Wall Street Today | Amazon’s Prime Day to Test Consumer Demand

One popular Wall Street gauge, published by Goldman Sachs, suggests that financial conditions are doing less to cool the economy than they were earlier this year. Goldman economists argue that an economic index newly published by the Fed overestimates how much previous rate increases will start to pull down growth in the months ahead.

The money-market industry is gearing up for its biggest overhaul in years. 

Conference rooms are being reserved and snacks stockpiled as participants in the $5.5 trillion space await the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s vote Wednesday on rules reshaping the money-market industry for the third time since 2008.

While proposed changes were revealed more than 18 months ago, it’s not clear what final rules will be approved. At one end of the spectrum are the low-hanging fruit, mainly removing the liquidity threshold that imposes fees on withdrawals and improving reporting requirements. On the other end lie more onerous policies, such as forcing investors to pay a fee to pull out funds. 

The Nasdaq 100 special rebalance will take place before the market open on Monday, July 24, to "address overconcentration in the index by redistributing the weights." The Nasdaq has only conducted a special rebalance twice in its history: in December 1998 and May 2011.

The weighting changes will be announced on Friday, July 14. No stocks will be added or removed.

Oil rose amid indications that Russian crude production is dropping, signaling the market’s supply glut may be coming to an end. 

Average shipments for Russian crude have dropped below their February averages, according to fresh data, a key development in a market that has been held down this year by the Kremlin’s stronger-than-anticipated crude exports.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority, which had vetoed the deal in May, said it’s prepared to evaluate proposals from Microsoft and has agreed to a stay in the companies’ appeal before the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

One trader made a well-timed bet that Microsoft’s $69 billion bid to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc. would get the okay to move forward from a US court Tuesday.

A block trade of 2,000 Activision call spreads — which would gain in value as the shares rise — was reported about 10 minutes before the company’s shares spiked when a US judge denied the Federal Trade Commission’s request to halt the deal. 

The spreads, which are equivalent to 200,000 shares, traded for $1.20 each at 10:44 am New York time. They were worth about $4.15 an hour later after shares rallied as much as 12%, potentially netting the buyer about $600,000 in profits.

The annual summer promotion, an early indicator of shopping patterns for the year, is set for Tuesday and Wednesday at a pivotal moment for the country’s largest online retailer.

Amazon’s overall revenue growth has been stuck below 10% for all but one of the past six reported quarters. For years before that, growth was usually above 25%.  

Commercial-aerospace giant Boeing delivered 136 commercial airliners in the second quarter, including 60 jets in June. April and May deliveries came in at 26 jets and 50 jets, respectively.