Good evening,
U.S. stocks were down Wednesday, ending a four-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2%, the S&P 500 was down 0.1%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.1%. …Chinese stocks were down Wednesday a well, with the Shanghai Composite dropping 3%. China reported 7% growth for the second quarter. …President Obama is pushing Congress to accept the Iran deal, and hosted a press conference Wednesday to answer questions. The journalists present grilled Obama on aspects of the deal, including the Americans that remain in Iranian prisons. …No one looks happy in Greece. As parliament debates the bailout deal, protesters took to the street, throwing homemade bombs. It’s going to be a long night.
Fireworks on Capitol Hill. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen kept her cool as Republican lawmakers on the House finance committee accused the central bank of dodging a congressional subpoena for information on a 2012 leak and for ignoring factors hurting the market. The prepared testimony didn’t offer any surprises. Yellen still expects to modestly raise rates later in the year. Yellen returns to the Hill on Thursday afternoon to present testimony before the Senate finance committee.
Netflix adds users. Netflix has added 3.28 million streaming subscribers in the second quarter, surpassing estimates. The company plans to expand to 200 countries by the end of 2016, including Japan, Portugal, Italy, and Spain this fall. WSJ
Bank of America beats estimates. Bank of America reported $22.3 billion in second quarter revenue, eclipsing the estimates of $21.4 billion. Most of the bank’s biggest businesses had flat or declining profits, but the consumer lending program had a 5% increase. Forbes
Bill Cosby will keep his Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Obama explained during a press conference Wednesday that there are no take-backs when it comes to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Despite the strong allegations of sexual assault against Cosby, it looks like he’ll keep at least this award. Obama didn’t comment directly on the assault allegations, but said that no civilized country should tolerate rape. NBC
The “bookkeeper of Auschwitz” was found guilty. Oskar Groening, now 94-years-old, has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role at Auschwitz during World War II. Groening did not directly participate in any killings at the Nazi death camp, but he was responsible for seizing and sorting bank notes from the Jews arriving off trains. Groening says he has had to live with moral guilt for his crimes, and it was up to the court to decide if he was legally guilty as well. Reuters
Amazon “Prime Day” disappoints. The day was meant to rival Black Friday, but it fell so, so short. Shoppers were disappointment to find that Amazon’s 20th anniversary blowout was a bust Wednesday. Deals on anything worth buying were few and far between, unless, of course, you really want a Beard Growther because that was 42% off. Gizmodo
Best Buy almost beat Amazon. The store was selling $200 Best Buy gift cards for $15 online Wednesday, until it turned out to be a major error. Best Buy says it won’t be honoring the pending orders. Bloomberg
Photo:Matthew Keys via Flickr.