News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

Financial Markets and Economy

Stocks across Europe dived into the weekend (Business Insider)

Stocks all over Europe dived Friday, as markets took a cautious approach and investors took profit after US stocks hit record highs Thursday evening.

Trump Is on the Verge of His Own Bull Market (Bloomberg)

Consecutive gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average have left it at the doorstep of history, including a 20 percent surge in futures from the early hours of Nov. 9 that could be loosely framed as the president’s own bull market.

Here’s Why Bull Markets Create Bad Habits in Investors (Fortune)

Most people would unhesitatingly reply, “Yes.” That assumption doesn’t say as much about King James’s skills as it does about the inner workings of your own brain.

Asian Stocks Fall Amid Trump Trade Policy Fears, Strong Yen (Associated Press)

Asian markets slipped in muted trading Friday amid worries over U.S. trade policies that may affect regional economies. A stronger yen weighed on Japan's exporters.

China, France Overtake US As Top German Trade Partners (Associated Press)

Germany's Federal Statistical Office reported Friday that trade between the country and China in 2016 totaled some 170 billion euros (currently $180 billion) worth of goods. Import and export trade with France was second at 167 billion euros.

Global stocks ease as ‘Trumpflation trade’ loses momentum (Reuters)

Commodity-related sectors led European shares lower for a third straight session on Friday while the dollar was poised for a weekly losses as the “Trumpflation trade” lost momentum.

Wind and solar power are disrupting electricity systems (The Economist)

Almost 150 years after photovoltaic cells and wind turbines were invented, they still generate only 7% of the world’s electricity. Yet something remarkable is happening.

US Stocks Eke Out Last-Minute Gain As Utilities Rise (Associated Press)

A late push helped U.S. stocks finish higher Friday after indexes spent most of the day lower. There was far more selling than buying on Wall Street overall, but the Dow Jones industrial average managed to extend its winning streak to an 11th day.

Asian stock markets slip following Trump's China remarks (International Business Times)

Asian stock market indices were trading lower on Friday (24 February), with the Shanghai Composite down 0.28% at 3,242.12 as of 4.59am GMT. The development follows Donald Trump's negative remarks on China.

Nearly all detached homes in Vancouver assessed at $1-million or more (The Globe And Mail)

A new study by Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program, shows that 99.7 per cent of single-family detached properties in the city of Vancouver had an assessed value of at least $1-million last July, compared with 91 per cent in mid-2015 and 65 per cent in mid-2014.

ValueAct's Ubben: 'Everything about Trump I think is inflationary' (Business Insider)

Jeffrey Ubben, the chief executive officer of activist investor ValueAct Capital, told Reuters on Wednesday that his firm had been taking money out of the capital markets as valuations have become overextended, leaving it with $3 billion in cash.

Why baristas are about to earn less in Australia (BBC News)

The nation's workplace tribunal, the Fair Work Commission, slashed a pay benefit for workers in the hospitality, retail, fast food and pharmacy industries.

Japan Starts Weekend Early To Improve Work-Life Balance (Associated Press)

As the clock reached 3 p.m., about 100 office workers raised champagne glasses in a cafe in the middle of Tokyo's central business district to toast "Premium Friday," a new initiative to promote better work-life balance.

Robert B. Reich: Why Trumponomics is a recipe for failure (The Baltimore Sun)

Mr. Trump also used the occasion to tout his "America First" economics, stating "our goal as a nation must be to rely less on imports and more on products made here in the U.S.A.," and "we want products made by our workers in our factories stamped by those four magnificent words, 'Made in the U.S.A.'"

Reality Catching Up With Expectations (Financial Sense)

The stock market is a major leading indicator that rallies on optimism in the economy. Stocks represent the sum progress of companies in the present with a premium for what is expected in the future.

In A Battle Between Trump And The Federal Reserve, Who Really Wins? (Alt-Market)

As a part of the increasingly obvious set-up of conservative movements by international banking interests and globalist think-tanks, I have noticed an expanding disinformation campaign which appears to be designed to wash the Federal Reserve of culpability for the crash of 2008 that has continued to fester to this day despite the many claims of economic “recovery.”

Chesapeake Energy Management Obliterates Acquisition Hopes When Cash Flow Bombs (Long Player, Seeking Alpha)

You just know its bad when it is at the end of the press release. Cash flow headed south in a BMW on cruise control taking a highway with no speed limit (like the autobahn in Germany).

Gold Steady Near 3-1/2 Month High; Focus On Trump Economic Policy (Business World)

Gold prices held steady on Friday near 3-1/2-month highs hit in the previous session amid tempered expectations of a U.S. rate hike in March and as investors awaited clarity on President Donald Trump's economic policy.

Bitcoin worth more than gold as price reaches all-time high (The Sydney Morning Herald)

The crypto currency known for its anonymity and decentralised nature reached an all-time high on Friday afternoon, making it more valuable than gold in Australia.

Companies

Whitman’s excuses for Hewlett Packard Enterprise earnings are not enough (Market Watch)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Inc. stumbled yet again Thursday, and Chief Executive Meg Whitman has run out of excuses for her failure to get this crumbling ship afloat.

Valuing Apple Shares And How Much Higher They Can Go (Alex Cho, Seeking Alpha)

I'm re-initiating full financial coverage on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in this article, as I anticipate some meaningful value expansion on discounted assumptions pertaining to FY'18 results. This research report was first released to my premium subscribers last week.

