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Stocks mixed in NY before G20 Osaka

The US equities closed mixed today in New York ahead of the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan on Saturday. The US President said he would use the “Plan B” if the US and China cannot proceed with the trade issues during the weekend. He said the new tariffs would be closer to 10 % rather than 25 %.

Dow Jones closed down 0,04 % to 26 536 points, S&P 500 index closed down 0,12 % to 2913 points, but Nasdaq ended up 0,32 % to 7909 points.

In the tech-stocks the ride-hailing company Uber (UBER) ended down 1,37 % to 42,45 dollars, showing the market capital of 72 billion dollars. The rival Lyft (LYFT) ended also down 1,67 % to 62,82 dollars with the market cap of 18,3 billion dollars. The latest IPO tech company, Slack Technologies rose 4,96 % to 32,37 dollars (16,4 billion market cap). Cryptocurrency Bitcoin reached above 13 000 dollars.

One of the hottest issues during the G20 leaders summit will be foreign exchange rates. Mr Trump has said that the US dollar is too strong compared to euro and Chinese yuan and thus taking competitive edge from the US companies. The G20 finance ministers and central bankers have already made their commitments from competitive devaluation, according to Bloomberg. In the markets, the Federal Reserve rate cut is expected to happen in July meeting.

The important meeting with President Donald Trump and the Chinese President Xi Jinping will be on Saturday. Mr Trump will also meeting for example the Russia´s President Vladimir Putin and Turkey´s Erdogan.

In Europe the stocks wee also mixed. In London the FTSE 100 index ended down 0,08 % to 7416 points, while in Germany the DAX index ended up 0,14 % to 12 245 points. In France the stocks declined by 0,25 % to 5500 points. The German 10 year government bond yield dropped to record low to -0,31 %.

The debate about Brexit continued and Boris Johnson, the PM and Conservative leader candidate, said that he does not expect no-deal departure on October.

The sterling was trading down 0,03 % to 1,2685 dollars, while euro was trading down 0,01 % to 1,1366 dollars. Dollar was up 0,54 % to 107,78 Japanese yen.

In Asia the stocks were also mixed. In Shanghai the stocks closed down 0,19 % to 3117 points, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng index closed up 0,13 % to 28 221 points. In Japan the Nikkei 225 index ended down 0,51 % to 21086 points.

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Yandex Taxi to issue new shares in IPO – Reuters

Russia´s largest online taxi service Yandex Taxi is likely to sell new shares in its initial public offering. According to Reuters the company representative COO Greg Abovsky told that the company has not decided on a stock exchange, or the timing or the size of its IPO.

-We consider the Moscow Exchange an important exchange, he told Reuters and added that most likely there would be primary shares, not secondary in the IPO.

Yandex Taxi and Uber combined their resources in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakstan in 2017. Uber has 36,6 % of the shares, Yandex 59,3 % and Yandex Taxi staff the rest.

The US ride-hailing company Uber´s (UBER)  IPO was in May and the company listed its shares on Nyse in New York with the market value of 82 billion dollars. The rival company Lyft  (LYFT) listed its shares in Nasdaq already in April with the market value of 24,3 billion dollars.

Uber has also expanded its service offerings from taxi to flying taxi service in New York and customers can now ride from Manhattan to JF Kennedy and Newark airports with 199 dollars. The company has also announced it will start electric-flying taxi service in Australia, Melbourne next year, while the other piloting cities are Dallas and Los Angeles in the US.

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Airbnb to offer luxury property rentals

The US property rental service & hospitality platform Airbnb said today that it has launched a luxury property service for its customers.

This new service “Airbnb Luxe” offers 2000 new listings from entire islands to castles and mansions and the prices range from 14000 dollars a week average to 1 million dollars a week for a private atoll near Tahiti with a staff of 50.

This new rental service include also VIP service. – From personal chefs to massage therapists, a local team of professionals has you covered, the company says.

