -.5% to +.25% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 136.25 +2.0 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 72.25 -.25 basis point.
  

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 48.88 -.1%.  
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 3,991.0 +7.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 23.1 +.44%
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures -.08%.

• S&P 500 futures -.18%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.08%. 

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• (BKE)/.90
• (DE)/6.68
• (FL)/.81
• (VIPS)/1.68
  

After the Close:

• None of note
  

Economic Releases

• None of note

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The UK retail sales report could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are mostly lower, weighed down by consumer and technology shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open mixed and to weaken into the afternoon, finishing modestly lower. The Portfolio is 25% net long heading into the day.