Morning MoneyBeat Asia: U.S. Stocks Ease off The Gas

       

By Paul Vigna
        Market Snap: At the New York close: S&P 500 down 0.3% at 2096.92. DJIA down 0.2% at 17511.34. Nasdaq Comp down 0.6% at 5059.35. Treasury yields rose; 10-year at 2.196%. Nymex crude oil up 1.8% at $42.62. Gold down 0.1% at $1,117.10/ounce.
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        How We Got Here: U.S. stocks fell modestly, and oil prices actually rose, on a day when the markets were mainly responding to news from overseas.
        The Chinese stock market plunged, again, with China's Shanghai Composite down 6.2% on Tuesday. That's the worst one-day plunge since...last month, when the Shanghai fell 8.5% on July 27. That plunge sparked fears across the globe. Today, not so much.
        Elsewhere, Wal-Mart reported profits dropped 15% in the second quarter, and the world's largest retailer cut its 2015 outlook. Wal-Mart is spending heavily to generate sales, but is having very little success. Given the company's bellwether status, what these numbers are saying matters. It may be more a Wal-Mart story than an economy story, but it can't say much good about the economy either.
        Coming Up: Confusion has surrounded China's currency moves this month. Ostensibly, the sharpest reduction in the value of the yuan since 1994 was meant to usher in a more market-based trading system, and as such was cautiously welcomed by the International Monetary Fund. In practice, the central bank is intervening to influence the currency's level against the dollar, just as it has done for decades.
        At any rate, the ambiguity rattled stock markets and currencies around the world. At a time when deft management is needed more than ever, policy miscues and confusing explanations have sent worrying signals to investors that a steady leadership hand is being replaced by a panicked reflex to avoid an economic stall.
        The dark view among investors is that the whole currency exercise was a desperate bid to revive growth by giving a hand to exporters, who benefit from a cheaper yuan. Some believe it shows China's economic czars are far more alarmed about faltering growth than they're letting on.
        What You Missed Overnight
        U.S. Stocks Edge Lower U.S. stocks slipped Tuesday, following steep losses in Chinese stocks and a downbeat outlook from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that eclipsed strong earnings from other retailers.
        Wal-Mart's Outlook Cut Shows Struggle to Grow Sales Wal-Mart Stores executives warned that profits will miss their goals this year, an admission that the world's largest retailer is spending heavily to generate even modest sales growth.
        Target Reaches Pact With Visa Over Data Breach Target reached an agreement with Visa that will reimburse card issuers as much as $67 million for costs incurred by the retailer's massive data breach during the 2013 holiday shopping season and said it is working on a similar pact with MasterCard.
        Oil Bounces Back Oil prices rebounded Tuesday as bargain buyers and profit takers outweighed some of the pressure from Chinese economic concerns and strong supply that have recently added to oil's fall.
        Gabelli Makes Big Bucks Bucking Trends Mario Gabelli, a billionaire money manager, spends most nights and weekends reading earnings-call transcripts and sometimes takes years getting to know a company's executives before he decides whether to invest. He charges higher fees than most of his peers and makes more money than all of them.
        From The Wall Street Journal Asia
        China Shares Tumble 6.2% Fresh anxieties about China's commitment to steadying the stock market sparked heavy losses in Shanghai Tuesday, despite signals of a housing recovery and the central bank's latest steps to keep cash from fleeing.
        Suspect Sought in Bangkok Bombing Thai police said they were homing in on a suspect seen in security-camera footage of the bomb blast that killed at least 20 people, most of them foreign tourists, in the Thai capital.
        Hazardous-Goods Facilities Flouted Regulations in Tianjin The warehouse at the center of last week's blast in the Chinese city of Tianjin wasn't the only one located too close to residential areas.
        Yuan's Devaluation Brings Losses for Some When China's government abruptly pressed the yuan lower last week, it upended Antonio Huang's plan to quintuple a profit on a commodity deal.
        From MoneyBeat
        Bank of England Analyzes Twitter, Discovers Minnesota Vikings In an attempt to analyze whether Twitter can help predict a bank run, analysts at the Bank of England learned more than they bargained for about an NFL team.
        Bond Liquidity: Bonds, Bonds Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink? There has never, in all of recorded history, been more debt in the world than there is now, certainly on a nominal basis. We are swimming in it. Drowning in it, warn some ominously. So why is the fixed-income market worried about liquidity?
        S&P 500 May Hit Another Record for Buybacks This Year The companies in the S&P 500 are poised to spend more than $1 trillion on buybacks and dividends in 2015, shattering the record set last year, according to a new report.
        How a Go-Nowhere Market Resolves Itself The go nowhere market has investors scratching their heads, wondering what's next. Will stocks ever break out of their narrow range? If they do, are we headed higher or lower?
        (END) Dow Jones Newswires

        August 18, 2015 18:45 ET (22:45 GMT)