1) President Trump’s tax cuts could be undone a little at a time. Unlikely to repel his tax cuts directly, the Democrats could slowly undo them by an ‘end-run’ with new or other tax increases. The house Democrats have a package of tax legislation to be debated Thursday which proposes changes to the estate tax which would make it apply to more people sooner and making small increases to the corporate tax rate. Also, there are proposals to raise the tax rate to 70% for those earning over a million dollars.
2) Caesars Entertainment, who’s ownership includes the famous Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is being bought by Eldorado Resorts for about $8.5 billion dollars in cash and stock. The plan is to build up their size to compete with larger companies such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts. Caesars Entertainment owns and operates 34 properties in nine states and three continents.
3) Shale oil producing companies are pumping lots of oil, but are making little money. The process of fracking is an expensive procedure which requires high oil prices to be viable. As oil prices have sagged over the last couple of years, the margins have narrowed, forcing shale oil companies to more tightly control their expenses, including making extensive cuts in their labor force. Many of the older wells are failing to met expectations for production and oil companies have fewer future drilling locations than they anticipated. Shale oil wells initially produce a lot of oil and gas, but quickly taper off, so more money must be spent to coax the oil out of the rock, thus narrowing the margins.
4) Stock market closings for- 24 JUN 19:
Dow 26,727.54 up 8.41
Nasdaq 8,005.70 down 26.01
S&P 500 2,945.35 down 5.11
10 Year Yield: down at 2.02%
Oil: down a t $57.79