Financial Markets and Economy
First Blood to Ruble in Currency War as Drop Tops Yuan (Bloomberg)
If China’s devaluation is going to set off a currency war, Russia will be pretty hard to beat.
Global stock markets don't like the China devaluation (Business Insider)
China surprised everyone for the second day running, slashing the value of its currency against the dollar.
There are lots of different explanations. It could be seen as a move to boost falling exports, to prepare for a US interest rate rise or just to give the currency more flexibility to move in the future as growth slows.
Amazon Lures Investors Back From Alibaba (Bloomberg)
China is no longer in vogue with e-commerce investors, as money returns to the U.S. and Amazon.com Inc. following a brief fling with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its 367 million customers.
Fiorina understands what the U.S. economy needs to grow (Market Watch)
Last week’s first Republican presidential debate, a two-tiered meet-and-greet affair for the TV audience, produced winners, losers and its share of tense moments.
Businesswoman Carly Fiorina was the hands-down winner of the JV debate, an audience-free Q&A with the seven candidates who didn’t make the top-10 cut. Fiorina was poised, knowledgeable and precise in her responses. She comes across as honest, which is more than one can say about that other woman running for president.
Flash-Based Data Storage is Growing Faster Than Anticipated (Bloomberg)
The Cord Blood Registry, used by parents to collect newborn stem cells for future medical treatments, plans to save half a million dollars by improving its storage know-how—not of blood, but digital data.
China's next move could tie its own hands behind its back (Business Insider)
An interest rate cut in China has been seen as a given for months.
But recent data shows that the move is riskier than anyone might've thought — even if Beijing doesn't have much of a choice.
The consensus on Wall Street has been that China's next policy move will be to cut key interest rates to keep money flowing through its economy.
IEA Sees Oil Glut Enduring in 2016 After Reaching 17-Year High (Bloomberg)
The global oil glut will last through next year as surging demand and faltering supply growth fail to clear the surplus, according to the International Energy Agency.
Ad tech stocks are taking a battering (Business Insider)
Ad tech company stocks are getting clobbered.
Why? It seems as if investors are reacting to a poor showing in second-quarter earnings from Millennial Media and YuMe.
China could trigger the biggest financial rout since 2008 (Market Watch)
So much for that “one-time correction.” The People’s Bank of China let the yuan drop again overnight, fixing the currency 1.6% below Tuesday’s close, following the 1.9% devaluation heard around the world a day ago.
Cue continued freakout for global markets.
Deutsche Bank, for one, is predicting the yuan is overvalued by around 10%, so if the yuan continues to weaken, things could yet get a lot darker for markets. And stocks aren’t dealing well with the new China reality they’ve seen so far.
U.S. bank stocks sell off as investors bet the Fed will wait (Business Insider)
U.S. bank stocks fell 1.9 percent on Wednesday as investors bet that a weaker yuan will delay the Federal Reserve rate hikes that are expected to boost bank profits.
The KBW Bank stock index's <.BKX> decline exceeded the 1 percent drop in the broader market, and represented a shift for bank stock investors.
North Sea Oil Defies Price Slump as Output Rises a Second Year (Bloomberg)
The North Sea was thought to be the prime example of how the oil price slump hurt high-cost corners of the energy industry. Yet its crude output is defying the doomsayers.
Amazon quietly shutters product ads that drove traffic to outside sites (Venture Beat)
Amazon.com Inc quietly shuttered a pay-per-click advertising program that allowed businesses to divert traffic from the retailer’s platform to their own websites on Tuesday, saying it would permanently discontinue the program in October.
The program allowed many businesses that are not necessarily sellers on Amazon’s online marketplace to buy ad space on its website. Targeted ads for specific items would pop up on Amazon’s website and drive shoppers to the retailer or manufacturer’s own site.
Rajan Seen Keeping Rupee Out of Currency War to Hold Credibility (Bloomberg)
Indian central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan will probably stay out of any currency war triggered by Chinas yuan devaluation judging from his policy stance to date.
