WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The following is Monday’s status check of developments in the U.S. that can influence economic, health and political outcomes:
- Life in these United States, another chapter. President Trump holds a news conference and defends his MAGA truck rally firing paint balls at Black Lives Matter protestors – “Paint is not bullets.” – and defending the 17-year-old who, he said, might have been killed had he not fired his AR-15 killing two people in Portland who were chasing him. His opponent, Joe Biden, blasts him for “trying to scare America.” He says,“You know me. You know my heart. Do I look like a radical Socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?”
- Presidential duty or campaign event? It’s hard to tell as President Trump visits Kenosha, Wisconsin, Tuesday to tour the debris left by arsonists and rioters. The mayor and the governor said it might be better to skip the visit. Trump said, when asked if he isn’t stoking tensions with his visit, that he is instead stoking “enthusiasm.”
- American and Delta Airlines followed United’s lead and killed change fees under most circumstances as the airlines keep hoping for more funds from Congress. Forced to forsake billions in revenue while seeking billions more from the government is the pandemic-skewed new business model. There continued to be no sign anything is brewing in the government virus relief category, however.
- One of the would-be negotiators, Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, did another Fox Business interview and had virtually nothing to say on the subject of negotiations. The morning New York Times had featured a long profile piece on Mnuchin that was authored by heavy hitters who added a lot of previously unknown factoids – one of his confidantes is CNBC’s Jim Cramer. His parents can’t stand Trump. But as previous efforts have shown, it’s hard to reach any conclusions about the man who seems bereft of political persuasion other than he’s smart, is detail oriented and fixated on his bottom line.
- Without a triggering event, such as a severe stocks pullback, more street unrest or a worsening of the pace of virus deaths, there does not seem to be too much incentive for the White House and House Democrats to come back to negotiations. The video on KPIX-TV in Oakland of hundreds of late-model expensive cars lined up for hours so their drivers can get some free food apparently doesn’t cut it. The legislative gears might not resume meshing until mid-September. When Congress returns to regular business there will be less than two weeks to come to some agreement on the next fiscal year’s budget or else there will be a government shutdown midnight September 30. As part of that process, virus relief could finally become part of the mix. Or perhaps the fact the first presidential debate is the night before might impel the candidates to come to the realization they will be walking on that stage empty handed and decide to change the negotiation dynamics.
- On the virus front, the death toll rose to 183,450, boosted by an exceptionally low daily count, just 374, suggesting that maybe CDC Director Robert Redfield was right when he said lowering hospitalizations would be followed by diminishing deaths. Or it could be the more usual reason, weekend counts are usually low. President Trump’s new favorite virus expert, Scott Atlas, is reported pushing the idea of herd immunity again, which other private sector experts say is the route to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary fatalities. President Trump told Fox the expert everyone else recognizes, Anthony Fauci, was a holdover from the Obama administration, someone he inherited. Actually he was a holdover from several previous administrations but like other Corona Task Force veterans, has been kept from briefing the public, just as the CDC has been restricted from holding its own regular briefings.
- There were inklings that the jobs crisis and the virus crisis were beginning to rival the campaign-fueled street unrest crisis for attention though not yet of market participants now that August has finished as the best month since spring for U.S. stocks. That’s even though the Dow and the S&P finished down for the day. The Nasdaq posted another record close, up 31% for the year. Despite the stock splits that have next to no fundamental economic significance, the two splitters, Apple and Tesla, posted more phenomenal daily gains, Apple up 3.4% and Tesla gaining 13%. Upcoming economic data includes the weekly Redbook same-store retail tally at 8:55a ET, the Markit manufacturing PMI at 9:45a, the ISM manufacturing PMI at 10a along with construction spending. Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard speaks at 1p.
—
Content may appear first or exclusively on the Mace News premium service. For real-time email delivery contact tony@macenews.com. Twitter headlines @macenewsmacro.