What Moved The Markets This Week ๐
Credit Card Debt Hits Record High, Google Loses Major Antitrust Case, Dell and Cisco Announce Layoffs, Bank of Japan Walks Back Rate Hike Talks, and UBER + ABNB + SHOP Earnings
Sunday Morning Markets
Trading Week 32, covering Monday, Aug 5 through Friday, Aug 9. Your weekly financial markets update, in less than 5 minutes.
The Week In Review โช
Credit card debt hits new record high
U.S. service sector activity remains strong
Google loses major antitrust case
OpenAI executives to leave the company
Dell and Cisco announce major layoffs
Disney hikes prices on all streaming platforms
China launches satellites to compete with Starlink
Bank of Japan walks back rate hike talks
Earnings from Uber, Airbnb, Shopify
US Markets ๐บ๐ธ
Credit card debt hits record $1.14 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, a 5.8% jump from a year ago. According to the report, roughly 9.1% of credit card balances transitioned into delinquency.
US service sector rebounds in July, recovering from a four-year low. The ISM nonmanufacturing PMI surged to 51.4 from June's 48.8, surpassing estimates due to a bounce back in new orders and employment.
Delta turned down aid from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft during the major IT outage. Delta estimates the outage cost the company $500 million, but CrowdStrikeโs lawyer says its liability is capped at $10 million.
Jamie Dimon says he still sees a recession on the horizon and estimates the odds of a โsoft landingโ are 35% to 40%. The CEO of JPMorgan noted geopolitics, deficits, and tightening as main causes for uncertainty.
Dell to cut its workforce by 12,500 to streamline operations and refocus on its major AI initiatives. Cisco also announced a new round of layoffs, expecting to effect 4,000 workers, itโs second major cut this year.
Disney raises streaming prices for Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ plans by about $1 to $2 per month. The companyโs streaming division posted its first profit ever during its Q2 earnings report this week.
Global Markets ๐
Bank of Japan retreats from rate hike plans due to market instability. The unwinding of the โYen Carry Tradeโ led to financial turmoil, causing the Nikkei Index to plummet 12% on Monday.
Inflation in China picks up steam with consumer prices rising 0.5% in July, well ahead of estimates. Meanwhile, imports jumped 7.2% during the month. Both readings signal a trend of stronger domestic demand.
The Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold and remained quite hawkish. The central bankโs board said that โinflation is proving persistentโ and killed most hopes of rate cuts later this year.
Canadaโs service sector contracted further last month as new business declined while elevated wage costs contributed to inflation pressures. The S&P Composite PMI fell to 47.0 last month from 47.5 in June.
China launches its first satellites to rival Starlink in a project named โThousand Sails.โ They plan to build a constellation of 15,000 low-orbit satellites to create global internet coverage.
Tech โก
Google loses major antitrust case over search and text advertising. The ruling also poses a threat to Apple as Google pays over $20 billion per year to be the default search engine for Safari.
OpenAI cofounder John Schulman departs to go work for rival AI startup, Anthropic. In addition, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman is taking an extended leave through the end of the year.
AI chip startup Groq lands $640M in new funding, bringing its valuation to $2.8 billion. The company is creating an โLPUโ inference engine to deliver faster model speeds at a fraction of the energy cost.
Rivian lost $105K per vehicle delivered in Q2, or roughly $1.46 billion in total. Rivianโs losses have crept up as it pushed out the last of its first-gen R1 trucks and SUVs in favor of newer, more cost-efficient versions.
Lyft offers new plan to combat surge pricing called โPrice Lockโ. The new feature will let riders pay a monthly subscription โthat caps the price for a specific route at a specific time.โ
Elon Musk revives lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman in federal court. Musk claims he was โcourted and deceivedโ by Altman and OpenAI into co-founding the AI firm on the basis that it was a nonprofit.
Earnings Reports ๐ฐ
See other breakdowns on our Twitter page.
Weekly Poll ๐ณ๏ธ
Week Ahead ๐
Monday
US - NY Fed Inflation Expectations ๐บ๐ธ
CA - Building Permits ๐จ๐ฆ
CN - New Loans ๐จ๐ณ
Earnings: Monday๐ฐ
Tuesday
US - PPI Inflation ๐บ๐ธ
UK - Employment Report ๐ฌ๐ง
EU - ZEW Economic Sentiment ๐ช๐บ
Earnings: Home Depot, On Running, Flutter, Nu Holdings, Sea Ltd๐ฐ
Wednesday
US - CPI Inflation ๐บ๐ธ
US - Crude Oil Inventories ๐บ๐ธ
UK - CPI Inflation ๐ฌ๐ง
EU - GDP Growth ๐ช๐บ
CN - Industrial Production ๐จ๐ณ
JP - GDP Growth ๐ฏ๐ต
Earnings: Cisco, D-Local๐ฐ
Thursday
US - Jobless Claims ๐บ๐ธ
US - Retail Sales ๐บ๐ธ
US - Philly Fed Manf. Index ๐บ๐ธ
CA - Wholesale Sales ๐จ๐ฆ
UK - GDP Growth ๐ฌ๐ง
Earnings: Walmart, Alibaba, JD, Applied Materials, Grab๐ฐ
Friday
US - Housing Starts ๐บ๐ธ
US - Building Permits ๐บ๐ธ
US - UMich Inflation Expectations ๐บ๐ธ
UK - Retail Sales ๐ฌ๐ง
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