* NYT (Saturday): Donald Trump backed off his plan to impose tariffs on all Mexican goods and announced via Twitter on Friday night that the United States had reached an agreement with Mexico to reduce the flow of migrants to the southwestern border; A sharp decline in the pace of hiring in May, especially in sectors dependent on trade, suggests that the president’s tariffs are starting to bite, a situation that could pose a challenge as he seeks re-election; The Trump administration’s move to bypass Congress on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and allow bomb parts to be built there has raised concerns the Saudis could gain access to technology that would let them produce their own versions of American precision-guided bombs; The overuse of antibiotics in livestock has given rise to drug-resistant germs, and while drugmakers say they want to be part of the solution, a recent campaign urged farmers to administer the drugs to healthy animals daily; Trump and his aides have sent a range of conflicting messages to Iran in recent weeks, ordering more troops to the Middle East and a carrier to the Arabian Sea as military threats even while declaring that Washington is seeking new negotiations, not war; Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, plans to donate $500M to a new campaign to close every coal-fired power plant in the United States and halt the growth of natural gas; New state-based accounts that let disabled people work and save money without risking the loss of government aid are slowly catching on, but advocates say millions more people with disabilities could be taking advantage of the accounts; (Sunday): The deal to avert tariffs that Trump announced with great fanfare Friday consists largely of actions Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions with the U.S. over the past several months; Trump is increasingly blurring the line between national and economic security, enabling him to harness powerful tools meant to punish the world’s worst global actors and use them against trading partners such as Mexico, Japan, China and Europe; +/- MSFT, DELL, Samsung: Beijing warned these and other tech giants they could face dire consequences if they cooperate with the Trump administration’s ban on sales of key American technology to Chinese companies; A new CNN/Des Moines Register poll found that former vice president Joe Biden retains a lead among likely Iowa caucus-goers, but that he and senator Bernie Sanders have lost ground while rival presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg have made clear gains.
* WSJ (Weekend): Hiring slowed in May—the U.S. added 75,000 jobs—signaling companies are taking a more cautious approach at a time of slower global growth and trade tensions, adding further to concerns of a slowdown in the U.S. economic expansion; +/- UBER: Ride-hailing company’s operating and marketing chiefs are both leaving less than a month after its disappointing initial public offering, as chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi says he wants more direct control; “Muted inflation and slowing job growth have continued to push yields on U.S. Treasurys lower, leading to the possibility that the 10-year rate will dip below 2% for the first time in more than two years”; The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is opening the door for space tourists to visit the international space station, a concept that has been under discussion for several years; Local governments are facing a growing threat of cyberattacks and escalating ransom demands, with the latest being an attack in Baltimore that has crippled thousands of computers for a month; Russian president Vladimir Putin accused the Trump administration of using tariffs and sanctions to maintain dominance of the global economy, while highlighting the Kremlin’s increasingly warm ties with China; The Pentagon told Turkey it will cut off Turkish military pilots from training and halt Turkish purchases of the F-35 fighter jet if the country proceeds with plans to buy a Russian antiaircraft system; To supplement their cash flow, the companies behind the fracking boom are turning to asset sales, drilling partnerships, and alternative financing schemes, which often come with higher interest rates or other downsides; +/- F, FCAU, GM: Story says a combination between Fiat and either GM or Ford would offer domination of the lucrative pickups-and-SUV business, deliver more pricing power, lower costs, and provide cash to fund moonshot ideas; + CBOE: Firm plans to take steps to slow high-frequency trading by introducing a split-second delay to one of its stock exchanges, according to a new regulatory filing; +/- GE: JPM research analyst Stephen Tusa has had an uncanny knack for uncovering deep problems at the company before they become public, and has cut his price target on shares 10 times over a two-year period; H.O.T.S.: The economic expansion may linger on, but a debt-fueled crisis could still explode down the road; Elliott Management has taken on a tough task buying BKS as an early foray into takeovers; May’s employment report wasn’t good, and jobs figures for the previous two months were revised down by a combined 75,000 positions—putting the Fed in an uncomfortable bind.
* FT (Weekend): Google warned the White House that a move to ban Huawei in the U.S. risks compromising national security because not allowing it to upgrade Android on the Chinese company’s phones would prompt Huawei to develop its own version of the software, which would be susceptible to hacking; Censors at Chinese social media companies WeChat and Weibo appear to have taken aim at independent financial bloggers, part of Beijing’s efforts to use propaganda to garner public support for its trade war with the U.S.; Big Read story says the potential downfall of fund manager Neil Woodford has highlighted the risks of placing too much faith in the skills of a star stockpicker—and has dealt a blow to the arguments in favor of active fund managers; Lex Column: BYND is comparing itself to innovators such as NFLX, AMZN, and TSLA, but though its potential is vast, a lot has to go right to justify its share price; Tech investment is increasingly fraught with dilemmas—no more so than in facial recognition; Should Elliott Management succeed in turning BKS into a viable rival to AMZN, it will be a formidable achievement; Comment: China and the U.S. are too intertwined to keep up the trade war, says George Magnus, who adds that “There is still time to appeal to economic reason, despite claims of decoupling by self-serving interests.”
* NY POST (Saturday): +/- MDP: Media giant, under pressure to find cost savings after its acquisition of Time Inc., quietly fired about 60 employees, or about one percent of its magazine division workforce; The disappointing employment report from the Labor Department Friday actually triggered optimism on Wall Street, with traders betting lousy jobs data will prompt the Fed to lower rates; (Sunday): New York state residents send more money to Washington and receive less in federal programs, according to a new report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the state officials who certified the data; Starting with Colorado, 37 states have passed legislation allowing adult consumption of marijuana for medical and/or recreational purposes—for 2018, revenue from both in the U.S. was pegged at between $8.6B and $10B; +/- GOOGL: YouTube’s crackdown on white supremacy and hate speech has ensnared history teachers trying to upload archival footage of Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler.