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June 30, 2016 | | Advertisement
 Stocks soared for a third straight day and continued to advance towards the levels they topped at before the shocking Brexit vote sent markets spiraling down a week ago. The S&P 500 ended the second quarter with a 1.9% gain, as it extended its gains for the year above 2.6%. But the Nasdaq finished red for the quarter and is still down year-to-date. First, the scoreboard: - Dow: 17,929.99, +235.31, (1.33%)
- S&P 500: 2,098.86, +28.09, (1.36%)
- Nasdaq: 4,842.67, +63.43, (1.33%)
- WTI crude oil: $48.33, -$1.55, (-3.1%)
- 10-year Treasury yield: 1.48% (+0.012)
- Snacks collide, or not. Snack-food giant Mondelez made an offer to buy Hershey in a deal valuing the company at $107 per share. But Hershey said no thanks. In a statement, Hershey said it "unanimously rejected the indication of interest and determined that it provided no basis for further discussion" with Mondelez. Activist investor Nelson Peltz and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square both hold sizeable stakes in Mondelez. Ackman first took a $5.5 billion stake in Mondelez in August 2015, but has since sold down his share in the snack-maker, unloading about 20 million shares in March. Mondelez has long been a target of activist investors, with Peltz publicly agitating in 2013 for Pepsi to acquire Mondelez in a more than $65 billion deal.
- George Soros says Brexit has "unleashed a crisis" in markets that's as bad as 2008. Soros said the crisis was unfolding in slow motion but will now accelerate, according to a speech to the European Parliament obtained by ValueWalk. This would create more deflation, he said. Soros, who is known for his huge bet against the pound in 1992, said before the UK voted to leave the EU that a Brexit would cause serious problems. Now, that prophecy is coming true, according to Soros.
- S&P cut the European Union's debt rating. Standard and Poor's lowered its rating on the EU's debt to AA+ from AA just days after it downgraded the UK. The ratings agency expects the 27 member states excluding the UK to remain in the EU, but now has doubts about the union's future and its ability to repay long-term debt. Brexit will "complicate budgetary and policy priorities among the 27 remaining members of the EU, in our opinion, weakening the EU's fiscal flexibility and introducing uncertainty into budgetary forecasts," S&P said in a statement. Also on Thursday, S&P affirmed the US' AA+ credit rating and maintained its stable outlook.
- The Bank of Mexico shocked markets with an interest-rate hike, and the peso soared. It unexpectedly hiked the key interest rate to 4.25% from 3.75%. Economists were only expecting a 0.25% increase. The Bank, nicknamed Banxico, raised rates amid sluggish global economic growth to keep rising inflation expectations in check. It noted that economic activity slowed in the second quarter, especially in manufacturing and exports.
- In economic data, initial jobless claims rose more than expected last week, by 10,000 to 268,000. The four-week moving average was 266,750, a drop of 250 from the previous week. The data can be volatile at this time of year, as automakers shutdown for annual retooling.
And, Chicago business activity rebounded in June. The ISM/MNI Chicago business barometer (also called the PMI) rose from contractionary territory to a reading of 56.8, topping expectations for 51. That was the highest reading since January 2015. Additionally: A strange phenomenon is making the 'new housing crisis' even worse These are the 20 most expensive neighborhoods for renters in the US NOW WE'VE SEEN IT ALL: Analyst compares Brexit to a sheepdog voting itself out of the herding group Goldman Sachs has been firing traders again | 
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| Tabletop Simulator and all the DLCs (other than Simurgh, since it just released) are on sale during the Steam Summer Sale! This is one of Steam's biggest sales of the year, so if you have been waiting or know people who have been wanting to get Tabletop Simulator, now is your chance! Tabletop Simulator is 50% off and the DLCs vary from 30-50% off. The sale ends on Monday, July 4th at 10am PST, so act now before it's too late! | | | VR NEWS June has mostly focused on VR - those of you who don't have VR, thanks for your patience while we get the kinks out. Future updates will focus on a mix of stuff both VR and non-VR related. VR is currently in beta and we are thrilled with how far it's come in just a month. If you've been playing around with it, let us know what you think and of course any suggestions you may have as well. You can post them on our forums here. If you haven't seen it yet, check out our latest VR Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuUhWPUDpGo We're very excited to bring Tabletop Simulator into the virtual world and we're looking forward to your input. Have fun! | | | DLC NEWS
We're happy to be bringing The Captain is Dead by The Game Crafter into Tabletop Simulator! The Captain is Dead is a co-op game for 2 to 7 players. All you have to do is get the ship's engines (aka "Jump Core") back online and you win; but because there is a hostile alien ship trying to destroy you, that is easier said than done. | | | Our latest DLC, Simurgh by NSKN Games is now released! This is our second game from them after Mistfall.
Simurgh is a game for 2-5 players who become heads of powerful clans in a fantastical world where humans and dragons live, hunt and go to wars together. Now available for $6.99. Only the host needs to own all our DLCs. | | | Stay tuned for more DLC announcements and updates in future issues of The Scoop, posted on our website, Facebook and Twitter . We have some other great companies we have partnered with that we will announce soon! | | | MONTH IN REVIEW
June was the release of VR in alpha (and now beta) and it's been a fun and surprisingly smooth ride! In Update v7.4, we released the DLC Zombicide by Cool Mini or Not and it's been a lot of fun playing it in VR and in normal mode. Not only is it fantastically themed, but it has a cool Gizmo-Tron which gives you a variety of layouts that is placed over your mission boards to make game set ups much faster. 
We also updated our Superfight DLC so that it was properly themed, so now all of our DLCs (and all going forward) will be specially themed to match the game. We're very proud with our DLCs and how fantastic and high quality they are - and we hope you like them too!
 Update 7.5 brought improvements to VR by adding a Transform Gizmo which allows you to do things like rotate and lift the floor up and down, scale the player up and down and much more.  And in Update 7.6, we added more functionality to VR like bringing in the tools menu, made it so VR heads and hands are transparent to non VR players so they aren't so intrusive, added sharper image quality and updated the tutorial for the VR and controller use. We also added UI Scaling, so everyone can scale up or down their UI as they'd like. 
| | | COMMUNITY ORIGINAL GAME
Check out Dead Man's Doubloons created by Geek Fever Games on our Steam Workshop! A Kickstarter will be coming in the near future, so follow them on Facebook to find out when it's to come. Dead Man's Doubloons is an action packed board game for 2 to 6 players, playable in 30 to 45 minutes. Each player takes on the role of a legendary pirate ship captain, hell-bent on winning the race to endless riches of buried treasure. Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=709659224 Official website: http://www.geekfevergames.com/dead-mans-doubloons.html | | | FANDOM Need some asian-inspired bags for your games? Then check out these lovely Japanese pattern boxes created by community member Seiseki. You can store all your precious trinkets in these boxes, which are setup to be used as loot bags. Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=706578640 | | | | | | We LOVE original games or models you've created that are your own. So if you have anything, tell us all about it! Post all your findings on our dedicated forum post here. You can also post it on our Sub-Reddit, Twitter and Facebook. While we can't respond to everything, we do read it all, so get posting and we might just feature your game! | | | Thanks for your continued support and hope you like our updates! Stay tuned for more DLCs, more great new features and lots of improvements. 
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