Hello friends and Coins2Day readers.
Wall Street stock futures are down this morning, signaling a drop of about 80 points on the Dow Jones industrial average at open.
Today’s must-read story is by Coins2Day contributor Kevin Fitchard on Verizon’s new pricing plans, which spell death for standard cell phone contracts. Turns out, that’s great news for consumers. Read more here.
Here’s what else you need to know today.
1. China devalues the yuan.
China’s central bank sent the Chinese yuan down nearly 2% on Tuesday. China’s currency is tightly controlled by its central bank, and the drop was the biggest one-day loss in two decades for the currency. The devaluation cast new doubt on the health of the world’s No. 2 economy. Chinese stocks took the move in stride, basically flat for the day, after rising sharply on Monday. A lower yuan could hurt other economies in the region that compete with Chinese exports.
2. Google disrupted Google.
Google announced a major new restructuring Monday after the markets closed. It will rename its parent and publicly traded company Alphabet, under which Google will be one operating segment alongside its other businesses including Ventures, Capital and Life Sciences. Larry Page will take on the role of Alphabet CEO, with Sergey Brin as President. Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, the former Google senior vice president of product, will become the new head of Google, which will be the largest unit under the Alphabet (GOOG) head. (Alphabet is keeping Google’s ticker symbol for now. But couldn’t get the alphabet.com URL.) Read more about the change and what it means on Coins2Day.
3. Greece has a deal, it says.
Greece said it reached a deal with its international creditors for its third bailout. The deal would provide the country with nearly $95 billion in relief. Other officials said some details still needed to be worked out. Greece will target a small budget deficit this year, with surpluses after that. Greek officials said a deal on privatization plans had also been reached. Eurozone leaders would have to ratify the deal by August 20. That’s when Greece faces a deadline on €3.2 billion in bonds owed to the European Central Bank.
4. Symantec may be missing the cybersecurity wave.
Antivirus software company Symantec (SYMC) reports its first-quarter earnings today, and analysts are expecting its results to fall below their average estimate. While many cybersecurity firms are riding the recent wave of sophisticated hacker intrusions to boost sales to enterprise customers, the bulk of Symantec’s business is direct to consumer due to its Norton antivirus products, which come bundled with many personal computers. That hasn’t been a great business these days given the weak PC market. Symantec’s data and storage management unit has also struggled with poor demand recently and is considering a sale to private equity firm Carlyle Group, according to Reuters.
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5. U.S. Business data.
The Commerce Department comes out with its wholesale inventories data for June at 10 a.m. ET, which are a key part of gross domestic product swings. Economists expect that wholesale inventories rose 0.4% in June after gaining 0.8% in May, the fastest growth in six months. Also out today, the National Federation of Independent Business releases its July Small Business Optimism Index.