Wall Street's blazing

MARKETS

• Markets: The Dow snapped its longest winning streak in two months, shedding more than 100 points by the close.
• Metals: Copper prices fell to a one-year low. The metal is sometimes considered a leading indicator of the global economy since it's used in many sectors.

MEDIA

Disney Wins the Fox Sweepstakes

In the most entertaining staring contest we've seen in a while, Comcast (+2.56%) blinked first. It's decided to stop pursuing a large chunk of 21st Century Fox's (-0.06%) assets...which means Disney (+1.30%) has a wide open lane to buy them up.

What's Disney getting again?

• Cable channels like FX and National Geographic.
• The 20th Century Fox film studio. That'll be a nice addition to its already crowded box-office trophy case (it owns Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm).
• A majority stake in streaming service Hulu and its 20 million-plus subscribers.
• Star India and other international media properties.

As you can imagine, all that isn't coming cheap

Disney is forking over $71.3 billion for the package, an offer it had to sweeten after Comcast topped its initial bid. Still, Disney's convinced it's a price worth paying to claim its territory in a media environment defined by an arms race for content (h/t Netflix).

Checking in on Comcast: Like a losing candidate conceding to the winner on election night, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts offered his best wishes:

• "I'd like to congratulate Bob Iger and the team at Disney and commend the Murdoch family and Fox for creating such a desirable and respected company."

Bottom line: This is a major vict—

Psych. You didn't think this story ends here, did you?

There's plenty of intrigue post-credits. After all, UK pay-TV operator Sky is still up for grabs...and Comcast and Disney are both interested.

Here's the latest:

• Last week, Comcast lobbed a $34 billion bid for Sky, edging out Fox's offer (Disney would acquire Sky in the Fox deal).
• But keep in mind, Fox already owns 39% of Sky.

Bottom line (for real): Don't expect Comcast to blink as quickly on Sky. With a presence in five European countries and 22.5 million customers, it's Comcast's ticket to an attractive international market.

ECONOMY

Trump Lashes Out at the Fed

The Trump administration: Busting norms since ‘17.

When asked about the Fed rolling back its years-long low interest rate policy, President Trump told CNBC: "I don't like all of this work that we're putting into the economy and then I see rates going up."

For perspective: Trump's comments came out of left field, if presidential history is any indicator. For 20+ years, the White House has abstained from commenting on Fed policy to allow the bank to remain nonpartisan.

But the Fed's decision to temper too-hot growth with rate hikes (five since Trump took office) has shaken the president's confidence.

• The bad: The dollar handed over earlier gains and Treasury yields sank.
• The good: Trump said he wouldn't interfere with the Fed—"I'm letting them do what they feel is best."

That said, this isn't the first time Trump's raised a red flag on monetary policy. As a candidate in 2016 he said, "When they raise interest rates, you're going to see some very bad things happen."

CANNABIS

Wall Street’s Getting Blazed

What's that smell? Don't worry, your parents didn't find your stash. It's the grassy aroma of Canadian medical marijuana company Tilray, which just maneuvered the first-ever cannabis IPO in U.S. markets.

So what does Tilray do?

• Grows weed in Canada and Portugal
• Sells pot to medical marijuana patients
• Surged 32% in day one of trading

Quick context break: Tilray isn't the first weed company to list shares in the U.S. Cronos Group listed in February and Canopy Growth followed in May, but both traded in Canada before that. Tilray's the first to IPO stateside. It's worth between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion.

• Let's get more in the weeds: Thanks to some wonky market regulations, cannabis companies headquartered in Canada can list in the U.S. BUT, U.S.-based marijuana companies—even when compliant with rules & regs—can only list on exchanges outside the U.S.

Big picture: Weed is legal to some degree in 30 states and 60% of voters support legalizing marijuana. The regulated pot industry could be worth $25 billion by 2025.

TECH

The Cloud Looks Good on You, Microsoft

Is fiscal New Year's a thing? Asking for Microsoft (+1.15% after hours), which closed out its fiscal year in style by beating quarterly expectations and toasting champagne.

It sure seems like Microsoft is enjoying the view from up in the clouds.

• Commercial cloud revenue (a good indicator of its cloud business in general) grew 53%.
• Revenue from its Azure cloud platform grew 89%—a sign that more businesses are getting on board.
• And let's not forget the Surface (revenue up 25%) and gaming (39% revenue growth).

The strong report keeps the summer of love going for CEO Satya Nadella
Microsoft's stock is setting records—it's up 40% over the past year. And if you can remember early June, that's when it made a splash by buying coding-collaboration site GitHub for $7.5 billion.

Yep, there's a reason former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are giving Satya a standing-O.

FRIDAY FUN

Caption This

Bill Gates to Warren Buffett: "And that’s why you always bring your own paddle."

Think you can do better? Post your best caption here. Then? We'll throw the best one on our Instagram.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Amazon Prime Day, even with its little snafu, may have topped $4 billion in sales.
• San Diego Comic-Con highlights, Day 1.
• Krispy Kreme (owned by JAB Holding) is considering an acquisition of Insomnia Cookies, per CNBC.
• Facebook and Instagram will make an "operational" change to lock accounts of users suspected to be younger than 13 years old.

BREAKROOM

ANOTHER GREAT NEWSLETTER
NextDraft by Dave Pell is the perfect afternoon complement to Morning Brew. Also an angel investor, Pell writes news that's read by the people who write the news. But enough from us, here's how Dave describes it: "I pluck the top ten most fascinating items of the day, which I deliver with a fast, pithy wit that will make your computer device vibrate with delight." He's right. Check it out.

BUSINESS TRIVIA
With Disney expected to buy $71.3 billion worth of Fox assets, let’s consider three other Disney acquisitions: Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. Which of these was the most expensive?

(Answer located at bottom of newsletter)

Breakroom Answers