Wells Fargo explores sale of crop insurance business (Business Insider)
Wells Fargo & Co <WFC.N> may divest its crop insurance business, one of the biggest in the United States, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Tuesday, as regulatory restrictions on U.S. banks force some to reconsider underwriting insurance policies.
Wells Fargo has launched an auction for the business that could fetch more than $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said. When contacted by Reuters, Wells Fargo said it is reviewing strategic options for its Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS) subsidiary that may include a sale, excluding the Wells Fargo Insurance Crop Agency, its brokerage arm.
Softbank's Masayoshi Son Vows To Turn Sprint Around; Announces Massive Stock Buyback (Forbes)
Parallels have been drawn between Softbank Group (Nasdaq:SFTBY) chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son (58) and Apple’s late, great Steve Jobs. But the parallel is mainly about both men’s visionary style and drive, rather than about the vision.
For Jobs, it seems to have been about the liberating and life-enriching promises of technology released through ever more innovative products, a sort of digital successor to Thomas Edison.
Charts Strike Back as S&P 500 Turns Tide in Global Selloff (Bloomberg)
At least for today you can add China to the list of concerns that have failed to knock U.S. stocks for an extended loss.
New Cisco CEO hints at more acquisitions after company drops more than $700 million in July (Business Insider)
Cisco has been on an acquisition tear recently, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll slow down any time soon.
“We’re very acquisitive and we’ll continue to be acquisitive as we go forward, as we continue to build out our portfolio, especially in areas like software and security,” said Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer during its fourth quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
Kuroda Line Keeps Yen Unbowed as Yuan Shock Ripples Across Asia (Bloomberg)
As Chinas devaluation of the yuan drags the currencies of its neighbors to new multi-year lows, the yen has been steadfast amid speculation the Bank of Japan doesnt want it to weaken much further.
The bond markets are getting stampeded by elephant deals (Business Insider)
This is one of the best years ever for mergers and acquisitions, and Wall Street's biggest firms have been losing market share to tiny upstarts like Centerview Partners and Zaoui & Co.
Facebook struggles to sell advertising in India (Venture Beat)
Facebook is trying to lure skeptical advertisers in India with features such as free email support for questions about advertising and advice on increasing sales in a bid to boost revenue from its second biggest market.
Facebook has 132 million users in India, trailing only the 193 million in the United States, according to the company, and the country is critical for the Menlo Park, California, social network’s global expansion.
Shiller P/E Looks Less Scary With Cleveland Fed Trend Tweak (Bloomberg)
Theres a way of looking at the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio that makes the Standard & Poors 500 Index seem a little less expensive.
Google's core business explained in two charts (Business Insider)
Yesterday, Google took the dramatic step of splitting its core business out from its long-term bets like Nest (smart devices), Calico (which is researching human longevity), and Sidewalk (which is looking to reinvent cities).
Cheap Debt Evaporates for Junk Companies in Oil's Cruel Summer (Bloomberg)
The weakest corporate borrowers are finding the days of free-flowing credit quickly evaporating.
The $39.6 billion of junk-rated bonds and loans issued since July is the least since the summer of 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. For those that are coming to market, many are paying up or struggling to find buyers at terms they can stomach.
S&P says may cut Berkshire because of Precision Castparts (Business Insider)
Standard & Poor's on Tuesday said it may downgrade Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc <BRKa.N> because the company is spending a large amount of cash to finance its roughly $32.3 billion purchase of aerospace parts maker Precision Castparts Corp <PCP.N>.
Berkshire has a "double-A" rating from S&P, the third highest grade.
Impact Investor Leads Charge For 'Clean Money' To Create Change (Forbes)
Joel Solomon of Renewal Funds is not only a leading impact investor but also a leading voice for the impact investing movement. Based in Vancouver, British Colombia, his impact fund approaches $100 million.
Solomon says, “All of us, particularly those involved in the world of investment and finance, have something to offer. Together we have the resources to achieve what may be the greatest ethical and economic shift in human history.”
