“The process of intelligently building a portfolio consists of buying the best investments, making room for them by selling lesser ones, and staying clear of the worst.” – Howard Marks

1. Violence Erupts Around Protests Across U.S. — large demonstrations turned violent around the country over the weekend as tens of thousands of Americans continued a monthslong wave of civil unrest protesting racism and police tactics. Police officials in Portland and Seattle declared some demonstrations in their cities “riots” and used pepper spray and other crowd-control tools to disperse gatherings. President Trump sent federal agents to Portland earlier this month and is now sending federal resources into other cities to quell protests and suppress surges in crime.
2. Trump Administration to Halt New DACA Applicants — the Trump administration announced rollbacks of an Obama-era program that benefited immigrants who have lived in the U.S. illegally since childhood, including a prohibition on new applicants. The administration had been hinting for weeks that it would again move to end DACA, but it chose not cancel the program entirely right now for fear that a rush to do so would run afoul of the Supreme Court’s instruction to take a more considered approach.
3. AMC, Universal Agree to Trim Theatrical Window Before Movies Go Online — under the deal, the “theatrical window” will shorten to 17 days, from the current 75, at least when it comes to movies made by Comcast Corp. ’s Universal that play at AMC theaters, the world’s biggest movie-theater chain. That means that instead of waiting 2½ months to watch a new movie at home, viewers will be able to see at least some titles just 2½ weeks after they premiere in theaters. Movie theaters have long considered it essential for their businesses to be able to play movies exclusively before consumers can watch them other ways.
4. 2Q GDP Contracted at Record Rate Last Quarter — the Commerce Department reported U.S. gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy—fell at a 32.9% annual rate in the second quarter, or a 9.5% drop compared with the same quarter a year ago. Both figures were the steepest in records dating to 1947. A surge in virus infections since mid-June appears to be slowing the recovery in some states, according to some private-sector real-time data.
5. Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline Ink Coronavirus Vaccine Deal With U.S. — the U.S. government will pay up to $2.1 billion to Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline to fund the development of a coronavirus vaccine and guarantee supply of 100 million doses, if proven safe and effective in clinical trials. The contract is the latest in a series of deals—potentially worth more than $8 billion—struck by the U.S. government aimed at accelerating development of Covid-19 vaccines and securing large supplies before potential product approvals.
The U.S. has reached deals worth over $1 billion each with vaccine makers including Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE, AstraZeneca PLC and its partner the University of Oxford, and Novavax Inc., a biotech company in Gaithersburg, Md. Each of the deals guarantees the U.S. 100 million doses or more, if the vaccines are approved by regulators.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com: