“Move on, understand what happened in the past but do not have an emotional attachment to it.” — unknown

1. Venezuela Hikes Minimum Wage Again Amid Crisis — responding to protests and an economic crisis, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro has raised the nation’s minimum wage by another 60%. It’s the third pay hike he’s ordered this year and the 15th since he became president in 2013. Still, none of the increases will come close to keeping up with the nation’s inflation, which is expected to rise by more than 1,600% in 2017.
2. Target Continues Urban Expansion in NY Lower East Side — the NY lower east side is about to get its first Target (NYSE:TGT). The retailer has signed a lease to open a 22,500 square-foot store at the 1.9M-square-foot development stretching across several Manhattan blocks called Essex Crossing. Target, which had 32 small format locations at the end of 2016, expects to have more than 130 in cities and dense areas by the end of 2019.
3. 5G Network In the Work by 2020 Plan by T-Mobile — helped by the airwaves it acquired for $8B in last month’s FCC spectrum auction, T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) expects to deploy a 5G network nationwide by 2020. The pledge comes as AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) pour billions of dollars into wireless airwave licenses that might support the technology.
4. Puerto Rico Files for Historic $70 Billion Debt Restructuring – Puerto Rico’s federal oversight board filed with a U.S. court to use bankruptcy-like proceedings to slash the island’s $70 billion debt after failing to strike an agreement with bondholders. The process called Title III, created by a U.S. law enacted last year to help Puerto Rico emerge from its debt crisis, allows the government to use the courts to cut debt amassed by more than a dozen agencies.
5. FOMC Stays on Hold, Rate Hikes Remain on Tap — the Fed kept interest rates on hold at its May meeting at 0.75%-1%, but maintained expectations for further 2017 rate hikes. In a unanimous statement – the committee said it “views the slowing in growth during the first quarter as likely to be transitory” and believes the “fundamentals… remain solid.”.
6. The House passed the American Health Care Act To Replace of Obamacare — President Trump said in the Rose Garden after the House passed the American Health Care Act by a slim margin of 217 to 213. The legislation now faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where several Republican members have signaled it could see major revisions. Reports also indicate that the chamber could write its own version of a bill.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: