Daily US Equity Opening News - US pauses jet tariffs pending talks; SSNLF chair to meet NVDA CEO on cooperation; BA 737 MAX 7 certification expected in July; APO agrees GBP 5.7bln ESYJY takeover; BAYRY secures EUR 3.0bln from APO

DAY AHEAD:

• EVENTS: Eurogroup Economic and Financial Affairs Council meets.
• DATA: In North America, Canada employment data for June is expected to see the headline at 10.0K (prev. 88K) and the unemployment rate rising to 7.00% (prev. 6.6%). USDA’s world agricultural supply and demand estimates report is also due today (analysts expect lower corn production estimates and a rise in soybean output forecasts).
• CENTRAL BANKS: ECB’s Vujcic (neutral) participates in a panel (no text expected).
• SUPPLY: Italy auctions EUR 6.0-7.5bln across 2029, 2033 and 2041 lines.
• ENERGY: IEA Oil Market Report for July published; Baker Hughes weekly rig counts due (prev. oil rigs 445, prev. total rigs 580).
• EARNINGS: Notable US corporate earnings due today include: Delta Air Lines (DAL).
• CRA: On today’s slate, potential reviews from Fitch on the Netherlands (AAA), Morningstar DBRS on Switzerland (AAA); Scope Ratings on Japan (A).

NEWS:

GEOPOLITICS:

• US-Iran - US official said US-Iran technical talks are continuing despite renewed strikes and clashes threatening the ceasefire, adding that Washington remains committed to negotiations. Both sides have accused each other of violations, while talks have made little progress on Hormuz shipping tolls, frozen Iranian assets and Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, according to multiple reports. A senior US official claimed that the US military did not carry out recent attacks on Iran; Iranian authorities separately denied that any explosions occurred in the locations where they were reported. Separately, Iran National Security Commission spokesperson warned that transportation and oil and gas infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain would be legitimate targets of Iran’s response to recent attacks. Elsewhere, US CENTCOM said Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz, and that US forces have assisted over 800 commercial vessels and 380mln barrels of crude oil through the strait since early May.

TRADE:

• US Tariffs - The US will not immediately impose tariffs on commercial aircraft, jet engines and parts following a Section 232 national security investigation, with President Trump instead directing the USTR and Commerce Department to negotiate with trading partners on import adjustments, Bloomberg reports. Future duties remain possible if agreements are not reached within 180 days or prove ineffective.

MACRO:

• Federal Reserve - Fed Chair Warsh named the leadership of five task forces examining communications, balance sheet policy, data, productivity and jobs, and inflation frameworks, with conclusions expected by year-end. Notable appointees include former BoE Governor Mervyn King, former BCB President Fraga for communications, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, and former Fed Governor Jeremy Stein for balance sheet policy, and Marc Andreessen for productivity and jobs.
• Japan Assets - Japan’s FinMin Katayama called on pension funds, including the GPIF, to increase domestic asset allocations, catching markets off guard and prompting the yen to strengthen overnight, while bond yields fell. GPIF manages JPY 293.6tln in assets, with roughly half deployed overseas; Japan is also the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries.
• China 5yr Plan - China omitted a numeric target for urban job creation from its 2026-2030 5yr plan for the first time in at least three decades, Bloomberg notes. New urban jobs will instead be kept at a “considerable scale,” with annual targets set flexibly. It explicitly named AI as a new technology affecting employment, alongside industrial transformation, demographic shifts and external trade pressures.
• China Debt - Chinese provinces had used nearly 94% of a CNY 6tln hidden-debt refinancing quota by end-June after issuing over CNY 1.62tln in H1, Bloomberg reports. Completion could redirect attention towards infrastructure, but heavy fiscal burdens, tighter project scrutiny, weak land-sale revenue and concerns over further debt accumulation are expected to limit additional stimulus, the report adds.
• UK Politics - Andy Burnham received nominations from 322 of 403 Labour MPs on the first day of the party leadership contest, effectively securing his path to become the next UK Prime Minister. With no rival able to reach the required 81 nominations, Burnham is set to become party leader when the race closes on 17th July, and is expected to formally become PM on 20th July.
• ECB - President Lagarde said she is not a candidate in France’s 2027 presidential election, but intends to advocate Europe’s importance during the campaign, Euronews reports. She previously said she might leave the ECB early to participate in French politics, while pledging not to depart during any periods of turbulence.

