1/3 After last night’s debate I decided to accept @realDonaldTrump offer for Secretary of Treasury.
— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) August 7, 2015
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August 7
Stocks fell Friday. The Dow was down 0.27%, the S&P 500 fell 0.29%, and the Nasdaq was down 0.26% at close. Oil fell 1.93% to $43.80. Jobs numbers were released Friday morning: The U.S. added 215,000 in July. Adjusted numbers also showed an additional 6,000 jobs in May and 8,000 more in June than previous estimates. Unemployment is at a steady 5.3%. Wages of private-sector workers are up 0.2%, or 5 cents. Analysts had estimated that nonfarm payrolls will gain 212,000 and the jobless rate will hold steady at 5.3%; hourly wages should edge up 0.2%.
Jurors decided fate for Colorado shooter. The jury has decided the verdict for James Holmes, who killed 12 people and wounded 70 in a Colorado theater in 2012. The court will announce Friday evening at 5 p.m. local time whether Holmes will be sentenced to death or life without parole. Reuters
Typhoon Soudelor headed to Taiwan. Taiwan is bracing itself for the strongest storm on the planet this year. The Typhoon Soudelor, with winds up to 180 mph, is due to slam into the island Saturday morning. Two people have died and one is missing already as the ocean begins to swell. CNN
ValueAct grabs stake of AmEx. Activist investor ValueAct Capital Management took a $1 billion stake in American Express. The San Francisco-based ValueAct hasn’t commented on what changes they may push at the company. Stocks for AmEx were up 6% after the announcement. Wall Street Journal
Chuck Schumer says no to Iran deal. The influential New York Democratic senator announced that he can’t support President Obama’s deal with Iran. Schumer says he believes Iran will not change, and is ultimately getting a pass from the U.S. CNN
ISIS kidnaps dozens. ISIS militants kidnapped at least 230 Christians, including 11 families, from a Syrian town. Local priests went missing a couple months ago. Other families have fled to safer areas and the government controlled city of Homs. Reuters
Donald Trump dominates Republican debate. No surprises there. Trump grooved on the confrontation and soaked up more speaking time than the other nine candidates by a wide margin — more than 11 minutes vs 7 minutes for most of the others. The reality TV star and businessman also got the most jeers. Other contenders struggled to make an impression. Bush was meh; Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich all sounded as if they had prepped for the debate with actual thoughts on policy. Quartz
Rumored RMB 2 trillion market injection sends Chinese equities higher but liquidity in the Chinese market is drying up. The Shanghai Index rising 2.3% and the Shenzhen Composite jumping 3%. But the markets are far from out of the woods in so many ways. With trading rules already constricting buying and selling, foreign investment via the Shanghai-Hong Kong connect is slowly coming to a halt, raising concerns over liquidity in the region. Hong Kong seemed to have joined in the fun as well, with the Hang Seng Index finishing the session up 0.7%. Machinery and mining shares meanwhile helped the Nikkei climb 0.3% after trading lower for most of the day. WSJ (paywall)
NBC: Russia hacked the Pentagon. Allegedly. Their target appeared to be the Pentagon’s Joint Staff unclassified email system, which was promptly shut down for two weeks following the intrusion. The “sophisticated cyberattack” reportedly affected 4,000 military and civilian personnel working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. CNBC (video)
You won’t believe this:
Carl Icahn wants to be Trump’s Treasury guy. Things can change. Icahn tweeted that he is willing to become Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary. Icahn had previously said he wasn’t interested in the role, but tweeted after the debate that the U.S. has a “dire need of a breath of fresh air.” MarketWatch
Kimye is starting the selfie-endorsements. Kim Kardashian and hubby Kanye West Instagrammed a selfie of themselves with Hillary Clinton and the hashtag #HillaryforPresident. Perhaps celeb selfies are the new endorsement? New York Post
North Korea avenges wrongs 70 years ago with the threat of a tick-tock. Because “wicked Japanese imperialists” deprived “Korea of even its standard time,” Pyongyang decided that it will turn back the clocks by 30 minutes on August 15, thereby returning the nation to it’s original time zone. Yeah, that’ll teach Japan. BBC News
Wolves in sheep’s clothing. Foreign hedge funds and prop traders are reportedly masquerading as physical commodity traders in China – and apparently they’re in the hundreds. Do they really think no one will catch on? Reuters