Financial Markets and Economy
Key Measures Show Low Inflation in May (Calculated Risk)
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the median Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% (2.2% annualized rate) in May. The 16% trimmed-mean Consumer Price Index also rose 0.1% (1.4% annualized rate) during the month. The median CPI and 16% trimmed-mean CPI are measures of core inflation calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland based on data released in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) monthly CPI report.
Consumers return $642.6 billion in goods each year (Market Watch)
Blame it on shoddy merchandise, the wrong size or buyers’ remorse: What consumers worldwide buy and then return totals a staggering $642.6 billion annually.
Looking at Payroll Employment and Unemployment Claims (Calculated Risk)
A reader asked about the relationship between initial unemployment claims and monthly payroll employment. And if claims are so low, does that mean a surge in employment gains?
There is definitely a general relationship as shown in the first graph. Note that unemployment claims are graphed inverted.
Europe fails to get a deal on Greece (CNN)
Another deadline, another day without a deal.
European officials and the International Monetary Fund have failed to strike a deal on Greece's bailout program, bringing the country one step closer to a dangerous default and potential exit from the eurozone.
Japan Stocks Rise, Paring Weekly Decline, Ahead of BOJ Decision (Bloomberg)
Japanese stocks rose, paring a third weekly decline, ahead of a central bank monetary policy decision that is expected to maintain a record stimulus program.
Chubu Electric Power Co. gained 1.5 percent following a report the utility may begin fueling a shuttered nuclear power plant. Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. added 2.2 percent after SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. boosted its rating on the stock. Tokyo Gas Co. slumped 2.2 percent, the biggest drop on the Nikkei 225 Stock Average, after Morgan Stanley Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. cut its rating on the stock.
Nasdaq Hits a High as Fed Provides Lift (Wall Street Journal)
A surge in biotechnology shares lifted the Nasdaq Composite Index to a record, a day after the Federal Reserve signaled it would move more slowly on raising interest rates.
Stocks rose across the board on Thursday, with the Nasdaq climbing 1.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 each adding 1%.
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A vocal watchdog for student loan borrowers steps down (Market Watch)
One of the biggest cops on the student loan beat is stepping down.
Rohit Chopra, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s student loan ombudsman, sent his letter of resignation to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Wednesday. Chopra is the first to hold this position, which was created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, and he used the role to publicly push companies to improve their treatment of student loan borrowers.
The Mysterious "Massive" Seller Who Flash Crashed Gold In 2014 Has Finally Been Revealed (Zero Hedge)
Back in late 2013 and early 2014, the gold (and silver) market was stunned by a series of massive, unprecedented "stop" or "velocity logic" sales which sent the price of the precious metal crashing so furiously they halted the entire gold futures market anywhere between 10 and 20 seconds.
Asian Stocks Advance as Investors Await Bank of Japan Decision (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks rose for a second day, following gains in U.S. shares, as investors awaited a Bank of Japan policy decision. Energy shares led the advance.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.3 percent to 146.91 as of 9:01 a.m. in Tokyo, paring this week’s slide to 0.8 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 1 percent on Thursday in New York and the Nasdaq Composite Index closed at a record high after the Federal Reserve signaled it will continue to support the economy even as growth picks up.
Did The Classic Car Bubble Just Quietly Burst? (Zero Hedge)
In May, Pablo Picasso’s De Women of Algiers (Version O) sold for a record $180 million at auction prompting us to remark that if the Fed's bubble busting team led by Stanley Fischer was looking for runaway inflation, it could have easily found it without any particular effort at Christie’s.
Despite Tensions, U.S. Company Officials Attend Russian Economic Forum (Wall Street Journal)
For a few days at least, profits seem to be trumping politics in Russia.
On Thursday, Kremlin officials proclaimed their success in wooing at least 24 chief executives to attend an economic conference here, some arrived despite objections of their home governments.
The three-day event, which runs through June 20, also drew Greece’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, who had been talking to the Russian gas company Gazprom about pipeline deals to lift revenue for his debt-ridden country. Mr. Tsipras was expected to speak at the business gathering on Friday.
Trading
Robo advisors: The next big thing in investing (CNN)
You no longer have to be in the 1% to get sophisticated financial advice.
Technology is enabling people to make smart decisions about what to do with their money — for a very low fee.
One of the biggest shakeups in the investment world is the introduction of "robo advisors." These are automated investment services that manage your stocks and bonds for you.
5 Top ADSs Seeing Big Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (24/7 Wall St)
24/7 Wall St. covers many of each morning’s key analyst upgrades and downgrades. After a second look, it turns out that some key analyst calls are driving some of the more active American Depositary Shares (ADSs) as well. Some of these analyst calls cover stocks to buy, but one downgrade looks to have kept one of these five from rising along with a strong market.