TECH:

• SK Hynix (SKHY), Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), Micron (MU) - Commerce Secretary Lutnick pressed Samsung and SK Hynix to expand memory chip production in the US, saying he wants both companies to build facilities alongside Micron (MU). Micron separately announced it would increase its planned US investment to USD 250bln through 2035, lifting its shares on Thursday.
• SK Hynix (SKHY) - SK Hynix raised USD 26.5bln in its US ADR offering (vs suggestions earlier in the week it would be looking to raise USD 28bln), the largest ever US first-time share sale by a foreign company, selling 177.9mln ADRs at USD 149 each (a 3% premium to Thursday’s Seoul close). The offering was more than seven times oversubscribed, and topped Alibaba’s (BABA) US debut to become the third largest listing in history. ADRs are set to begin trading on Nasdaq under the symbol SKHY on 13th July.
• Samsung Electronics (SSNLF), Nvidia (NVDA) - Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong is expected to meet Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in Silicon Valley later in July to discuss expanded AI and semiconductor cooperation, Dong-A Ilbo reports. Talks may cover South Korea’s KRW 800tln fabrication complex, AI data centres exceeding KRW 1,000tln, Nvidia chip supplies, and partnerships involving Samsung, Nvidia and SK Group.
• OpenAI, Alphabet (GOOG) - OpenAI and Google supplied AI services to Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba (BABA), Baidu (BIDU) and Tencent (TCEHY) despite their parent groups appearing on the Pentagon’s 1260H blacklist, FT reports. The sales remain legal as current US restrictions do not broadly prohibit Pentagon-blacklisted Chinese companies from accessing AI models outside mainland China, though the disclosure has renewed calls for export controls on frontier AI software.
• OpenAI - Fidji Simo will leave her full-time role as OpenAI’s second-ranking executive after her neuroimmune condition worsened, and will become a part-time adviser, WSJ reports. Her product and business duties will be divided among Greg Brockman, Sarah Friar and Jason Kwon as OpenAI prepares for a potential IPO.
• Cursor, Anthropic - Cursor is developing a general-purpose AI agent to compete with Anthropic’s Claude Cowork, as the company diversifies beyond coding tools, The Information reports. Work began after Cursor started leasing compute from SpaceX’s AI unit in April, ahead of SpaceX’s planned USD 60bln acquisition of Cursor. The agent could support SpaceXAI’s enterprise business once the deal closes.
• Infineon Technologies (IFNNY) - Infineon is raising prices in some segments, and warns power-management chips could face allocation as demand recovers, Handelsblatt reports.

COMMUNICATIONS:

• Social Media - The EU Commission President will put forward proposals on limiting social media harm to young people on Monday, though the measures are not expected to specify what could be banned or restricted, Politico reports. The proposals are expected to be developed ahead of the Commission’s State of the EU speech in September.
• Meta (META) - Meta launched Muse Spark 1.1, a multimodal reasoning model built for agentic tasks with a 1mln-token context window, gains in tool use, coding and multimodal understanding, and multi-agent orchestration capabilities. Chief Mark Zuckerberg told Bloomberg that the model outperforms Google’s (GOOG) Gemini 3.1 Pro, and said Meta plans to aggressively undercut rivals on pricing.
• Tencent (TCEHY) - Tencent is in talks to become Manus’s largest minority shareholder as investors seek to unwind Meta’s USD 2bln acquisition after Beijing ordered its reversal, FT reports. Manus would remain independent in Singapore. Former investors including ZhenFund and HSG may also participate.
• Netflix (NFLX) - Netflix is discussing adding live TV channels and bundling third-party streaming services including NBCUniversal’s Peacock (CMCSA) into its platform to address declining subscriber engagement, WSJ reports.
• Disney (DIS) - Disney is exploring free access to some Disney+ content, without a disclosed timeline or scope, Business Insider reports. The move could counter growing TV viewing on YouTube, Tubi and The Roku Channel.
• Vodafone (VOD) - UAE telecoms group E& will sell its Vodafone (VOD LN) stake to the family group of French billionaire Xavier Niel for USD 5.95bln, a 15% premium to the last close; the deal will generate a net cash return of approximately USD 1.3bln for E&, and marks its exit from Vodafone following a review of its international portfolio.

CONSUMER:

• Amazon (AMZN) - AWS released Loom for AWS, an enterprise-grade platform for building agents with AWS Strands Agents and deploying and operating them on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Runtime.
• Volkswagen (VWAGY) - Volkswagen said it will streamline its model line-up by up to 50%, focusing on the most attractive market segments. It is adjusting production capacity to target 9mln vehicles annually and refocusing its equity and investment portfolio on strategic contribution and returns.

