Financial Market and Economy
Fed's Q1 Flow of Funds: Household Net Worth at Record High (Calculated Risk)
The Federal Reserve released the Q1 2015 Flow of Funds report today: Flow of Funds.
Back Then: "Regular, Frequent Corrections"; Now: "Fewer, Bigger Corrections" (Zero Hedge)
With VXX touching a record low yesterday, and the equity volatility having now utterly disconnected from other asset classes…
This stock in Dubai has doubled in a week and no one knows why (Business Insider)
This rally in Dubai is a mystery.
Shares of Amlak Finance PJSC, a financial services company, doubled in a seven day period, according to a report by Bloomberg's Dana El Baltaji.
Oil prices slip on strong dollar, bullish IEA report (Market Watch)
Global oil prices dropped on Thursday as investors weighed a stronger dollar and a bullish report by an international energy watchdog that said crude demand was rising around the globe.
In its closely watched monthly oil market report, the International Energy Agency estimated demand will increase by 1.4 million barrels a day, to average 94 million a day this year. But the IEA also said that supply growth will remain strong, with Middle Eastern producers pumping crude at record rates as they tussle for market share.
Retail Sales increased 1.2% in May (Calculated Risk)
On a monthly basis, retail sales were up 1.2% from April to May (seasonally adjusted), and sales were up 2.7% from May 2014.
Stock futures are higher (Business Insider)
Stock futures, bonds, and the dollar are higher.
Near 8:41 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 18 points, S&P 500 futures were up one point, and Nasdaq futures were up 9 points.
Everyone had been waiting for the latest retail sales report, which beat expectations and showed the biggest gain in 14 months.
Jobless claims stay near 15-year low (Market Watch)
The number of U.S. workers who applied for unemployment benefits in the first week of June remained near a 15-year low, reflecting a low rate of layoffs and an upsurge in hiring over the past few years.
.png)
Iceland: The economy that came in from the cold? (Independent)
Seven years ago, a volcanic rock in the frozen North Atlantic was a most unlikely player in the global financial crisis. Iceland’s banks had been on a reckless overseas expansion spree since 2003. Over the next five years, the sector’s total financial assets had ballooned to ten times the annual GDP of the tiny country of 320,000 souls.
Greek Stocks Soar Most Since Election On Deal Hopes (Zero Hedge)
Greek Stocks are up over 7% this morning as yesterday's denied deal rumors have escalated into great deal hopes amid bank deposit runs and ELA increases. For context this brings the Athens index back to 3-day highs and is the biggest move since the optimistic surges we saw right after Tsipras was elected in late-January…
One analyst competing in this weekend's Wall Street Decathlon has been training with a 'Bane' mask (Business Insider)
The annual Wall Street Decathlon, in which finance geeks compete in everything from running, to rowing, to pull-ups and bench press, takes place in Queens this weekend.
Some competitors are so intent on becoming "Wall Street's Best Athlete" that they're doing some really bizarre things to train.
Retail sales surge in May, point to revived U.S. growth (Market Watch)
Sales at U.S. retailers rose sharply in May and increased for the third straight month, suggesting that warmer weather induced consumers to spending more in the spring after a winter lull.
Retail sales climbed a seasonally adjusted 1.2% last month, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Auto dealers and gasoline stations posted the strongest sales, but most major retail segments saw healthy gains.
.png)
What are consumers buying? Cars, food and stuff for their home (CNN)
The government reported Thursday that overall retail sales rose 1.2% from April to May. And sales were up 2.7% from a year ago.
At first blush, this is a great sign for the economy. There have been numerous concerns about lackluster retail sales this year.
Experts were surprised by the slump because they thought lower gas prices would be like a tax refund that consumers would happily spend.
World’s Newest Country Struggles to Survive (Wall Street Journal)
South Sudan is running out of money, which along with a civil war and mass food shortages is putting the world’s youngest country at risk of becoming its youngest failed state.
In the past two years, the U.S. government has spent more than $1 billion to try to help stave off escalating violence in South Sudan, government figures show. Other Western countries have also given massive amounts. Secretary of State John Kerry in May announced an additional $5 million to establish a court to “hold perpetrators of violence to account.”
