Financial Markets and Economy
Why most U.S. housing markets are undervalued even as prices climb (Market Watch)
U.S. homes are by in large undervalued, even as national price measures show a modest overvaluation due to skewing effects from a few large markets, according to new research from Goldman Sachs.
5 Things To Ponder: "China Rising" Or Not? (Street Talk Live)
Things have certainly changed since I was a child. When I was growing up my father would come outside to give the traditional"dinner whistle." As was often the case, the common response was "Can we play for five more minutes? Please?"
The leading countries for alternative finance and the next high-growth markets (Business Insider)
Since the financial crisis, borrowers have been eager to get lower interest rates and better access to credit, while lenders have searched for higher returns on their investments. Banks, saddled with regulatory burdens, haven't been able to fully meet these needs. This has left room for the growth of a new market — peer-to-peer lending.
Stocks End Week Unchanged Despite Nausea-Inducing Wild Ride (Zero Hedge)
Despite the rampacious surge in stocks, some context on the week… Nasdaq & S&P 500 End Red, Small Caps and Trannies squeezed to death..
Global Stock Carnage Ignores Mexico ETF Leading Weekly Inflows (Bloomberg)
In a week in which crises in Greece and China spurred a selloff in global markets, Mexico’s biggest exchange-traded fund made out quite nicely.
Investors have poured a net $56.9 million into the iShares MSCI Mexico Capped ETF since July 3, compared with outflows of $641.6 million for global funds excluding the U.S. Brazil ETFs had an inflow of $5.2 million, while China-focused funds posted withdrawals of $56.9 million during the same span.
This may be Greece’s path to stay in the euro (Market Watch)
Another crucial weekend stands between Greece and the fiscal abyss. But this time there is far more optimism than there has been in the past.
Global stocks rallied with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.21% surging 211 points, or 1.2%, Friday after the country submitted a set of bailout proposals that may actually pass muster with its troika of European lenders.
The One Common Feature In Every Financial Crisis (Sovereign Man)
Spontaneous combustion.
Alien invasion.
Zombie apocalypse.
U.S. wage growth only tepid so far, says Fed's Rosengren (Business Insider)
The evidence of U.S. wage growth has been underwhelming, a top Federal Reserve policymaker said on Friday, adding he expects measurements to pick up and give the central bank confidence that inflation will rise to a 2-percent goal.
"Wages have not been growing particularly rapidly," said Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren. "We would expect that wages would pick up (and we're) seeing some evidence in … the employment cost index … and average hourly earnings."
China's Stock Market Selloff Explained in Six Charts (Bloomberg)
Yes, Chinese equities have bounced back over the last two days, but they've still shed more than $3 trillion in value in less than a month. Here are half a dozen ways to consider the market malaise.
Germany wants to ‘break’ Greece: former Greek finance minister (Market Watch)
Yanis Varoufakis, the controversial economics professor who served as Greece’s finance minister from January until earlier this week, just penned a scathing op-ed in the Guardian newspaper, accusing Germany of attempting to break Greece while slamming creditors for failing to view debt relief as an essential ingredient to getting the country back on the road to recovery.
Varoufakis left office after the Sunday referendum that saw Greek voters overwhelmingly reject demands by its lenders for a bailout. Needless to say, Varoufakis and his fellow eurozone negotiators didn’t have a high estimation of each other. Varoufakis, upon departing, wrote that he would “wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.” See: Ode to a Grecian finance minister as Varoufakis steps down.
Oil rig count rises for a second straight week (Business Insider)
The US oil rig count rose for a second straight week.
Signs of a Growing Hush in China’s Economy (NY Times)
As China’s stock market tumbled over the last month, some wealthy apartment owners began trying to sell. Shopping malls became quieter. And customers at automobile dealerships across the country asked to defer delivery and payment for previously ordered cars.
While share prices have rebounded modestly in recent days, many business owners in China remain nervous, as they start to notice a perceptible economic chill.
