AD

Former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, all pulled in between $400,000 and $500,000 from the securities and investment industry during the first half of the year, CRP figures show.

AD

The results suggest that while Warren has impressed some executives behind enemy lines in an industry she has reveled in vilifying, most Democratic-friendly Wall Streeters are still gravitating to her rivals who pose less of a direct threat to their livelihoods.

It’s also no great surprise. While none of the Democratic presidential hopefuls are advocating loosening the post-crisis regulatory reins on Wall Street or pushing policies that will otherwise pad the industry’s bottom line, there’s a clear cleave in the field between Warren and Sanders and the rest.

AD

Warren, for example, has called for breaking up the big banks. She wants to hold bank executives personally liable for criminal wrongdoing. And last week, she unveiled a plan to fundamentally restructure private equity firms, which she likened to vampires.

Warren “has led the fight against Wall Street giveaways, and is not cozying up to Wall Street at fundraisers,” Warren spokeswoman Saloni Sharma said in an email. “She’s been the leader in holding Wall Street accountable and getting results for decades — they know she will do the same as president.”

While Warren rolled out her private equity proposal last week, after the second-quarter fundraising period ended, her campaign finance records suggest there has been no love lost between her and the sector. Indeed, no financial services firms — private equity or otherwise — cracked the list of her top 20 sources of funds (a roster dominated instead by 12 universities).

AD

AD

Booker, by contrast, raised $32,100 from private equity giant Apollo Global Management and another $25,400 from the Blackstone Group. He caught heat from the left during the 2012 presidential contest when he slammed the Obama-Biden campaign for pillorying GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s work for private equity firm Bain Capital. (A spokesman for Booker did not respond to a request for comment.)

Several other leading Democratic candidates also collected five-figure hauls from the sector. Blackstone executives forked over another $36,400 for Buttigieg (who raised nearly four times as much from the New York metro area as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio). And Biden raised $22,400 from Bain Capital executives — and $20,600 from Oaktree Capital Management execs, according to CRP figures.

Biden, Harris and Buttigieg “combined to receive contributions during the second quarter from at least 15 bank executives from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to Federal Election Commission records,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. Among them, per Schwartz:

AD

AD

“Goldman’s chief financial officer, Stephen Scherr, wrote a $5,600 check in May to Biden’s campaign for president. Scherr was refunded $2,800 because his initial contribution broke the limit of how much a donor can give directly to a campaign. He attended a fundraiser in New York for Biden last month that was hosted by former hedge fund executive Eric Mindich.”

“Ray McGuire, who’s led Citi’s investment banking division for 13 years, sent $2,800 to Harris [in June]. While he has also spent on other candidates, McGuire appears to be leaning toward putting his fundraising network behind Harris’ campaign. He is part of a group of almost a dozen business leaders co-hosting a fundraising event for Harris at the home of public relations executive Michael Kempner in August.”

“Richard Zinman, an executive director at J.P. Morgan, gave Buttigieg $2,000 in late April. James Mahoney, the head of global communications and public policy at Bank of America, gave the same amount to Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign in June.”

Last month, Biden drew fire from the left after telling a well-heeled crowd gathered for a fundraiser at the Carlyle Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that Democrats shouldn’t “demonize anybody who has made money.”

“No one’s standard of living will change,” Biden told a crowd that included former Clinton treasury secretary Robert Rubin, former deputy treasury secretary Roger Altman, and Goldman’s Scherr, Politico reported. At another event on the same New York swing, Biden told a crowd at the townhouse of Jim Chanos, the hedge fund billionaire, that the rich would do “just fine” in a Biden presidency.

Warren at the time took an apparent swing at Biden for passing the tin cup among financiers:

MONEY ON THE HILL

— House passes budget/debt ceiling deal with few Republicans: “The House passed a sweeping two-year budget deal Thursday that increases spending for military and domestic programs and suspends the debt ceiling through mid-2021, sending the White House-backed legislation to the Senate,” my colleagues Erica Werner and Damian Paletta report.

AD

AD

“A large majority of Democrats voted for the legislation, while a majority of Republicans opposed it despite appeals from President Trump to support the bill.”

Jet fumes: “The 284-149 vote was one of the last acts by the House before lawmakers leave Washington for a six-week summer recess. The Senate is expected to act on the bill next week and sent it to Trump for his signature before senators, too, abandon the Capitol for the summer.”

Why Trump touted it: “In deciding who would lead the White House in budget and debt-ceiling negotiations with Capitol Hill, the president learned a lesson from his embarrassing government shutdown earlier this year: Brush aside the budget hawks in his own party, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and focus on minimizing any drama heading into an election year,” “In deciding who would lead the White House in budget and debt-ceiling negotiations with Capitol Hill, the president learned a lesson from his embarrassing government shutdown earlier this year: Brush aside the budget hawks in his own party, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and focus on minimizing any drama heading into an election year,” Politico's Nancy Cook and Burgess Everett report of Trump's decision to tap Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to lead talks on behalf of the administration.

The tell quote: " 'The president asked Mnuchin to negotiate a deal. And Mnuchin went to [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi saying, "How much is it going to cost me to get a debt-limit increase past the election?" one former senior administration official sarcastically told Politico. 'He doesn’t care about the cost. Wall Street is happy. The defense folks are happy. That’s good enough.' "

Mnuchin's new juice. Having earned some political capital by putting the deal together for the administration, what's the Treasury secretary's next move? Capital Alpha's Charles Gabriel, in a Thursday note, reviewed the possibilities: "He has been deeply engaged, along with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in U.S.-China trade talks that will resume in Beijing next week. But those negotiations have seemed mired by Chinese recalcitrance in changing domestic laws and practices...

