“There is only one side to the stock market; and it is not the bull side or the bear side, but the right side” … — Jessie Livermore

1. North Korea Retracts Guam Threat — Kim Jong-un has decided not to launch a threatened missile attack on Guam, but warned that he could change his mind “if the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions.” Signs of easing in tension on the Korean peninsula helped the stock markets rally for another day following an exchange of threats between Pyongyang and Washington.
2. Berkshire Hathaway Discloses Stake in Synchrony Financial — Berkshire Hathaway sold its stake in General Electric (NYSE:GE) as of the end of June, but will still keep its hand in a legacy part of the conglomerate. Berkshire (BRK.A, BRK.B) reported a 17.5M share stake in Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF), the financing arm of GE that was spun out in a 2014. It also boosted stakes in Store Capital (NYSE:STOR), Bank of New York (NYSE:BK), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Apple (AAPL).
3. Trump Signs Executive Order Aimed at Boosting Infrastructure Projects — President Trump has signed an executive order to speed approvals of permits for highways, bridges and other major building efforts as part of his proposal to spend $1T to fix aging U.S. infrastructure. The move revokes a previous order by President Obama that required strict building standards for government-funded projects to reduce exposure to consequences of climate change.
4. Fiat Joins Autonomous Driving Consortium — Fiat Chrysler is joining a self-driving car consortium led by BMW (OTCPK:BAMXF), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and its Mobileye (NYSE:MBLY) subsidiary that aims to develop fully driverless vehicles by 2021. CEO Sergio Marchionne has long said that automakers need to work together to develop the future technology because of the vast development costs. Last year, FCA (NYSE:FCAU) became the first carmaker to partner with Waymo, the driverless car unit owned by Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL).
5. FOMC Chairwoman Yellen to Speak at Jackson Hole Conference — Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak at Jackson Hole this week. The subject of the speech will be “Financial Stability,” and it will happen on August 25 at 10 ET. The talk comes a couple of weeks ahead of the FOMC’s next policy meeting, at which most are currently expecting another rate hike and the start of the wind-down of the central bank’s balance sheet.
6. Russell 2000 (SmallCap) Erases Year’s Gains — the major averages have been up pretty much all year, but the Russell 2000 lagged by a pretty nice measure – peaking with about a 6% YTD advance in late July, and swooning since. With last thursday’s 1.4% decline, the small cap index is in the green for the year by just a handful of basis points. The S&P 500 remains higher by nearly 9%, and the Nasdaq by 16%.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

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