Financial Markets and Economy
Tallying Terror's Economic Toll (Bloomberg)
How do you measure the impact of terrorism on economic growth?
Shake Shack shares fall as early investors get chance to cash out (Business Insider)
Burger chain Shake Shack Inc's <SHAK.N> shares fell as much as 11.3 percent on Thursday after the company said it would convert about 21 million of its Class B shares into Class A shares, allowing pre-IPO investors to cash out.
The investors, including top shareholder Leonard Green & Partners LP, Select Equity Group LP and founder Daniel Meyer, would be able to sell nearly all of their stakes.
Apple shines in otherwise dismal PC market (Market Watch)
The personal-computer industry is continuing a stark decline, according to two reports released Thursday, with one exception: Apple Inc.
International Data Corp. and Gartner tracked declines in PC shipments of 10.8% and 7.7% year-over-year in the third quarter, the analysis firms said in separate announcements Thursday afternoon. The drop in shipments occurred despite the launch of a new Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +1.39% operating system, Windows 10, which IDC said “had a minimal impact on shipments in the quarter.”
Asian Futures Signal More Stock Gains to Come With Oil Near $50 (Bloomberg)
It’s the rally that just keeps on giving.
These 5 forces are holding stocks back right now (Business Insider)
After hitting record highs just a few months ago, stocks dropped off seriously in August and September. Despite fighting higher recently, they have yet to make back the losses.
According to a note from Credit Suisse there are 5 reasons they are being held back. They're a wide range of reasons, with sources from the markets themselves to the US economy to foreign concerns.
Goldman cuts target for volatile Chinese stocks (Market Watch)
Goldman Sachs on Thursday cut its year-end target for Chinese stocks but projected the market to stabilize from its recent roller coaster ride.
Riddell Pilots $1.6 Billion ex-Pimco Gilt Funds With Eyes on Fed (Bloomberg)
When Allianz Global Investors’s new fund manager for U.K. government bonds decides what to buy, Britain’s economy isn’t even one of his top-three considerations.
Alcoa whiffs, and the stock is tumbling (Business Insider)
Aluminum giant Alcoa released its third-quarter-earnings results after the market close on Thursday, and they missed expectations.
"The third quarter brought economic headwinds and significant volatility in some of our markets," said CEO Klaus Kleinfeld in the earnings statement. "We continue to be laser focused on the things we can control."
Strong consumer-based earnings, beats needed to counter global growth fears (Market Watch)
Strength in the telecom, consumer discretionary, and health-care sectors will go up against projected profit declines this earnings season in the S&P 500 in a quarter battered by China-driven volatility and continued weakness at commodity-sensitive companies.
Chicken of the Sea Gets Samoans a Wage Hike (Bloomberg)
For the past six years, Congress has blocked scheduled minimum wage increases from taking effect in American Samoa. Under the federal minimum wage law passed in 2007, workers in the tiny South Pacific territory were supposed to get yearly raises of 50¢ an hour until they met the federal floor of $7.25. Rates went up the year the bill passed and in 2008, and again in 2009. Since then, the Samoan minimum wage has been frozen, most recently by a 2012 bill that scheduled increases every three years rather than annually—a time frame that would leave wages in the Samoan tuna canning industry, a major employer, trailing mainland pay until 2027, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The Fed spent a lot of time talking about 'China' in September (Business Insider)
The Fed said "China" five times in September.
On Wednesday, the Minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting were released showing that on balance, the Fed isn't sure what to make the economy, global markets, and as a result kept interest rates pegged near 0%.
Gold settles lower, then tops $1,150 after FOMC minutes (Market Watch)
Gold futures settled lower on Thursday, then climbed above $1,150 an ounce in electronic trading after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September policy-setting meeting showed that central-bank officials held off on an interest-rate hike because downside risks had climbed.
That implied the central bank may further delay raising rates, which is supportive for gold.
Deutsche Bank Chief Delivers Tough Message on Investment Bank (Bloomberg)
Deutsche Bank AGs new boss delivered a harsh message to shareholders and employees: Europes biggest investment bank isnt worth what it once was and cant pay them what theyre used to.
Dell could spend $40 billion to merge with EMC and take over VMware (Business Insider)
Dell is serious enough about a rumored merger with IT giant EMC that it's raising $40 billion from the big banks to finance the deal, Bloomberg reports today.