FINANCIALS:

• Polymarket - Polymarket filed an application with the National Futures Association to operate as a futures commission merchant, seeking regulatory approval to offer margin trading in the US. The company must also obtain CFTC approval for rulebook changes permitting non-fully collateralised trading.
• Goldman Sachs (GS) - Goldman Sachs banned employees from trading prediction-market contracts linked to specific companies, elections, financial markets, ceasefires and regulatory approvals, while allowing sports and entertainment bets. Repeated breaches may lead to dismissal or account closure, with profits above USD 200 potentially forfeited or donated to charity.
• JPMorgan (JPM) - JPMorgan’s AI investing agents outperformed a traditional 60/40 portfolio by 0.7ppts annually with lower volatility in 20yr back tests, Bloomberg reports. Powered by OpenAI and Anthropic models, all eight agents beat both the benchmark and JPMorgan’s rules-based regime model, though the bank cautioned that historical simulations do not prove consistent live-market outperformance.
• Charles Schwab (SCHW) - President Trump’s Charles Schwab investment account executed over 21,000 trades in 2025, surging after an August appeals court overturned a roughly USD 500mln fraud penalty, freeing capital that was redeployed via automated direct-indexing strategies, WSJ reports. Trump’s eight investment accounts held at least USD 858mln in 2025 (vs USD 237mln a year earlier), with USD 2.2bln in total income, including USD 1.4bln from crypto.
• HSBC (HSBC) - HSBC is said to be marketing risky Hang Seng Bank loans to investors after taking the Hong Kong lender private for USD 13.6bln, FT reports. Hang Seng held about USD 3.5bln of HSBC’s USD 6.3bln stage-three Hong Kong commercial property loans, while 63% of the group’s local property loan book carried increased credit risk in Q1.
• Blue Owl (OWL) - UBS advised clients overexposed to private credit to withdraw from Blue Owl’s USD 3bln technology income fund, FT reports. Investors withdrew 15.4% of assets in Q4 2025, causing about USD 400mln of net outflows, while redemption requests exceeded 40% of fund value in Q1 2026.
• EQT (EQBBF), Carlyle (CG) - EQT Infrastructure VII agreed to acquire Copia Power from Carlyle. Copia has over 2.6GW of operating or under-construction generation and storage assets, and is developing over 9GW of grid-connected data centres supported by more than 25GW of solar and storage and 7GW of natural gas generation. Closing is expected end-2026.

INDUSTRIALS:

• Boeing (BA) - Boeing’s 737 MAX 7 is expected to receive FAA certification later in July, barring delays, WSJ reports. The FAA may also restore Boeing’s authority to conduct final safety sign-offs on new 737s.
• General Dynamics (GD) - General Dynamics won a USD 255mln US Navy contract modification for engineering, technical, design-agent and planning-yard support for operational strategic and attack submarines.
• RTX (RTX) - RTX received a USD 101.98mln US Navy order for engineering work to restart and update the MK 45 Capsule Launch System production line.
• EasyJet (ESYJY), Apollo (APO) - EasyJet has agreed to a GBP 5.7bln takeover by Apollo at 715p/shr, outbidding Castlelake’s previously agreed 690p/shr offer.

MATERIALS:

• WD-40 (WDFC) - Q3 EPS 2.33 (exp. 1.57), Q3 revenue USD 195.1mln (exp. 172.8mln). CEO noted double-digit growth across all three trade blocs. Approved a new USD 100mln share repurchase programme. Raised FY26 guidance: sees FY EPS between 6.05-6.35 (exp. 5.99; prev. saw 5.75-6.15), and sees FY revenue between USD 652-667mln (exp. 661.62mln; prev. saw 630-655mln).
• Sigma Lithium (SGML) - Sigma Lithium produced 35K tonnes of high-grade lithium concentrate in Q2 (vs guidance for 33K); performance reflected upgraded and internalised mining operations, an expanded fleet and an optimised mine plan.

ENERGY:

• Sempra Energy (SRE) - Sempra announced leadership changes tied to its pending sale of a 45% stake in Sempra Infrastructure Partners to KKR affiliates, expected to close in Q3. Bob Patel will become CEO of Sempra Infrastructure upon close; Karen Sedgwick will move from EVP and CFO of Sempra to CEO and President of Southern California Gas Company; and Justin Bird will transition from CEO of Sempra Infrastructure to EVP and CFO of Sempra.
• German Energy - Germany’s oil industry retained EUR 100-200mln of a EUR 1.6bln two-month fuel tax cut intended to ease motorist costs, passing on just EUR 0.15-0.16 per litre of the EUR 0.17 reduction on average, according to the Monopolies Commission; the panel concluded such market interventions should be avoided in future as they are costly, provide asymmetric relief and dampen price signals.

HEALTHCARE:

• Bayer (BAYRY) - Bayer has secured EUR 3.0bln in equity capital from Apollo (APO) managed funds, which will acquire a minority, non-controlling stake in a newly established entity holding Bayer’s long-acting reversible contraceptives business. Bayer will retain a majority stake and full operational control.