Financial Markets and Economy
China’s Per Capita Income Will Be Half Of America’s In 50 Years (Value Walk)
According to a May 20th report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the per capita income of Chinese citizens is likely to at least double and possibly triple over the next five decades. Authors Jingyi Jiang and Kei-Mu Yi analyze both historical data from Japan and Korea and recent Chinese economic data in developing their model.
Housing Starts decreased to 1.036 Million Annual Rate in May (Calulated Risk)
Privately-owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000. This is 11.1 percent below the revised April estimate of 1,165,000, but is 5.1 percent above the May 2014 rate of 986,000.
Economic Report: Building permits surge in May as apartment demand soars (Market Watch)
Despite a slowdown last month for construction started on new U.S. homes, fresh data point to a strengthening housing market, with companies planning to ramp up construction.
Housing Starts Plunge 11% As April "Bounce" Fades, Permits Soar To 8 Year High (Zero Hedge)
Following April's hope-filled spike in Housing Starts and Building Permits SAAR (and the exuberant jerk to 10 year highs in NAHB Sentiment), May data is more mixed. Housing Starts plunged 11.1% MoM (against expectations of a 4% drop) missing for the 3rd of last 4 months. Permits, on the other hand, spiked 11.8% (against expectations of a 3.5% drop). So – in summary – hope is soaring, reality is falling and all the hope is based on America as 'rental nation' with a record number of multi-family unit permits.
Learn From The Greats – Economic Trends Are Not Short Term (Value Walk)
For generations nearly everyone viewed every security and market move as being related to economics. Even today if a security shifts in price, there will likely be someone, somewhere who says the ‘market knows’ something or other as an explanation. The belief that ‘no one can know’ what drives markets is based on the perception that markets run on some hidden mechanism of information exchange which is not available to normal mortals. Only ‘those-in-the-know’ who have access to significant wealth are believed to have the ‘right connections’and access to the ‘right information’.
The Central Bank of Russia has just announced plans to cut its key interest rate again. The cut, from 12.5% to 11.5%, comes after new figures showed that inflation is slowing(though still very high) and the ruble is stabilizing. Coming just six months after the central bank hiked the rate to 17% in a desperate attempt to keep the ruble from collapsing, it’s clearly a good sign for the economy.
That said, Russia is one of a swath of emerging-market economies that appear headed for trouble. Just last week, the World Bank joined the International Monetary Fund in asking the US Federal Reserve not to raise interest rates until 2016. Their fear is that this could set off a round of capital flight similar to the one two years ago—the so-called “taper tantrum“—when markets first got nervous about the Fed timetable for starting to wind down its monetary stimulus program.
Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Remains Defiant on Creditor Demands (Wall Street Journal)
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday expressed defiance over demands by his country’s creditors, insisting lenders soften their calls for pension cuts, though a senior government official said Athens was prepared to return to talks at any time.
The lack of progress in bailout negotiations has raised fears of a default on Greece’s debt and a possible exit from the currency bloc. The two sides have failed to bridge major differences on a set of reforms Greece has to undertake in exchange for desperately needed financial aid, with the country’s lenders pushing for more pension cuts and labor reforms.
There are TWO really bizarre things happening in the final 30 minutes of trading (Business Insider)
Something weird happens into the market close.
Last week, we highlighted a chart from JC O'Hara of FBN Securities, who noted that during the final 30 minutes of trading this year, the S&P 500 was down about 2%.
Capitol Report: Trump to declare $9 billion in assets as he announces 2016 plans (Market Watch)
Here comes “The Donald’s” big announcement.
Businessman and reality television star Donald Trump will announce his 2016 intentions on Tuesday at a Manhattan skyscraper that bears his name. The Associated Press writes that if Trump, a Republican, decides to run for president, he would be required to release a personal financial disclosure that would reveal intimate details about his personal finances. And Trump is ready to do so. The AP said Trump will share details about his finances that reveal a net worth of $9 billion. The financial disclosure was thought to be the final obstacle blocking Trump from launching a 2016 campaign. Trump’s announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m.
Goldman Forecasting Two Rate Hikes In 2015 (Value Walk)
As U.S. economic data has improved heading into a June Federal Open Market Committee meeting of central bankers, “on balance surpassing market expectations since the last FOMC meeting,” a new Goldman Sachs research piece has advice regarding the direction of U.S. interest rates, and it should not surprise many. What might be a surprise is Goldman's expectation that the Fed is going to raise interest rates twice in 2015.
