At the close of trading, Wall Street erases new session records, but advances slowly. The S&P 500 rose by +0.10% to 5,572 points on Monday, after a daily high and a new historical record at 5,583.11 points. The Dow Jones is relatively stable and ends at 39,344 points. The Nasdaq once again shows firmness, with a gain of +0.28% to 18,403 points and a new session record at 18,416.94 points.
While the French political situation is being watched out of the corner of the eye by American operators, they are not losing sight of their own deadlines, especially since the cognitive abilities of Joe Biden (81 years old) are still being debated. According to some media, several influential Democrats in the House of Representatives asked him, on Sunday during a telephone call, to renounce his candidacy for the presidential election in November.
The American president nevertheless says he is determined to continue his electoral journey and urges the Democratic clan to rally around him. “I want you to know that, despite speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in the race, to leading this race to the end, and to defeating Donald Trump,” Joe Biden wrote in a letter addressed to Democratic parliamentarians.
On a purely financial level, the two interventions by Jerome Powell, on Tuesday and Wednesday before the two American legislative chambers, will be particularly monitored by the American markets, after the latest employment data.
The Fed chairman will likely say that the institution needs further confirmation that it has beaten inflation before it is ready to cut interest rates.
The consumer price figures for June, which will be released on Thursday, will shed light on the evolution of inflation in the country, and will be the other highlight of the week, before the start of the quarterly season on Friday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will testify before the House Financial Services Committee tomorrow, while Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Governor Michelle Bowman will also speak Tuesday.
On the oil side, the barrel of WTI crude fell -1.36% to $82.24.
The dollar is trading at 0.9235 euros.
The ounce of gold climbs by +0.11% and is trading at $2,359 (2,178 euros). Bitcoin is still under pressure, giving back -0.46% to return to $56,354.
Values
* Paramount Global (+2.69% to $21.02). The saga that has kept Hollywood on tenterhooks is coming to an end. After multiple twists and turns, Paramount Global has agreed to merge with Skydance Media in a deal that gives producer David Ellison control of the famed Hollywood studio. First, Skydance and its partners will acquire National Amusements, which holds the Redstone family’s majority stake in Paramount, for $2.4 billion in cash. Then, Skydance will merge with the parent company of CBS and MTV, offering $4.5 billion in cash/stock to shareholders and $1.5 billion in debt repayment from Paramount. Loaded with more than $14 billion in debt, the iconic Hollywood company has struggled to compete with the rise of streaming and has suffered from viewers abandoning traditional networks like CBS and Nickelodeon. The entertainment giant has also been plagued by tensions among its top executives. Chief Executive Bob Bakish was fired in April after a falling out with Shari Redstone, the heiress of Sumner Redstone’s group, over the merger with Skydance.
Paramount stock has lost more than half its value since the Redstones combined CBS and Viacom in 2019 to create Paramount Global. The owner of the movie studio behind films such as Titanic and The Godfather has been controlled by the Redstone family for three decades.
D. Ellison, son of Larry Ellison, will be chairman and CEO of the merged entity. Jeff Shell, a former NBCUniversal executive, will be chairman. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025.
* Boeing (+0.55% to $185.84). The American aerospace group has agreed to plead guilty to criminal fraud as part of the US Justice Department’s investigation into the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed 346 people. Under the agreement in principle reached with prosecutors, Boeing will have to pay a new fine of $243.6 million. Boeing has also agreed to invest at least $455 million over the next three years to strengthen its safety and compliance programs.
The Justice Department will appoint a third party to monitor the company’s compliance with the rules. The monitor will be required to provide the court with annual reports on the company’s progress. A Boeing spokesman confirmed that the company has “reached an agreement in principle” on a resolution of the dispute with the Justice Department.
* Eli Lilly & Co (+0.39% to $917.68). The pharmaceutical group did not hesitate to offer a 79% premium on the last price of Morphic Holding (+75.06% to $55.74) to acquire this biopharmaceutical company. The American giant will thus pay approximately $3.2 billion to acquire the experimental therapies of the Massachusetts firm against inflammatory bowel diseases and other chronic diseases. The transaction should be finalized in the 3rd quarter. Morphic’s main drug, MORF-057, is an oral treatment evaluated in two phase 2 studies in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
* PepsiCo (-1.38% to $162.12). Carlsberg will buy British soft drinks maker Britvic for £3.3 billion ($4.2 billion). The Danish brewer, which had seen its first two offers rejected, finally offered 1,315 pence per share to convince the Board of its target. The latest offer represents a 36% premium on Britvic’s share price, preceding the wave of speculation surrounding the group. Britvic is notably known for its Robinsons and Tango brands as well as its Teisseire syrups. The group is also PepsiCo’s main partner in the United Kingdom and Ireland with exclusive rights to manufacture, bottle and sell brands such as Pepsi, 7UP and Lipton Ice Tea.
* United Airlines (-0.38% to $46.82). U.S. airlines canceled more than 1,300 flights Monday as Hurricane Beryl intensified and made landfall in Texas. Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, made landfall near the coastal city of Matagorda early in the day, pounding the coast with dangerous storm surges, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Texas’ major ports also closed.
* Microsoft (-0.28% $466.24). Goodbye Android. Microsoft teams in China will soon be restricted to using iPhones for work. The American giant will require its employees based in the country to use only Apple devices to verify their identity when logging into work computers or phones, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. The move, part of Microsoft’s global Secure Future initiative, will affect hundreds of workers across the Chinese mainland and aims to ensure that all staff use the Microsoft Authenticator password manager and Identity Pass app.
Microsoft has chosen to block these devices from accessing its corporate resources because they do not have Google mobile services in the country, the note said. Any staff member using Android handsets — including devices made by Huawei or Xiaomi — will receive an iPhone 15, as a one-time purchase, the note said. The company will make the iPhones available at various hubs across China, including Hong Kong, where Google services are accessible. The company has been beefing up its security around the world after suffering repeated attacks from hackers, with a Russia-linked flaw disclosed in January affecting dozens of U.S. government agencies, including the State Department. It has faced significant pressure and criticism from domestic lawmakers to improve its performance.
