Bloomberg
“Trump Cancels Summit With North Korea’s Kim Citing ‘Hostility’.”
President Donald Trump canceled his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that had been scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” in recent statements from Pyongyang.
Trump’s decision was communicated Thursday in a letter to Kim released by the White House. North Korea hardened its rhetoric toward the U.S. earlier Thursday, warning it was ready for a “nuclear-to-nuclear” showdown if the U.S. didn’t follow through on the summit. “You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used,” Trump wrote.
With the summit abandoned — at least temporarily — the next steps are unclear. Trump has said that if the June 12 meeting were to fall through, the U.S. would continue exerting maximum economic pressure on Kim and his regime.
The highly anticipated summit had been cast by the White House as an opportunity to stave off a military conflict with North Korea and showcase Trump’s ability to make progress where his predecessors had struggled. The president has openly entertained the idea that he could have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize had the meeting led to a peace agreement between North Korea and the U.S. and South Korea. The countries are technically still at war.
But Trump ultimately ran into the same diplomatic quandary that has flummoxed U.S. presidents for the past 25 years: the inability to persuade a stubborn regime to give up a nuclear program that it regards as key to its survival.
Reuters
“Wall Street drops as Trump cancels North Korea meet, adds to tariff fears.”
U.S. stocks dropped on Thursday after President Donald Trump canceled a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while a slide in oil prices and bank stocks also weighed as investors grappled with fresh U.S. protectionist plans.
At 10:03 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 129.77 points, or 0.52 percent, at 24,757.04, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 13.55 points, or 0.50 percent, at 2,719.74 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 31.17 points, or 0.42 percent, at 7,394.79.
Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors were in the red, with the technology sector’s. SPLRCT 0.5 percent decline weighing the most. The decline accelerated after the North Korea-U.S. summit cancellation.
Shares of European and Asian automakers skidded on the possibility of import tariffs, while U.S. automakers gained.
Energy stocks declined as oil prices recorded their largest one-day drop in two weeks on rising expectations that OPEC could wind down an output deal that has been in place since the start of 2017 due to concerns about supplies from Venezuela and Iran.
Financials stocks dropped after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting tempered expectations of faster interest rate hikes.
Business Insider
“The US has reportedly opened a criminal probe into market manipulation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”
The US Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into potential market manipulation of bitcoin prices, according to a Bloomberg report.
Bloomberg reported that the Justice Department was working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees cryptocurrency derivatives, for the investigation.
The investigation is said to focus on «spoofing» — in which false orders are placed on exchanges and then withdrawn to manipulate prices — in an attempt to lure other people into buying or selling and «wash trading,» in which market participants trade with themselves to create the illusion of market activity.
These kinds of activities allow bad actors to manipulate the price of assets in their favor. Spoofing and wash trading are illegal in mainstream regulated markets such as equities and futures.
Bloomberg
“U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Increase to Seven-Week High.”
Filings for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose to a seven-week high while remaining consistent with a tight job market, Labor Department figures showed Thursday.
Unemployment-benefits applications below 300,000 are generally considered consistent with a healthy labor market, and the latest tally still isn’t far from the 48-year low of 209,000 reached in April. The claims figures, which tend to be subject to swings, have been on a declining trend as a widespread shortage of qualified workers spurs employers to retain staff while offering more perks to attract new ones.
The May jobs report due next week is projected to show payrolls expanded by close to 200,000 while the unemployment rate held at April’s 3.9 percent level, which was the lowest since December 2000.