WORD ON THE STREET 

• West Coast Ports Cut A Deal – The Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have cut a tentative six-year deal that includes a 32% pay increase. The deal still needs to be approved by union membership. It promises an end to labor disputes that have disrupted operations. The main sticking point is AI – dockworkers are anxious about being replaced by the new technology.

• Don’t Worry, It’s Just A Million Trucks – No fewer than 979,797 Ford (F) trucks are being recalled because they forgot to put critical information in owners’ manuals. Models affected include the 2018-2023 Ford Expedition, some Lincoln Navigators, and some F-250s, F-350s, F-450s, F-550s, and F-600s. The manuals forgot to include “instructions for adjusting or removing certain head restraints.”

• Home Builders Feeling Optimistic – Mortgage rates are up, and that means existing home owners have little reason to sell – at least if they want another home. With housing demand still strong, home buyers are now seeing a recovery. According to the National Association of Home Builders, monthly confidence has risen for six months in a row. Its confidence index is now in positive territory for the first time in 11 months.

• British Billionaire Missing In Sea Disaster – A submersible used to take tourists to view the Titanic has disappeared. Five people are missing, including British billionaire Hamish Harding. The vehicle has a couple days worth of oxygen but time is running out. The Coast Guard is working to rescue those lost.

HOT SPOTS: What’s Going on in Geopolitics

• Nikkei 225 Hits 33-Year High – Don’t look now, but the Japanese stock market is booming. The Nikkei 225 hit a 33-year high and the Nikkei gained almost 30% this year so far. Berkshire Hathaway obviously sees opportunity for growth – increasing its share of five Japanese trading companies (including Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Marubeni, Sumitomo, and Itochu) that it had originally entered in 2020.

• USA/China Promise To Get Along (Yeah, Right) – Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing and both Chinese and American leaders promised to stabilize Sino-American relations. President Xi Jinping suggested that both sides had “reached agreement on specific issues.” However, it is unclear what those issues actually are – the main takeaway from the meeting was a bunch of platitudes.

• Goldman Follows Other Banks, Downgrades China – Roaring Twenties narrative postponed once again. Following UBS and JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs has downgraded its growth forecast for China. The full-year GDP forecast is now down to 5.4% from 6% for 2023 and 4.5% instead of 4.6% in 2024.

Bank collapses, corporate bankruptcies and more.

Silicon Valley is being gutted and completely reshaped.

Learn how one trigger could be the key to witnessing hundreds of triple digit wins in the aftermath of The Tech Reckoning

CUTTING EDGE: What‘s Happening In Tech

• Amazon Opens HQ2 – Northern Virginia is now the proud home of Amazon’s new East Coast headquarters, HQ2. Phase one, Metropolitan Park, is now complete, and is ready to host thousands of employees. An estimated 25,000 in total are expected to be employed by the facility when all is complete.

• All Your Base Are Belong To Us – When Outlook and OneDrive suffered disruptions in June, it wasn’t just an error. It was a hack. Microsoft announced that the group Anonymous Sudan was behind the DDoS attacks. MSFT claims no customer data was endangered.

• First Germany, Then The World – Intel has received approval for a new chip factory in Germany – with a cool $10.9 billion in subsidies to assist. Poland and Israel have been targeted next for expansion, with plans to build new INTC facilities in both those countries.

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