Wall Street Economists See Little Need for Change At Fed (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve reform is in the air in Washington. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby proposed legislation last month that would in his view strengthen the central bank. We asked 53 economists what they thought about some of Shelby's proposals.
There's bipartisan discomfort with the New York Fed president's unique status on the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the level of interest rates for the entire U.S. economy. The other 11 regional Fed presidents rotate as voters, while the New York Fed president has a permanent vote.
Bonds Soar, Stocks Snore After "Good" News Sparks Hindenburg Omen Uncertainty (Zero Hedge)
To all the bond shorts who have appeared on mainstream media in recent day sproclaiming the end is nigh… todaywas carnage for them…
UK economy is growing stronger, says NIESR (Telegraph)
Britain's economic growth picked up pace in the three months to May, recovering from a weak first quarter, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research has revealed. NIESR said it estimated that gross domestic product in the quarter was 0.6pc higher than in the previous three-month period, the fastest growth rate since January and up from a 0.5pc rate in the three months to April.
CoStar: Commercial Real Estate prices declined in April, Up Solidly YoY (Calculated Risk)
Here is a price index for commercial real estate that I follow.
Alan Greenspan: US real estate is stagnating? (CNN)
Sure, some cities are seeing buildings (and prices) rising, but construction of both homes and commercial properties overall isn't back to where it was before the Great Recession.
Do Rising Rates Mean Falling Stocks? (Value Walk)
Yesterday, I saw an interesting doom-and-gloom piece on rising rates, which claimed that rate increases typically sink the stock market and that we could potentially expect a crash in the near future.
Theoretically, this isn’t crazy; higher rates should lead to lower stock prices. In practice, though, higher rates typically reflect a strengthening economy. The effect on stock prices is a battle between the tailwind of faster earnings growth from an improving economy and the headwind of higher rates. Only in the absence of the tailwind does the headwind become significant.
Have Utilities Become Grossly Oversold? (24/7 Wall St)
Utilities have been a staple piece of a portfolio for many years. In some ways, these power-generation companies and electric utilities have replaced traditional certificates of deposit and other income-generating investments. This year has started out with a very different tone among utility investors. What is clear is that institutions and retail investors alike have been exiting the sector for a solid part of the 2015 year in order to be out ahead of the coming Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.
Politics
Pope urges Putin to make 'sincere, great effort' for Ukraine peace (Reuters)
A stern Pope Francis urged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to make a "sincere and great effort" to achieve peace in Ukraine.
The two met for about 50 minutes and agreed on the need to recreate a climate of dialogue in Ukraine and to implement a peace deal designed to end fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels, the Vatican said.
The meeting underlined how Francis has been increasingly using his role for diplomatic ends – particularly following the deal he brokered last year between Cuba and the United States to resume diplomatic relations after more than half a century.
Hillary Clinton's message to America: 'It is your time.' (Business Insider)
Hillary Clinton will kick off the next phase of her presidential campaign on Saturday by delivering a major speech on Roosevelt Island in New York City. According to a Clinton campaign official, her address will have four key elements.
All of the four main parts of the speech fit with the main overarching theme of Clinton's campaign, her desire to be a "champion for everyday Americans."
Michigan’s Republican Governor Has A Chance To Prove He Opposes Anti-LGBT Discrimination (Think Progress)
After the national outcry over anti-LGBT “religious freedom” legislation passed in Indiana, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) made it clear that he would veto such a bill. Two months later, similar measures have now been sent to his desk for consideration.
On Wednesday, the Senate passed three bills (HB 4188, HB 4189, and HB 4190) that would empower state-subsidized child placement agencies — foster care and adoption agencies — to discriminate for religious reasons without risk of losing their taxpayer funding. Specifically, the legislation says that the state cannot “take an adverse action” against such an agency based on its decision to discriminate, including denying funding, refusing to renew funding, canceling funding, declining to enter into a contract, refusing to renew a contract, canceling a contract, declining to issue a license, refusing to renew the license, canceling the license, or refusing access to participation in a government program.
Michelle Obama Delivers Powerful Call for Chicago Students to Rise Above City's Tragedies (Mother Jones)
More than two years after the death of Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old student who was fatally shot in a Chicago park just a week after participating in a march in Washington to celebrate President Obama's second inauguration, Michelle Obama delivered a powerful speech to the girl's graduating class on Tuesday.
