“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be a more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” — Warren Buffett

1. U.S. Treasury See 2018 Borrowing Rising to $1.34T — the U.S. Treasury Department expects to issue $425B in debt this quarter, bringing government borrowing this year to $1.34T, more than double from 2017. The borrowing estimate is still $15B lower than its estimate in July. Separately, the Fed is expected this week to vote on standards that would change the way big banks are regulated, dividing institutions into categories based on risk factors.
2. Ford, Baidu Testing Self-Driving Cars in China — following an initial announcement made in June that the two companies would explore areas of cooperation in the fields of AI and connectivity, Ford (NYSE:F) and Chinese internet giant Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) said they are now teaming on self-driving cars. The two-year initiative will see the firms collaborate to meet the Level 4 standard set by U.S. industry organization SAE International – meaning autonomous vehicles developed by the two will not require intervention from a human driver.
3. U.S.-China Trade Developments — President Trump has asked officials in his administration to start drafting terms of a trade deal with Beijing, sources told Bloomberg, which reported that multiple agencies are involved in the effort. Hopes are for reaching an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month at the G20 summit in Argentina.
4. Moody’s Cuts GE Credit Rating Again — General Electric fell for a sixth straight session after Moody’s lowered the company’s credit rating by two notches to Baa1 from A2, three notches above “junk” territory. The downgrade, which came a month after S&P cut GE’s credit rating, reflected “the adverse impact on GE’s cash flows from the deteriorating performance of the Power business… and misjudgment of financial prospects and operational missteps.”

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

Tags: GE Downgraded

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