Financial Markets and Economy
Oil prices fall again as U.S. and Asian demand looks to weaken (Business Insider)
Oil prices dipped again in early Asian trading on Tuesday as traders expected lower refinery consumption after the U.S. summer, while Asia's weakening economies and high global production raised concerns about oversupply.
U.S. crude futures
were trading at $41.84 per barrel at 0014 GMT, 3 cents below their last settlement and not far off more than six-year lows touched earlier this week. Brent futures were at $48.61 a barrel, down 13 cents but still some way from their 2015-low of $45.19.
More Pain Predicted for Indian Banks by Largest Bad-Debt Buyer (Bloomberg)
Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Co., buyer of the largest amount of bad loans from Indian banks, expects the stressed-asset ratio in the countrys banking system to surge further from a 13-year high.
Our clients recently asked us a surprising question (Business Insider)
Wall Street's investment pros get paid a lot of money to answer all sorts of questions about the markets and the economy.
What to watch for in Hewlett-Packard’s earnings (Market Watch)
Hewlett-Packard Co. is set to report fiscal third-quarter earnings after the market close on Thursday, and both sales and earnings are expected to be down from a year ago.
The company’s exposure to the ailing PC market and China has prompted several brokerages to temper their quarterly revenue estimates ahead of the scheduled results.
Falling oil prices aren't killing the Texas economy (CNN)
Some economists warned last year that Texas could slide into a recession in 2015 as oil prices tanked.
Last week, prices hit a 6-year low to $42, down from $100 a barrel a year ago.
The FTSE put in a strong late rally but ultimately barely budged (Business Insider)
The UK's share market spent most of the day in the doldrums but rallied late to end the day almost exactly flat at 6550.30, creeping down just 0.01%.
Buzzkill Profs: Hedge Funds Do Half as Well as You Think (Bloomberg)
It's the dog days of summer, when college professors are supposed to be doing nothing but mimeographing their syllabus and mending the elbow patches on their blazers (or whatever it is that they do in the summer.)
But that's not stopping some academics from throwing shade, as the kids say, in the general direction of the hedge fund industry.
China’s switch on yuan reinforces bid to join elite currency club (Market Watch)
After last week’s changes in Chinese arrangements for handling the yuan’s exchange rate, the contours of the currency’s expected entry into the special drawing right next year are becoming clearer.
A big hedge fund has gone from turning money away to having investors ask for it back (Business Insider)
Claren Road Asset Management, the long-short credit hedge fund backed by private equity giant Carlyle Group, was turning money away a year ago.
Now its assets under management are plummeting.
Bloomberg News' Simone Foxman and Saijel Kishan report that investors asked to pull $1.97 billion from the fund in the last round redemption round.
Hamburg Has 2009 Flashback as China Slowdown Augurs Trade Slump (Bloomberg)
Hamburg, Germany’s biggest port, is bracing for a seven percent slump in container volume this year after China’s economic slowdown prompted the steepest decline in trade with the Asian country since 2009.
China traffic, which accounts for 30 percent of the port’s throughput, slid 11 percent to 1.3 million standard 20-foot containers, or TEU, in the first six months of the year, figures released by Hamburg Port Marketing on Monday showed. It expects a similar rate of decline for the full year.
Investors are trading like we're 'already in a bear market' (Business Insider)
After hitting 53 all-time highs last year, the S&P 500 has been relatively flat this year and according to one analyst it's fortelling a coming bear market.
"[W]hen you view the US equity market through the prism of investment style performance, you can see that investors are positioning themselves EXACTLY as you would expect if faced with an economic deceleration," Societe Generale's Andrew Lapthorne writes.
Gold futures settle higher after 2-session decline (Market Watch)
Gold futures settled higher on Monday after a two-session decline, but analysts stressed caution after last week’s price rally on the back of China’s currency devaluation.
December gold GCZ5, -0.03% rose $5.70, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,118.40 an ounce on Comex. Prices posted declines over the previous two trading sessions, but tallied an overall gain of 1.7% last week. September silver SIU5, -0.15% settled up 8.5 cents, or 0.6%, on Monday at $15.298 an ounce.
An extraordinary look at what's going on in the US economy right now (Business Insider)
Two things are true about the US economy: It is adding jobs and growing.
Economic growth over the last few years has been just so-so, though GDP is still growing about 2% annually.
Hedge funds are losing billions on this bad trade (CNN)
Carl Icahn and David Einhorn have bet big on energy. It's been a costly mistake so far.
Oil was trading at over $100 a barrel last summer. Now it goes for barely above $42 a barrel. The tumble in oil prices has taken many energy stocks with it. Profits too have plummeted over 50% at Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) this summer compared to a year ago.
Goldman Sachs: Four Reasons the Stock Market Will Move Sideways Until the End of the Year (Bloomberg)
"Flat is the new up," Goldman Sachs says. The team of analysts led by David Kostin are telling clients that they still don't think the stock market will do much through the end of 2015.
After delivering double-digit gains in recent years, Goldman doesn't expect the S&P 500 to go much of anywhere. Its outlook currently calls for an index at 2,100 at the end of this year, up just barely from 2,091, as of Monday's open.
Asian shares steady for now after mixed U.S. data (Business Insider)
Asian shares were steady on Tuesday after strong U.S. housing data offset concerns from a weak U.S. manufacturing report, while the dollar's yield advantage kept it firm.
Japan's Nikkei <.N225> rose 0.1 percent while South Korean shares <.KS11> gained 0.4 percent and Australian shares <.AXJO> rose 0.2 percent.
QVC comes to the rescue of Zulily (CNN)
The latest flash sale on Zulily? Itself.
