Financial Markets and Economy
These Are Global Banking’s Winners and Losers Since the Crisis (Bloomberg)
It’s no wonder bank executives are still under pressure more than six years after the financial crisis.
The Three Seismic Shifts That Are Shaking Up the World of Energy (Bloomberg)
BP Plc released its yearly Statistical Review of World Energy on Wednesday. Used for decades as an industry benchmark, this year's edition laid bare the seismic shifts taking place in global energy markets.
How Much in Wages Are American Workers Missing? Over $50 Billion (Value Walk)
JOLTS came in today at 5.4 million for April, a healthy jump from the 5.1 million in March.
The increased job openings raises the specter of wage inflation in the near future.
What does the JOLTS figure say wage growth should be?
This Is What Happened The Last Time Pimco Dumped Its US Treasuries (Zero Hedge)
A little over four years ago, on March 2 of 2011, then-Pimco's Bill Gross asked a simple question: "Who will buy Treasuries when the Fed doesn’t?"… to which we added that this is "the reason why the Fed is now locked in a QEasing corner from which there is no exit." Four years later, with ZIRP and NIRP covering the globe, and with both the ECB and BOJ having joined the monetization scramble, the Fed's corner remains.
MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest Weekly Survey, Purchase Index up 15% YoY (Market Watch)
Mortgage applications increased 8.4 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 5, 2015. The previous week’s results included an adjustment for the Memorial Day holiday. …
Billions And Billions Pour Into India And China (Value Walk)
It’s been a little over a year since Narendra Modi took office in India, and so far the results have been mostly positive for the South Asian country and the surrounding region. Among other achievements, Modi’s government has managed to enact important policy reforms, increase public investments in infrastructure, lower food inflation and generally open India up to business on a global scale.
Crude Soars Despite Record Saudi Production, Lowest China Demand Growth Since 1998 (Zero Hedge)
If Inventories down, then buy oil at the fastest pace in 2 months. That appears to be the algo logic as talking heads additionally blame Saudi airstrikes on Yemen for the over 6% surge in WTI in the last 2 days. However, as crude nears $62 (6 month highs) once again, we note that not only Saudi oil production just hit a new record high, but US production hit a new cycle high last week (DOE data today), and this is happening as China's energy demand grows at the slowest pace since 1998.
Wall Street's getting back into the SLABS business, and that's awesome (Business Insider)
Lending platform CommonBond is executing the securitization of $100 million of student loans, making it the latest peer-to-peer lender to find a much bigger marketplace for its assets.
Because banks are bailing on the student loan market left and right, it couldn’t come at a better time.
Bank of Japan's Sato warns of diminishing returns from monetary easing program (Yahoo)
Bank of Japan board member Takehiro Sato on Wednesday warned of diminishing returns and potential drawbacks of maintaining the bank's massive stimulus program for too long, such as delaying government efforts to fix Japan's tattered finances.
Steady progress in restoring Japan's fiscal health is crucial for the success of the BOJ's quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) campaign – including a smooth exit from the huge asset-buying program, the former market economist said.
Free electric car-charging company closes $4.5 million in equity funding (Market Watch)
Volta Industries, an electric car-charging company, announced the closing of a $4.5 million Series A equity round Wednesday with a $3 million project financing facility.
The San Francisco-based company currently operates more than 100 charging stations in five states and plans to expand to a total of 400 in 2015. The charging stations are free to use and are placed at retailers such as Macy’s M, +0.23% and Whole Foods WFM, +0.71% and shopping centers.
The $3 Trillion Bond Trade Citigroup Says Investors Should Fear (Bloomberg)
For all the concern that Wall Street’s shrinking balance sheets will fuel a liquidity crisis when investors flee credit markets, Citigroup Inc. strategist Stephen Antczak says investors may be overlooking an even bigger catalyst.
Trading
A stock market 'leading indicator' is tanking. But why?? (CNN)
The index — often referred to as "Dow Transports" for short — is made up of 20 top railroad, airline, trucking and delivery services stocks. Think: Delta (DAL), FedEx (FDX) and Union Pacific (UNP).
When it goes up, the rest of the stock market often follows. And when it goes down, well, you get the idea.
Are We Significantly Oversold In The Stock Market? (Trader Feed)
Above is a useful short-term measure of whether we are trading in an "overbought" versus "oversold" mode in the U.S. stock market. The blue line is the cash SPX; the red line is a five-day moving average of the following:
China is building the most extensive global commercial-military empire in history (Quartz)
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the sun famously never set on the British empire. A commanding navy enforced its will, yet all would have been lost if it were not for ports, roads, and railroads. The infrastructure that the British built everywhere they went embedded and enabled their power like bones and veins in a body.
