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Friday, March 29, 2024

News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

 

Financial Markets and Economy

The Jobs Report and the August Curse: Jobs Day Guide (Bloomberg)

The stakes couldn't be higher for the August employment report, even though the month has typically been cursed by disappointment.

For Federal Reserve officials, who are trying to gauge the U.S. economy's prospects as they consider raising interest rates in less than two weeks, have already been thrown a curve ball — global economic malaise and reeling financial markets.

Canada Oil Sands Fork Over Billions for 500,000 Unneeded Barrels (Bloomberg)

The last place oil producers want to be when prices plummet to profit-demolishing lows is midstream on a billion-dollar project in one of the costliest parts of the planet to extract crude.

The state of global monetary policy in one chart (Business Insider)

 The big question hanging over markets right now is the Federal Reserve. 

Will the Fed raise interest rates in September? October? December? Never?

cotd monetary policy

As volatility soars, this obscure trading strategy draws Wall Street’s ire (Market Watch)

When markets fall fast and hard, investors look for something to blame. This time around, a lot of the ire is focused on a trading strategy known as risk parity.

The most high-profile accusation came from Leon Cooperman, founder of hedge fund Omega Advisors. According to the Financial Times, Cooperman and his partner Steven Einhorn told investors in a Sept. 1 letter that fundamental factors, including turmoil in China and jitters over the Federal Reserve interest-rate outlook can’t fully explain the magnitude and velocity of the stock market’s drop in August.

<p>Dirty power.</p> Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergLet Coal Die a Natural Death (Bloomberg View)

Coal-fired electricity is becoming ever less profitable. That's the good news — or it should be, since it gives power companies greater incentive to embrace cleaner and cheaper sources of energy. 

But not every energy company is content to let the market guide its decision-making. In a role reversal, at least one energy company is asking regulators to intervene to keep coal profitable for a while longer. 

mario draghi ecbEuro Sinks, Stocks Go Nowhere: Here's what you need to know (Business Insider)

Stocks had a relatively muted session Thursday, with the major indices rallying about 1% in the morning but slipping from those highs to end nearly flat. The euro made the big move in markets today after the European Central Bank provided a monetary policy update.

The euro fell to a two-week low against the dollar. As expected, the European Central Bank kept the key refinancing rate unchanged at 0.05%. The move lower for the euro came during ECB president Mario Draghi's press conference. He cut Gross Domestic Product forecasts for Europe, and said deflation could return. He also emphasized that the 60 billion euro-a-month asset buying program could continue beyond 2016. 

Hey Twitter, is Jack Dorsey going to be CEO or what? (Market Watch)

Hey Twitter, it’s a slow week before Labor Day, so everyone is looking to you for some big news.

Twitter Inc. TWTR, +1.73%  is expected to name a new CEO as early as Friday, unless its search — nearing the three-month mark — has gotten bogged down. And many expect the new chief executive is already sitting in the top seat: Interim CEO Jack Dorsey.

Here's What Wall Street Is Saying About the Latest ECB Decision (Bloomberg)

There may not have been glitter this time around, but there was still some excitement to be had at the latest European Central Bank press conference.

At Thursday's meeting, the ECB took a dovish tone, signaling it is able to increase stimulus to counter the risk of slower growth and inflation. As reported earlier by Bloomberg, policymakers lowered economic forecasts and raised the limit on bond purchases under their quantitative-easing program to 33 percent per issue from 25 percent previously.

What to watch in the critical August jobs report (Market Watch)

A rock-solid U.S. jobs report for August could go a long way in calming investors unnerved by global bloodbath in stock markets and a looming increase in U.S. interest rates. Here are five things to look to look for.

Investment Lessons From August's Market Mayhem (Bloomberg)

September could still be the cruelest month. Here's what you should be thinking.

The FTSE just posted a huge gain (Business Insider)

The FTSE leapt up on Thursday, posting its biggest gain for the week as China's markets were closed for a national holiday.

FTSE close Sept 3

How to survive a market crash: the lessons from history (Market Watch)

Well, I was early, but I’ll bet I wasn’t wrong.

When I started buying global stocks last week I wasn’t trying to be clever, call the bottom of the market, or “catch a falling knife.”

Politics

Donald Trump Just Signed His Political Death Warrant (Bloomberg)

The GOP has finally muscled its maverick front-runner, Donald Trump, into submission. A Trump adviser said on Thursday the billionaire has agreed to sign the Republican “loyalty pledge” he famously refused at the first debate in Cleveland last month, apparently ruling out a scenario that utterly terrified the GOP establishment: that Trump would launch a third-party bid and almost certainly deny Republicans the White House. With the stroke of a pen, Trump will put these fears to rest—and immeasurably weaken his own standing. He’s probably signing his political death warrant. 

