Big week for health care; Trump meets with India’s prime minister; fate of Murdoch deal

Mon Jun 26 2017
Ramesh Sridharan (934 articles)
Big week for health care; Trump meets with India’s prime minister; fate of Murdoch deal

1. Big week for American health care: The public — and lawmakers — will learn the cost of Senate Republicans’ attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The Congressional Budget Office is expected to release its score of the Senate health care bill. The nonpartisan office will also estimate how many people would be covered under the bill. There will be plenty of debate on the Senate floor this week as Republican leaders try to whip votes in support of the bill, which Republicans only revealed on Thursday.

At least five Republican senators said they won’t vote for the bill. The proposal faces tricky legislative politics. No vote has been scheduled yet, but one could come as soon as this week if Republican leaders believe they have the votes.

Who gets hurt and who gets helped by the Senate health care bill

2. Modi visits Trump: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit President Trump this week for the first time. The visit is especially timely because Trump’s “America First” policies have the potential to drive a wedge between the two nations. One potential discussion point: the H-1B visa program that is used by many Indian engineers looking to work in the United States.

Trump singled out India as a beneficiary of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which he pulled the U.S. out of earlier this month.

Indian tech boss: Trump’s H-1B visa curbs ‘will hurt’

3. U.K. to issue ruling on Fox-Sky deal: The proposed merger between two of Rupert Murdoch’s major media companies could see its fate decided by Thursday.

Britain’s media regulator, Ofcom, submitted reports to the U.K. government declaring whether the takeover of Sky by 21st Century Fox (FOXA) would be in the public interest. It also analyzed whether Fox would be a “fit and proper” owner of Sky.

Fox already holds a 39% stake in Sky, and this deal would create a mega-empire for Murdoch.

Murdoch’s Fox-Sky deal in hands of U.K. government

4. It’s an iPhone anniversary: Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of the release of the first iPhone.

Though it’s hard to imagine life without the little rectangles in our pocket, there was indeed a time when you couldn’t settle any bar bet by reaching into your pocket. The anniversary comes as Apple prepares to launch its highly-anticipated iPhone 8 in the fall.

5. Coming this week:

Monday – Martin Shkreli fraud trial begins

Tuesday – WealthX billionaires census release

Wednesday – Monsanto (MON) earnings

Thursday – U.K. ruling on Fox-Sky deal; Nike (NKE) earnings

Friday – Jay-Z’s latest album released on Tidal

Ramesh Sridharan

Ramesh Sridharan

Ramesh Sridharan is our Stock Market Correspondent covering events and daily movements of stock markets in Asia. He is based in Mumbai