News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

Financial Markets and Economy

Scoring the Fed's Decision: Will It Be Wise to Tighten in March? (Bloomberg)

Yellen said the U.S. economy is close to a level consistent with full employment — part of the Fed’s dual mandate — but a number of labor-market indicators have taken a step back recently.

British spending still hasn't recovered from levels seen before the 2008 financial crisis (Business Insider)

UK household spending remained level at an average of £528.90 a week in the financial year ending 2016, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics, unable to rise above pre-crisis levels.

Currency Market Misery Is Algo Traders' Dream as Dollar Falters (Bloomberg)

Life may be a little tough if you’re a dollar bull hoping today’s the day the trend is going to resume. If you’re an algorithmic trader, you might just be in heaven.

BP Weighing Upgrade of U.S. Wind Turbines to Compete With Gas (Bloomberg)

BP Plc is weighing plans to update as many as 200 of its U.S. wind turbines with newer, higher-capacity equipment, a move that would represent the company’s biggest investment in renewable energy since its last wind farm came online in 2012.

It now takes 26 years for an average couple with one child to save for a house deposit in London (Business Insider)

It now takes an average of nearly 26 years for a couple living in London with one child to save for a home deposit.

Risk-on financials rally to be tested as earnings season winds down (Market Watch)

As earnings season winds down, investors will be keeping a sharp eye on whether financial stocks and other risk-on plays can maintain their recent momentum, and on retail stocks, which begin reporting in earnest in the coming week.

U.S. Student Debt Has Reached a Record High (TIME)

Student debt in the United States reached a record $1.31 trillion last year, emphasizing a student loan crisis that has drawn attention from both political parties.

Companies

An early investor in Twitter, Slack and Tumblr explains the power of 'goosebumps' (Business Insider)

For the last 11 years or so, Spark Capital has found success by investing in some of the hottest consumer technology startups around: Yahoo's Tumblr, Facebook's Oculus, Twitter, and Warby Parker are all Spark investments.

General Mills Lowers Sales, Profit Forecast (The Wall Street Journal)

General Mills Inc. on Friday cut its already-downbeat sales and earnings forecast for its current year on weaker-than-expected sales U.S. yogurt and soup, further underscoring the company’s challenges with soft consumer demand.

Technology

Apple Talks Big Media Buy as iPhone Rumors Surge (Fortune)

In the past several days, talk of Apple's next big iPhone release, believed to be known as the iPhone 8 or iPhone X, has hit a fever pitch.

YouTube will end 30-second unskippable ads next year (Mashable)

On Friday, the Google-owned video giant announced that it will no longer offer its 30-second pre-roll ad format without a "skip" button in 2018, Campaign first reported. It will, however, continue to show 15- and 20-second ads without the option to bypass them.

Ford invests $1 billion in Pittsburgh-based Argo AI to build self-driving cars by 2021 (Tech Crunch)

Ford has invested $1 billion in a joint venture with Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based company with ties to Carnegie Mellon. The goal is to completely outfit Ford vehicles with self-driving technology.

Now Amazon Echo can access your Outlook.com calendar (Engadget)

As a part of Amazon's ongoing quest to make Alexa and its Echo devices deeply embedded within our lives, this week it added support for Microsoft Calendar accounts.

Light-Based Computers Will Run at Least 20 Times Faster Than Your Laptop (Science Alert)

For the past four decades, the electronics industry has been driven by what is called Moore's Law, which is not a law but more an axiom or observation.

Watch a snake robot wriggle through a Norwegian fjord (Popular Science)

A snake is a tube that eats, a wriggling cylinder that carries a stomach and not much else. So it was a natural inspiration for Eelume AS, a Norwegian underwater robotics company, when they needed to design an efficient, minimalist robot.

Lightning Motorcycles Working On Electric Bike That Could Go 500 Miles Per Charge (Digital Trends)

Each year, as people work to become less dependent on fossil fuels, the number of all-electric vehicles increases. However, limited range prevents electric vehicles from completely replacing gas-powered ones.

Politics

Top national security adviser pick reportedly bailed after seeing Trump's press conference (Business Insider)

The top pick to be President Donald Trump's national security adviser, retired Adm. Robert Harward, reportedly declined the offer after seeing Trump air his grievances in a 77-minute press conference on Thursday.

How the Trump-Russia Election Controversy Only Makes Putin Stronger (Fortune)

With one national security advisor out and another would-be replacement turning down the job, the White House administration doesn’t quite seem to match President Donald Trump’s description of it as a “fine-tuned machine.”

Mike Pence Promises the World: We Will 'Hold Russia Accountable' (Associated Press)

Vice President Mike Pence vowed Saturday that the United States will "hold Russia accountable" even as President Donald Trump searches for new common ground with Moscow at the start of his presidency.

Pence says U.S. will ‘hold Russia accountable’ for military intervention in Ukraine (Market Watch)

Vice President Mike Pence said the U.S. would be unwavering in its commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but demanded that Europe step up its military spending, marking one of the Trump administration’s most full-throated efforts yet to reassure nervous partners.

LGBT Employees Ask Education Secretary To Keep Protections (Associated Press)

LGBT employees have asked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to commit to safeguarding anti-discrimination regulations amid fears that the Trump administration may weaken those protections.

Trump's Plan For Spike In Defense Spending Faces Big Hurdles (Associated Press)

Republicans control Congress so President Donald Trump's pledge to boost the Pentagon budget by tens of billions of dollars should be a sure bet.

GOP Targets States' Returement Plans For Workers (International Business Times)

House Republicans voted to rescind a federal rule making it easier for states to offer basic retirement savings plans to millions of workers. As International Business Times reported last week, the chief sponsors of the bill have been heavily supported by campaign cash from the finance industry, which has lobbied against the plans.

Trump/Netanyahu Meet: An Exercise In Fawning, Fantasy And Anti-Palestinian Incitement (The Huffington Post)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump was overshadowed by dramatic and unsettling events that preceded and followed their perfectly bizarre press conference.

Why The Panic Over Social Security Is Overblown (The Motley Fool)

Social Security has provided much-needed benefits to generations of Americans, both when they've become disabled and when they retire. Demographic shifts have put financial strain on the program, and well-publicized outlooks for Social Security show key sources of funding running out within the next 15 to 20 years. 

Life on the Home Planet

Bill Gates warns tens of millions could be killed by bio-terrorism (The Guardian)

A chilling warning that tens of millions of people could be killed by bio-terrorism was delivered at the Munich security conference by the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, who has spent much of the last 20 years funding a global health campaign, said: “We ignore the link between health security and international security at our peril.”

SpaceX Has Postponed Its Latest Launch (Associated Press)

SpaceX will have to wait at least another day to launch from NASA's historic moon pad.

Last-minute rocket trouble forced SpaceX to halt Saturday's countdown at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

Turkey detains 26 people after car bomb, governor says PKK responsible (Reuters)

Turkish police detained 26 people over a car bomb attack in the south-eastern town of Viransehir, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Saturday.

The biggest meteorites in history that have plummeted to Earth and survived (Business Insider)

Often, when rocks from space hurtle towards Earth, they burn up in the atmosphere before actually reaching us. The ones that vaporise become a meteor — or a shooting star.

The lucky few that make the whole journey land on Earth as meteorites.