Down goes another one

MARKETS

• Crypto: Bitcoin finally did something worth reporting—it jumped above $10,000 for the first time in six weeks.
• Election: With less than 100 days to go until the presidential election, a new poll shows Joe Biden leading President Trump in three battleground states Trump won in 2016.

ECONOMY

Summer, We Hardly Knew Ye

Things have never been so quiet and so busy at the same time. Here's what you need to know about the most hectic and high-stakes week we can remember.

Stimulus

Republicans will unveil their latest stimulus proposal today as a starting point for negotiations. We have a general sense of what it’ll include—funding to help schools reopen, another round of $1,200 stimulus checks, and liability protections for businesses.

That expiring $600/week in extra unemployment benefits probably won’t be there...at least in full. The White House supports capping supplemental unemployment income at 70% of workers’ lost wages.

Earnings

Now’s not the time to get sick of hearing about corporate earnings, because this week is the busiest yet. Everyone from Apple to McDonald’s to Comcast to GM will share their financial results for the previous quarter. Expect to hear lots of synonyms for "unprecedented."

But at least they’ll have a low bar to clear. The S&P is on track for its worst quarter of earnings growth since 2008.

Big Tech antitrust hearings

The blockbuster event of the summer starring Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will now take place on Wednesday. The CEOs of these companies, which along with Microsoft account for more than 20% of the S&P 500, will defend their records against lawmakers and smaller companies who say they’ve unfairly used their market dominance to squash competition.

Fed meeting

When the Federal Reserve held its last meeting six weeks ago, things were bad but appeared somewhat stable. Now, with a renewed outbreak and a stall in the recovery, things are bad and appear somewhat unstable. Chair Jerome Powell is expected to emphasize he’ll keep interest rates near zero for the foreseeable future to juice the collapsed economy.

How collapsed? We’ll find out on Thursday with the first reading of Q2 GDP numbers. Economists estimate that GDP fell around 35% last quarter.

STOCKS

With Nothing Else to Do, People Trade Stocks

“Everyone’s a day trader now,” writes the WSJ. And it’s hard to disagree—in March alone, the trading platform E-Trade recorded more new accounts than any full year in its history.

Rival app Robinhood reported 3 million new accounts in Q1, also a record.
Zoom out: Individuals now account for 20% of all stock market activity, the head of execution services at Citadel Securities told the Journal.

So what are individuals buying?

Top 10 most popular stocks on Robinhood right now

1. Ford
2. GE
3. American Airlines
4. Disney
5. Delta Air Lines
6. Apple
7. Microsoft
8. Tesla
9. Carnival
10. GoPro

You can find all that info and more at Robintrack.

COVID-19

COVID-19 Around the World

It’s not just the U.S. struggling to stamp out the coronavirus. Nearly 40 countries reported record single-day bumps in cases over the past week, per Reuters. Here's the latest.

Spain: As new hotspots crop up, the government instituted new restrictions on nightlife in Barcelona and neighboring areas. The UK also made the surprise move of putting Spain on its “unsafe” travel list, meaning that travelers coming back from Spain must self-quarantine for 14 days.

North Korea: A city near the border with South Korea has been placed under lockdown after someone was found with coronavirus symptoms. It would be North Korea’s first confirmed case, but few experts actually believe that.

United States: Florida passed New York in confirmed cases following the major outbreak over the past few weeks (California is No. 1). The good news is that upward trend seems to be reversing.

Germany and Taiwan: Both countries sent cruise ships sailing for the first time since the lockdowns began. Germany’s ship had 1,200 passengers compared to the typical 2,900.

RETAIL

2020's Biggest Gathering Is Retail Bankruptcies

More retailers have filed for bankruptcy so far this year than in all of 2019, Retail Brew’s Halie LeSavage reports.

The latest? Ascena Retail Group, parent to Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.

• Ascena will close 1,600 of its 2,800 stores, including all locations of its plus-size label Catherines.
• This one's especially going to hurt malls. Ascena is one of the biggest tenants at mall owners Brookfield, Simon, CBL, and more.

Zoom out: The list of other retailers filing for bankruptcy in July include Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, Muji, Sur La Table, and major Pizza Hut/Wendy’s franchisee NPC International.

Here’s a chart to-go.

CALENDAR

The Week Ahead

We gave you the high-level overview in the first story. But that didn't include critical developments with the NBA and Beyoncé.

Monday: Durable goods orders

Tuesday: Consumer confidence; earnings (Visa, 3M, Pfizer, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Altria, AMD, Visa, eBay)

Wednesday: Fed interest rate decision; antitrust hearing into Big Tech; Michelle Obama’s podcast launches; earnings (Facebook, GE, Boeing, General Motors, Qualcomm, PayPal, Spotify, Shopify)

Thursday: Q2 GDP estimate; the NBA is back; National Intern Day; earnings (Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Procter & Gamble, Comcast, Ford, Dunkin' Brands, Comcast, Kellogg, Kraft Heinz, Electronic Arts)

Friday: Beyoncé’s visual album Black Is King comes to Disney+; Harry Potter turns 40; earnings (Caterpillar, Merck, Exxon Mobil, Chevron)

CIVIL RIGHTS

'The Final Crossing'

The body of late Rep. John Lewis, an American hero and civil rights icon, is carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, one final time yesterday. In 1965, Lewis led a voting rights march of nonviolent protestors across this same bridge, before he and others were beaten by police.

There is currently a debate over renaming the bridge. Edmund Pettus was a Confederate officer and KKK leader.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Crowds gathered as workers began to move out of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, China, which the government had ordered closed in a retaliatory move.
• SAP will spin out Qualtrics, the "experience management" software company it acquired for $8 billion less than two years ago.
• Seattle and Portland police declared a riot and in Seattle arrested dozens of protestors after demonstrators threw rocks, fireworks, and mortars, authorities say. Protests have gained steam since the Trump administration sent federal agents to Portland last month.
• Elon Musk was interviewed by the NYT's Maureen Dowd.
• Taylor Swift’s new album, Folklore, broke several streaming records following its release. Guilty.