Friday Watch

Evening Headlines

Bloomberg:          

• Five Indicted in Bid to Quiet China Critics Include DHS Officer.
• Biden Set to Meet With Advisers to Discuss Cutting China Tariffs.
• Historic Cascade of Defaults Is Coming for Emerging Markets.
• ‘Very Likely’ ECB Rate Hikes to Come as Growth Slows, Knot Says.
• Peru Lifts Key Rate to 6% as Inflation Hits 25-Year High.
• Stocks Gain as Fed Hawks Downplay Recession Fears: Markets Wrap.
• Oil Rises in Volatile Week as Tight Market Vies With Slowdown.  
• Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day.
• Fed Hawks Back 75 Basis-Point July Hike, Still See Soft Landing.
  
• US Recession Is Already Here, According to Wells Fargo Investment Group.
• VIX Traders Are Piling Into Bets That Fresh Stock Pain Is Ahead.
  
• Bulls Place Market Bets on Economic Path Needing So Much to Go Right.
• ‘I’m Done With Crypto’: Voyager Bankruptcy Rocks True Believers.
• Embattled Crypto Lender Celsius Accused of Fraud by Ex-Employee in Suit.  
• Home Prices Are Starting to Buckle in Tech-Fueled San Francisco.

Wall Street Journal:     

• Boris Johnson Resignation Caps Stunning Fall From Grace.
• Big Cities Can’t Get Workers Back to the Office. 
  
• The Global Search for Energy Security. As inflation soars, the West is finally getting serious about a goal it abandoned years ago.
• The Fed Ignored the Money Supply, and a Recession Is Coming. Jerome Powell said M2 doesn’t have ‘important implications’ as inflation hit a 40-year high. 
• FDIC Scrutinizing Voyager’s Marketing on Safety of Customer Deposit Accounts.
• ‘Black Swans’ and ‘Perfect Storms’: Wall Street Reaches for Clichés to Excuse Your Withered 401(k).
• Europe Scoops Up LNG, Choking Off Power Supplies in Poorer Nations.

Fox News:

• Mom doesn't hold back on teachers union's 'radical agenda' as 'birthing parent' controversy boils over.
• Biden admin sends emergency oil reserves to China as US prices surge.

CNBC.com:

• Fed officials Waller and Bullard back another big interest rate increase in July.
• Levi Strauss hikes dividend as second-quarter earnings exceed expectations.    
  

MarketWatch:          

• These 10 stocks from a sector that is a bear-market bulwark have upside potential of up to 30%.
  
• ‘Inflation is going to be stickier than most people imagine’: Inside the obscure market where traders have mostly been right about price increases.  
• Opinion: The Fed is not going to stop until inflation is locked back in its cage.
  
• GameStop terminates CFO, reportedly plans layoffs; stock falls. 
  
• Costco sees 20% bump in sales for June.

Zero Hedge:

• Millions Of Barrels From US Emergency Oil Reserve Sent Abroad, Including To China.
• US Rail System Still Deteriorating.
• WSJ Op-Ed Pushes 'Rebuilding Relations' With China, Ignoring Overwhelming Threats.
• Johnstone: Information Anarchism.
• Urgent buys?  
• DB: When We Get Confirmation Of A Proper Recession, Watch Out Below.
• CNN Suggests Gun Shops Should Check Buyers' Social Media Pages Before Agreeing Sales.
• Judge Strikes Down Los Angeles School Vaccine Mandate, Siding With Parent.
• What is the squeeze case for equities?
• "Let West Try To Defeat Us On Battlefield... We Haven't Started Anything Seriously Yet": Putin In Fiercest Warning Since Invasion.
• Stocks surge and 10yr yield reclaims 3% ahead of NFP - Newsquawk US Market Wrap.
• Twitter Stock Tumbles As WaPo Reports Musk Deal "In Serious Jeopardy".
• Georgia Guidestones Now Completely Demolished Just Hours After Explosion.
• The Deep State Is Sadistic.
• Bitcoin, Big-Tech, & Black Gold Bid As Hawkish FedSpeak Batters Bonds.

