CNBC Daily Open: A ‘crazy’ summer

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

End of a run
Wall Street closed lower ending a multi-session winning streak. After an eight-day run-up, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2%, snapping a five-day win streak. Boeing was among the biggest decliners, down 4.2%, after finding defects on engine mounting structures on a 777X test plane. Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was little changed as investors await minutes from the Federal Reserve’s July meeting due Wednesday. U.S. oil prices fell below $74 a barrel on demand concerns. 

Diabetes risk cut
Eli Lilly‘s weight loss drug tirzepatide, used in Zepbound and Mounjaro, reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 94% in obese or overweight adults with prediabetes, according to preliminary findings from a long-term study. The trial, which studied over 1,000 participants over 176 weeks, also showed sustained weight loss, with patients on the highest dose losing 22.9% of body weight on average. The results highlight the potential of GLP-1 drugs in delaying diabetes and offering significant long-term health benefits for people with obesity and prediabetes. Eli Lilly’s shares rose 3%.

Shein sues Temu
Chinese-linked fast-fashion retailer Shein is suing rival Temu for allegedly stealing its designs and engaging in counterfeiting, intellectual property infringement and fraud. Shein, which filed the suit in Washington D.C. on Monday, is fending off similar allegations from the likes of Levi Strauss and H&M. Shein claims Temu falsely presents itself as a legitimate marketplace while actively encouraging its sellers to copy designs and preventing them from removing infringing products. PDD Holdings, which owns Temu, dropped 4.5% on Tuesday. 

Waiting for Fed cut
Lowe’s has lowered its full-year sales and earnings forecasts as it anticipated weak home improvement spending. CEO Marvin Ellison told CNBC that consumers are waiting for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. “Inflation remains high,” he said. “And big-ticket purchases are being delayed as customers sit back and wait for interest rates to fall.” Lowe’s stock dropped 1.2%.

JD.com sinks Hang Seng 
Asia-Pacific markets fell, led by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index after Walmart said it would sell its stake in e-commerce giant JD.com worth a reported $3.74 billion. The index dropped 1% and JD.com slumped 10%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 index dipped 0.3%. Japan’s export-heavy Nikkei 225 slipped 0.29% after trade data for July revealed exports rose less than expected. Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.16%, while South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.13%.

[PRO] 100% gain
Jefferies analysts believe this insurer and asset manager’s stock could double in value due to falling interest rates. Although financial firms usually profit from high rates, this company seems to perform better in the opposite scenario.

As the S&P 500 and Nasdaq failed to extend their recovery rally into a ninth session, it’s worth reflecting on the past few weeks. When asked by CNBC’s Sara Eisen to describe the market’s current state, Holly Newman Kroft of Neuberger Berman Private Wealth said “it’s been a little crazy” this summer.

“We couldn’t have scripted a better start to the summer with equities really rallying and everyone feels good when the market goes up. The last six, seven, eight weeks have been many head-spinning turns of events. We had an assassination attempt. We had a broadening of the market. We had the market pricing in a Trump win, a red wave. Then we had Biden drop out, Kamala come in and now its sort of a dead heat,” Kroft explained.

Kroft said the market is navigating an uncertain environment plagued with volatility. “Two weeks ago, in the face of a not-great-jobs number — it wasn’t bad jobs number but it wasn’t great — we had a knee-jerk reaction in the market. And so on Monday it opened down almost 10%. What’s kind of also mind-blowing is by the end of the week the market was flat.”

With the S&P 500 less than two percentage points shy of its July record high, Kroft sees limited upside and expects more volatility to pick up into the election. What the markets need is for “calmer heads to prevail in the role of the Fed,” she said.

Oppenheimer’s chief investment strategist, John Stoltzfus, said Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday could influence markets, with investors awaiting rate cuts at the central bank’s September meeting.

“With many folks now looking for a cut of as much as 50 bps in September, a degree of hesitancy in the Chair’s remarks could reintroduce some volatility into the market ahead of next weekend,” Stoltzfus wrote in a Monday note. Still, he believes a 25 basis-point cut is more likely, given last week’s stronger-than-expected jobs and retail sales data.

Yung-Yu Ma, investment chief at BMO Wealth Management, believes the Fed’s rate cuts could have a more significant impact than investors anticipate. “We think that the rate cuts are actually going to have much stronger and favorable impact, probably than the markets are pricing in now,” Ma told CNBC’s “Money Movers.”

“Maybe not the first rate cut, but after we get 75 basis points, 100 basis points of rate cuts, we think there’s a lot of pent-up demand lurking beneath the surface,” Ma added.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Sarah Min, Alex Harring, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Yun Li, Melissa Repko, Annika Kim Constantino, Spencer Kimball, Lim Hui Jie and Amala Balakrishner contributed to this report.