Mortgage Applications "Flat" in Latest Weekly Survey, Purchase Index up 20% YoY (Calculated Risk)
Mortgage applications increased 0.1 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 7, 2015. …
The market's biggest worry has suddenly stopped being a big deal (Business Insider)
Everyone from JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon to Blackstone billionaire Steve Schwarzman to bond guru Bill Gross has sounded the alarm about the lack of liquidity in the bond market.
In the nightmare scenario, investors and traders would sell bonds in an illiquid market, which would cause prices to plunge and interest rates to explode.
Crude Oil Joins Beer and Whisky in the 30-Loonie Club in Alberta (Bloomberg)
You can buy a lot for 30 loonies in Alberta. A case of Molson beer. A bottle of Alberta Premium whisky. And now a barrel of heavy crude.
US agriculture markets went wild today (Quartz)
Commodities traders are understandably a little jittery, considering China has thrown a giant wrench into their calculations around the world’s biggest market for raw materials. So, when the US Department of Agriculture dropped its latest crop report (pdf), they went to town. Cotton projections came in way short of expectations, which drove up prices, while the opposite happened for soybeans, corn, and wheat, sending those prices down. All that excitement means you get a chart that looks like this. Happy hump day.
Sorry Troika, Spain's Economic Recovery Is "One Big Lie" (Zero Hedge)
During six months of protracted and terribly fraught negotiations between Athens, Berlin, Brussels, and the IMF, the idea that Spain, Italy, and Ireland somehow represented austerity “success stories” was frequently trotted out as the rationale behind demanding that Greece embark on a deeper fiscal retrenchment despite the fact that the country is mired in recession.
Politics
Indonesias Widodo Said to Plan Cabinet Reshuffle on Wednesday (Bloomberg)
Indonesian President Joko Widodo plans to announce a reshuffle of his cabinet, including members of his economic team, said people familiar with the selection process.
Widodo, known as Jokowi, met leaders of his political party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, Tuesday to agree on changes to economic positions, said the people, who asked not to be named as the talks were private. The cabinet announcement will be at 1 p.m. in Jakarta, Detik’s news website cited Vice President Jusuf Kalla as telling reporters.
Clinton is the tortoise; Sanders is the hare (Market Watch)
Is Hillary Clinton playing the tortoise to Bernie Sanders’ hare?
As the independent Vermont senator packs arenas in his quest for the Democratic nomination, reaping standing ovations from boisterous audiences, the former first lady and former secretary of state plods along at town-hall meetings with her wonky prescriptions for reining in Wall Street and reducing inequality.
Hillary Clinton Turns Over E-mail Server To Feds As Bernie Sanders Surges Ahead In New Poll (Zero Hedge)
Hillary Clinton, who just months ago was for all intents and purposes running unopposed in a bid to return to The White House, only this time around as President, has discovered that the controversy surrounding her handling of sensitive information will likely prove to be a very serious issue for voters going forward.
An attempt to restore the public trust by releasing thousands of pages of e-mails only exacerbated the situation, as some who reviewed the correspondence sent from the former Secretary of State’s private e-mail server now say that although none of the transmitted information was classified at the time it was sent, there are accepted (if sometimes unwritten) standards that top diplomats are expected to follow and Clinton almost certainly did not follow protocol.
Trump ‘all for the concept’ of a woman vice president (Market Watch)
Donald Trump reportedly said Wednesday, just days after coming under fire for reacting to questioning by Fox News debate moderator Megyn Kelly about apparently misogynistic remarks with a fresh apparently misogynistic remark, that he supports the “concept” of a woman vice president.
“Certainly, I would consider a woman as a running mate,” Trump said, according to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.
Technology
This Tube Gives The Hearing Impaired An Alternative Way To Experience Music (Fast Company)
Feel the noise.
Feeling the rhythm takes a very literal meaning in Dimitri Hadjichristou's graduate project,Vi, a tabletop device that turns music into a visual and tactile event for hearing-impaired children.
