“I think investment psychology is by far the more important element, followed by risk control, with the least important consideration being the question of where you buy and sell.” – Tom Basso

1. EU Slaps Google With €2.4B Fine — Google has been hit with a record €2.4B fine after EU antitrust regulators ruled the company had abused its power by promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results. The penalty is the largest doled out by Brussels for a monopoly abuse case and follows a seven-year-long investigation into the search group’s practices.
2. Sears Canada to Delist from Nasdaq After Filing Bankruptcy — After filing for bankruptcy last week, Sears Canada (NASDAQ:SRSC) has received notice from Nasdaq stating it will delist the company’s shares on July 3, 2017. The firm, which is closing about a quarter of its stores, has been struggling with years of losses and falling sales due to competition from big-box retailers and online merchants.
3. Bank Get Fed’s Blessing to Unleash Big Buybacks, Dividends — the central bank did not object to any of the buybacks or dividend hikes from the 34 banks it reviewed during the second phase of its annual stress test. This is the first time in the seven-year history of the tests implemented in the wake of the financial crisis that all banks have passed. JPMorgan announced a repurchase program of up to $19.4 billion, its biggest since the financial crisis. Citigroup unleashed its largest ever buyback program — worth up to $15.6 billion — and doubled its dividend. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley hiked their quarterly dividends to 12 cents a share and 25 cents a share, respectively.
4. Facebook Crosses 2 Billion-User Line — Facebook has now hit 2B monthly active users, representing a doubling of its user base in just the past five years. It hit the 1B user mark in October 2012, the year it went public. It’s the latest of a few metric milestones for Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which celebrated 250M daily users of Instagram Stories last week, and Instagram overall hitting 700M MAUs in April.
5. American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) Buying New 3-D Carry-On Bag Screeners To Speed Up Airport Security — American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) is buying new 3-D carry-on bag screeners that it will deploy at eight U.S. airports once the machines get fully certified by the TSA. 3-D scanners not only give TSA agents a clearer view of potential problems, but the machines – built by Analogic (NASDAQ:ALOG) – are designed to go twice as fast checking carry-on bags.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: