A daily morning look at the financial stories you need to know to start the day
STOCKS/ECONOMY
-Stock futures are higher because oil is rebounding after yesterday's nice rally left the Dow closing above 18,000 for the first time since way back in July. Intel and Yahoo report earnings after the closing bell.
-Silver surges to 10-month high, at the $16.72/ounce level.
OIL/ENERGY
-Crude prices are up about 1.5% to the $40/barrel level. Workers are on strike in Kuwait for the 3rd day, helping to reduce supply.
-Gasoline prices fell fractionally overnight and are still at the $2.11/gallon level, national average.
-Russia may raise its 2016 oil output.
ELECTION
-Today is the New York primary where Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have big leads in the polls.
-The shakeup atop the Trump campaign continues with the resignation of Nationa lField Director Stuart Jolly.
HEALTHCARE
-UnitedHealth just reported better than expected earnings and boosted guidance. This could mean the company will not leave all the money-losing Obamacare exchanges as it has been threatening to do.
DEFENSE
-US troops are getting closer and closer to the front against ISIS in Iraq.
-The US govt is close to approving the sale of 60 fighter jets to Qatar and Kuwait.The sales are worth about $7 billion. The jets in question are all made by Boeing, mostly in St. Louis.
-India is paying France $9 billion for 36 Dassault Rafale fighter jets.
The US is going to use unmanned submarine drones in the South China Sea in hopes of deterring more Chinese expansion. We noted earlier this year that naval drones would be the biggest growth sector within defense for 2016. A company called SAIC is a leader in this technology, and it's drones use lots of Raytheon SONAR technology. SAIC shares are at a 52-week high. Of course, Lockheed Martin has a leading model too.
THERANOS
-The Feds are now launching a criminal probe into troubled blood testing lab Theranos.
NETFLIX
-Netflix shares are sharply down in the pre-market after the earnings report yesterday included weak subscriber growth forecasts.
EDUCATION
-In the first of what could be many deals, Amazon is close to getting a $30 million contract to provide e-books to NYC public schools.
DEALS/NO DEALS
-AB InBev has accepted a $2.9 billion offer from Asahi to buy the Peroni and Grolsch brands.
GUN BOOM
-A new report says that gun industry jobs in America have increased by 73% since Pres. Obama took office and the average pay for those jobs is above $50K/year.
MOVING AMERICA
-How fishy is some of the spending on the California bullet train? So fishy that a state house committee in Sacramento has just approved a REPUBLICAN sponsored bill to improve spending oversight.