According to the company the luxury rental property market has not offered security for high-profile and mega-rich clients before, Bloomberg News says.  This new service will include the total wellbeing.

The company takes a percentage of the cost of each booking and the company is valued at 31 billion dollars before the initial public offering, perhaps next year.

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Volvo and Uber to present the self-driving car

Volvo Cars and Uber present production vehicle ready for self-driving
Volvo Cars and Uber present production vehicle ready for self-driving
Volvo Cars and Uber present production vehicle ready for self-driving

Volvo Cars (VOLVB), a leader in automotive safety, and Uber (UBER), the leading ride-hailing firm, have presented a jointly developed production car capable of driving by itself. This is the next step in the strategic collaboration between the companies.

– Uber and Volvo Cars entered a joint engineering agreement in 2016 and have since developed several prototypes aimed at accelerating the companies’ self-driving car development. The Volvo XC90 SUV is the first production car that in combination with Uber’s self-driving system is capable of fully driving itself, the Volvo says in the press release.

According to Volvo, the most important features of Volvo Cars’ autonomous drive-ready production vehicle include several back-up systems for both steering and braking functions as well as battery back-up power.

-By the middle of the next decade we expect one-third of all cars we sell to be fully autonomous. Our agreement with Uber underlines our ambition to be the supplier of choice to the world’s leading ride-hailing companies, the Volvo Cars CEO Håkan Samuelsson stated.

 

 

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Facebook to launch Libra digital money

The social media giant Facebook (FB) is to launch digital coin Libra. This blockchain cryptocurrency is targeted to be used in Facebook apps. According to markets this new currency may have risk factors for financial stability and antitrust, while Facebook company is still having the privacy concerns.

According to Financial Times, this new coin is backed with different business operators like Visa, Uber, Vodafone and Spotify.

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Foxconn ready to move production out of China – good news for iPhones

The electronics manufacturer Foxconn is ready to move productions out of China for the US markets, if needed. The company spokesman made the comments about the situation related to the US China trade disputes and the iPhones manufacturing situation in China.

Foxconn is the leading manufacturer partner of iPhones for Apple (AAPL)  and according to the company 25 % of the total capacity is now outside China.

Apple shares closed  up 1,16 % to 194,69 dollars in New York on Tuesday. The market cap for the company is now 896 billion dollars.

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Stocks down in NY due to new trade tariffs

The US stock markets closed down today due to the US China trade dispute. Mr President Donald Trump said in the CNBC interview that he is preparing to have new tariffs for 300 billion dollars for goods if the Chinese President Xi Jinping is not meeting in the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan in late June. This would mean that Chinese goods would get new tariffs to the current 250 billion dollars of goods.

Dow Jones index closed down 0,05 % to 26048,51 points, the S&P 500 index closed down 0,03 % to 2885,72 points and Nasdaq ended down 0,01% to 7822,56 points.

In the forex markets, the euro was trading up 0,02 % to 1,13 dollars, while the sterling was down 0,05 % 1,2719 dollars. President Donald Trump´s comments about the interest rates and the Fed´s too tight monetary policy was noticed in the markets during the day. According to Trump, the euro is undervalued about 20 %.

In the tech-side some of the largest US states are trying to stop the megadeal between T-Mobile and Sprint. They warn that the mobile carrier merger would lead to higher consumer prices.

In London the FTSE 100 -index closed up 0,31 % to 7398 points and in Germany the Dax-index was also up, +0,92 % to 12155,81 points. In France, the CAC 40 index closed up 0,48 % to 5408,45 points.

In the Brexit situation, the EU is saying that there will be no new agreement between the parties. According to Sunday Times, the PM candidate Boris Johnson has said that UK should not pay 39 billion pounds settlement if they there is no new deal.

The new UK Prime Minister and the new Conservative Party leaders is announced on July 22. There are 10 candidates for this position. Between 19th-20th July MPs take part in ballots until only 2 candidates remain.

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