Thursday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:       

• Trump Pushes UN to Renew Iran Sanctions in Blow to Nuclear Deal.  
• A $2 Trillion Debt Deluge Means the BOJ Needs to Buy More Bills.  
• China’s Brokers Race to Raise Funds to Fuel Nation’s Stock Rally.
• Bond Yields in India Creeping Back to 6% as RBI Goes Silent. 
• Dollar Steadies After Gain; Asian Futures Slip. Asian stocks looked set for a cautious start Thursday after the dollar climbed and U.S. equities retreated in the wake of Federal Reserve minutes that signaled tempered optimism about second-half growth. Futures ticked lower in Japan, Australia and Hong Kong, while S&P 500 contracts were little changed. U.S. shares earlier erased gains as the Fed noted the health crisis would “weigh heavily” on economic activity and repeated its view that the path of the recovery would depend on containment of the virus. The greenback steadied, holding gains that came after a five-day selloff. Gold pared an overnight fall. Treasuries slipped as policy makers sounded unenthusiastic about yield-curve control. S&P 500 futures lost 0.1% as of 7:54 a.m. in Tokyo. The index dipped 0.4% Wednesday. Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.2%. Hang Seng futures earlier dipped 0.1%. Futures on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 0.2%.  
• Fed Delays, U.S.-China Talks, Australia Negative Rates: Eco Day.  
• Cryptocurrencies Tumble Most in Two Months as Dollar Jumps.
• Fed Minutes Show FOMC Backs Away From September Guidance Shift.
• Democrats Attempted to Make a Quiet Platform Change. Climate Activists Objected Loudly.  
• U.S. Infections Rise 0.8%; Europe Cases Flare Up: Virus Update.  
• Trump Says Colleges Should Strive to Keep Students in School.  
• Nvidia Signals That Growth of Data Center Business Will Slow.

Wall Street Journal:

• China’s National-Security Law Makes Top U.S. Colleges Wary.
• Biden United the Democrats—It’s Not Likely to Last.
• Covid-19 Appeared to Be Under Control in Europe. Now It’s Surging Again.
• Pandemic Widens Gap Between Retail’s Winners and Losers.
• California’s Green Blackouts.
• The Postal Service Democrats.
• The Left Still Blames America First.
• Some States Are Pushing Laws to Restrict Police Behavior.
  

Fox News:

• DNC accused of hiding 'radical agenda' as speakers hit Trump's character.
• Longer version of graphic Portland attack video released.
  

CNBC.com:

• Cramer’s lightning round: Activision Blizzard to have a ‘fantastic’ holiday season.
• Kudlow says Trump wants to ‘deny China’ some of the proceeds of a TikTok sale.
• Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Nvidia, Intel, Goodyear & more.
• Nvidia earnings beat expectations as data center business exceeds gaming for first time.
• Victoria’s Secret parent L Brands shares jump on better-than-expected quarterly sales.
• The lag in banks and small businesses makes Jim Cramer less optimistic for a V-shaped recovery. 
  

MarketWatch.com:        

• Airbnb files for initial public offering.
  
• Alibaba earnings: After COVID-19 recovery, U.S.-China tensions still loom.
  
• Apple is spending ‘dramatically below peers’ on innovation.
  
• ‘A tale told by an idiot’ — CNBC’s Jim Cramer urges investors not to be fooled by new highs in the stock market.

Zero Hedge:  

• Twitter Says Viral Mailbox Misinformation Does Not Violate Company's Policies.
• "That's Ridiculous": Jill Biden - Not Joe, Appears On Live TV To Defend VP's Cognitive Ability.
• Facebook Bans Hundreds Of QAnon Groups, Pages And Instagram Accounts.
• Intel Soars After Announcing Accelerated $10 Billion Stock Buyback.
• US Suspends Extradition & Tax Treaties With Hong Kong As It's "No Longer Sufficiently Autonomous".
• Key Takeaways From The FOMC Minutes: Market Spooked By Lack Of Fed Commitment To More QE, "Twist" Or Curve Control.
• Apartment Boom & Bust, Where It's Happening And Not.
• Tytler Cycle & Why More Government Help Leads To Less.
• 'Disavowed' BLM Leader Defends Looting & Rioting Because "US Steals Diamonds & Oil".
• Dollar Has Best Day In 2 Months As Fed Sinks Stocks, Bonds, & Bullion.

The Epoch Times:

• China’s State-Sanctioned Churches Required to Worship the CCP.
• Chinese Authorities Order an End to Food Waste as Food Shortage Hits China.
  

Digital Blackboard:

• Daily New Cases by Region.

Worldometer:

• New Cases/Deaths by state.

Rt Covid-19:

• How fast virus is growing by state.

KFF:

• State Data(Tests/Hospitalizations).

Night Trading 

• Asian equity indices are -.75%  to -.25% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 64.5 -.25 basis point.

• China Sovereign CDS 38.5 -.5 basis point.

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 60.40 -.03%.
• FTSE 100 futures -.73%.

• S&P 500 futures -.32%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.37%.

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate

Before the Open:

• (BABA)/13.57
• (BJ)/.60
• (EL)/-.17
  

After the Close:

• (ROST)/-.28  
• (KEYS)/.84
  
• (OSIS)/1.10
  

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST

• Philly Fed Business Outlook for Aug. is estimated to fall to 21.0 versus 24.1 in July. 
• Initial Jobless Claims for last week are estimated to fall to 920K versus 963K prior.
  

10:00 am EST

• The Leading Index for July is estimated to rise +1.1% versus a +2.0% gain in June.
  

Upcoming Splits

• None of note

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Russia GDP report, Japan Inflation Data report, weekly Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, Bloomberg Economic Expectations Index for August, weekly EIA natural gas inventory report and the (UHAL) analyst meeting could also impact trading today.

Market Hours
Normal:

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly lower, weighed down by technology and healthcare 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.