Big Things Happening This Week

• A global market sell off kicked off the new trading week. Stocks fell sharply on Monday into a sea of red as worries over the economy continued to escalate. The Dow Jones posted its worst day in almost two years. On Tuesday every major index thankfully saw a slight bounce back from Monday's turmoil. 
• Trouble in Asia. Japan’s stock market posted its worst drop this week since Wall Street’s Black Monday in 1987.
• A lackluster jobs report for July sent shockwaves through the market. Friday’s disappointing July jobs report played a part in investor worries growing.
• The Feds are another worry. Concerns are mounting over the Federal Reserve being behind in cutting interest rates to bolster an economic slowdown. The Central Bank kept rates at the highest in two decades last week.
• U.S. Treasury yields tumbled on recession fears. Bond prices move inversely to yields. The benchmark 10-year note on Monday last yielded 3.78%. The benchmark yield hit its lowest level since June 2023.
• Bitcoin dropped. The leading cryptocurrency fell from nearly $62,000 on Friday to around $54,000 on Monday.
• Europe’s Stoxx 600 was off by 2.2%.
• The Cboe Volatility Index was last at about 38, after climbing as high as 65. This was the greatest level since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. 
• Earnings were also mixed last week with many of the Magnificent Seven now having reported. 
• Tech stocks crumbled. On Monday shares of Nvidia dropped 6.4%, bringing its decline from its 52-week high to nearly 29%. Apple shares also dropped 4.8% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway slashed the firm's stake in the company in half. Tesla was also another loser trading down 4.2%.
• Tyson Foods shares soared over 3%. The big move came after the company’s quarterly results beat Wall Street’s expectations. Shares are up more than 17% this year.
• U.S. crude oil closes at six-month low.

_____________________________________________________________Investor ‘stampede’ has created buying opportunities, says Macquarie analyst Viktor Shvets.

 “Although stampedes are inherently unpredictable, we view it is closer to irrational, thus creating buying rather than selling opportunities,” he said.

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Most Active Stocks

• ClearSecure Inc. (YOU)
• Lumen Technologies Inc. (LUMN)
• Tesla (TSLA)
• Intel Corporation (INTC)
• Apple (AAPL)
• Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
• Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD)
• Nio, Inc, (NIO)
• Snap, Inc. (SNAP)
• Alphabet, Inc. (GOOGL)

In the Spotlight

Snickers Maker Mars in Discussions to Buy Eggo’s Kellanova

According to reports, packaged food giant Mars, whose candy brands include M&M’s and Snickers, is in discussions to buy Kellanova, formerly known as Kellogg Company and the maker of food products such as Cheez-It, Eggo, and Pringles. This acquisition would create one of the biggest-ever mergers in the packaged food sector. Reuters reported that Kellanova has a market value of approximately $27 billion, including debt. The website Benzinga adds, “Kellanova manufactures products in 21 countries and markets them in over 180 countries. Following its separation from WK Kellogg last year, Kellanova retained a portfolio that includes snacks like Pop-Tarts and Rice Krispies Treats, frozen breakfast foods such as Morningstar Farms and Eggo, and an international cereal division.” “We believe that K’s portfolio of popular snack brands will fit well with Mars’ and help them expand scale in international markets,” TD Cowen analyst Robert Moskow stated, reported by XM.

Disney Could See a Possible Earnings Beat Today

Global giant Disney is set to report third-quarter fiscal 2024 earnings results Aug 7, before the opening bell today. The company recently adjusted its reporting structure after CEO Bob Iger reorganized the company into three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, which includes its entire media and streaming portfolio; Experiences, which encompasses the parks business; and Sports, which includes ESPN networks and ESPN+.
 

Wegovy Maker Novo Nordisk Posts Earnings Miss.

This morning Novo Nordisk reported weaker-than-expected net profit in the second quarter and cut its operating profit outlook. The company said that net profit came in at 20.05 billion Danish kroner ($2.93 billion) in the three months to the end of June. A LSEG aggregate forecast had projected the figure would come in at 20.9 billion Danish kroner. The company also trimmed its operating profit outlook for full-year 2024, saying growth was now anticipated to come in between 20% and 28%, rather than the previously expected 22% to 30% range. Sales growth expectations were raised once more on Wednesday, with the pharma giant now issuing a guidance of 22% to 28% at constant exchange rates for full-year 2024. The sales growth outlook for the period had been penciled in at 19% to 27% previously.