Struggling Internet retailer Zulily (ZU) agreed on Monday to sell itself to the owner of QVC for $2.4 billion. The deal marries a powerhouse TV shopping network brand with one that's in desperate need of a turnaround.
The Wall Street Ponzi At Work – The Stock Pumping Swindle Behind Four Retail Zombies (David Stockman's Contra Corner)
In the nearby column Jim Quinn debunks Wall Street’s latest claim that the American consumer is bounding back. He points out that on an inflation-adjusted basis retail sales are barely higher than they were a year ago, and, for that matter, are still only 4% greater in real terms than they were way back in November 2007.
That’s right. Nearly eight years and $3.5 trillion of Fed money printing later, yet the vaunted American consumer is struggling to stay above the flat line, not shopping up a storm.
What to watch for in Target earnings (Market Watch)
Target Corp. will report fiscal second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, before the market opens, during a season in which vulnerabilities, from digital shortcomings to inventory miscalculations, have had an impact on just about every retailer.
At Target TGT, +0.24% there have also been high-level departures as the company works to adjust its business practices to keep up with consumers and the competition.
Saudi Businesswomen Tap Instagram to Bypass Men, Attract Clients (Bloomberg)
If she had chosen the traditional route to opening her accessories business in Jeddah, Rozana al-Daini would have had to enlist a male sponsor to represent her before government agencies and sign official documents on her behalf.
Politics
MARK CUBAN: Here's my political philosophy (Business Insider)
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made national headlines in recent weeks discussing Donald Trump's presidential campaign, which he called "probably the best thing to happen to politics in a long long time."
But despite his stated willingness to consider becoming Trump's vice president if asked, Cuban said in a new interview there's "absolutely" no chance he'd ultimately join the Republican real-estate tycoon's ticket.
Obama Makes The Presidential Innovation Fellows Permanent (Fast Company)
Now in its fourth year, the program helps the U.S. government approach problems like a lean startup.
Today, President Obama signed an executive order to make the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program a permanent facet of the federal government.
Technology
I thought Microsoft wasn’t relevant anymore. Then I installed Windows 10 (Venture Beat)
I don’t know if I broke a law of computing or committed heresy. But I installed Windows 10 on my Macbook Pro. I had feared that this would condemn me to computing hell. But it has been an incredibly positive experience: My favorite Microsoft Office applications — Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint — work faster than ever before, and I can still use Apple peripherals — a Thunderbolt Display and Thunderbolt external hard drives. The best part is Windows 10 itself. It is a beautifully designed operating system that gives me the best of the past and present — maintaining the usability and familiarity of the old Windows operating system and letting me download slick apps designed for tablets.
A brain-computer interface for controlling an exoskeleton (Phys)
Scientists working at Korea University, Korea, and TU Berlin, Germany have developed a brain-computer control interface for a lower limb exoskeleton by decoding specific signals from within the user's brain.
Using an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap, the system allows users to move forwards, turn left and right, sit and stand simply by staring at one of five flickering light emitting diodes (LEDs).
Watch Boston Dynamics' Robot Run Outside Oh God They're Coming For Us (Gizmodo)
Possible cause of the singularity Boston Dynamics is secretive about upcoming projects, but new footage shows their robots in action—and the results are highly unsettling.
First you can see Spot, an agile autonomous quadruped ripped directly from Isaac Asimov’s nightmares, opening a door with the arm it sports instead of a face. Spot would almost be adorable the way it trots around on four legs except for the protruding face-arm that will turn the handle on your front door with its superstrength. Sleep well tonight.
Health and Life Sciences
Life as an adult with ADHD (BBC)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults is a "hidden" problem that needs better diagnosis, the charity for people with the condition, Addiss, has said. How does it affect adults' lives?
"I wake up every morning a new woman. I think, 'Today is the day I'm going to do everything right and get on top of the important things instead of [procrastinating].'
"And every night I go to bed a broken woman because it's all gone wrong again and I haven't done any of it. I can get really upset… horrendously depressed."
Higher melanoma risk after organ transplant (Futurity)
Transplant patients are twice as likely to develop melanoma as people who don’t receive a donor organ, and three times more likely to die of the dangerous skin cancer, new research shows.
The findings suggest that immunosuppressive drugs used to keep patients from rejecting new organs—especially the high doses at the time of transplant—may make them more susceptible to later stage cancers that are harder to cure.
Life on the Home Planet
Climate Change May Get Its Own Museum (Scientific American)
Miranda Massie is on a mission to create an institution from scratch. It will cost many millions of dollars and years to build, but when done, it will help define the next 200 years of human existence.
So what exactly is at the core of this mission? A museum based in New York City that chronicles the global and local impacts of climate change, the possible solutions and the connections that exist between every visitor to the museum and the world around them.
Cotopaxi volcano threatens more than 300,000 Ecuadorans (Phys)
Nearly 325,000 people could be affected by an eruption of Cotopaxi, the volcano looming beyond the Ecuadoran capital of Quito, officials said Monday.
The biggest risk is from an eruption melting the 5,900-meter (19,000-foot) mountain's snowcap and triggering massive melt-water floods and lahar mudflows that could sweep through nearby towns, Ecuador's minister of risk management Maria del Pilar Cornejo told a press conference.
Ancient ‘Scarface’ may have spewed venom (Futurity)
Scientists have identified a new species of pre-mammal: an ancient Dachshund-sized creature that lived about 255 million years ago in a time just before the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history.
The creature has been named Ichibengops munyamadziensis—or “Scarface of the Munyamadzi River,” a colorful designation that combines the discovery location with the Bemba word for scar, “ichibenga,” since the long-extinct cousin of the mammalian lineage sports a unique groove on its upper jaw.
