Following corporate tax cuts in December, major U.S. banks have been reducing costs and planning hikes on shareholder payments. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, 23 banks regarded as most important by the Federal Reserve (and hence subject to the central bank’s stress tests) each saved $388 million on average in the first half of the year.The banks slashed 3,200 jobs in aggregate, while decided to boost shareholder payouts by more than $28 billion through mid-2019. JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc.,Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley – raked in more than $29 billion in net earnings in each of this year’s first two quarters – in large part due to lower corporate tax rates.

KPMG, one of the world’s biggest tax advisory and auditing firms, released their twice-yearly “The Pulse of Fintech” report on July 31.It offered a rosy outlook for the space, revealing a significant uptick in venture capital, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions deals through Q1 and Q2 2018 on a level that already exceeds 2017’s overall totals. Two massive deals accounted for the healthy growth: Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Financial raised $14 billion during Q2, while Vantiv acquired WorldPay for $12.9 billion in Q1.

Tickeron AI software manages many portfolios inside the company virtual Mall where users are offered hundreds of portfolios to follow for a monthly fee.The secret is that AI invested 92% of the portfolio into 1 single stock SDRL which is Seadrill Ltd.  Seadrill stock spiked from just 12 cents a share to almost $18 a share which drove the return on the Bermuda portfolio to almost 900%.

Starbucks will start delivery service in China next month, using Alibaba's Ele.me platform.It will be delivered to you. 

India has decided to push back the date for imposing tariffs on its U.S. imports  –  to September 18, from the earlier planned August 4, as announced by India's Ministry of Finance on Friday. American goods worth more than $200 million exported to India are the target of the tariffs, which have been postponed twice so far.U.S. President Donald Trump has had indicated at his disappointment over Indian’s tariffs on American motorcycles and India’s high trade surplus with the nation.

Large companies take the issue of security of their CEO’s very seriously. To keep Mark Zuckerberg safe will cost about $18 million next year.Believe or not even toilets or smart refrigerators can make home networks vulnerable. However, Mark needs to pay income tax on these additional expenses: these expenses are added to his salary of $1/year.

China tries to salvage the yuan, by making it costlier to short the currency. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced on Friday that it will impose reserve requirements of 20% on some foreign-exchange forward contracts’ trading  - a tactic expected to arrest yuan shorting tendencies among traders and therefore stabilize the currency. Although a nation’s weak currency is a potential tailwind to its exports, too much depreciation in the currency might cause capital outflows.The central bank, however, has indicated that the strategy is for limiting currency volatility amid trade tensions - versus creating capital controls. Earlier, China had introduced a similar tactic after the 2015 devaluation of the yuan, and had removed it in September 2017.  

Heineken N.V.wants a bigger sip of the Chinese market - by owning a stake in China Resources Beer (CR Beer). By buying 41% of CR beer for $3.1 billion, the Dutch brewery will hand over its Chinese operation to CR.The deal also allows CR Beer to sell the Heineken beverage in China and to own 0.9% of Heineken N.V.’s equity. The partnership seems to be Heineken’s big move to boost its sales in China, given the company only had 0.5% share in the world’s largest beer market as of last year (as Euromonitor data suggests).

Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the owner of some of the largest futures markets and the New York Stock Exchange, wants to build a global platform for Bitcoin trading. Named Bakkt, Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s latest venture will  aim to provide  “an open and regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets”, according to its statement on Friday.The venture plans to start offering one-day futures contract in November, which will give bitcoins (versus cash) to contract holders upon the contract’s expiration.  The company will team up with Starbucks and Microsoft, in addition to several venture capital/investment firms, for setting up this platform.

The U.S. added 157,000 jobs in July, marking the 94th straight month of job gains - the longest such streak in U.S. history.The Labor Department released the latest data on Friday.  Logging, couriers/messengers, temporary help services, employment services and other information services registered the largest employment gains. Unemployment rate fell below 4%, while average hourly pay for workers ticked up +2.7% on a year-over-year basis in July.