EMC, a $52 billion IT company that's best known for its data center storage products, has a controlling stake in cloud computing software vendor VMware, a $34 billion publicly-traded company in its own right.
Marijuana companies struggle to find a place to put their green (Market Watch)
For some in the marijuana business, going legit is turning out to be harder than it looks.
A widely recognized benefit of marijuana legalization is the ability to regulate an industry that has previously thrived on the black market.
Filipinos Wary of Losing Gains of Aquino Boom as Election Nears (Bloomberg)
For Kash Salvador, cranes mean money, and these days the coastline of Manila Bay is full of them.
Etsy is tumbling (Business Insider)
Etsy shares fell as much as 5% in trading on Thursday morning.
The company has a big new competitor. Amazon is launching a marketplace for handcrafted goods called Amazon Handmade on Thursday.
Fed Doesn't Care About Dollar? Minutes Show Greenback Fixation (Bloomberg)
The Federal Reserve says it leaves the dollar policy to the Treasury. Yet the latest minutes show Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues can’t stop talking about the currency’s strength.
JPMorgan is in talks to buy a huge trading portfolio from Deutsche Bank (Business Insider)
JPMorgan is one of several banks in talks to buy a huge credit-default-swap portfolio from Deutsche Bank, according to people familiar with the matter.
The notional value of the trading portfolio is in excess of $250 billion, according to two of the people.
Logjam in U.S. Stocks to Ease as JPMorgan Sees Quants in Retreat (Bloomberg)
Automated selling from quantitative funds that worsened the August correction in U.S. equities will subside, making life easier for investors who select stocks based on things like earnings, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co strategist whose bearish research preceded the selloff.
Chevron extends job cuts to global trading desks (Business Insider)
Chevron Corp <CVX.N> is cutting staff on its global energy trading desks this week, sources said on Thursday, making it the latest division to face reductions as part of a $3 billion cost-saving plan brought on by low crude oil prices.
Politics
Kevin McCarthy Suggests House Republicans Are Ungovernable, May Need To ‘Hit Rock Bottom’ (Think Progress)
In the wake of Rep. Kevin McCarthy withdrawing his candidacy to replace Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), the California Republican speculated that the House could be ungovernable.
In a phone interview with the National Review’s Rich Lowry, McCarthy said that he would not have “enjoyed being speaker this way” and speculated the House may need to hit “rock bottom” before it can become governable.
My Plan to Prevent the Next Crash (Bloomberg View)
Seven years after the financial crash, despite important new rules signed into law by President Barack Obama, there are risks in our financial system that could still cause another crisis. Banks have paid billions of dollars in fines, but few executives have been held personally accountable. “Too big to fail” is still too big a problem. Regulators don’t have all the tools and support they need to protect our economy. To prevent irresponsible behavior on Wall Street from ever again devastating Main Street, we need more accountability, tougher rules and stronger enforcement. I have a plan to build on the progress we’ve made under President Obama and do just that.
Technology
A Prosthetic Arm That Gives Amputees the Sense of Touch (Bloomberg)
The modular prosthetic limb, an arm built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) under a Darpa prosthetics program, has sensors and processing power to give amputees direct neural control and the feeling of touch.
Health and Life Sciences
Antioxidants cause malignant melanoma to metastasize faster (Science Daily)
Fresh research at Sahlgrenska Academy has found that antioxidants can double the rate of melanoma metastasis in mice. The results reinforce previous findings that antioxidants hasten the progression of lung cancer. According to Professor Martin Bergö, people with cancer or an elevated risk of developing the disease should avoid nutritional supplements that contain antioxidants.
Researcher: Children’s Cancer Linked to Fukushima Radiation (Yahoo)
A new study says children living near the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer at a rate 20 to 50 times that of children elsewhere, a difference the authors contend undermines the government’s position that more cases have been discovered in the area only because of stringent monitoring.
Life on the Home Planet
Stopping Nuclear Terrorism Is a Game of Odds, Not Certainty (Wired)
An Associated Press investigation into weapons traffickers attempting to sell nuclear material to terrorists prompted us to republish a WIRED feature from 2003 about the difficulty of preventing nuclear terrorism.
I’m standing near a row of deserted loading docks in Billerica, Massachusetts, and George Kinsella hands me a vial of cesium 137. “This,” he says, “is the kind of radioactive material you might see in a dirty bomb.”
