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Good afternoon. Here's what you should know today, July 9: | |
- A soft earnings season could test the stock market rally
- The Kremlin's shake-up of Wagner could have far-reaching consequences
- NATO is struggling to put on a show of unity
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 | | Water samples are collected in the Passaic River in New Jersey. PHOTO: GEORGE ETHEREDGE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | | |
1. America is wrapped in miles of toxic lead cables. | |
| AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants have left behind a sprawling network of cables covered in toxic lead under the water, in the soil and on poles overhead, a WSJ investigation found. As the lead degrades, it's ending up in places where Americans live, work and play. The companies have known about the cables for decades, according to documents and interviews with former employees, but they haven't meaningfully acted on potential health risks to surrounding communities. In response to the Journal's reporting, AT&T, Verizon and a group representing the telecom industry said they don't believe cables in their ownership are a public health hazard and that they'd work together to address any concerns. AT&T said the reporting "conflicts not only with what independent experts have long stated about the safety of lead-clad telecom cables but also our own testing." | |
| How the Journal Investigated Hidden Lead Cables Circling the U.S. (Read) Lead Legacy: Share Your Story | |
2. The market faces its next test as earnings season kicks off. | |
| Companies have been battling persistent inflation, strained consumer demand and the Fed's interest-rate increases for more than a year. Investors are looking to this next round of reports for insights into how corporate profits are holding up and whether that makes stocks look expensive relative to their value. This week, they'll review earnings from some of the country's biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, plus Delta Air Lines and PepsiCo. They also will parse the latest consumer- and producer-price readings, which are likely to influence the pace of the Fed's interest-rate plans. | |
| The Outlook: Last Mile of the Inflation Fight Will Be the Hardest (Read) Recharged Bond Rout Unnerves Investors (Read) | |
3. The Kremlin's push to take control of Wagner is triggering security fears in parts of the Middle East and Africa. | |
| A deal to halt Wagner's march on Moscow last month involved absorbing many of its 30,000-strong fighting forces into Russia's regular army, but it isn't yet clear how that will happen or how many of the Wagner troops will sign up to fight. That is prompting concern in many of the half-dozen countries in these volatile regions, where some 6,000 Wagner fighters, among other functions, provide security to local political leaders, often in return for access to valuable resources. | |
| Prigozhin's Movements a Mystery as Wagner Fans Gather in St. Petersburg (Read) | |
4. The outcome of NATO's annual summit is going down to the wire. | |
| On the surface, cohesion between the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization looks strong, with all members vocally supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia. But conflicts threaten to make the alliance's two-day summit, which starts Tuesday, a tense affair. Disagreement over how much of a promise NATO will make to Ukraine over its eventual membership, as well as fighting over Sweden's bid to join the alliance and defense spending, threaten to cast a shadow. | |
5. McCarthy is set to tackle a fresh challenge as Congress returns. | |
| Top of mind on Capitol Hill as lawmakers come back from recess this week are the annual spending bills to keep the government open, which must be enacted by the time the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. Other priorities include legislation authorizing military programs, updating agriculture and food-aid policy and keeping the country's airports running. The stacked legislative agenda and looming deadline will test Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's ability to keep his conference in line and Congress functioning. | |
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🗨 Follow coverage of detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich | |
| The WSJ's Evan Gershkovich is being wrongfully detained in Russia after he was arrested while on a reporting trip and accused of espionage—a charge the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. Follow the latest coverage, sign up for an email alert, and learn how you can use social media to support Evan. | |
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