Financial Markets and Economy
Stock-market rally still leaves S&P 500 $1.4 trillion in the red (Market Watch)
Turnaround Tuesday came a day late for U.S. stocks.
After a rally in Tuesday’s session fell apart in demoralizing fashion for bottom seekers, Wednesday’s late surge, propelling the S&P 500 SPX, +3.90% and the Dow industrials SPX, +3.90% to their biggest one-day percentage gains in nearly four years, changed the tune.
STOCKS GO NUTS, DOW GAINS 620: Here's what you need to know (Business Insider)
The rally stuck.
After markets surged early Wednesday, the market started to give up its gains and a replay of Tuesday's action — when the Dow gained more than 400 points but closed down 200 — seemed in the cards.
But in the final hour of trading, stocks rocketed higher, finishing near their highest levels of the day.
Fidelity Investments considers dropping AmEx, BofA as partners: Bloomberg (Business Insider)
Mutual fund provider Fidelity Investments is considering dropping American Express Co <AXP.N> and Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> to find new partners and better terms, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Visa Inc <V.N> and MasterCard Inc <MA.N> are in talks with Fidelity to replace AmEx, Bloomberg cited the sources as saying.
Hong Kong IPOs Burning Billionaires in Worlds Worst Performance (Bloomberg)
Hong Kong initial public offerings are the worlds worst performers this year, burning investors from BlackRock Inc. to billionaire Cheng Yu-tung as the citys stock market gets battered by Chinas $5 trillion selloff.
Best Buy grabs market share in mobile and appliances (Market Watch)
Best Buy Co. shares enjoyed another session of sharp gains Wednesday, as analysts weighed in on a stronger-than-expected quarter in which the company scooped up market share in home appliances and mobile devices from troubled department chain Sears Holdings Corp. and bankrupt retailer RadioShack.
The stock closed up 7%, extending its two-day gains to about 25%, after the company posted a bigger-than-expected 12% increase in profit and said it expects the current quarter to again beat estimates.
$2.1 trillion erased from U.S. stocks in 6 days (CNN)
The American stock market has surrendered a stunning $2.1 trillion of value in just the last six days of market chaos.
The enormous losses reflect the deep fears gripping markets about how the world economy will fare amid a deepening economic slowdown in China.
Friday’s UMich data will be 1st clue of market rout’s impact, Dudley says (Market Watch)
The first clue as to the potential negative impact of the stock-market selloff on the U.S. economy will come Friday, in the University of Michigan’s reading on consumer sentiment, said William Dudley, the president of the New York Fed.
The Michigan report is where you might see “a little bit” of an effect, Dudley told reporters Wednesday. Otherwise it might take time for the impact of the visible in the data, he said.
Let's stop comparing today's market to 1998 (Business Insider)
The mess that is the stock market over the past few days is drawing numerous comparisons to similar drop-offs of the past, most notably the one in 1998.
In 1997-1998, a slowdown in emerging markets, particularly Asia, seemed to spur concerns over global growth. This led to one of the biggest and quickest drop-offs in the US stock market in years. Sound familiar?
According to Aneta Markowska at Societe Generale, investors should caution themselves before using the comparison.
Under Armour Investors Approve New Shares as CEO Keeps Control (Bloomberg)
Under Armour Inc. investors approved the creation of a new class of shares that don’t have voting rights, which will maintain founder and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Plank’s control of the sporting-goods maker.
The vote was a formality because Plank controls 67 percent of the voting rights thanks to his ownership of Class B shares, which have 10 times the votes of the Class A shares that outside investors can buy. Investors will receive one share of the new, nonvoting Class C stock for each Class A or Class B share they hold. The move has the effect of a 2-for-1 stock split and allows Plank to sell shares without losing any control.
Wall Street is for sale – but is it cheap? (Business Insider)
During more than a week of stock market sell-offs, investors have been exhorted to use declines to pick up bargains – and with a 7.7 percent drop on the S&P 500 since August 17, stocks have certainly gotten less expensive.
To determine how cheap they are, investment pros look at yields, earnings and more. By several of those metrics, the bottom line is this: U.S. stocks are not wildly expensive, but they are not the screaming bargains that might pull value-minded investors back into the market.
There's Still One Big Market Disequilibrium That Hasn't Been Resolved (Bloomberg)
China is the central focus of a global market rout that has left the Dow Jones Industrial Average with its worst four-session performance since November 2008.
The surprise decision to devalue the Chinese yuan earlier this month served as a signal that perhaps markets were overly complacent about the condition of the world's second-largest economy. And in response to the slumping stock market and deterioration in domestic liquidity conditions, the People's Bank of China recently announced cuts to two of its policy rates and lowered the reserve requirement ratio.
China actually looks pretty good compared to its neighbors in Asia (Business Insider)
A lot of fingers pointed to China during the recent stock market downturn, blaming the country's slowing growth and imploding stock market for the sharp US stock selloff.
China Falters, and the Global Economy Is Forced to Adapt (NY Times)
The commodities giant BHP Billiton spent heavily for years, mining iron ore across Australia, digging for copper in Chile, and pumping oil off the coast of Trinidad. The company could be confident in its direction as commodities orders surged from its biggest and best customer, China.