In her commencement speech at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory, the first lady, who attended Pendleton's funeral in 2013, honored the girl's memory and urged students to rise above the city's rampant gang violence. An empty chair decorated with flowers and Pendleton's favorite color purple sat as a tribute to Pendleton in Tuesday's ceremony.
Technology
Review: Parrot Bebop? (Wired)
It’s hard to single-handedly kickstart an industry, only to watch competitors soar past. Back in 2010, Parrot’s AR.Drone quad-copters all but owned the skies. Today, smarter, faster fliers from the likes of DJI and3DRobotics have clipped Parrot’s wings.
Enter Bebop, a high-flying beauty unlike anything else in the air. It’s a lightweight, nimble, downright sexy drone capable of capturing 1080p video out of the box, no pricey GoPro required, for $500. It vastly improves certain elements of the AR.Drone’s design, at the same time maintaining the versatility of its app-powered controls. So why isn’t this thing more fun to fly?
How-To: Prepare your iPhone, iPad or Mac for iOS 9 + OS X El Capitan public betas (9 to 5 Mac)
Up until recently, unfinished “beta” versions of iOS and OS X were only officially available to registered Apple developers, enabling companies to make their apps compatible before the operating systems were publicly released. But to increase openness and expand its pool of beta testers, Apple decided to offer “public betas” of both iOS and OS X to interested users, starting with iOS 8.4 and OS X Yosemite. Very soon, both iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan will become available as public betas under the Apple Beta Software Program, which you can sign up for here.
Should you install these new and unstable betas on your iPad, iPhone, or Mac? What can you really expect after doing so? Below, I’ll provide you with some guidance so you can make an informed decision to participate in the public betas, or hold off…
Health and Life Sciences
New method detects early breast cancer via urine (Science Daily)
The measurement was possible through the detection of only four microRNAs. If the effectiveness of the method is confirmed in further studies, it could serve in the future as a means of monitoring the success of treatment and potentially also of making an early diagnosis of breast cancer.
The Freiburg scientists published their findings in the journal BMC Cancerand have applied for a patent for the method.
Milk digestion's 'more recent rise' (BBC)
The ability to digest milk may have become common only relatively recently in Europe, a major study of ancient DNA shows.
The analysis of genomes from 101 ancient adults suggests the gene for breaking down the lactose sugar in milk was still rare in the Bronze Age.
The results come as something of a surprise because the gene is widespread among modern Europeans.
Large doses of antioxidants may be harmful to neuronal stem cells? (Science Daily)
Stem cells are especially sensitive to oxygen radicals and antioxidants shows new research from the group of Anu Wartiovaara in the Molecular Neurology Research Program of University of Helsinki. The research led by researcher Riikka Martikainen was published in Cell Reports on May 28th 2015.
Life on the Home Planet
The island where people forget to die (CNN)
If I live to be 100, playing handball against the garage door, staying up until the wee hours, drinking the wine from my own grapes, I will have a nice Midwestern boy named Dan to thank.
See, back in my ABC days, I became obsessed with the soft science of happiness. How do you measure such a thing? Where are the happiest places in the world? What's their deal? These questions led me to an equally curious dude from the Twin Cities named Dan Buettner.
Who, what, why: How aggressive are robins? (BBC)
The robin has been voted the UK's favourite bird – but attention has been drawn to its fiercely territorial reputation. Just how vicious is the red-breasted creature, asks Jon Kelly.
With 34% of 224,000 ballots cast, the robin won the National Bird Vote decisively. But much was made of the notion that the species is particularly confrontational.
"Despite being a seemingly friendly bird, the robin is hugely territorial and very defensive of its territory and I presume that reflects us as an island nation that we will stand our ground," said naturalist David Lindo, who organised the ballot.
Vote Aids Deep Sea Corals in Much of Mid-Atlantic (NY Times)
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted Wednesday to protect deep sea corals from most bottom fishing over about 38,000 square miles of ocean, running from New York to Virginia.
The corals form fragile ecosystems hundreds of yards underwater that support a variety of fish. And bottom trawling, mostly by the squid fishery, posed a threat, according to scientists and conservation organizations that have lobbied in recent years to protect the corals, which are slow-growing and long-lived, and therefore do not recover easily from damage.
