Financial Markets and Economy
Summer in the stock market, where $1,000 turns into $982 (Market Watch)
It’s June and, along with all the upside the start of summer brings, it also means the “sell in May” refrain, for the most part, is about to be shelved until next year. But not without at least one more parting shot, courtesy of Jay Kaeppel of the Jay on the Markets blog.
“The gist of conventional wisdom is that the stock market is a bad place to be after May and until sometime much later in the year,” he wrote in a post cited earlier inMonday’s “Need to Know” column. “Typically, conventional wisdom in the stock market is best avoided. But in this case, there may be some truth to the rumor.”
Bond-Market Game of Chicken With Fed Is Riskier Than Ever (Bloomberg)
If the Federal Reserve is really so intent on raising interest rates this year, why is Wall Street chopping its forecasts for bond yields?
For all the hand-wringing over the recent selloff that wiped out about $1.2 trillion in value from the global bond market, the fixed-income market’s best and brightest have actually taken down their year-end estimates for Treasuries in four of the past five months.
"One Belt, One Road" May Be China's 'One Chance' To Save Collapsing Economy (Zero Hedge)
In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping marked a historic visit to neighboring Pakistan. China, via Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, will invest some $50 billion in Pakistani infrastructure, including power plants, roads, railways, and, perhaps most importantly, the Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline. The vast sum represents 53% more than the US has given Islamabad over the past 13 years combined. China is also set to invest an equally large sum in Brazil and is even considering the construction a railroad over the Andes, which would connect Brazil to China via the Pacific and ports in Peru.
Why prescription drugs cost so much (Yahoo)
The high cost of cancer drugs recently prompted top oncologist Dr. Leonard Saltz to publicly call for limits. "These drugs cost too much," he told thousands of his colleagues at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. Many cancer drugs debut with a price tag of $10,000 a month according to an analysis from staff at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Lira Falls to Record Amid Stock Rout as AK Party Loses Majority (Bloomberg)
Turkey’s lira weakened to an all-time low and stocks plunged after voters denied the ruling AK Party a majority government for the first time since 2002.
The currency tumbled as much as 5.2 percent and the benchmark stock index dropped the most in two years. The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, won 40.9 percent of the vote, giving it 258 seats in parliament, according to preliminary results from the state-run news agency. It needed 276 to form a single-party government.
Asia stocks near 10-week trough, China goes own way (Business Insider)
Asia shares were subdued on Tuesday while the dollar relapsed as investors raced to book profits on its post-payroll gains despite all the talk of a U.S. rate rise as early as September.
Japan's Nikkei eased 0.7 percent and Australian stocks were barely changed. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was a fraction firmer having touched a 10-week low on Monday.
Here's what happens in the labor market a few quarters before wages go up (Business Insider)
Tuesday's job openings & labor turnover survey (JOLTS) report, which breaks down job openings, layoffs, and turnover, could give us a big clue on where wages are going.
In a research note, UBS economist Sam Coffin looked at the relationship between the number of unemployed people per job opening and a broad and reliable measure of wages and other employee compensation.
Markets, Trading, and Investment: New Views for the New Week? (Trader Feed)
We've seen sectors responding very differently to the recent rise in interest rates. Banking stocks are at highs ($BKX), while real estate shares are at lows (IYR). Note the rise in microcap stocks (IWC) since early May. Large cap shares ($XMI), however, have seen recent weakness and are below those early May lows. I'm watching the degree to which sectors are moving in unison as a way of gauging broader market moves. If rising tides aren't lifting all boats (and vice versa), I've found it's worth questioning those moves.
Trading
Here’s how Tesla shares could gain another 30% (Market Watch)
Tesla Motors Inc. stock has rallied 32% in the last three months, and gained three times as much as the S&P 500 Index over the past 12 months, but that run-up doesn’t mean investors should be trimming their positions.
That’s what analysts at Baird said in a note Monday, projecting more gains for Tesla. They raised their price target on the stock to $335 a share, or about 30% upside from Friday’s close, from a previous target of $275 a share. They kept a buy rating on Tesla.
Politics
Bush makes surprise staff pick with Diaz (CNN)
Jeb Bush has tapped a Republican communications operative with to run his campaign, as part of a shakeup that has left the presumptive operations chief to run early primary election strategy instead.
