News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

Financial Markets and Economy

After all that, the stock market finished the week higher (Business Insider)

The stock market had a wild ride this week. And it ultimately ended up even better than it started. 

This week we saw a 1,000 point drop in the Dow in minutes, another drop of around 600 points in an hour of trading, and another day that saw one of the largest single-day point gains for the Dow in history.

Worried about your investments? Here’s the best advice (Market Watch)

The market is on a volatility roller coaster again, and many average investors are caught somewhere between fear and panic. These are the days good, personal financial advice matters most.

No robo adviser will keep you from selling at the worst possible moment, but a good financial adviser absolutely will (and just might encourage you to buy more when securities are on sale). How much is having access to financial advice saving the American public every year?

Behold, this week’s market moves were not world-ending (Quartz)

The start of the week was a little scary. Investors didn’t know where to turn as chaos swepteastward from China, sending American and European markets into a panic.

But then things … moderated. Even though day-trading websites broke down left and right, the biggest indices, namely the S&P 500 in the US and STOXX 600 in Europe, barely changed this week. The former rose 0.9%, the latter 0.6%. The mood is still pretty dour in Asia, especially China. Indices there and in Japan ended the week in the red. Questions continue to swirl around whether the Chinese government can get its financial system under control—or if it’s trying too hard to do so.

China's minister defends intervention: 'We must take action' (CNN)

If there is "systemic risk to the financial system, we must take action," China's Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told CNN in an exclusive interview Friday.

Zhu's comments came after two weeks of extreme turmoil in the global stock markets, particularly in China. The key Shanghai stock index has plunged more than 40% since June and erased all 2015 gains.

Warren Buffett just disclosed his newest $4.5 billion investment pick (Business Insider)

On Friday evening, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the founder of Berkshire Hathaway, disclosed that he had purchased a massive stake in oil refinery Phillips 66 (PSX).

Buffett now owns 57,975,456 shares, or a 10% stake, in the Texas-based energy company, according to a securities filing posted shortly after 8pm ET. 

How to learn about investing…by watching Netflix (CNN)

Too many Americans think of the stock market as the "final frontier" — something worthy of a Star Trek episode.

After the recent wild stock market swings in China, Europe and the United States, it can all feel even more bewildering. But it's easier than you might think to "boldly go" where many others like famed investor Warren Buffett have gone before.

Live Your Life the Way You Want to Trade (Trader Feed)

A major problem I encounter among professionals is that they pursue business through busy-ness.  They equate doing more and getting items off their to-do lists with being productive.  In the recent Forbes article, I provide an alternate perspective:  one in which unstructured time can be the most productive time of day.

Take that one to the bank.

Will we truly trade in a rule-governed, responsible way if we live our lives unconstrained by organization and discipline?

Politics

Joe Biden and the Democratic Vacuum (The Atlantic)

“I think panic is the operative mode for the Democratic Party,” David Axelrod, who has been on the receiving end of panic mode many times over the years, told me this week. I had asked Obama’s political guru how bad the current panic was for Hillary Clinton—bad enough for the party to seek an alternative? Bad enough, perhaps, to create an opening for Joe Biden?

Axelrod didn’t think so. “I think it’s indisputable she’s had a rocky few months,” he said. “But if you look at her support among Democrats, and the resources she brings, she’s still very strong—I think she’s going to be the nominee.”

Technology

Apple Watch is disrupting the ‘Interruption Economy’ (Venture Beat)

If the Apple Watch has taught me anything, it’s that all smartwatches are going to require us as product developers, marketers, and publishers to fundamentally reconsider our notion of interruptions and the role they play in how we communicate and engage with consumers.

For far too long, interruptions have formed the currency of digital marketing. Being immersed in the tech industry, I’ve coined the phrase “the Interruption Economy” to describe the incessant stream of disruptions designed to prod us all into action. Newsletters, coupons, promotions, reminders, alerts, spam, and other notifications and communications, which were once easily overlooked in our inboxes or on our phones, are now nuisances when they come from the wrist. 

If it has wheels, it's not a hoverboard (The Verge)

People are really excited about rideable scooters lately. Wiz Khalifa was arrested for riding one at the airport. J.R. Smith has started using them after games. Jamie Foxx brought one on Fallon.

Skrillex rides them around at shows, and even though he's rich and famous, it comes off as a chill and fun thing to do rather than a weird celebrity stunt like Kanye riding an elephant or something. And why not? Even the nicest two-wheelers are only $800, so it's one of the cheaper Crazy Celebrity Things you can buy.

Lazy Treasure Hunters Will Love This Remote Control Metal Detector (Gizmodo)

The only thing better than getting rich by finding treasure is not having to put much effort into your windfall. So why waste an afternoon walking along a beach with a metal detector in hand when you could instead lounge on a blanket and drive this one around with a remote control?

Health and Life Sciences

Psychologists Welcome Analysis Casting Doubt on Their Work (NY Times)

This attitude reflects an enormous culture change that has begun to take hold in psychology. As recently as five years ago, researchers acted largely as their own editors, shaping the story their data told. But well before the publication of the new report, a handful of researchers around the world had begun setting up systems to increase transparency and data sharing. The report’s findings came as no surprise to them.

Urine test might detect brain injury from blasts (Futurity)

About one in five wounded soldiers suffers from traumatic brain injury, and an estimated 52 percent of those injuries are blast-induced neurotrauma.

Some of those brain injuries are difficult to diagnose because people don’t always display obvious motor impairment or other neurological symptoms.

Life on the Home Planet

How will climate change affect your livelihood? (Phys)

As the reality of global warming starts to hit home, people may ask: "How will it affect my livelihood?"

Well, that depends.

On your profession, your age, and exactly where you live, among other things.

Here, then, are a few scenarios for a climate-altered future, when rising temperatures are closing in on the threshold of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels which scientists warn we should not cross.