Just a day after China indicated that it is ready to retaliate if needed, the nation pulls up a list of $60 billion worth of U.S. imports that it plans to slap levies on should the U.S. go ahead with a tariff hike on Chinese imports. The list, released by China’s Ministry of Finance on Friday, includes 5,207 kinds of American imports on which tariff rates in the range of 5% to 25% would be applied - if U.S.President Donald Trump actually implements his proposed 25% tariff (versus the initial 10% rate) on $200 billion of Chinese goods. The U.S. proposed moving up the tariff rate apparently in hopes of getting more favorable trade terms for itself with China.

Two topics of conversations (both starting with the letter “T”) lead to broken families, lost friends or clients: President Trump and Tesla.We will not be commenting on the first topic but would like to add two cents to the second. Here are the main arguments why we believe in Tesla survivability: Tesla Model 3 is a beautiful great car; Elon Musk told us yesterday that Model 3 had (or soon would) be profitable; Mr.

Google’s Chinese dreams seem to be getting loftier – and more controversial.The tech giant is reportedly planning to launch a search app in China, in a way that complies with the nation’s regulatory standards. According to a report by The Intercept, Alphabet Inc.'s Google is willing to block sensitive websites/search items to be in line with the Chinese government’s censorship, for a search app it wants to introduce in the nation. The move has apparently irked some people who suggest that Google’s offering a censored product goes against the company’s own philosophy.

Starbucks Corp. is joining hands with Chinese tech multinational Alibaba to introduce coffee delivery services in China. The coffee company will have their beverages brewed in Alibaba’s Hema grocery stores, while customers in China will be able to order their cup of Starbucks on Alibaba’s food delivery platform Ele.me.Delivery will begin in September 2018. Starting with Beijing and Shanghai, Starbucks aims to open its delivery services across 30 Chinese cities by year end.

Blue Apron Inc. lowered its sales forecast and reported a slide in its customer count. In Q2 2018, the meal-kit company’s customers declined by -24%, causing revenues to drop -25%.Blue Apron expects Q3 revenues in the range of $150 million to $160 million - which would be a -24% decline from the year-ago period.  

The U.S.-China ‘cold war’ on trade is getting hotter.Following reports that the U.S. President Donald Trump might be considering a hike in proposed tariff rate to 20% from 10% on $200 billion of Chinese imports, China policymakers seem to be in no mood to give in. On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that China is prepared to retaliate “to defend the nation’s dignity and the interests of the people, defend free trade and the multilateral system, and defend the common interests of all countries.” The Ministry also indicated that it is willing to negotiate as long as the parties “treat each other equally”. Earlier this week, a Bloomberg report implied that the U.S. apparently is open to negotiations only if Beijing welcomes more competition in its markets and does not retaliate against U.S. trade measures – based on comments from two senior administration officials who did not want to be named, according to Bloomberg.

The Bank of England raised its benchmark interest rate to its highest level since 2009. Hiking the rate to 0.75% from 0.5%, U.K.’s central bank hinted at inflation concerns.However, uncertainties remain over how smooth or difficult Brexit and its economic/financial outcome would actually turn out to be – something that might affect the pace of further monetary tightening in the nation.

Tariffs on imported steel boosted U.S. Steel Corp. ‘s financials. The steelmaker experienced a +38% surge in its operating profit in Q2, on the back of a 5%-10% increase in prices of its U.S.-made steel and solid shipments growth.Along with U.S. Steel, several steel players such as Nucor, Reliance Steel and Aluminum and AK Steel have also apparently benefited from tariff-induced tailwinds.

But with a new federal ruling restricting firms from fully deducting their stock-based expenses from tax calculation, Silicon Valley players could see a substantial bump in their tax liabilities. Facebook might have to pay a tax rate of 30% in Q3 - versus the standard 21% corporate tax rate - to make up for previous periods’ deductions on stock payments.Semiconductor developer Silicon Laboratories Inc. said in a recent filing that it’s the court decision’s impact “could be material” to financial statements.  

Most of all storage gear is sold exactly by Container Store. After reporting the record sales in its existing retail stores the stock of Container Store jumped +40% to $9.60.Also, some great cost cutting procedures were installed allowing the company to save capital by using more technology and improving its e-commerce.