Daily Scan: Stocks fall; reporter charged a year after Ferguson

    Ferguson

    August 11

    U.S. stocks lost their mojo Tuesday after China appears to have launched a currency war. The Dow was down 1.21% at close. The S&P 500 dipped 0.96%, and the Nasdaq was down 1.27%. Alibaba earnings are due out Wednesday. The company is expected to report a net income of 5.3 billion yuan, a 57% drip from a year ago. Commodities fell after China devalued the yuan by nearly 2%.

    Here’s what else you need to know:

    Reporter charged after Ferguson arrests. Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery was formerly charged for trespassing on private property and interfering with a police officer’s performance of his duties, almost a year after being arrested near the Ferguson protests. Lowery says he was working in a McDonald’s with another reporter when police forced them out of the restaurant and treated them roughly after noticing he was recording the situation. Talking Points Memo

    GE selling health-care lending unit. Capital One Financial will buy GE’s health-care lending business for about $9 billion. GE announced earlier this year that it wanted to narrow its operations, including the sale of most of GE Capital. Wall Street Journal

    Little house on the Hill? Former “Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert is running for Congress. Gilbert, who starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder in the 70s and 80s, wants to represent Michigan as a Democrat in the House of Representatives. BBC

    SEC charges nine for insider trading. Nine traders and computer hackers have been charged for trying to trade based on early access to press releases. Hackers broke into PRNewswire Association, Marketwired, and Business Wire to get corporate news releases before they went public. The case will bring together cyber theft and financial crime in a new twist on insider trading. Wall Street Journal

    Obama’s biggest fans are millennials. Millennials aren’t just the youngest voters, they also have very different ideas about government and politics, a survey found. Compared to older citizens, millennials are more positive about President Obama, the Iran nuclear deal, and the government’s role in solving problems. Wall Street Journal

    Died: Former Singapore OCBC Bank Chairman Lee Seng Wee. Lee served as the OCBC chairman from 1995 to 2003, working with the bank’s major acquisitions. Lee died Friday at age 85 after a fall. Straits Times

    China’s central bank devalues the renminbi with a record cut. The PBOC slashed the daily renminbi-dollar fix by 1.86% – its largest cut on record – following a slew of less than rosy economic data hailing from the region. The yuan nosedived, with the biggest one-day loss in 20 years. Analysts believe this is yet another move to get the currency in position to become a reserve currency, a long-running goal. The central bank said that this is just a one-time adjustment, though several market participants seem to be unsure about that statement’s credibility, among others. PBOC, MarketWatch

    Currencies globally get hit by surprise devaluation and the prospect of a currency war. The Australian dollar sank 0.9% and the Singaporean dollar tanked to its five-year low versus the greenback, while the Japanese yen saw itself plunge to 125.08 – a two-month low for the currency – against the USD. Also hit: The Malaysian ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah hitting Asia crisis lows against the U.S. dollar. Reuters

    Greece struck a deal! It wasn’t all bad news today. Greece struck an outline deal with its creditors today, saying that there’s just “one or two items” that needed to be polished. Germany however, remains “cautious” over the accord. Financial Times (paywall)

    You won’t believe this:

    Jets QB out after fight with teammate. Geno Smith, the New York Jets quarterback, will be out for six to 10 weeks due to a broken jaw. Smith and Jets reserve linebacker IK Enemkpali got in a locker room fight Tuesday morning, and Enemkpali sucker-punched Smith in the jaw. Enemkpali was immediately released from the Jets. ESPN

    University of Oregon wants to play football in the dark. Lights aren’t necessary for the Nike-designed glow-in-the-dark uniforms. The photos of the not-yet-official uniforms look pretty awesome, but probably not realistic. Who’s really playing college football in the dark? GQ

    Veggies… in space! Marking one small munch for man and a giant leap for agriculture, astronauts onboard the international space station are about to eat red lettuce grown and harvested in space. Quartz

    Photo: Debra Sweet