Financial Markets and Economy
Google Parent Alphabets Profit, Sales Top Estimates on Ad Jump (Bloomberg)
Googles parent, Alphabet Inc., reported profit and sales that topped estimates, lifted by robust sales of online ads and tighter cost controls.
Quarter of World's Equity Now in Less-Than-Zero Land: Chart (Bloomberg)
Even as the U.S. Federal Reserve raises borrowing costs, a big chunk of the rest of the world is doing the opposite, with Japan last week becoming the latest to adopt negative rates. With that move, 26 percent of the market value of the world’s companies worth more than $2 billion are based in economies being aided by extraordinary monetary stimulus. The rest remains in positive-rate territory — for now.
Google's CEO reminded investors that YouTube users watch more video than Facebook users (Business Insider)
Google just fired back at Facebook in the increasingly heated video battle the two companies are waging.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on Monday that viewers of Google-owned YouTube watch hundreds of hours of video every day.
That's hundreds, plural.
Asia Stocks Fall First Time in Five Days as Energy Shares Drop (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks dropped, with the regional benchmark index heading for its first decline in five days, as material and energy shares led losses after oil resumed its selloff amid signs China’s economy is deteriorating.
Stock volatility has shut down the IPO market (Quartz)
Not a single company managed to go public in the US in January, marking the first month since 2011 to record an IPO shutout.
China Slowdown Will Plague Markets For Years (Cracker Jack)
What a start to the year. CJF’s contrarian prediction of 1,860 on the S&P came to be on January 20th. Subsequently, the market rallied strongly on the hint of more quantitative easing out of the ECB, and the adoption of negative interest rates by the Bank of Japan. Any doubts that 2016 will be a volatile, and difficult year, should now be erased. After a tumultuous January for investing, a period when seasonality and investment inflows are supposed to support markets, CJF is stepping back to assess big picture dynamics for the global economy and the overall investment environment. At risk of being overly obvious.
Economists Sharply Split Over Trade Deal Effects (NY Times)
Lawmakers and presidential candidates are having their say about the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade accord that is President Obama’s top economic priority in his final year in office. But lately the liveliest debate over the deal is among blue-ribbon economists.
The weakest part of the US economy isn't exactly screaming recession (Business Insider)
Despite a few improving data points over the past week, the general consensus is that US manufacturing is in serious trouble.
Think Crude's Cheap? Biodiesel's Going for Free in Some Places (Bloomberg)
Biodiesel's become so cheap in the U.S. that some refiners are being paid to use it.
Has the Most Reliable U.S. Recession Predictor Lost its Value? (Bloomberg)
The next time a U.S. recession hits, what has traditionally been a reliable harbinger of an economic slump may end up being the dog that didn't bark.
Hedge funds are saying they can't make money on 42 of the most important stocks in the world (Business Insider)
Hedge funds aren't supposed to just generate a few percentage points of return for you — they're supposed to hit it out of the park.
They're supposed to generate "alpha."
But according to a Morgan Stanley report, increasingly hedge fund managers are saying that they can't do that investing in the 42 largest stocks in the S&P 500.
Wall Street Veterans Braunstein, Woolery Turn Activist Investors (Bloomberg)
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Or at least closely replicate their strategy.
Douglas L. Braunstein and James C. Woolery, who, as Wall Street deal makers, spent years working with corporations to head off the demands of activist shareholders, announced Monday they had bought shares in six companies with an eye to producing “constructive engagement.”
What you need to know on Wall Street today (Business Insider)
Investment bankers have had an awful start to the year.
Virtually every advisory and capital markets business is trending down — both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.
Japan Trading Houses Facing $13 Billion Hit on Commodity Misfire (Bloomberg)
A handful of companies that have dominated almost every kind of raw-material business in Japan for decades may take as much as $13 billion in charges during the current fiscal year.
Lumber Liquidators shares are going nuts (Business Insider)
Lumber Liquidators shares spiked by as much as 16% in trading on Monday following reports that a US judge accepted the company's plea agreement.
Last October, the hardwood-flooring retailer pleaded guilty to violating the US Lacey Act, which prohibits trade on illegally sourced plant products.
U.S. Stocks Little Changed as China Worry Fades, Energy Slips (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks closed little changed, with gains in Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. helping to overcome a crude-oil-led selloff in energy shares while concerns faded that Chinas slowdown will spread.
Gold Bullion Inventories at Comex Licensed Facilities (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Here are some charts showing the status of the gold bullion in licensed Comex private warehouses.
Politics
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders gave dueling, fiery speeches as race goes down to the wire (Business Insider)
Neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders declared victory in Iowa on Monday night, but both hailed their caucus performances as successes.
The former secretary of state and US senator from Vermont both delivered fiery speeches as results continued to show them in a dead heat.
By 11:30 CT, Clinton had 49.8% of the vote and Sanders had 49.6%, according to the Iowa Democratic Party.
'Establishment': A Dirty Word for Candidates (Bloomberg View)
Is Planned Parenthood part of the Establishment with a capital E? It’s a signal of the upside-down nature of the current political campaign that Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had a dust-up over exactly that question. Their dispute carries a lesson about how desperately we long to believe that we’re all outsiders.
Can the Youth Vote Change Election Outcomes? (The Atlantic)
With the first caucuses of the presidential election year imminent, it’s worth asking: Who will turn out among young voters in Iowa and subsequent states? And could their choices help swing the final result to the underdogs instead of the presumed front-runners?
Young Iowans represent an unusual voter bloc: They are more likely to be white and married than their similarly aged peers in other states, and they’re also significantly less likely to have a foreign-born parent—3.5 percent compared to over 20 percent nationally, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.
Technology
NASA's Weird Giant Airplane Carried The Future Of Mars In Its Belly ({Popular Science)
There is no plane more inaccurately named than the “Super Guppy.” Seen from afar, the gigantic airplane bears a superficial resemblance to the diminutive fish, but close up it is truly a giant of the sky. I mean just look at this thing…
Our smartphones will soon see as well as we do (Quartz)
The robots are starting to open their eyes.
Last week, Google announced it was partnering with the chip manufacturer Movidius to put machine learning in mobile devices. Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence, where computers can be programmed to recognize patterns in data based on previous sets of data. It’s what allows IBM’s Watson to diagnose cancer patients and come up with recipe ideas, and part of what Facebook uses to recognize your face in photos. But most of these computations require sturdy internet connections to large servers to be able to sift through all the data.
Health and Life Sciences
These stem cells might repair tiny skulls (Futurity)
Scientists for the first time have identified and isolated stem cells that are capable of skull formation and craniofacial bone repair in mice.
With the discovery, researchers say they have taken an important step toward using stem cells for bone reconstruction of the face and head.
An Eating Disorder in People With Diabetes (NY Times)
The first time she skipped an insulin dose, the 22-year-old said, it wasn’t planned. She was visiting her grandparents over a summer break from college and indulged in bags of potato chips and fistfuls of candy, but forgot to take the extra insulin that people with Type 1 diabetes, like her, require to keep their blood sugar levels in a normal range.
Life on the Home Planet
My life with microcephaly (BBC)
On the day I was born, the doctor said I had no chance of survival. "She will not walk, she will not talk and, over time, she will enter a vegetative state until she dies," he said.
But he – like many others – was wrong.
I grew up, went to school, went to university. Today I am a journalist and I write a blog.