Now, BHP is pulling back, faced with a slowing Chinese economy that will no longer be the same dominant force in commodities. Profit is falling and the company is cutting its exploration budget by more than two-thirds.
Here’s why the stock-market correction isn’t over yet (Market Watch)
The U.S. stock market’s more-than-10% drop over the course of a few days has a lot of investors wondering if the worst is over.
Analysts who had previously sounded warnings over a potential pullback inclined to say there is likely more pain in store over the next several weeks.
Gundlach Wears Bond Crown as Loomis, Janus Stumble in Rout (Bloomberg)
Jeffrey Gundlach is the bond king, for now.
Over the past month, a stretch that saw the upheaval of financial markets around the world, Gundlach has beaten rivals including Tad Rivelle, Bill Gross, Dan Fuss and the Pimco Total Return Fund team by a wide margin. Gundlach’s $48.2 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund returned 0.7 percent in the period; all of these peers except Rivelle showed losses.
Wall Street is getting cold feet about that September rate hike (Quartz)
As the stock market twists and turns, all eyes are on the Federal Reserve.
The US central bank’s September meeting is getting closer and closer. And though theminutes from its July meeting weren’t clear one way or the other on whether a hike would be coming, economists have, for months now (paywall), been expecting the September gathering to mark the start of the first US interest rate-hiking cycle since 2004.
Politics
Trump’s problems with Hispanics go way beyond Jorge Ramos, data suggests (Market Watch)
Jorge Ramos isn’t the only Hispanic American Donald Trump has a problem with.
Recent polls suggest that Trump remains wildly unpopular among American Hispanics. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll released Aug. 3 showed a whopping 75% of Hispanics have a negative view of the Republican presidential front-runner. An earlier poll from Ramos’ network showed seven in 10 Hispanic registered voters saying they’ve got an unfavorable impression of Trump.
Technology
Here's What Microsoft's Next Big Phones Might Look Like (Gizmodo)
Windows Phone enthusiasts have been waiting years — in mobile phone time, decades — for the launch of a new flagship device that can go toe-to-toe with the iPhones and Galaxies of the world. Well, thanks to the @evleaks Twitter account, we’ve got a good look at the two new Lumias Microsoft is supposedly announcing in October, and things are looking fan-freaking-tastic.
According to the press renders published by Evleaks (aka Evan Blass ), there are going to be two top-end Lumias: a 5.7-inch device (codenamed ‘Cityman’, to be known as the Lumia 950XL) and a 5.2-inch (‘Talkman’). Both with have 2560×1440 OLED displays, with the 5.7 packing a Snapdragon 810 processor, while the 5.2-inch will have a (slightly slower) Snapdragon 808.
Modular Tools for the Modern Home Never Sit Idle (PSFK)
Gareth Ladley, a freelance industrial designer based in London, was inspired by how much time home appliances spend sitting idle. An egg beater only sees action a few times a month, while lawnmowers sit ignored through an entire winter in most areas. He developed Auxiliary Tools for the kitchen, so a single, modular tool would waste less money and space.
Intel Invests $60 Million in Chinese Drone Maker Yuneec (Bloomberg)
Intel Corp. has poured more than $60 million into Yuneec International Co., a Shanghai-based drone and aerospace company, as a broad range of technology companies investigate the possible commercial uses of unmanned aircraft.
Venture capitalists and companies are investing in drone technology on the expectation that unmanned aerial vehicles will prove beneficial for consumers and industrial customers. Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. are developing drones to deliver products to consumers. Yuneec’s Chinese rival SZ DJI Technology Co. raised $75 million from Accel Partners in May.
Health and Life Sciences
NOVA's 'Calling The Shots' On Autism And Vaccines (Forbes)
NOVA developed a program, “Calling the Shots,” last year that they’re re-airing tonight that looks at the intersection of autism and vaccines–how the two came to be so entangled and why they should be disentangled. The show features some smart comments and observations from researchers likeDaniel Geschwind and some accessible and well-illustrated explanations of concepts like herd immunity.
Along with co-writer Laura Helft, I wrote some companion pieces to accompany the documentary’s initial release. One in particular, “The Autism-Vaccine Myth,” provides a timeline of the unfolding autism-vaccine story.
Blood test 'detects cancer relapse' (BBC)
A blood test may be able to save lives by finding cancers that have started to grow again after treatment, a study suggests.
Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London found traces of breast cancer eight months before doctors would normally have noticed.
In the trial, the test found 12 cancers out of the 15 women who relapsed.
Life on the Home Planet
Snowy Canada Suffers Drought, Heat, Fires as Earth Gets Warmer (Bloomberg)
Canada is possibly one of the last places that come to mind when you think about heat waves and drought. Think again.
With 2015 on pace to break last year’s record for the hottest year on Earth, the snowy Great White North has discovered it’s not being spared from global warming.
First journalists to be slain in U.S. since 2007 (CNN)
Now two more names, Alison Parker and Adam Ward, are being added to the list.
Parker and Ward, the reporter and photographer who were slain while on live television in rural Virginia, are the first members of the news media killed while on assignment in the United States in almost a decade.