Solar Panels You Can Fit Inside Your Notebook (PSFK)
With the advent of ground-breaking and cost-decimating progress in solar cell manufacture about five years ago, this form of clean and renewable energy has truly come into its own this decade. The newest iteration in this trend is Solar Paper, a solar charging that fits between the pages of a book.
It’s hard to admit, but just as hard to objectively deny, that convenience has been a major obstacle on the road to adopting renewable energy. Heavy, rigid, large solar chargers don’t get carried around—leaving people to rely on less-eco-friendly batteries for their portable power. Solar Paper’s size and weight keep clean energy convenient, and will likely lead to more people adopting the power.
Let These Robots Schedule Your Work Meetings (Bloomberg)
The only thing more tedious than going to a meeting is scheduling one, which helps explain whyscheduling-software startups outnumber Republicans running for president. By the count of Dennis Mortensen, founder of X.ai, at least 47 rivals are trying to do what his company does—eliminate the flurry of e-mails that precedes even the simplest get-together with a co-worker for coffee.
Health and Life Sciences
Can Fish Oil Arrest Psychosis Onset In Schizophrenia? (Forbes)
Could shiny amber fish oil pills be the key to dampening potential psychosis in teens with risk factors for developing psychotic disorder? Striking results from a study published in Nature Communications suggest that these oily, fat-packed supplements hold that promise.
Study author G. Paul Amminger, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne, and colleagues evaluated the effects of omega-3s in fish oil with a group of young people ages 13 to 25 who were at risk of developing psychosis. In an earlier study, the investigators gave the fats a 12-week trial in this group and followed the young people for a year. For that study, the results were promising: 5% of the omega-3 group went on to develop a psychotic disorder whereas 27.5% did so in the placebo group.
Teens With Depression, Bipolar Disorder Should Be Screened For Heart Disease, Experts Say (Forbes)
In more support of the intimate connection between heart and brain, the American Heart Association has published a statement, advising doctors and the public that teens with mood disorders like depression and bipolar appear to be at increased risk of markers of heart disease. There’s a lot of existing evidence to suggest that in older adults heart disease and depression are interlinked, but less evidence about how, if at all, depression may affect cardiovascular markers in young people. Now it seems that the connection may begin pretty early on. Treating mental health disorders in people of all ages is always important, but in kids and teens, whose bodies and brains are still developing, it may really be a non-negotiable.
Life on the Home Planet
What’s Up With the Quakes Before a Volcano Erupts? (Wired)
EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES are intimately linked. They are both products of the plate tectonic process that is constantly reshaping the surface of the Earth. But even beyond that, earthquakes are some of the best clues we have that a volcano might be heading towards an eruption. So, why are there earthquakes in the days-months-years before a volcano erupts and why do some earthquakes lead to an eruption and some don’t? Well, it is a little more complicated than it seems.
South Africa Counts Carcasses as Rhino Poaching Surges (Time)
Poachers have killed record numbers of rhinos in South Africa in recent years, but some conservationists believe the toll could be higher than the official figures.
Allison Thomson, founder of a group called Outraged SA Citizens Against Poaching, said there are cases not included in the official statistics. For example, lions or other predators probably kill some vulnerable rhino calves whose mothers are poached, Thomson said.
China’s ozone pollution is wafting over and offsetting half the reductions the US has achieved (Quartz)
Like a lot of other chemicals, ozone can be both useful and harmful. In the planet’s stratosphere, it protects us against harmful UV rays. Any lower, however, it can cause respiratory illnesses and hurt the growth of plants.
No wonder then that governments around the world would like to regulate the amount of ozone that is spewed in the atmosphere. The US has been tightening laws to control the creation of ozone pollution over the past decades. Sadly, according to a new study, China’s growth has offset nearly half the reductions the US has achieved.
Watch an eagle punch a drone out of the sky (The Verge)
While humans hem and haw about how to deal with the problems caused by drones, birds take a more straightforward approach: dive bomb anything that looks like a threat. An eagle in Australia has launched the latest attack on the invasive species, successfully taking out a reconnaissance drone from Melbourne Aerial Video.
