Iran OKs crypto – Alibaba accepts US retailers

Global markets are optimistic as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announces next week’s meetings with Chinese trade representatives. The IMF yesterday nevertheless cut its global economic growth forecast from 3.3% to 3.2%.

Asia

Asian indexes are up this morning led by the Shenzhen’s 1.19% rise as the Yen recovers from its post PMI drop overnight. The Nikkei reading of Japan’s manufacturing segment shows a failure to rise out of contractionary territory in July.

Market reports a 0.4 point increase in Japan’s Composite PMI and an equal improvement to 52.3 in services but manufacturing still in contractionary territory at 49,6 – a slight improvement on May.

New Zealand’s trade deficit improved well beyond expectations in June, albeit on a worse than expected decrease in both imports and exports.

Europe

Despite a pre-market downturn on weak quarterly earnings yesterday, European indexes closed in the green yesterday led by the DAX’s 1.64% rise.

Both the Euro and pound showed some discomfort with the election of pro-hard-Brexit Boris Johnson to head the British government.

Also pressuring the Euro, which yesterday hit a 5-week low against the USD – the ECB meeting tomorrow, which may indicate an easing of monetary policy.

Consumer confidence across the union remains negative but rose in July to -6.6 from 7.2 the month before; however, the UK’s Confederation of British Industry showed a double downing of industrial trends to -34 in July.

Yesterday, and ahead of next week’s BoE policy meeting, its chief economist Andy Haldane said that the UK economy is still steady but not “spectacular”.

In France, INSEE’s business climate index fell a point in July to 101, and this morning’s composite, service and manufacturing PMIs are showing significant drops – manufacturing at 50 (down 2 points from June) on the edge of contraction.

And, Germany’s data is hardly better, with manufacturing at 43.1 deep into contraction and both services and composite PMIs down from June.

US

US indexes closed in the green yesterday as the USD tempered its 5-day uptrend on the heels of a 1.7% contraction in July home sales following a less-than-stellar 0.1% increase in housing prices to record highs.

The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index plummeted to -12 from +3 in June. President Trump’s stocks are on hold as former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to testify today before Congress on his findings vis-à-vis the US president’s alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 elections and subsequent attempted obstruction of justice.

Commodities

Oil yesterday jumped by a dollar a barrel after the API reported a 10.9mB decrease in inventories. And, with Bitcoin on the decline, Iran Monday legalized crypto mining, CoinDesk’s main conclusion from Congressional hearings on Facebook’s Libra was the distinction drawn between Libra, which they deem a questionable endeavour, and cryptos and blockchain technology in general, whose potential is seen as a given.

The house has initiated draft legislation that would prevent companies with more than $25 bn in assets from providing financial services.

Corporate

Deutsche Bank yesterday reported a 3.15 bn Euro loss in the year’s 2nd quarter, as Deutsche Telekom looks set to merge its T-Mobile with Sprint, after US regulators approve the deal.

Daimler presented a 4.65% YoY increase in revenues, Coke reported 6% QoQ, and Visa reported a 11% increase YoY, resulting in a 36% increase in earnings-per-share.

Ahead of its quarterly earnings report today, Facebook has agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission a $5bn fine for alleged mishandling of user data.

Also, yesterday the US Justice Department said it would investigate major big-tech companies on uncompetitive practices.

Also reporting today, Boeing, AT&T, Caterpillar, McDonalds, Under Armour and Tesla. Meanwhile, Alibaba has announced it will open its platform to US manufacturers and distributers.

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