Politics
Conservative group says Donald Trump's 'childish attack' shows 'what a joke his candidacy is' (Business Insider)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claims that a conservative activist group is badmouthing him after he declined to donate $1 million. And he's calling on the group's president to resign.
In a press release on Thursday, the real-estate mogul Trump implied that the Club for Growth's negative statements about Trump are directly related to the self-proclaimed billionaire's refusal to donate $1 million to the organization. He called on David McIntosh, the group's president, to "immediately" resign.
How Obama Might Get His Trade Deal After All (Atlantic)
Shortly before the House voted on Thursday—for the second time in a week—to deliver President Obama the authority he was seeking to negotiate trade agreements abroad, Speaker John Boehner was asked if he had learned anything from the dead-one-moment, alive-the-next legislative battle.
Nope, the speaker replied. “I would describe most of what’s gone on the last three weeks as close to bizarre,” he told reporters. “I don’t think I’ve learned anything from it.”
Technology
Nest’s New App Is the Command Center for All Your Gadgets (Wired)
HERE’S THE THING about smart hardware: If it’s doing its job right, you should hardly notice it. Nest, for all its focus on beautiful industrial design, wants its products to fade into the background. You might see a handsome thermostat gleaming across the room, but once it’s installed, you’ll rarely touch it.
Like so many other things these days, most of the interaction with connected gadgets like the new Nest Cam is through a screen. That means an experience with anything Nest makes is shaped largely by the experience with its app. And that makes the app the most important interface Nest designs. On Thursday, the company announced updates to its core products—Nest Thermostat, Nest Protect and Nest Cam—and with them a single app to control all three.
Formlabs Form 1+ SLA 3D Printer review (Digital Trends)
When you hear the phrase “3D printer,” you probably picture a traditional filament deposition modeling (FDM) printer. These are the ones that take a spool of thermoplastic, heat it up, and squirt it through a nozzle to create objects layer-by-layer. This technology has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past few years, and continues to improve today — but lately another 3D printing technique has been oozing its way into the mainstream: stereolithography, or SLA for short.
Health and Life Sciences
What Food Can Replace Trans Fats’ Creamy Goodness?? (Wired)
MMM, DOUGHNUTS. ALSO frosting. And microwave popcorn. And cookies. They all have in common one thing. Well, two things, if you count “being delicious.” But they all depend on a particular kind of oil for their flaky, creamy, last-for-months-at-room-temperature goodness. The problem is, those oils—called partially hydrogenated—are about to be outlawed.
Over the next three years, the FDA has asked food manufacturers to phase out trans fats for good. It’s the beginning of the end of a decade-long trend—American trans fat consumption declined by 78 percent between 2003 and 2012, and many processed foods already use alternatives. But many microwave popcorn, crackers, and cookies all still use the stuff. And why not? A century ago scientists figured out that adding hydrogen to oil would turn that oil solid at room temperature—and that these partially hydrogenated oils made a hearty, cheap replacement for lard…
Life on the Home Planet
The Waterloo Myth: Where Was Napoleon Actually Defeated? (Atlantic)
History, they say, is written by the victors. And sometimes everyday expressions are too.
Two hundred years ago today, Anglo-allied forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington and Prussian forces led by Gebhard von Blücher decisively defeatedNapoleon’s troops near the town of Waterloo in modern-day Belgium. The victory halted the French leader’s decade-long quest for empire and—perhaps less vitally—spawned an idiom for confronting an insuperable challenge or suffering a stunning defeat: to meet one’s Waterloo.
U.S. to Crush a Ton of Poached Ivory in Times Square (Scientific American)
People in New York City’s Times Square will witness plumes of pulverized bone erupt as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service crushes one ton of confiscated ivory Friday to protest the illegal poaching of African elephants for the ivory trade. The event follows the only other high-profile ivory crush in the U.S., a six-ton eradication of seized tusks in November 2013.
The brutality of the ivory trade has crippled all elephant populations worldwide, with 50,000 African elephants killed each year, leaving an estimated 434,000 remaining, according to a study published today in Science. This means 10 percent of the population is slaughtered annually, putting the elephants on a fast track to extinction.
12 things people believed in the 90s that we no longer believe today (Market Watch)
Memory cards that cost $100 with just 16MB of memory. Blockbuster Video. Ask Jeeves. The 1990s were all that.
In 2015, $100 will get you a 10-pack of 8GB memory cards on Amazon.com. Blockbuster has been killed off by Netflix. And Ask Jeeves? Well, that still exists.
