Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
All eyes on Amazon. The e-commerce juggernaut releases its latest quarterly results, with analysts expecting revenue of around $37 billion. Investors will be curious about how the company is faring beyond US shores—it just launched Amazon Prime in Southeast Asia, going head-to-head with rival Alibaba.
China closes off part of the Yellow Sea for military maneuvers. It’s holding large-scale war games for two days in a huge area off the coast of Qingdao. The exercises come ahead of next week’s 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
The US Commerce Department releases economic data. Analysts expect monthly factory orders to improve (pdf), rising about 3% after disappointing results in May. Also due are wholesale and retail inventories, excluding autos.
While you were sleeping
Big Booze got its buzz on. AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer by sales, said profit surged to $1.5 billion (paywall) in the latest quarter, from $152 million a year ago—despite a downturn in its key US and Brazilian markets. Britain’s Diageo, the global market leader for spirits, was also feeling sparkly, posting a 4% rise in sales and a 6% jump in profit.
Big Oil dug up solid results. Shell’s second-quarter profit more than tripled from a year ago, thanks to the robust health of its refining and chemicals business. Meanwhile, aggressive cost-cutting paid off for France’s Total: it beat estimates (paywall) in the latest quarter, with a 14% year-on-year rise in adjusted net income. It’s now ready to start making acquisitions and push ahead with development of South Pars, the world’s largest gas field (shared by Iran and Qatar).
Big Banks made modest money. Lloyd’s of Britain posted its biggest half-year profit in eight years, though it was a modest 4% rise due to pesky legal costs. “Modest” also describes Deutsche Bank’s results: While the German lender saw a surge in quarterly profit, its revenue was down 10% due to weakness in its corporate and investment banking units. CEO John Cryan bemoaned the drop in revenues across all divisions.
Libor’s days are numbered. The “London Interbank Offered Rate” benchmark, which underpins more than $350 trillion of financial products, will be phased out by 2021, according to Britain’s financial regulator. Libor’s credibility was dealt a fatal blow after traders were caught routinely manipulating it; the scandal led to $9 billion in fines for banks and brokers.
Slack is eyeing a $5 billion valuation. The messaging startup is raising $250 million in a funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank Group and venture capital firm Accel, according to Bloomberg. The company, which sells software for workers to communicate with colleagues, was valued at $3.8 billion in its last funding round in April 2016.
Quartz obsession interlude
Max de Haldevang on how the family of Vladimir Putin’s US-sanctioned ally uses British companies to burnish its reputation. “Yakunin reportedly lives in a palatial mansion outside Moscow, with an Olympic-size indoor pool and one room solely dedicated to storing fur coats. After the reported fur coat room began trending on Russian social media, Yakunin denied that he’d ever worn a fur coat.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Publishers need to stop pivoting on command. Facebook’s self-interested whims suck up resources while fostering the media’s unhealthy dependence.
To get ahead at work, be polarizing. As long as you’re a mensch in your personal interactions, there’s value to bringing divisive ideas to the table.
Sanctions won’t work on Putin. Embargoes have a long history of failure (paywall), especially when targeting a powerful country.
Surprising discoveries
Guantanamo Bay has a video-game library. Prisoners have long been able to borrow board games and books, but now the offerings include DVDs and PS3 games.
A new handbook teaches Muslim women how to have a better sex life. The Muslimah Sex Manual: A Halal Guide to Mind Blowing Sex is described as groundbreaking.
In zero gravity, blood forms a dome around a womb or incision. That’s just one reason why space is a terrible place to perform surgery.
A mysterious mega-swan once roamed New Zealand. The Poūwa swan, which went extinct around 1450 AD, was 30% larger than modern swans and semi-flightless.
Archaeologists discovered the world’s oldest 🙂. It’s painted on a 3,700-year-old jug unearthed on the Turkish-Syrian border.
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