America

In the first public accusation that "foreign spy agencies" are seeking to destabilize Russia made in recent years, during a meeting with Russia's foreign intelligence agency President Vladimir Putin said that "some foreign special services" are directly supporting extremist and terrorist groups to destabilize the situation near Russia’s borders, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Russia’s foreign intelligence agency.

One week after the Fed found that all 33 US major banks have passed the stress test and would survive even a surge in the VIX to 70, moments ago the Fed released the details of the second part of the stress test - the capital distribution to shareholders - where as expected, it also had no complaints to any bank's capital plans except to advise Capital One, the troubled credit card lender with the rising bad loan problem, to resubmit its plan.

America’s favorite homespun billionaire Warren Buffett stepped up his criticisms of President Donald Trump's agenda in part two of an interview with PBS Newshour's Judy Woodruff, suggesting that Republicans should change the name of the American Health Care Act to the “Relief for the Rich” act after walking a reporter through how the House version of the bill would’ve impacted his tax rate.

The cold war between America's two largest retailers just turned hot.

In a note this morning from Deutsche Bank's freight and logistics analyst Amit Mehrotra, he notes that  the "WMT vs. AMZN battle is heating up" and points to a report by DV Velocity, according to which a well respected transportation industry consultant told attendees of a logistics conference that Walmart (WMT) is telling trucking companies that it will no longer do business with them if they continue moving goods for Amazon (AMZN).

• Global Bonds Sell Off, Sparking Fears of Further ‘Taper Tantrum’ (WSJ)
• Facing revolt on healthcare, GOP senators delay vote (Reuters)
• Global businesses dig out from latest cyber attack (Reuters)
• Companies Work to Contain Fallout From Cyberattack (WSJ)
• Cyber attack hits property arm of French bank BNP Paribas (Reuters)
• Obama Choked on Russia Long Before the 2016 Election (BBG)
• The EU May Need to Introduce a Bloc-Wide Tax After Brexit (BBG)
• iPhone Anniversary Edition Gives Analysts Pre-Party Jitters (WSJ)