Week of Aug 19 2016 Weekly Recap & The Week Ahead
“Markets are never wrong – opinions often are.” — Jesse Livermore.
1. Ford’s Push for 100% Self-Driving Car By 2021 — a major announcement from Ford that it will develop a 100% autonomous vehicle by 2021 could have far-reaching effects in a variety of sectors. “The first application of the fully autonomous vehicle will be commercial applications, whether it’s ride-hailing or parcel delivery,” Ford (NYSE:F) CEO Mark Fields told Recode. Companies that could be eyeing purchasing self-driving car fleets include FedEx (NYSE:FDX), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), UPS (NYSE:UPS), Domino’s Pizza (NYSE:DPZ), Papa John’s (NASDAQ:PZZA), Avis (NASDAQ:CAR) and Hertz (NYSE:HTZ).
2. Federal Reserve’s July Meeting Minutes — Fed officials were divided over the urgency to raise interest rates in July meeting Minutes. A gauge of the greenback struggled to extend its rally from a three-month low as the chance of a Fed rate increase before the year is out fell back below 50 percent, according to futures prices tracked by Bloomberg. Fed’s Williams wants a rate hike as Williams isn’t a voter on the FOMC this year.
3. U.K. Financial Sector Targets Swiss-Style EU Deal — the City of London has relinquished hopes the U.K. will retain full access to the European single market for goods and services, according to the FT. Officials from the financial sector have concluded that a Norway-style deal is untenable, and are now looking to imitate and build on Switzerland’s deal with the EU, where only some industries have full access to the single market.
4. Dept Of Justice (DOJ) To End Use of Private Prisons — the Justice Department announced plans to phase out its use of privately operated prisons, calling them less safe and a poor substitute for government-run facilities. Shares of the two leading U.S. private prison companies plummeted on the announcement: GEO Group (NYSE:GEO) ended down 39%, while Corrections Corp. of America (NYSE:CXW) sank 35%. The greater impact of the DOJ decision may be its trickle-down effect on state prison systems, which house the majority of U.S. prisoners.
The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:
