Tariffs on imported metals force General Motors to go slow on its profit projections. The U.S. automaker has scaled back its forecast of this year’s earnings to about $6 a share, from a previous projection of  $6.50. The company's stellar earnings potential for 2018 (on the back of its solid equity earnings from its China business and record pretax profit from GM Financial) is apparently getting muted by U.S. tariffs slapped in June on steel and aluminum imports.The company faces $1 billion in raw material costs – almost twice its previous expectation.

In his latest tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump hopes that both the U.S. and EU  drop all tariffs, barriers and subsidies, ahead of his scheduled meet with EU trade chiefs. Last month, Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs to 20% from 2.5% on cars imported from the EU into the U.S.Apparently aiming to temper trade tensions, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom will meet Trump on Wednesday to propose  a lowering of levies on automobiles and auto-parts among  all major car exporters (akin to a plurilateral agreement). On Tuesday night, Trump’s post on Twitter about the meeting reads, “I have an idea for them.

The giant activewear company is replacing their Chief Executive Officer (Laurent Potdevin) with the established CEO Calvin McDonald.Lululemon has done an impressive job of becoming a high-end activewear company over the last decade. 

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, during the second quarter conference call, revealed a remarkable and completely mind-boggling statistics – Google translates 143 billion words a day.A stranger on the street will answer in his native tongue, and you will hear in perfect English (you can choose between male or female voices with or without a British accent). This service is not perfect yet and it is free for now.

Ongoing trade disputes, political divisiveness, geopolitical threats, and tense feelings about Russia meddling have no doubt weighed on investor sentiment.Uncertainty hangs over the market like a dark cloud. But there's sun poking through those dark clouds, and it's none other than U.S. corporate earnings reports!

Here is a brief summary of the news – and all positive! China apparently decided to print more money, build more speed trains, wonderful airports, more freeways.)  One of the largest European banks – UBS - just reported great earnings.  Manufacturing index out of Germany is much better than expected.  On this side of the pond, earnings continue to impress – Google yesterday was a pleasant surprise, but others (Verizon, Biogen, Eli Lily, Lockheed Martin) are doing very well. 10 year Treasuries yield is approaching 3% again and the gap between 2-year Treasuries and 10-years is increasing again. Are we out of the woods?

But the question for investors is, will it matter if earnings, revenues, and sales are stronger than expected? We'll find out tomorrow.Time will tell.  

Russian hackers have also gained access to U.S. electric utility networks, claiming "hundreds of victims" in a campaign that would have enabled the hackers to cause disruptions to service at best and full blackouts at worst.Though the government has known about the Russian threat since 2014, this was the first time they alerted the public to the threat with so much detail. 

Harley-Davidson Inc. pared back its 2018 profit margin forecast. In a statement released Tuesday, the Milwaukee-based iconic motorcycle maker said that it has revised down its expectations for operating margin this year to 9-10% - compared to its previous forecast of 9.5-10.5%.The firm indicated the potential role of tariffs in raising costs and therefore eating away at profits as a reason behind the downward revision in margin projection. Last month, Harley had expressed its willingness to shift some its production overseas in order to avoid the European Union’s tariffs on American goods.

Whirlpool had earlier cheered President Donald Trumps’ tariffs on imported washing machines, hoping the policy to boost the firm's sales. But Trump’s tariff spree also includes raw material such as steel and aluminum."  The company has been hiking prices on its washing machines following Trump’s implementation of the tariffs, amidst flagging sales in recent times.

Verizon’s subscriber growth in Q2 surpassed expectations. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, analysts projected an average of 436,000 gains in Verizon Communications’ monthly subscribers.This marks the fifth straight quarter of the firm’s increasing subscribers. The period saw its mobile phone subscriber base rebounding from previous quarter’s decline, to increase by 199,000.  

China’s ZTE seems to have gotten off the hook of U.S. export ban. On Monday, the House and Senate announced that they have agreed to the final version of the annual defense policy bill, which did not include a provision to reinstate a U.S. export ban on ZTE.ZTE is a Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems company, In a deal with ZTE earlier this month, the U.S. Commerce Department agreed to lift the ban on the firm's purchase of American components, following ZTE’s paying up $1 billion fine and depositing $400 million in an escrow account.

Alphabet posts a stellar quarterly report. Investors apparently had been fretting over Google’s substantial expenses incurred in paying to phone-makers to get its apps installed on their devices.On top of that, Google’s net revenue surged 25.4% in Q2 2018 compared to the year-ago period, marking its fastest growth in four years. Plus, Alphabet’s operating profit margin peaked at 24 percent – its highest since the Q3 2017 (excluding a $5 billion fine from European antitrust authorities).

Chinese markets finally seem to turning up the “risk”, following its policymakers’ recent announcements that hint at better economic stimulus for the nation. The CSI 300 Index of mainland stocks rose 1.6 percent Tuesday, clocking its biggest three-day rally since mid-August 2016.China's 10-year government bond yields climbed, rebounding from their record lows. For most part of the year, Chinese markets experienced a  risk-off environment sparked by its government’s deleveraging campaign that sought to limit leverage and impose restrictions on bond trading. But now, it seems market optimism, on the back of policy makers' latest moves: On Monday, a State Council statement suggested that fiscal policy would be “more proactive”. The PBOC offered to give 502 billion yuan ($74 billion) of one-year loans to banks. PBOC’s newly released guidelines for the nation's  $15 trillion asset management industry was less stringent than most people had apparently expected. With the

Google has partnered up with a blockchain company 'Digital Asset', and the company has announced that they want to incorporate this technology into their cloud platform.So this move might boost Google's market share in this cloud service, and with adding blockchain technology for app developers, there will be a major sense of security for all users.

But I never knew that they had many different products like Discrete Semiconductors, Programmable Logic ICs, Wireless & RF Integrated Circuits, and more.If you are looking to get some exposure in the semiconductor industry, these companies might be worth checking out! 

Is that working for them? We are at the early stages of this exciting experiment and only time will show if this works better than a “Wonderful Human Mind”. One pattern that is very useful is a very simple momentum play discovered by Dr. Clifford Asness – he received a PhD.for this work and got three billion dollars to manage (AQR Capital Management). He formalized the strategy known as momentum factor”.

Day traders and market watchers are often left wondering whether -- and by how much -- President Trump's tweets affect the market and stocks.As the president unabashedly wages trade threats and targets companies like Amazon in his Twitter feed, traders have eyed the market closely for reactions. Now, Goldman Sachs has compiled data to pinpoint just how much tweets affect market action.

Meat is starting to pile up in U.S. warehouses, with some 2.5 billion pounds of beef, pork, poultry, and turkey now sitting in cold storage as producers confront the impact of rising tariffs with China.Government figures coming as early as today are expected to show record stockpiles.

There was acquisition buzz over the weekend, with Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba and Tencent involved in talks to buy an approximately 20% stake in the Chinese unit of WPP, the world's largest advertising group.This acquisition would value WPP at roughly $2.5 billion. Meanwhile, in Europe, French technology services company Atos has agreed to acquire Syntel in a $3.7 billion all-cash transaction.