The focus is on two key events:
- Will Finland cool down heated relations? Russia-US summit in Helsinki.
Tensions between the US and Russia are not limited to the political arena. Russia continues to increase the speed of its aggressive campaign against Ukraine and provide strong support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
The issue in which there might be the most mutual understanding is Syria. Trump wants to withdraw American troops from there as quickly as possible, but without giving the territory to the Iranians. Putin also wants the Americans to leave so that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can control more territories, including oil-rich areas, where he will be able to earn money to rebuild his country.
Another area of common interest is the undermining of the European Union, especially the positions of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. For Trump, this is a matter of winning a trade war and pacifying those whom he considers people who love to live at someone else's expense. For Putin, this is a way to get rid of sanctions: Merkel remains one of the few strong supporters of anti-Russian sanctions, while more conservative governments in Italy, Austria, and Hungary would prefer to lift sanctions and resume business with Russia as usual.
Putin is likely to gain more than Trump from the US-Russia summit, which could take place in the near future. And the head of the US needs this meeting mostly in order to amuse his own ego.
Basically, it should be interesting. Especially considering that, unlike soccer, there is something to "root" for here.
- “War is war, but reporting is on schedule!”
Reporting season continues.
International politics is still relevant; however, investor attention is increasingly focused on reports from emerging companies on the US stock market. Reporting for the second quarter is pleasantly surprising investors. Last week, most of the companies that submitted their financial results surpassed market expectations, which gave a positive impetus to stock indexes.
Shares of PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) increased in price by 4.1%. The world's second-largest producer of soft drinks boosted earnings in April-June by 2%, up to $16.09 billion, which was better than the consensus forecast from experts at $16 billion. Earnings excluding one-time factors for PepsiCo in this past quarter was $1.61 billion, also above the average market forecast of 1.53 per share.
The current reporting season could turn out to be the best in years, which is supporting the upward trend of the S&P 500 after a period of geopolitical uncertainty. If reporting continues to present positive surprises, the broad market index may decide to storm the mark of 2,900 points.