First Call - Hedge Fund Telemetry

S&P futures have turned slightly lower after index ended up for a fourth straight session on Tuesday. Asian markets mixed overnight. China under renewed pressure after snapping a big four-day losing streak in the prior session. European markets mostly lower, though pullback limited. Treasuries unchanged to slightly weaker. Dollar weaker vs yen, but not doing much vs euro. Gold flat. WTI crude backing off nearly 1%.
A few macro and political headlines in focus. China’s July trade came in stronger than expected. However, as widely expected, USTR announced 25% tariffs on an additional $16B of Chinese imports will go into effect on 23-Aug. Nothing particularly incremental in BoJ minutes following widely scrutinized policy tweaks. Republicans narrowly avoided upset in House special election in Ohio. Trump said White House will make an announcement next week on lowering drug prices "really substantially."
China’s export growth accelerated to 12.2% y/y in July from 11.2% in June, ahead of the 10.0% consensus. Exports to US resilient in the face of trade tensions, with growth only slowing to 11.2% y/y from 12.5% in June. However, also talk of likely support from front-loading of shipments. Trade surplus with US dipped to $28.09B from $28.97B. Import growth jumped to 27.3% y/y from 14.1%. better than the 16.5% consensus. Tariff cuts on automobiles and autos flagged as a supportive. Commodity imports also rebounded.
Sterling continues its recent underperformance, falling to lowest level versus the dollar since August 2017 and weakest against euro since November last year. In terms of specifics, no new headlines to digest, but sentiment impacted by recent pick-up in Brexit no-deal talk.

Earnings still busy. DIS missed on higher spending, but also noted reduced sub declines.SNAP beat on revenues and EBITDA, but DAUs missed. MTCH boosted by beat and raise. PZZA comp decline worse. FOSL results better, but deceleration expected in 2H. Outside of earnings,
Tesla privatization possibility getting most of the attention. Still no 8k filed with any details of "funding secured." This is a complete mess. I was stopped out with set 10% stop as I tried to change the perimeters before the reopening yesterday. I will be adding back 5% weight on the open today. Knowing the upside risk is capped ~10% higher from here and if the SEC gets involved (which I expect) this will blow up the stock. Elon Musk has painted himself into the corner with too many promises of cash flow positive, 6k Model 3's a week, 50k Model 3's delivered all this quarter and now this tweet could have him charged with securities fraud.

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