Financial Markets and Economy
Euro tanks after Greece votes 'no' (Business Insider)
Currencies are trading in Asia's Monday session, and it's not looking good for the euro.
At around $1.100, the euro is down about 0.7% against the US dollar.
Gold little changed as Fed trumps Greek drama (Market Watch)
Gold futures continued to brush off Greece’s deepening debt crisis Monday, eschewing its traditional role as a global safe haven as investors focused instead on prospects for a rate hike by the Federal Reserve in coming months.
[Picture: Pensioners wait in line in front of the main entrance of a National Bank branch to receive part of their pension in Athens. Reuters.]
China stocks volatile after Beijing acts to avoid crash (CNN)
China stocks remained volatile on Monday, despite a series of dramatic steps by officials over the weekend designed to support markets.
Tumbling Futures Rebound After Varoufakis Resignation; Most China Stocks Drop Despite Massive Intervention (Zero Hedge)
More than even the unfolding "chaos theory" pandemonium in Greece, market watchers were even more focused on whether or not China and the PBOC will succeed in rescuing its market from what is now a crash that threatens social stability in the world's most populous nation. And, at the open it did. The problem is that as the trading session progressed, the initial 8% surge in stocks faded as every bout of buying was roundly sold into until every other index but the benchmark Shanghai Composite turned sharply red.
European and Asian Markets Fall After Greek Referendum (NY Times)
European and Asian stock markets dropped on Monday but did not plunge, as investors reacted with muted dismay to the results of the Greek referendum and showed nervousness about steep declines in China’s stock market over the past three weeks.
At the open, traders are selling peripheral bonds in fear of contagion (Business Insider)
European bond markets have opened to mixed results following word the Greek people have voted to reject the latest bailout package from European creditors.
European markets expected a 'No' (Business Insider)
European markets were not going to be caught out for the second week in a row and instead only edged slightly downwards in the first trading session since Greeks voted "No" in the bailout referendum.
Copper Crashes, In Danger Of Breaching 15-Year Support Level (Zero Hedge)
While the PBOC was literally everything in its power to keep the SHCOMP green (it was too late to save the Shenzhen, the Chinext or most Chinese stocks as the PBOC's firepower was limited to just the largest companies), it forgot about that other proxy of overall Chinese health: copper which, as the chart below shows, plunged by 4% to the lowest price since February when the oil commodity crash left everyone speechless and was threatening to destroy the entire junk bond space.
It's been another wild day for Chinese stocks (Business Insider)
Chinese stocks ended a tumultuous Monday session with mixed results.
The Shanghai Composite and CSI 300 indices finished with gains of more than 2.4% although, having been up more than 7.5% in early trade, both finished significantly off their intrasession highs.
Chinese Share Sell-off Spills Over to Hong Kong (NY Times)
Heavy government-coordinated purchases pushed up the value of large companies’ shares on mainland Chinese stock exchanges on Monday, interrupting at least temporarily a three-week downturn. But shares in smaller and midsize companies, which make up as much as two-thirds of the market by value, kept falling.
Crude oil is getting destroyed (Business Insider)
Amid a broad decline in stocks in Asia, Europe, and US futures following the Greek referendum vote against further austerity measures, the big loser on Monday is crude oil.
-8.png)
Bond Report: Treasurys rally after Greeks reject bailout proposal (Market Watch)
Treasury prices rose on Monday, pushing yields to their lowest levels since mid-June, as the overwhelming win of the “no” vote in Sunday’s Greek referendum sparked a flight-to-quality rally in Treasurys and other government bonds.
As European stocks tumbled and U.S. stocks also declined, Treasurys and eurozone government bonds received a strong bid that drove yields down across the curve. Bond yields fall when prices rise, and vice versa.
Greece Hits the Self-Destruct Button (Bloomberg)
Greece has decisively voted "no" or "oxi" in the #greferendum. I mean, decisively. By Sunday afternoon here in the U.S., the election map was a solid sea of orange for the "no" side.
I am shocked. I probably shouldn't be. I've been pointing out for a while that countries often do seemingly crazy things to themselves when they are mad at foreigners. The worst possible analysis of any sort of international situation is to say "Obviously, they're not going to do that, because that would be crazy!" There were probably a lot of reporters standing around saying that in 1914, while the crazy people went off and started World War I.
