August 12
Good evening,
Stocks finished the day flat after a late day rally. The S&P 500 added 0.1%. The Dow was completely flat, and the Nasdaq added 0.15%. Corn and soybeans hit new lows, with corn future dropping 5%, soybeans falling 6%, and wheat down 3%. Oil scraped up 0.65%, finishing the day at $43.36.
Here’s what else you need to know:
Jimmy Carter has cancer. Former President Carter announced that doctors discovered cancer after a recent liver surgery. Carter is 90 years old. CNBC
JPMadoff is an investor’s revenge. Helen Davis Chaitman lost a lot of money, thanks to the nefarious Bernie Madoff. A year ago, Chaitman began her JPMadoff website to remind people of what happened just a few years ago, and how Big Banks and Madoff went wrong. With regular articles and commentary, Chairman keeps an ever vigilant eye on JPMorgan. MarketWatch
ITG to pay $20 million. Investment Technology Group will pay $20.3 million to settle the dark pool charges by the SEC. ITG’s “Project Omega” allegedly operated an undisclosed proprietary trading desk. The company also fired CEO Robert Gasser last week after finding he hid information about the dark pool to the board. Wall Street Journal
Explosions shake China port. Blasts erupted in Tianjin, in northeast China, Wednesday night. The eruption was likely from a shipment of explosives in the port city. Seven people were killed and more than 50 people were wounded. Reuters
Atlanta tops cell service list. Atlanta, Ga. has the best wireless performance in the U.S., according to a study by Root Metrics. Chicago, Knoxville, Nashville, and Jacksonville, Fla. also topped the list. Hudson Valley, NY has the worst service, followed by Reno, Omaha, Colorado Springs, and El Paso. CNN Money
Kraft Heinz cutting jobs. Kraft Heinz will cut 2,500 jobs in North America, about 5% of its global staff, now that the companies have combined. The move aims cut $1.5 billion from the annual budget. About 700 of those cut are in the Chicago-area headquarters. Wall Street Journal
Macy’s falls short. Macy’s reported 64 cents per share on $6.1 billion in revenue for the second quarter, short of the expected 76 cents on $6.23 billion in revenue. Shares for the department store fell 3.5% Wednesday morning. CNBC
Alibaba revenue disappoints. Alibaba reported a 28% revenue increase for the second quarter, and authorized a $4 billion stock-buyback to spread over two years. Stocks dropped 4.6% in premarket trading. Alibaba earnings in the first fiscal quarter are expected to drop 57% to $841 million while revenues are expected to rise 36% to $3.38 billion. On Monday, Alibaba announced it was paying $4.5 billion for Chinese electric retailer Suning Commerce Group. The Chinese e-commerce giant just piled $200 million into Qufenqi, a micro loan start-up that allows students to pay for online purchases in installments. Alipay’s online payment unit along with the group’s Sesame credit-scoring service are apparently moving to help Qufenqi grow, perhaps into a unicorn. Wall Street Journal, EJ Insight
China devalues renminbi again — but then reportedly got cold feet in final minutes of trading. The central bank fixed the yuan 1.6% lower Wednesday morning, the second biggest drop in two decades. Onshore RMB fell 1.9%, while offshore it fared much worse, tanking almost 3%. Later in the day, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement there was no “economic reason” for the sharp drop in the yuan. In the final minutes of trading, the PBOC reportedly ordered state-owned banks to sell dollars. Wall Street Journal (paywall)
Hillary Clinton to hand over private server to the Feds. The Justice Department will finally get a complete look at the emails Clinton sent and received while Secretary of State. The issues around security and Clinton’s email has been dogging her presidential campaign for months. The move comes as a surprise; she has resisted requests for the server, which she said previously had been scrubbed fo 31,000 emails. Wall Street Journal (paywall)
S&P places Buffett on notice. Is that even allowed? Standard and Poor’s apparently placed Berkshire Hathaway on “CreditWatch Negative,” citing the “uncertainty around the funding” over Buffett’s recent, $32 billion acquisition of Precision Castparts Corp. Business Insider
You won’t believe this:
Tom Brady looks like the Grim Reaper. The New England Patriot’s quarterback appeared in court Wednesday to fight the Deflategate suspension, and the court artist’s sketch of him is not flattering. People, of course, took to the Internet, putting Brady’s creepy face on E.T., Reek, and Quasimodo. Huffington Post
Lee Harvey Oswald’s gravestone moved to Dallas. Oswald’s grave marker has resided in a museum in Roscoe, Ill. Oswald was killed two days after he allegedly shot President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Oswald was buried in a Fort Worth cemetery, but his tombstone was stolen. It eventually made its way to David Card, who is returning it to Texas. CBS
Tinder has Twitter meltdown. The dating app went ballistic over a Vanity Fair story on millennials and courtship (or lack thereof). The writer responded: “My article isn’t even about @Tinder lol.” CNN Money
Photo: Utenriksdepartementet UD