What Moved The Markets This Week 📈
Amazon Prime Day Sales Surge 11%, Crowdstrike Bug Causes Global IT Outages, Housing Starts Hit 8-Month Low, Elon To Move SpaceX and X To Texas, and NFLX + TSM + AXP Earnings
Sunday Morning Markets
Trading Week 29, covering Monday, Jul 15 through Friday, Jul 19. Your weekly financial markets update, in less than 5 minutes.
The Week In Review ⏪
Crowdstrike causes major IT outage
Prime Day sales surge 11% YoY
Housing starts hit 8-month low
Google nears deal to acquire Wiz
China’s Q2 economic data disappoints
ECB holds interest rates at 3.75%
New condo sales in Toronto fall 57%
SpaceX and X to move HQ from California to Texas
Earnings from Netflix, TSMC, American Express
US Markets 🇺🇸
The market expects a full rate cut by September after Powell indicated that the Fed won’t wait until inflation is down to 2% before they start easing. He also said a “hard landing” is not a “likely scenario”.
Amazon Prime Day sales hit a new record of $14.2 billion in the two-day event, up 11% year over year. Consumer electronics and back-to-school products were among the top categories.
Retail sales excluding autos surged in June by the most in three months. Excluding receipts at gas stations and auto dealers, sales increased 0.8% during the month, above the consensus estimate of 0.2%.
New housing projects hit an eight-month low amid higher mortgage rates, suggesting the housing market was likely a drag on economic growth in the second quarter.
Trump selects JD Vance as VP pick for 2024 election, revealed at the GOP convention. Vance, a senator from Ohio, emerged from a shortlist of prominent candidates including Marco Rubio and Doug Burgum.
Car repossessions are up 23% from last year as Americans struggle with elevated inflation continuing to eat at their discretionary income. The number of repossessions is 14% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Global Markets 🌏
The European Central Bank holds interest rates after cutting in June, noting domestic price pressures are ‘still high’. The market expects two more 25 basis point rate cuts this year.
China’s Q2 economic data misses expectations with GDP growing 4.7%, a deceleration from the 5.3% growth seen in Q1. June retail sales also missed estimates, rising 2% compared with the 3.3% forecast.
Google, Microsoft offer Nvidia AI chips to Chinese companies by providing data center services in locations outside China, circumventing direct export restrictions set by the Biden administration.
Inflation in Canada cooled quicker than expected during the month of June, with the CPI falling to 2.7%. The market now predicts a 93% chance of a rate cut at the BOC’s meeting next week.
Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion, faces insolvency as the BCCI seeks to recover nearly $19 million from the ed-tech startup surrounding unpaid sponsorship dues. Byju’s was once India’s most valuable startup.
New Condo sales in Toronto are down 57% in 2024, hitting the lowest level in over 27 years. However, this trend has done little to help affordability, with the average sales price down only 2.6% from last year.
Tech ⚡
Microsoft-CrowdStrike issue causes ‘largest IT outage in history’, disrupting businesses, airports, train stations, banks, and the healthcare sector. The outage stemmed from a software update defect.
OpenAI unveils GPT-4o mini, a smaller model focused on delivering faster results at a lower price point. GPT-4o mini will replace GPT-3.5 Turbo as the smallest model OpenAI offers and will be 60% cheaper.
Google nears $23B deal for cybersecurity startup Wiz in what would be its largest acquisition ever. Wiz was founded in 2020 and hit $100M in ARR after just 18 months before ballooning to $350M in 2023.
X and SpaceX will relocate their HQ to Texas from California with Elon Musk blaming California's Governor for signing a law preventing schools from notifying parents about their child's gender identification change.
Neuralink rival Synchron integrates OpenAI’s generative AI models into its ‘brain-computer interface’ to power a new chat feature. The product captures signals from the brain and translates them into digital commands.
Apple Vision Pro debuts new immersive content including behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, a performance by The Weeknd, new TV series, films, concerts, and more.
Earnings Reports 💰
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Weekly Poll 🗳️
SMM Product Hunt 🧠
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Week Ahead 📅
Monday
DE - Retail Sales 🇩🇪
CN - PBOC Interest Rate 🇨🇳
Earnings: Verizon💰
Tuesday
US - Existing Home Sales 🇺🇸
EU - Consumer Confidence 🇪🇺
JP - Jibun Composite PMI 🇯🇵
Earnings: Alphabet, Tesla, Visa, Spotify, Capital One, UPS, GM, Lockheed Martin💰
Wednesday
US - New Home Sales 🇺🇸
US - S&P Manf. PMI 🇺🇸
US - S&P Services PMI 🇺🇸
CA - Interest Rate Decision 🇨🇦
UK - S&P Composite PMI 🇬🇧
EU - HCOB Composite PMI 🇪🇺
Earnings: Chipotle, ServiceNow, Ford, AT&T💰
Thursday
US - GDP Growth Q2 🇺🇸
US - Jobless Claims 🇺🇸
US - Durable Goods 🇺🇸
Earnings: American Airlines, RTX, Appfolio💰
Friday
US - PCE Inflation 🇺🇸
US - Personal Spending & Income 🇺🇸
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