“Reaching any goal in trading requires specific domain knowledge and technical skills. But then, after that, it’s all mindset management. Yet most people ignore that —they automatically think they have that last part all figured out, and it’s a mistake.”

1. FedEx Said It Would End its Contract to Deliver Amazon Packages — FedEx is gambling that it is better off filling its trucks with other customers’ goods. The company’s contract with Amazon expires at the end of this month. In June, FedEx said it was ending its air-shipping contract with Amazon in the U.S. The company would still handle international shipments. The decisions are evidence of escalating tensions between the longtime partners as Amazon builds its own delivery network.
2. White House to Move Forward With Ban on U.S. Government Business With Huawei — the White House is expected to start implementing provisions of a law that bars the U.S. government from doing business with Huawei. The planned move comes despite the Chinese tech giant’s efforts to block the rule in court. The Office of Management and Budget issued an interim rule this week laying out steps to ensure government agencies aren’t doing business with Huawei and several other Chinese companies. The rule is set to go into effect Aug. 13. Additionally, the White House is reportedly delaying a decision on whether to allow U.S. companies to do business with Huawei, while China released weaker economic data and pegged the yuan north of the $7 mark for the second consecutive session.
3. China Keeps Official Yuan Rate Just Stronger Than 7 Per Dollar — earlier in the week, Beijing let traded prices for its currency weaken past 7 per dollar, prompting the U.S. Treasury to designate it a currency manipulator. China currency at the weakest level since 2008, but again avoided moving this rate beyond the critical 7-yuan-to-the-dollar level. Asian stocks declined, while European stocks edged up against a backdrop of continuing worries about the U.S.-China trade war. The tensions are rising at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping can ill afford to make concessions as he struggles with domestic issues. That raises the likelihood of a protracted trade conflict.
4. Britain, U.S. to Protect Shipping Through Strait of Hormuz From Iranian Threats — Britain joined the U.S. in forming an international mission to protect shipping through the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian threats, a decision that came after London struggled to build a European maritime coalition to safeguard ships in the region. The U.K. was dragged into the center of the simmering crisis between Iran and the West after Iran seized a tanker flying the British flag in July. The capture came after Britain seized an Iranian tanker the U.K. claimed was carrying oil to a sanctioned entity in Syria.
5. Facebook Introduces Facebook News Tab This Fall — set to launch this fall, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has confirmed that it’s working on a news tab to deliver “trustworthy news” to users. The announcement follows a WSJ report that said the social network had approached numerous news outlets like ABC News, Dow Jones, The Washington Post and Bloomberg about paying them as much as $3M annually to license their news articles. The tab would give news high prominence on Facebook, alongside core features like the News Feed (which includes updates from friends), Messenger and Watch (for videos).
6. AAII Investor Sentiment — AAII is reporting individual investor bullish sentiment declined a sizable 16.8 percentage points to 21.7% in the week ending 8/7/2019. This is the lowest level since bullish sentiment reached 20.9% on December 13, 2018, a market bottom in the fourth quarter 2018 pullback. The low level of bullish sentiment certainly classifies this as an extreme level.

Neutral sentiment fell 7.4 percentage points, resulting in bearish sentiment spiking higher to 48.2%. This results in the bull/bear spread coming in at an extreme -26.5 as seen in the below chart. At this level of spread, historically, market lows have occurred at or near these levels.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: