US stocks slip in early trading

What a disappointment to start the day.

The ADP Employment Report for July fell well short of economists expectations, showing only 330,000 private sector jobs were added to the economy last month — compared with 695,000 expected.

Is it worker shortages or the Delta variant that is putting more of a damper on things?

In either case, this doesn't bode well for Friday's government jobs report. Even though the two reports aren't correlated, the ADP tally is considered a bellwether for the official count.

Mid-sized businesses added the most jobs, and the services sector, led by leisure and hospitality, again took the lead in the amount of positions added.

On Tuesday, US stocks closed higher. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 notched fresh all-time highs, rebounding from moderate losses at the start of the week.

Markets are quiet in premarket trading today. Here's where things stand as of 6:15 am ET:

Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is raking in the cash even as the fallout over a harassment and discrimination lawsuit threatens its enormous business.

The gaming company behind hugely popular titles such as "Call of Duty," "World of Warcraft" and "Candy Crush" reported revenues of around $2.3 billion for the quarter that ended June 30, a 19% jump from the same period last year and slightly higher than the company's previous forecast.

Read more here.

Americans have more debt than ever before.

A surge in credit card spending and home purchases caused US household debt to increase by $313 billion, or 2.1%, in the second quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

That's the largest nominal jump since 2007 and the biggest percentage increase in seven and a half years.

In total, American consumers held $14.96 trillion in debt at the end of June — the biggest pile of bills on record and $812 billion more than what was owed at the end of 2019, before the pandemic hit.

Credit card balances rose by $17 billion in the second quarter, but they still remain $140 billion below levels at the end of 2019. Auto loan balances increased by $33 billion.

Read more here.

The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission doesn't have a lot of love for cryptocurrencies.

Gensler also said he believes cryptocurrencies are securities, which would put them under the purview of the SEC.

The regulatory uncertainty surrounding digital currencies has been the subject of lawsuits and investigations in recent years, and whose jurisdiction the assets fall under has yet to be definitively answered.

Read more here.