(Washington)

The trouble for Supreme Court justice-nominee Kavanaugh continues to pile up. Not only has one woman come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct, but now another has done so. Kavanaugh is set to give testimony, along with his accuser, on Thursday, but just as this was decided, a new accuser (this from his college years) has come forward. In a rare television interview, Kavanaugh confirmed yesterday that he had not sexually assaulted anyone, ever, and that he would not be withdrawing from the nomination hearings.

FINSUM: This is a very high stakes nomination considering the midterm elections are looming. There are certainly more fireworks to come.

(Atlanta)

The airline market has not been doing very well this year. Fuel prices and expanding capacity have weighed on the stocks. United is up big, but the rest of the pack is either in the red or up single digit percentages. Recently, there has been clear winners and losers, with United Continental, Delta, and Spirit being outperformers, and American, Alaska, and Southwest being laggards.

FINSUM: Airlines are an interesting sector, as each has its own unique characteristics, but they are all subject to similar woes. American Airlines has been a big loser this year, but some analysts think it could be the biggest gainer in the medium term.

(Portland)

Nike’s stock has been cruising this year, easily outpacing the broader market thanks to good earnings, new products, and the continued strength of “athleisure”. Shares are up 35% this year, and now it looks like they might head much higher as today’s earnings release is expected to be very strong. Many analysts are boosting their target prices, especially because gross margins look likely to expand on the back of less discounting and a shift towards the higher-margin direct-to-consumer business.

FINSUM: About a year ago, when Nike was going through a rough patch and losing market share, we thought investors should stick around. That has paid off.

(London)

We don’t cover the Brexit saga very much, mostly because it doesn’t seem to have a great deal of relevance to the US. However, interesting news is out today: the UK’s Labour party is trying to get a second Brexit referendum going. The political details are complicated, but the general plan is to derail the government’s current Brexit plan, and then hold a general election that could work as a replacement for the first Brexit result. A Labour party’s spokesman says that it is a “sequenced, structured” strategy.

FINSUM: We have maintained throughout this saga that the UK should not leave the EU. It is still going to have to be heavily involved with the EU for economic and political reasons, and if it leaves it will simply go from a rule-maker to a rule-taker.

(Washington)

Brokers pay attention—a major loophole in the SEC’s best interest rule has just become apparent. One of the industry’s big complaints about the BI rule has been that it seeks to govern the use of the “advisor” title. Well, until now it seems that everyone had missed a key loophole in the rule. When the SEC drafted it, it allowed for dually-registered advisors/B-Ds to call themselves advisors even when they are carrying on brokerage business. 61% of registered reps work at dually-registered firms, meaning this aspect of the rule is mostly a moot point for the majority of advisors. According to Michael Kitces, famed advisor and wealth management commentator, “The rule literally doesn’t apply to most advisers”.

FINSUM: This is one of those bombshell realizations that seems to happen when a new rule is 1,000+ pages long—you miss things.