Weekend roundup

Here’s what you missed while you were living your best life:

• 🍎 Apple suppliers fell after Berkshire Hathaway nearly halved its stake ($). Asian assemblers and component makers fell up to 14% after Warren Buffett announced he’d sold $75.5 billion of Apple stock.

• 💰️ SocGen said it was selling its private banking units. The move comes as SocGen speeds up its asset sale program. Swiss bank UBP is buying the businesses for $984 million.

• 🛬 Crowdstrike said it wasn’t to blame for Delta flight cancellations. The company claimed Delta had rejected on-site help during last month’s outage that grounded thousands of flights.

Featured weekend story

Stocks fall as global rout deepens

US futures fell with European stocks, amid growing fears of a US recession. That follows a rocky Asian session, where the Nikkei fell more than 12% – the most since the Black Monday crash of 1987 – erasing its gains for the year. Bitcoin also plunged to multi-month lows.

Instead, investors are piling into bonds. Treasury yields reached 3.7%, while German yields fell to seven-month lows on bets that the ECB will follow the Fed and deliver deeper rate cuts.

The turmoil comes as investors fear the Fed has been too slow to respond to signs the US economy is cooling, and may be forced to cut rates quickly as a result. Friday’s jobs report showed employers added just 114,000 jobs in July, far fewer than expected.

The Fed isn’t due to give another rate decision until September, but traders now see a 60% chance of an emergency 25 basis-point cut within a week.

What to watch this week

The sea of red continued on Monday morning, spreading from the Asian session into Europe and the US.

Indices at 12:00 AM (ET)

With the market rout deepening, investors don’t need set-piece events to be hitting the sell button, but here are some of the flashpoints in the week ahead:

• 🇺🇸 US data and Fed speakers. ISM service-sector data drops on Monday, with weekly jobless claims to follow on Thursday. We’ll also hear from San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly and Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin.

• 💸 US earnings. The big names as we reach the end of earnings season include Disney and Caterpillar, a bellwether for the industrial sector.

• 🇨🇳 China data. Readings include trade data on Wednesday and consumer prices at the end of the week. They should give investors an idea of how much more needs to be done to boost weak domestic demand in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Off-balance sheet items

Here’s what we’re reading this week:

• 🤡 How to be more spontaneous as a busy adult (TIME). You’re not doomed to a grown-up life of no surprises. Researchers have recently identified ways to increase spontaneity for well-being – and perhaps even longevity.

• 🃏 How to count cards in blackjack (Readwrite). Counting cards is easier than it appears. Here’s how to improve your odds of winning at the blackjack table.

• 🏡 Seven home 'upgrades' that aren’t worth the money (Lifehacker). They might seem like pluses when you're house-hunting, but you'll probably come to regret them.

Chart of the week

The bottom line

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