GM China auto sales flat in June despite broad price cuts (Business Insider)
General Motors Co <GM.N> vehicle sales in China were roughly flat for June as broad price cuts introduced earlier in the year failed to boost demand.
GM and its Chinese joint-venture partners sold 246,066 cars in June, virtually unchanged from the same month a year ago, the U.S. automaker said in a statement on Monday.
The Wall Street Journal: Seritage raises $1.6 billion, to begin trading after spinoff from Sears (Market Watch)
Seritage Growth Properties, the real estate spinoff of Sears Holdings Corp., estimated Monday that it will receive about $1.6 billion from its rights offering and will begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange.
Seritage Growth, structured as a real-estate investment trust, plans to use the proceeds of the offering to fund in part its $2.72 billion purchase of 235 properties and 31 joint-venture interests from Sears. That purchase is expected to close Tuesday.
U.S. futures fall as Greece uncertainty continues (Business Insider)
World markets fell, but less sharply than expected and analysts attributed the relatively muted reaction to expectations the European Central Bank would act to limit any damage.
The ECB's governing council began a conference call at 1000 GMT (6 a.m. ET) Monday to decide how long to keep Greek banks afloat. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will meet in Paris in the afternoon.
Oil falls more than 3 percent after Greek 'No' (Reuters)
Oil prices fell more than 3 percent on Monday after Greece rejected debt bailout terms and China rolled out emergency measures to support its stock markets, adding to concerns about demand at a time of global oversupply.
The result of Greece's referendum put in doubt its membership in the euro, pulling down the single currency EUR= against the dollar. [FRX/]
A strong dollar tends to pressure commodities as it makes fuel more expensive for holders of other currencies.
China's economy shows 'positive changes': statistics bureau (Business Insider)
China's economy is showing some positive changes as recent government measures gradually gain traction, but policymakers cannot lower their guard against headwinds crimping growth, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
China's economic performance remained within a "reasonable range" and economic growth was basically stable, Sheng Laiyun, the bureau's spokesman, said in remarks published on the bureau's website.
The (Inadequate) Case for Economic Pessimism (Bloomberg)
Is the U.S. economy stuck in an endless loop of sluggish growth and high unemployment? Many distinguished economists think so, and there is some evidence to support them. But looking at much the same data, I come to the opposite conclusion: The U.S. could soon experience a period of strong economic growth once deleveraging is over.
No doubt, the economy is now growing too slowly, at an annual pace of only 2.2 percent real gross domestic product in this recovery, which started in mid-2009. That's about half the speed you'd expect after the worst recession since the 1930s. And the sluggishness is global, with tiny growth in the euro area, a pattern of rising and falling economic activity in Japan, and a slowdown in China (where the official growth rate of 7 percent is probably twice the actual number).
After Greece’s ‘no’ vote, let the punishment begin (Market Watch)
The warring over Greece’s future has been a debtor versus creditor battle. So far, the Greeks seem to be winning.
In achieving a decisive “no” vote in Sunday’s referendum, Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has implemented the credo attributed to his forebear Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great: divide et impera. (Divide and rule.)
Trading
What Successful Traders Do (Trader Feed)
I recently wrote a foreword for a very interesting book of interviews with successful daytraders that will be coming out shortly.
To be sure, there are other success ingredients, from discipline to creativity. What I see among the traders listed above, as well as those I work with, is an unusual combination of these three factors. It's a pleasure and a true education to study successful people. There is much more to success than avoiding failure.
Are You Investing Like the Terminator? You Should Be! (Capitalist Exploits)
When robots eventually take over this planet, killing us all (save a small group singled out to be used as slaves, and thrown into a big brother style environment with live streamed cage fights to the death), or possibly used in lab tests, you can bet that they won’t feel bad about it. Curious perhaps as to why we’re acting the way we are, but no emotional baggage.
Robots follow a logical protocol and as such won’t shed a robotic tear when wiping us out. Similarly when a fellow robot is gunned down by the last remaining “resistance” group of commando-types with shaved heads, tattoos, shredded abs, and sporting names such as John, Bruce, and Dutch, they won’t skip a beat – just keep executing their “programming.”
Trading Success: What It Means to be Process Driven (Trader Feed)
We often hear that traders, to be successful, should "follow their process." But what really goes into trading processes? The recent post described a few common elements of successful trading. One of those was selectivity. Faced with an infinite number of possible trades and times to trade, even the active trader must find some way of filtering out the majority of possibilities and focusing on the smaller number that offer distinctive opportunity.
