Fitch is out ringing the alarm bells about US junk bond issuers' ability to repay near-term obligations, per Bloomberg.
Target announced a strong profit rebound, offsetting a top line miss and a cautious forecast for the rest of 2023. So, the stock is up. The company fixed its over-inventory problem, generating the bottom line beat. Discretionary items were weak, and essentials/beauty/food were strong.
Tesla is down because it announced a second round of price cuts on its cars in China, per Bloomberg. This is on the heels of the yuan falling to its weakest level in 16 years versus the USD. Plus, China’s big shadow bank missed payments on dozens of its products.
The Fed’s minutes are coming out today. So, traders will be reading the tea leaves to try to get a sense of where their heads are at for September.
The Japanese yen briefly weakened past the level that led them to intervene in Sep to prop up the currency, for the first time since 1998. That’s a long time ago, when Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic came out. In other Japan news, the BOJ’s policy tweak is expected to bring money back into the country in 2H23, per the Nikkei.
That’s the gist of a story out of BBG about mutiny amongst Goldman bankers who want the #2 (John Waldron) to decide whether he’s with Solomon (the #1) or with them.
The DOJ is focused on Visa’s tech charges to merchants for protecting cardholder info. While their tech supposedly improves security for payments, the DOJ is wondering whether it makes them a monopoly. Basically, instead of sending account numbers, the tech uses a token that only Visa can unlock. Since it began in 2014, Visa has issued > 4bn tokens, and >13k merchants use the tech. Visa is charging merchants more if they don’t use the tech.
US factory production rose in Jul (the 1st time in 3 mo) because of stronger moto/vehicle output. The annualized rate of car assemblies grew to 11.87mm units, the most since the end of 2018.
Data out of GS is reflecting greater risk appetite. Its overall prime book saw increased grossing trading activity in 9 of 10 latest sessions.