Costco’s ‘death cross’ is more bullish than bearish (Market Watch)
Costco Wholesale Corp.’s stock surged Friday, as an analyst’s upgrade helped it fight off an ominous-sounding technical pattern.
It's Not 1929 For China Stocks But VC Bubble Will Burst (Forbes)
It looks as though there wasn’t so much to worry about the collapsing stock market in China.
And that definitely proves Derek Sulger, a managing partner at Lunar Capital, right on in his predictions about the impact. Indeed, China stocks had the biggest daily gain in six years.
The 4 Stocks That Lifted the Dow on Friday (24/7 Wall St)
July 10, 2015: Markets opened higher for the second day in a row on Friday following a better-than-expected increase in inventory levels. Even Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen’s remarks that a rate hike is still on the table for late this year didn’t dampen enthusiasm. A request from Greece for additional loans was not rejected out of hand, and the Shanghai Composite index rose 4.5% today. Shortly before the closing bell the DJIA traded up 1.30% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 1.34%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 1.65%.
Politics
Jeb Bush Is Right That Americans Need to Work More (The Atlantic)
To accelerate economic growth, Americans need to work longer.
TheTruth Behind Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton's Twitter Spat (Bloomberg)
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton got into an economic spat yesterday via the noblest form of debate: the Twitter argument.
As Bush campaigned in New Hampshire Wednesday, he bemoaned the nation's low labor force participation rate, telling the New Hampshire Union Leader editorial board "that people need to work longer hours" to help propel U.S. growth. The Clinton campaign quickly capitalized on the comment, tweeting:
Technology
Apple iOS 9 has the features you wished for (CNN)
Apple is finally letting users test the updates they've been waiting for.
With iOS 9, the updates go beyond icon designs and color schemes. There's a lot to look forward to — new apps as well as revamped ones. Apple Maps boasts particularly welcome upgrades.
Health and Life Sciences
Results are in: Calories through the nose, geography of colon cancer (CNN)
Remember the smell of fresh-baked bread? Love the scent of popcorn? Yale researchers have uncovered a link between a person's ability to vividly imagine pleasant scents and body mass index (BMI). Not everyone is equally able to conjure up smells, it turns out, unlike the nearly universal ability to imagine visuals. Does this mean that daydreaming about the smell of delicious food will lead you down the path to obesity? Not necessarily, researchers say, but the study did mention that imagining food odors might trigger cravings. The authors, who presented their research at a medical conference, also suggest this finding could help doctors create a more individualized approach to help people fight weight gain.
Brain Stimulator Treats Anxiety and Depression With Serious Stigma-Fighting Style (PSFK)
With its bloodshot-eyeball headband and neat retro control box, the new Mishka Edition Fisher Wallace Stimulator looks so cool that any passing millennial would want to pick it up and give it a go. When it comes to being packed with FDA-approved technology, however, the device’s prowess isn’t just skin deep.
The collaboration aims “to destigmatize mental health treatment and produce a device that a 25-year-old Iraq war veteran from Brooklyn or Los Angeles would want to use to treat depression,” explained Kelly Roman, Creative Director for Fisher Wallace.
Life on the Home Planet
Empathy Is Actually a Choice (NY Times)
ONE death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic.
You’ve probably heard this saying before. It is thought to capture an unfortunate truth about empathy: While a single crying child or injured puppy tugs at our heartstrings, large numbers of suffering people, as in epidemics, earthquakes and genocides, do not inspire a comparable reaction.
The World's Largest Indoor Vertical Farm Is Being Built in New Jersey (Gizmodo)
This week, a former steel factory in Newark, New Jersey began its transformation into a new life as a vertical farm that will feed hundreds of thousands of people—it will grow up to two million pounds of kale, arugula and romaine lettuce per year when it’s finished.
The farm is one of many industrial buildings in the Ironbound community of Newark where former factories and warehouses are being rehabilitated into new uses. The groundbreaking was yesterday, and when finished, the 69,000 square foot space will be the largest indoor vertical farm in the world.