"Munchin will also be engaged in seeking Congress’s approval of the USMCA, and resolution on threatened tariffs against EU auto imports. But those issues, as well, seem likely to be pushed into fall, with recent news seemingly more promising... We would argue that extension of the debt limit and an interregnum before trade-related end games should clear a window wherein Mnuchin can finally involve himself, personally, in clarifying his and the administration’s GSE reform ambitions."

AD

AD

TRUMP TRACKER

TRADE FLY-AROUND:

— USDA to dispense $16 billion to farmers. WSJ's Jacob Bunge and Jesse Newman: "China’s tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. imports, implemented in response to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, have bruised a U.S. farm economy already struggling after years of low crop prices... The USDA will divide the $16 billion among soybean fields, hog barns, dairy farms, cranberry bogs and other agricultural operations and groups. Payment rates will range between $15 and $150 an acre, the USDA said, based on a farm’s location and this year’s expected production."

— Silicon Valley worried about Japan-South Korea feud: “A trade feud between Japan and South Korea, two of the world’s leading tech producers, has prompted groups representing Silicon Valley giants to warn an escalation could wreak long-term damage across an already-buckling global supply chain,” the Wall Street Journal’s Timothy W. Martin reports.

AD

AD

“Having been hit by disrupted U.S.-China relations, American trade groups — whose members are technology companies, semiconductor makers and manufacturers — have written to Japan and South Korea, emphasizing that the global supply chain relies on efficient delivery of components, chemicals and materials. The two nations produce semiconductors and displays that are indispensable for services and gadgets made by the likes of Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Microsoft Corp.” (Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

MARKET MOVERS

— 2Q GDP preview. CNN's Anneken Teppe: "Boeing's 737 Max crisis has wreaked havoc on the airline industry. It may have made a dent in the US economy, too. The Commerce Department will release its US GDP report for the second quarter Friday. Sluggish activity in the manufacturing sector, including Boeing's 737 Max production slowdown, is expected to be part of the reason the US economy grew less in the second quarter, compared with the first three months of the year...

"Consensus expectations for Friday's GDP growth are 1.8%, according to economists surveyed by Refinitiv. The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow tracker stands at a more conservative 1.3%. Either way, growth in the second quarter will probably represent a steep step down from the 3.1% growth rate in the first quarter."

AD

AD

The trade war is weighing on growth. Per Bloomberg , "Gross domestic product figures due Friday will likely show business investment weakened, despite getting a late-quarter boost from higher equipment orders in June. Uncertainty from the yearlong U.S.-China tariff war compounded weakness stemming from slowing global growth and falling oil prices."

Is manufacturing in a ‘technical recession’?: “If you are looking for signs of trouble in the U.S. economy, many experts (and politicians) point to manufacturing. The industry is facing the double whammy of [Trump’s] trade war and declining purchases from abroad as Europe, China and other countries are slowing down,” my colleague Heather Long reports.

“The red flags have been rising for the manufacturing section this year. Hiring has slowed sharply. Last year, the sector was averaging 22,000 new jobs a month, according to Labor Department data. This year it’s down to 8,000. And a popular gauge of manufacturing’s health — the PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) — has tumbled in recent months and now sits at near-recession levels.”

AD

POCKET CHANGE

— Major automakers rebuff Trump administration with climate deal: “Four automakers from three continents have struck a deal with California to produce fleets that are more fuel-efficient in coming years, undercutting one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive climate policy rollbacks,” my colleagues Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis report.

“The compromise between the California Air Resources Board and Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW of North America came after weeks of secret negotiations and could shape future U.S. vehicle production, even as White House officials aim to relax gas-mileage standards for the nation’s cars, pickups and SUVs.”

Nissan to cut 12,500 jobs: “Nissan Motor Co. said it would cut 12,500 jobs, or 9% of its global workforce, after reporting an implosion in profit in the latest quarter that stemmed in large part from the U.S.,” WSJ’s Sean McLain reports.

“The Japanese car maker is struggling to find its footing after a turbulent eight months that included the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn and tensions with alliance partner Renault SA over whether the two should combine.”

Tesla suffers its worst day of the year: “Tesla shares suffered their steepest drop of the year after the electric carmaker reported a wider-than-expected loss and disappointing revenue and announced the departure of Chief Technology Officer and co-founder JB Straubel from the executive ranks,” CNBC’s Ari Levy and Lora Kolodny report.

“The stock plunged 13.6% to $228.82 at the close. That’s the biggest decline since the shares fell 13.9% on Sept. 28, 2018. At times on Thursday, the stock was down more than 14%, which would’ve been the steepest drop since 2013.”

— Alphabet beats earnings expectations: “Shares of Google parent company Alphabet rose more than 9% after the company reported earnings for its second quarter of 2019 after the bell on Thursday,” CNBC’s Lauren Feiner reports.

“Alphabet said its board of directors approved the company to repurchase up to an additional $25 billion of its Class C capital stock. On a call with analysts, CFO Ruth Porat said the capital would be used to support growth and acquisitions and investments.”

THE REGULATORS

CHART TOPPER

Investor Charlie Bilello notes Beyond Meat's hot streak continues, as its market cap just surpassed that of another food giant 90 years its senior:

DAYBOOK

Today:

The Commerce Department releases its U.S. GDP report for the second quarter.

McDonald’s, Goodyear Tire and AbbVie are among the notable companies reporting their earnings, per Kiplinger

THE FUNNIES

From Politico's Matt Wuerker: