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Friday, March 29, 2024

News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

 

Financial Markets and Economy

The Biggest Winners From Draghi's Stimulus May Just Be U.S. CEOs (Bloomberg)

American companies are increasingly looking like some of the biggest beneficiaries of Mario Draghi’s unprecedented efforts to stimulate Europe’s economy.

The 1% Is Rolling Over (Dollar Collapse)

Today’s financial world is a tough place for the average person but paradise for rich guys. As easy money raises asset prices, the owners of those assets make effortless profits. Then they buy expensive toys and trophy properties. Hence the recent boom in fine art, high-end real estate, yachts and private jets.

But like all financial trends, this one has a limit, and that limit is now in sight. 

Tinder-owner Match Group prices IPO at $12 a share, at low end of range (Business Insider)

Match Group, the IAC-owned and -controlled parent company of some of the world's biggest dating apps and websites, priced its IPO at $12 per share on Wednesday, at the low end of the range it was aiming for.

The price means that Match will become a public company valued at roughly $2.9 billion.

Norway Oil Producers Seek More Deals After $2 Billion Flurry (Bloomberg)

More than a year after oil prices started their biggest descent since the financial crisis, sellers and buyers of oil and gas assets in Norway are finally starting to see eye to eye.

Stocks: 3 big warning signs to watch (CNN)

The stock market is basically flat. Even if there's a "Santa Claus rally" to finish the year, stocks will be lucky to end 2015 up much more than 3%.

Nigeria Seeks 10% Boost to 2015 Budget to Pay for Fuel Subsidies (Bloomberg)

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari asked lawmakers to approve a 10 percent jump in spending in this years budget, mainly to pay for fuel subsidies.

Starboard urges Yahoo to drop Alibaba spinoff plan: WSJ (Yahoo! Finance)

The activist investor instead wants Yahoo to sell its struggling Internet business, the newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing a letter Starboard sent to Yahoo. Starboard supported the sale of Yahoo's stake of more than $20 billion in Alibaba before the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) denied Yahoo's request for a private letter ruling on whether the spinoff would be considered tax free. Yahoo said in September it would proceed with the planned spinoff of its stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant even after the IRS declined its request.

The big asset most companies ignore: customer data (Market Watch)

Companies are sitting on a treasure trove—if only they knew how to use it.

The treasure trove is the customer data that every company is collecting each time a customer buys one of its products, or even visits its website. It’s a gold mine that is destined to grow even bigger, as the Internet of Things sucks up an increasing amount of consumer information: how much exercise we get and how much power we use; how well we sleep and what our blood pressure is; how much we drive and what we weigh.

Alibaba Picks Gobi to Manage $130 Million Hong Kong Startup Fund (Bloomberg)

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.set up a HK$1 billion ($130 million) fund to invest in Hong Kongs startups, underscoring co-founder Jack Mas intentions to galvanize entrepreneurship among youths and support small businesses.

FTSE 100 heads for 4th straight win; retail sales on deck (Market Watch)

U.K. stocks gained ground Thursday, joining a global rally in equities that came after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled that the world’s largest economy appears ready to handle a modest interest-rate hike.

Emerging Stocks Advance After Fed Minutes as Ringgit Climbs (Bloomberg)

Stocks climbed across emerging markets as Federal Reserve minutes signaled that the pace of U.S. interest-rate increases will be slow. Malaysia’s ringgit strengthened the most in a month to lead developing-nation currencies higher.

Crude rises as U.S. stockpiles up less than expected (Market Watch)

Oil prices rose in Asia trade on Thursday as a buildup in weekly U.S. oil stockpiles showed the smallest increase since stocks began rising at the end of September.

U.S. weekly inventories of crude oil rose by around 0.25 million barrels, far less than market expectations of above 2 million barrels, said Daniel Ang, investment analyst at Phillip Futures Limited.

AB InBev Stock Rally Complicates Deal for SABMiller Shareholders (Bloomberg)

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV crafted its bid for SABMiller Plc to ensure the targets two largest shareholders received a lower price for their shares than other investors. Instead, theyre on track to receive a premium.