Politics
The Republican Debate Selection Process Is a New Wild Card in Presidential Politics (Bloomberg)
A month from now, 10 Republican presidential candidates will walk out onto a primetime debate stage in Cleveland and confront each other face to face for the first time. If the debate were held today, Donald Trump would be one of them. Two sitting governors, a U.S. senator, the runner-up for the 2012 GOP nomination, and the first female CEO of a Fortune 50 company would all be excluded.
Welcome to the Bush-Clinton Speakers Bureau (Bloomberg)
Republican Jeb Bush and Democrat Hillary Clinton, two of the top establishment choices for next year's presidential election, have more in common than famous families, a desire to succeed a relative in the White House, and politically awkward positions on the Iraq War.
Both, it turns out, have been subjected to many of the same chicken dinners served on the global paid speaking circuit.
Technology
GoPro Introduces Smaller, Simpler Action Camera (Bloomberg)
GoPro Inc. added a smaller, simpler-to-use camera to its Hero line, part of its strategy to maintain dominance of the action-camera segment it has popularized in recent years.
Called the Hero4 Session, the camera is 40 percent lighter and 50 percent smaller than GoPro’s Hero4 Black and Silver models, the company said Monday in a statement. The device doesn’t have a screen for visually setting up shots like other models, but records video when the user pushes the only button and turns off when it is touched again.
Robots Can’t Kill You—and Claiming They Can is Dangerous (Gizmodo)
If we start holding robots responsible for their actions – and accidents – we let their human designers and operators off the hook.
Robots’ involvement in human deaths is nothing new. The recent death of a man who was grabbed by a robot and crushed against a metal plate at a Volkswagen factory in Baunatal, Germany, attracted extensive media attention. But it is strikingly similar to one of the first recorded case of a death involving an industrial robot 34 years ago.
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x (Wired)
People are always asking me for headphone buying advice. Not just friends, but co-workers, strangers over Twitter, and people I meet at parties who learn that I write about audio gear. “Which headphones should I get?”
It all depends, I say, on what you’re looking for. Most often, the person needs something they can wear at their desk at work. In that case, there’s one model I’ve always recommend first: The Audio-Technica ATH-M50. And actually, I’ve been recommending this same headphone for close to ten years. The M50s are the Cadillac of headphones…
Health and Life Sciences
Dementia support gaps 'fail patients' (BBC)
Doctors have raised fresh concerns about the level of support people with dementia and their carers get from the NHS and social services in the UK.
And the Royal College of GPs says until the situation improves, doctors will have to weigh up whether there is any advantage in early diagnosis.
Peeking into the brain's filing system (BBC)
Storing information so that you can easily find it again is a challenge. From purposefully messy desks to indexed filing cabinets, we all have our preferred systems. How does it happen inside our brains?
Somewhere within the dense, damp and intricate 1.5kg of tissue that we carry in our skulls, all of our experiences are processed, stored, and – sometimes more readily than others – retrieved again when we need them.
Life on the Home Planet
Zimbabwe elephants flown to China (BBC)
At least 20 elephants from Zimbabwe have arrived in China after being flown there from the capital, Harare.
They were sold for around $40,000 (£26,000) each after their controversial capture last year.
Drought Sends U.S. Water Agency Back to Drawing Board (NY Times)
Drew Lessard stood on top of Folsom Dam and gazed at the Sierra Nevada, which in late spring usually gushes enough melting snow into the reservoir to provide water for a million people. But the mountains were bare, and the snowpack to date remains the lowest on measured record.
“If there’s no snowpack, there’s no water,” said Mr. Lessard, a regional manager for the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that built and operates a vast network of 476 dams, 348 reservoirs and 8,116 miles of aqueducts across the Western United States.
Woolly mammoth clones closer than ever, thanks to genome sequencing (Fox News)
Scientists are one step closer to bringing a woolly mammoth back to life.
A new analysis of the woolly mammoth genome has revealed several adaptations that allowed the furry beasts to thrive in the subzero temperatures of the last ice age, including a metabolism that allowed them to pack on insulating fat, smaller ears that lost less heat and a reduced sensitivity to cold.
The findings could enable researchers to "resurrect" the ice-age icon — or at least a hybridized Asian elephant with a few of the physical traits of its woolly-haired cousin, said study co-author Vincent Lynch, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago.