Technology

AI learns to write its own code by stealing from other programs (New Scientist)

Created by researchers at Microsoft and the University of Cambridge, the system, called DeepCoder, solved basic challenges of the kind set by programming competitions. This kind of approach could make it much easier for people to build simple programs without knowing how to write code.

Artificial Intelligence Is Becoming A Major Disruptive Force In Banks' Finance Departments (Forbes)

A combination of elements including massive distributed computing power, the decreasing cost of data storage, and the rise of open source frameworks is helping to accelerate the application of artificial intelligence (AI).

Server bug leaks user data for thousands of popular websites (Engadget)

A number of high-profile websites have been leaking their users personal data into the ether, thanks to an error at their hosting provider. Cloudflare, which provides services to companies like Patreon, Fitbit and OKCupid among others, had an error in its code that caused pieces of memory to dump into web pages.

Apple is investigating this footage of an exploding iPhone 7 Plus (The Verge)

Apple says it’s “looking into” an incident involving an iPhone 7 Plus setting on fire. Footage of the device emitting a stream of smoke was posted on Twitter by an Arizona teen, identified by Mashable as 18-year-old Brianna Olivas.

The Rise of the Weaponized AI Propaganda Machine (Scout)

“This is a propaganda machine. It’s targeting people individually to recruit them to an idea. It’s a level of social engineering that I’ve never seen before. They’re capturing people and then keeping them on an emotional leash and never letting them go,” said professor Jonathan Albright.

Politics

Trump called China the 'grand champions' of currency manipulation — and China struck back (Reuters)

China on Friday said it had no intention of using currency devaluation to its advantage in trade, responding to an assertion from US President Donald Trump that China was the "grand champions" of currency manipulation.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Says Immigration Makes U.S. Great (Bloomberg)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t mention President Donald Trump or his immigration policies in a public appearance Thursday. She didn’t need to.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Signals She’ll Stay on Supreme Court as Long as She Can (NBC News)

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg indicated Thursday that she intends to remain on the Supreme Court as long as she can, predicting that the "pendulum" of American politics will eventually swing back toward the center.

Trump vows military build-up, hammers nationalist themes (Reuters)

President Donald Trump said he would make a massive budget request for one of the "greatest military buildups in American history" on Friday in a feisty, campaign-style speech extolling robust nationalism to eager conservative activists.

McConnell: 'Winners make policy, losers go home' (The Hill)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday pushed back on protesters at a speech in Kentucky, declaring that "winners make policy and losers go home."

China Names Economic Officials Amid Slowdown, Trump Threats (Associated Press)

China's government has named a trade specialist as its new commerce minister and appointed a new head of its top economic planning body as part of a Cabinet reshuffle that comes amid a slowing economy and the threat of increased trade friction with President Donald Trump's administration.

Trump is spending his political capital and costing the US friends (CNN)

While President Donald Trump was busy ignoring the reality of his low approval ratings by bathing in the embrace of an adoring crowd last weekend, his foreign policy challenges were stacking up.

DUP spent £282,000 on Brexit ad that did not run in Northern Ireland (The Guardian)

The Democratic Unionist party spent £282,000 on a pro-Brexit advert in a newspaper that is not published in Northern Ireland, according to documents released by the Electoral Commission.

WH Adviser Asked FBI To Refute Russia Story (Associated Press)

A White House official says chief of staff Reince Priebus asked a top FBI official to help dispute media reports that President Donald Trump's campaign advisers were frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents during the election.

Michael Moore: Raucous Town Halls Make ‘Tea Party Look Like Pre-School’ (NBC News)

Filmmaker Michael Moore, who predicted Donald Trump's presidential victory long before many pundits thought it possible, says the recent wave of voter uproar at Republican town halls "makes the Tea Party look like pre-school."

Greece's Tsipras: The Era Of Auterity Is Over (Associated Press)

Greece's era of austerity is over, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras claimed Friday, as he painted a positive picture of the reforms his government has agreed to take after the bailout program ends in 2018.

Trump, Putin, And The New Cold War (The New Yorker)

On April 12, 1982, Yuri Andropov, the chairman of the K.G.B., ordered foreign-intelligence operatives to carry out “active measures”—aktivniye meropriyatiya—against the reëlection campaign of President Ronald Reagan. 

Health and Biotech

A Fasting Diet Could Reverse Diabetes and Repair the Pancreas, Says New Research (Science Alert)

Researchers have been able to reverse symptoms of diabetes and restore pancreas functions in mice by putting them on a version of the fasting-mimicking diet.

Life on the Home Planet

Earth's newest continent 'Zealandia' was found thanks to a giant underwater land grab (Business Insider)

By now you've probably seen the big geology news: Earth has a brand-new continent called Zealandia, and it's been hiding from us for ages.

Average Life Expectancy Is Expected to Pass 90 for the First Time Ever (Science Alert)

If the measure of a good life is counted in years, the future looks bright, as the average life expectancy in many nations is set to climb.

The greatest danger asteroids pose to us is not from the impact (New Scientist)

Wind kills. The most casualties from an asteroid impact won’t come from the impact itself. The wind, pressure and heat caused by the crash are far more dangerous, no matter where the asteroid hits.

Having a cigarette may make your body crave coffee too (New Scientist)

Fancy a coffee after that cigarette? Smoking makes you drink more caffeinated drinks, possibly by changing your metabolism so that you break down caffeine quicker, pushing you to drink more to get the same hit.