Dollar falls against yen after Bank of Japan keeps policy steady (Market Watch)

The U.S. dollar was lower against the yen during Asia trade Thursday, as the Bank of Japan’s decision to stand pat at its policy meeting reined in dollar-long positions.

The dollar was at ¥123.22, compared with ¥123.56 late Thursday in New York, tracking overnight dollar selling against the yen and the euro.

China Should End Yuan-Rate Distortion, Ex-PBOC Adviser Says (Bloomberg)

China should press ahead with efforts to make the yuan’s exchange rate more flexible as it seeks to boost the currency’s global usage, according to a former central bank adviser.

China has been burning through reserves to support yuan

Yahoo urged by activist investor to scrap spinoff of Alibaba stake (Market Watch)

Starboard Value LP is putting new pressure on Yahoo Inc., calling on the company to halt the spinoff of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and instead sell its beleaguered Internet business.

In a letter it sent Yahoo late Wednesday, the activist investor says Yahoo’s planned spinoff of more than $20 billion in shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant  now carries too much risk. 

Dollar Rally Unwinds as Gradualist Fed Sends Euro, Kiwi Surging (Bloomberg)

The dollar dropped at least 0.2 percent against all its major developed peers after Federal Reserve policy makers signaled the pace of interest-rate increases would be slow.

Politics

Putin's Thaw With U.S. Gives Russia Room to Phase Out Stimulus (Bloomberg)

Reining in stimulus just became a lot easier for at least one of the world’s policy makers: Elvira Nabiullina.

Signs this week that Russia’s isolation in global politics may be coming to an end set off a rally in the nation’s assets as investors bet sanctions over Ukraine will get scaled back. That’s giving Nabiullina, the central bank governor, the space she needs to pull the plug on a program introduced a year ago to help companies meet external debt payments.

Technology

Push-button farming.This robot kills weeds, and could end the need for herbicides on farms (Quartz)

The robots have learned how to kill. Thankfully, for now, that killing is confined to weeds in fields. A new robot from Bosch, the German company best known for making power tools and car parts, can travel through crop fields, learn what weeds look like, and crush them.

Here’s what Volvo thinks you’ll do when your car is driving itself (The Verge)

According to Volvo’s research, the average American spends 26 minutes driving to work. One way. That’s more than nine days a year, and the Swedish carmaker is building a time machine to get some of that time back for you.

Well, it’s not actually a time machine (though that would be awesome too). This is Concept 26, Volvo’s vision for what a driver will do while the car is driving itself, unveiled today at the LA Auto Show. 

Health and Life Sciences

World on cusp of 'post-antibiotic era' (BBC)

The world is on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era", scientists have warned after finding bacteria resistant to drugs used when all other treatments have failed.

They identified bacteria able to shrug off the drug of last resort – colistin – in patients and livestock in China.

Why Heart Failure Patients Often Get Too Little Exercise (Medicine Net)

A number of obstacles prevent heart failure patients from getting enough exercise, a new study has found.

Supervised aerobic workouts benefit people with heart failure. 

Life on the Home Planet

Apecriot41,000 rioters clash with police in Manila to protest APEC summit (Mashable)

Hundreds of Philippine riot police clashed with about 1,000 activists on the last day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Manila.

The police used water cannons and canes to disperse the crowd that was trying to disrupt the convention just about a kilometer away.

Biggest Diamond in More Than a Century Discovered in Botswana (Bloomberg)

A 1,111 carat gem-quality diamond, second in size only to the Cullinan diamond cut into the British Crown jewels, has been unearthed by Lucara Diamond Corp. in Botswana.

The Type-IIa stone, just smaller than a tennis ball, is the largest diamond discovery for more than 100 years, according to Vancouver-based Lucara. It was recovered by machines at the south lobe of Karowe mine in central Botswana, the company said in a statement.

Police officers detained a man in Saint-Denis, near Paris, on Wednesday.Alleged Mastermind of Paris Attacks Was 'Emir of War' in Syria (Wall Street Journal)

In targeting Abdelhamid Abaaoud in a raid, French authorities aimed to remove from Islamic State’s ranks a prominent figure who they said blended his battlefield experience in Syria with a network of associates in Europe to mastermind one of the bloodiest terror attacks in French history.

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