Newsmax:

• Arizona AG Brnovich: Time to Call Biden's Border Mess an 'Invasion'.
• Putin Advises Ukraine to Submit, Says Russian Military Ready for Assault on Kyiv.
• Putin to Ukraine: Russia Has Barely Started Its Action.

TheGatewayPundit.com:

• THEY MOCK US: Joe Biden Awards Megan Rapinoe with Nation’s Highest Honor for Trashing Her Country, Says She’s a “Champion for Essential American Truth”.
• Dutch Farmer Protest Update: 16-Year-Old Jouke Freed; Document Reveals Government Plans to Confiscate Farms for Asylum Seekers.
• WATCH: Kari Lake Responds To Biden Regime Lawsuit On Bannon’s War Room: “Obviously, He Wants To See ILLEGALS Vote. We Do Not And They Will Not In Arizona When I’m Governor”.
• JUST IN: Governor Abbott Authorizes Texas National Guard, State Troopers to Apprehend Illegal Aliens and Return Them to Ports of Entry.
• Another Blatant Lie By Biden Exposed, Americans’ Savings Are at Lowest Point in a Decade.
• Sky News Australia Host Compares Trudeau to Netherlands PM Mark Rutte – Calls them “Golden Pin-Up Boys for Klaus Schwab” (VIDEO).

The Epoch Times:  

• Top House Republican Presses Yellen for Records on Hunter Biden’s Foreign Business Dealings.
• Chinese Communist Party Threat Is ‘Massive’: FBI and MI5 Directors.
• NASA Administrator Accuses China of Planning to Take Over the Moon.

Twitter: 

• @Lukewearechange - They are trying to make you think he is incompetent, when in reality they know exactly what they are doing and they are just using Biden as a front man for the collapse that they are orchestrating!!!
• @backtolife_2023 - Tucker Carlson on how Pfizer spends more on ads than research. (video)
• @MDBreathe - @SenBobHall of Texas talks about how @pfizer took shortcuts at the expense of our health. (video)
• @ColumbiaBugle - Tucker Carlson's Monologue On The Highland Park 4th of July Shooting & The Media's Refusal To Discuss The Crisis In The Rise Of Antidepressants & Other Drugs Among Americans. Tucker Lists Off The Many Shooters Who Were On Psychotropic Drugs. (video)
  

OpenVAERS:

• VAERS US COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. 837,191 Reports(+2,129 from prior week) Through June 24th, 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 +.25% to +.75% on average.

• Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 151.5 +2.5 basis points. 

• China Sovereign CDS 81.75 -3.0 basis points.
  

• Bloomberg Emerging Markets Currency Index 49.07 +.03%.  
• Bloomberg Global Risk-On/Risk Off Index 4,558.0 +141.0 points.
• Volatility Index(VIX) futures 28.0 +.2%.
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures n/a.

• S&P 500 futures -.24%.

• NASDAQ 100 futures -.34%. 

Morning Preview Links

Earnings of Note 
Company/Estimate 

 

Before the Open: 

• None of note
  

After the Close:

• None of note
  

Economic Releases

8:30 am EST:

• The Change in Non-Farm Payrolls for June is estimated to fall to 265K versus 390K.
• The Unemployment Rate for June is estimated at 3.6% versus 3.6% in May.
• Average Hourly Earnings MoM for June is estimated to rise +.3% versus a +.3% gain in May.
  

10:00 am EST

• Wholesale Trade Sales MoM for May.

Upcoming Splits

• None of note
  

Other Potential Market Movers

• The Canadian Unemployment rate report could also impact global trading today.

US Equity Market Hours

• 9:30 am - 4:00 pm EST
  

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are modestly higher, boosted by technology and commodity shares in the region. I expect US stocks to open modestly lower and to rally into the afternoon, finishing mixed. The Portfolio is 50% net long heading into the day.