Danny Diaz will become campaign manager for the former Florida governor's campaign — which is expected to be announced June 15 — and David Kochel will serve as chief strategist, Bush aides confirmed to CNN Monday.
Obama 'Looking Forward' To UK Staying In Europe (Sky News)
Barack Obama has said he is "looking forward" to the United Kingdom staying in the European Union as he met David Cameron for talks on the margins of the G7 summit in Germany.
Speaking at the start of bilateral talks in Schloss Elmau, Mr Obama said the US-UK relationship remains strong, adding: "We have no closer partner around the world."
Liberals Make Big Comeback in 2015, Poll Analysis Finds (Wall Street Journal)
There are signs that liberals are making a comeback — and not just because a socialist is running for president, gay marriage is spreading like wildfire and pot legalization is gaining acceptance.
Technology
Thrills and spills as world's best robots take each other on? (New Scientist)
Inside Building 9, a concrete hangar in eastern Los Angeles, the pressure is mounting.
There is a hum of activity as engineers ready their hyperadvanced robots for the final run in the world's most important robotics competition: the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which ran over Friday and Saturday last week at this former horse-racing track in Pomona, California.
Apple's new iPhone operating system has a ton of new features — and many of them are straight out of Android (Business Insider)
Apple unveiled its new operating system that will run the iPhone and iPad called iOS 9 at its annual WWDC event on Monday. And some of its features are extremely similar to those found on some Android phones.
Some of the new Siri and Spotlight features, which will have a huge impact on how people use their iOS devices, can be said to be a direct copy of Google Now. There's also the battery-saving feature, which is somewhat uncharacteristic of Apple, but has been featured in Android phones for years.
Health and Life Sciences
20 billion nanoparticles talk to the brain using electricity (New Scientist)
Electricity is the brain's language, and now we can speak to it without wires or implants. Nanoparticles can be used to stimulate regions of the brain electrically, opening up new ways to treat brain diseases. It may even one day allow the routine exchange of data between computers and the brain.
A material discovered in 2004 makes this possible. When "magnetoelectric" nanoparticles (MENs) are stimulated by an external magnetic field, they produce an electric field. If such nanoparticles are placed next to neurons, this electric field should allow them to communicate.
How to catch Alzheimer's 20 years early (CNN)
"We're waiting for the heart attack, or we're waiting for the lump to be discovered at stage three," Dr. Daniel Kraft told an audience last week at the Exponential Finance conference in New York City. No more. He said it will one day be diagnosed at stage zero — and there's already progress in this direction.
"What if we could see inside the brain of a patient 10 or 20 years before they develop clinical signs of Alzheimer's? That's now possible with new scans," Kraft said.
Yin and yang: Immune signaling protein has opposing roles in breast cancer development (Science Daily)
The TLR4 (Toll-like receptor 4) protein, like many other members of important immune system pathways, appears to be a promising target for immune-based therapeutic options and is the focus of many drugs currently in development. As TLR4 was previously thought to be an oncogene, or promoter of tumor growth, these drugs would aim to block its activity and kill cancer cells.
Life on the Home Planet
American Pharoah: Triple Crown Win Rewrites Racing History (Wall Street Journal)
History called. And American Pharoah answered, sweeping the 2015 Triple Crown in dramatic, nearly uncontested fashion.
As the champion crossed the finish line at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, he crushed the doubts that have hung over this sport like a curse for nearly four decades, dispelling the notion that winning the three-race series is beyond the capacity of the modern thoroughbred.
Coal in Poland Lowering Life Spans (NY Times)
The children Karolina Zolna knows huff and puff after a few minutes of exercise. Two years ago, her infant daughter spent four months in the hospital with pneumonia. The doctors did not identify a cause, but to Ms. Zolna, the reason for the baby’s illness was obvious.
She blames the pollution that hangs heavy in the air of her gray hometown in Poland’s coal heartland, Silesia. In the still-chilly early days of spring, thick smoke wafted from most of the chimneys in Myslowice, wreathing the town in a haze that is a constant reminder of residents’ reliance on coal for heat.
19 unlikely animals who became best friends (Business Insider)
It's not unheard of for animals to become quite chummy with members of another species — even with those they would normally consider eating.
Abandonment, trauma, or living together on farms or zoos, all serve as factors in bringing animals together in unexpected ways.
In celebration of National Best Friends Day, we're taking a look at what happens when opposites attract.