Technology

That's not Android.Why Samsung’s new smartwatch doesn’t run Android (Quartz)

Samsung has released some more information on its next generation of smartwatches, the Gear S2. Unlike most of the spate of non-Apple watches being released this week, it’s not running Android Wear. Instead, Samsung has opted to continue using Tizen, the Linux-based operating system that powers its smart TVs and some phones in India.

David Ng, a product manager on Samsung Gear, told Quartz that Tizen “offers more flexibility” than Google’s Android Wear. Ng said Tizen—which is essentially controlled by Samsung—allows the company to build out interactions and user experiences—including Apple Watch-like dynamic watch faces—that Wear doesn’t. For example, the Gear S2 is partially controlled by a movable bezel that works like a chronograph dial; you can turn it left to see notifications, right for apps. Using Android Wear as an operating system apparently would not have allowed for this kind of interaction. (Incidentally, Samsung is calling its spinning bezel a “rotary dial,” which also happens to be the name for a type of phone first introduced in 1892.)

F-35B On The Deck Of The *USS Wasp* During TestingRussia Shows Off Concept Drone That Hunts F-35s (Popular Science)

For the next 30 years, America’s F-35 is the plane to beat. While it won’t be America’s top dogfighter (that honor goes to the F-22), the Pentagon has ordered more than 2,400 F-35s compared to 187 F-22s, so the F-35 will by sheer volume be the most common American fighter in the sky. Such ubiquity paints a target on the plane’s back. At the MAKS air show in Moscow last week, Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation unveiled a model of what appears to be a drone that hunts F-35s.

The drone’s body most resembles America’s X-47B, an experimental unmanned autonomous aircraft. While not actually built for combat, the X-47B’s slick, gray, rudderless body and sharp angles suggest a future of stealthy and deadly autonomous machines. Except the body of UAC’s drone model is transparent, revealing instead the electronics systems inside. In addition, it appears the drone's body has a lift fan in each wing, letting it in theory take off vertically.

Health and Life Sciences

Double mastectomies for men on the rise (CNN)

An increasing number of women in the last decade have been deciding to have both their breasts removed after being diagnosed with cancer in a single breast. It now seems that more men are also opting to have this type of double mastectomy, according to a study.

Researchers examined data from national cancer registries of more than 6,000 men who underwent surgery for breast cancer from 2004 to 2011. Most of the men (76%) had a single mastectomy, or surgical removal of only the breast with cancer, whereas another 20% had lumpectomy, or surgery to remove only the tumor.

Weight loss surgery 'cures diabetes' (BBC)

Weight loss surgery cures half of patients with type-2 diabetes, for at least five years, a study suggests.

The trial, on 60 people, published in the Lancet, found none of those with type 2 had been cured by medication and diet alone.

The surgery improves symptoms both through weight loss and by changing the way the gut functions.

Life on the Home Planet

This 3-minute animation will change the way you see the universe (Business Insider)

Ranging from the unimaginably small to the unimaginably big, the scale of the universe is mind-boggling. Watch to try to wrap your head around it. Produced by Alex Kuzoian

Moon Ruins Perfectly Good Photo of Earth by Running in Front of the Camera (Bloomberg)

The new DSCOVR satellite has sent back another trove of images from EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera), which moves in sync with the Earth and the Sun, a million miles away from us.

This one has a twist.

The Earth is seen making its gentle daily spin, and everything is going fine, when out of nowhere, the Moon photobombs its larger neighbor, stealing the spotlight at the center of the solar system. NASA expects this to happen about twice a year as it did in these July 16 images.

<p>They're brave, but is Europe?</p> Photographer: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty ImagesEurope Doesn't Have Enough Immigrants (Bloomberg View)

The heart-wrenching photographs of a dead Syrian child washed up on the Turkish shore are fast becoming the symbol of what is framed as Europe's "migrant problem" or "refugee crisis." That little boy, however, would have been part of the solution to the continent's problems, had he been allowed to reach it. The true crisis is that not enough Europeans understand that.

the independent coverThe haunting photo of a drowned Syrian child is finally forcing the world to take notice of a years-long crisis (Business Insider)

The image of a drowned Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach that was shared widely on social media Wednesday has caught the attention of newspapers and politicians around the world.

British publications The Independent, Metro, and The Sun featured the photo on their covers Thursday morning, as did the New York Daily News and The Wall Street Journal. Publications everywhere from Brazil to Turkey featured the photo as well.

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