Great nations have done this since Rome paved 55,000 miles (89,000 km) of roads and aqueducts in Europe. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Russia and the United States established their own imprint, skewering and taming nearby territories with projects like the Trans-Siberian and the Trans-Continental railways.
Politics
Louisiana Republicans Now Wish They'd Never Heard of Grover Norquist? (Mother Jones)
It's hardly surprising when Democrats criticize Grover Norquist, the godfather of the anti-tax movement. But following like sheep behind Norquist's demands to lower taxes always and everywhere has gotten states in so much trouble that even some Republicans are now begging him to be a little less obstinate. Sadly for Louisiana, Norquist is having none of it
A group of self-described "conservative" Republican state representatives took their complaints to Norquist himself, asking him to give them some wiggle room on raising taxes and to shoot down some Jindal-backed legislation that they say would set a "dangerous precedent" in how government could mask revenue hikes.
Putin is a 'bully,' U.S. needs to respond resolutely: Jeb Bush (Reuters)
Likely Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a "bully" and the United States and its allies in Europe should be resolute in responding to Russian aggression.
Bush, the brother of former U.S. President George W. Bush, is on a five-day tour of Europe in a bid to prove his foreign policy credentials before he is expected to launch his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination next week.
Technology
Beautiful, Intriguing, and Illegal Ways to Map the Internet? (Wired)
WHEN YOU HEAR the word “Internet,” what do you picture in your mind? Is it a series of pipes, or a three-dimensional spacescape, or maybe a browser on your phone’s screen? Visualizing the Internet is tough, perhaps because it’s this weird combination of physical and conceptual things. But that’s also what makes it an appealing endeavor.
There is of course a physical architecture of cables, wires and switches that exists, but these material things are more like a backbone or a substrate that enables the Internet to exist. And while these tangible aspects of the Internet are hard enough to visualize, the conceptual part is a mind bender. People have assigned all sorts of physical descriptors to it, attempts to give it a shape. They call it the inter-tubes or the inter-webs, the information superhighway, or the cloud.
Supersonic 'Flying Saucer' Parachute Fails, But NASA Sees Success (Huffington Post)
NASA launched its Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator — popularly known as its “flying saucer” — on Monday, after postponing the flight for several days due to poor weather in Hawaii.
The objective was to examine the performance of two advanced decelerator technologies: a supersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator, and a supersonic parachute that will one day help vehicles land on the surface of Mars during manned missions.
Health and Life Sciences
A better night's sleep is all in your head (CNN)
Do you toss and turn at night, yearning for a good night's sleep? According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 50 million to 70 million American adults have a sleep or wakefulness disorder that can affect their lives in serious ways. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, cancer and obesity are linked to poor sleep, as are car accidents, industrial disasters, occupational and medical errors as well as reduced quality of life and productivity. It's so bad that the CDC has pegged insufficient sleep as an American public health epidemic.
Gastric Reflux Drugs Linked to Heart Attacks (NY Times)
The widely used drugs known as proton pump inhibitors, or P.P.I.’s — gastric reflux preventives like Prilosec and Prevacid — may increase the risk for heart attack, according to analysis of data involving almost three million people.
Life on the Home Planet
Your kids are making you fat (Market Watch)
Mom and dad, your beloved little angels are making you fat, and the reasons behind this may surprise you. The good news: You can nip that extra poundage in the butt (or arms, or abs) with some easy lifestyle changes.
Several studies show that becoming a parent may be a straight shot to a less-than-svelte waistline. A study published in 2013 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that parents — particularly women — tend to gain more weight than their non-parent counterparts (you can see their increased body mass indexes here), and a 2011 study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine found that by age 55, parents reach an average BMI in the obese zone (over 30), while the average BMI for those without children merely reaches the overweight zone (25 to 29) by that age.
Will anyone help the Rohingya people? (BBC)
For decades, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have lived in Rakhine State, near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.
Long denied citizenship and freedom of movement by the government of Myanmar (also known as Burma), shocking images have emerged in recent weeks showing hundreds of Rohingya migrants drifting at sea in fishing boats, as part of a failed attempt to leave for Malaysia.
The children taken from home for a social experiment (BBC)
In the 1950s, a group of Inuit children were taken from their families in Greenland to be re-educated as model Danish citizens. More than 60 years later, they want the Danish government to apologise for an experiment that did enormous damage.
Anti-soda push picks up in San Francisco (Seeking Alpha)
- San Francisco is one step closer to becoming the first U.S. city to require warning labels on sugary drinks after government officials approved a new measure.
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor still have to sign off on the anti-soda ordinances.