How you can profit from cybercrime – legally (CNN)
There's a good chance that at least one company or government agency you do business with has been hacked in the past two years.
Major retailers, banks, healthcare companies, media firms and governments have all been hit.
Trading
Gold Index Rebalance Means Massive Buy and Sell Volume for 5 Stocks (24/7 Wall St)
On the close Friday, the Amex Gold Miners Index (NYSE: GDM) is set for a rebalance. What this means is the index will be rebalanced to reflect reweighting allocations across the stocks that make up the index. It also means there will be some serious buying and selling on the last print Friday.
In a research note, the analysts at Cowen have calculated the buys and sell in the index based on the holdings in the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX), which essentially mirrors the index and will rebalance. The Cowen analysts estimate there are 24 stocks rebalancing with greater than 50% of 10-day average volume.
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Ally, Corning, Enterprise, Kinder Morgan, Twitter, Aerie Pharma and More (24/7 Wall St)
Stocks were lower again on Tuesday, but off the lows as worries of the Greek situation may be overblown. The one constant trend over the past three and a half years is that investors buy every pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst and brokerage research reports each morning of the week. The goal is to find value and upside, or new trading and investing ideas for our readers. Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while other calls are about stocks to sell or avoid.
Politics
What if Bernie Sanders Pulls A Eugene McCarthy? (Bloomberg)
A white-haired senator from a Frost Belt state, a one-time writer with a social-justice streak, an unlikely yet powerful energizer of young people. This year, it’s Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In 1968, it was Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota.
Sanders’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination may seem quixotic, even to him. “We are the underdog,” he told Bloomberg's Al Hunt in an interview last week on PBS' Charlie Rose program. After all, he is a self-identified socialist who once worked to uproot the two-party system and, who, some decades ago, bought 85 acres in rural Vermont and converted an old maple-sugar house without electricity or running water into a cabin.
Technology
You can now play your Xbox 360 games on Xbox One (CNN)
It's a conundrum gamers have been living with for ages: What do you do with your old games when you buy a new console?
You could sell them, or you could hang onto your old video game console and switch between the two systems.
This Range Rover Prototype Can Be Driven With A Smartphone App (Tech Crunch)
There are remote control cars and then there are Remote Control Cars. This is the latter of the two. Range Rover UK developed a prototype system that allows a Range Rover Sport to be controlled remotely through a smartphone app. And not just the door locks. The vehicle can be driven from the app.
Health and LIfe Sciences
Chocolate could be good for the heart (BBC)
New scientific research suggests that chocolate could be good for the heart.
A study by the University of Aberdeen found that people who ate chocolate had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke, compared to those who didn't eat any.
Lack of sleep affects long-term health (Science Daily)
New research from the University of Copenhagen has found that maintaining a good night's sleep is important for our future health, partly because of how it affects lifestyle factors. Previous population based studies have not provided sufficient information on the timing of changes in both sleep and lifestyle to tease out cause and effect relations of this highly intertwined relationship.
Life on the Home Planet
China says about to finish some land reclamation in South China Sea (Reuters)
China will soon complete some of its land reclamation on the Spratly islands in the disputed South China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, indicating that Beijing is close to setting up new outposts in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
The Foreign Ministry did not identify which of the seven reefs undergoing reclamation would be finished soon. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said their statement was already "quite detailed"
Green awareness in US states linked to success in emissions cuts (New Scientist)
Environmentalism seems to work.
In the US, states with higher support for the environmental movement have lower carbon emissions, and the strength of these movement over time in each state affects their emissions.
That's the message from a study looking at the impact of the environmental movement on actual emissions of carbon dioxide in each state from 1990 onwards.
The dentures made from the teeth of dead soldiers at Waterloo (BBC)
In 1815, dentistry as we know it today was in its infancy – and the mouths of the rich were rotten. So they took teeth for their dentures from the bodies of tens of thousands of dead soldiers on the battlefield at Waterloo.
In the late 18th and early 19th Centuries "everyone was dabbling in dentistry", says Rachel Bairsto, curator of British Dental Association's museum in central London. From ivory turners to jewellers, chemists, wigmakers and even blacksmiths.
How on Earth Do You Stop a 1,000 MPH Rocket Car? (Wired)
IT’S NOT ENOUGH just to get a rocket car up to 1,000 mph. You also have to get it back down to zero again. That’s why the team behind the Bloodhound SSC is carefully testing every inch of its system before heading to the South African desert next year in the hopes of blowing past the sound barrier and shattering the world land-speed record. And that includes the parachute brake that’s key to the effort.
