Financial Markets and Economy
Hong Kong Stocks Are Priced Like They're in Pakistan After Rout (Bloomberg)
Its going to take more than the cheapest valuations in 12 years to convince Shane Oliver that the time is right to buy Hong Kong stocks.
The thing that made banks safer has made the market riskier (Business Insider)
Everyone is talking about bond market liquidity — and what would happen to it in theevent of a crash.
Post-financial crisis regulations has forced banks to become better capitalized and amass larger amounts of liquid assets. That has made them less-risky institutions.
That though means that they won't be able to step in when bond prices start falling and act as a shock absorber.
Gas Golden Age Fades as Supply Boom Meets Japan Nuclear Rebirth (Bloomberg)
The golden age of natural gas lost some of its luster this month.
Japan, the world’s biggest buyer of the fuel in liquid form, restarted a nuclear reactor on the island of Kyushu Aug. 11, re-embracing atomic power to shrink energy-import costs. A week later, a production milestone was marked at Santos Ltd.’s Curtis Island plant in Australia, a new liquefied natural gas project that’s part of a record annual capacity increase.
The UK is beating the US in the peer-to-peer alternative lending market — here's why (Business Insider)
The UK generated nearly $2.3 billion in peer-to-peer (P2P) loans in 2014, making its alternative lending market the largest in the world on a per capita basis. To illustrate,72% more lending volume is transacted in the UK than in the US per person.
Currency Turmoil Reveals Winners in Latin America as China Loses (Bloomberg)
Amid the worst emerging-market currency rout since the global financial crisis, some developing countries can expect a silver lining.
'Arguably the only reason to be bullish risk assets right now is there are no reasons to be bullish' (Business Insider)
"Arguably the only reason to be bullish risk assets right now is there are no reasons to be bullish."
Banks' Shackled Balance Sheets Make Them Bond Market's Darlings (Bloomberg)
Boring is proving to be profitable for investors who bought the debt of Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other Wall Street banks. Gains on bonds issued by these firms are exceeding the paltry gains on all other corporate bonds.
China Woes Send Stocks Into Tailspin (NY Times)
Stock markets around the world plummeted on Thursday, signaling that investors have not gotten over the shock of China’s devaluation last week and remain nervous about the health of the global economy.
The selling began in Asia, punishing Chinese stocks once again. It then moved to Europe, walloping markets in Germany and Italy, and ended with a rush for the exits in the United States.
Lumber Liquidators, Arch Coal shares soar, bucking the broad market selloff (Market Watch)
The recently beaten-down stocks of Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. and Arch Coal Inc. soared on heavy volume in afternoon trade Thursday, providing investors with a couple of rare bright spots in an otherwise dreary day for the broader stock market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.06% shed nearly 300 points, or 1.7%, as all 30 of the blue-chip index’s components declined, as investors struggled with concerns over a slowing global economy and an impending interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 Index SPX, -2.11% slid 1.7%.
The FTSE is now 10% off its peak – entering a 'correction' (Business Insider)
The UK's main share index fell 0.56% today – the eighth time in a row.
Shares briefly went positive on hopes the US Federal Reserve will postpone a long-awaited interest rate hike, but then dropped back down on news Greece may call snap elections next month.
Commodities Rout Erases Stock Values the Size of Indias GDP (Bloomberg)
The value that commodity producers have lost in the past year almost equals India’s entire economy.
Don’t be fooled by recent run-up in gold prices, say pros (Market Watch)
Gold’s recent rally is impressive. Prices on Thursday hit their highest settlement since mid-July, but many analysts aren’t confident that the tide has fully turned for the yellow metal.
Fundamentals have certainly improved for the precious metal, which now trades around 5.3% higher month to date. On Thursday, December gold GCZ5, +0.71% climbed $25.30, or 2.2%, to settle at $1,153.20 an ounce on Comex, building on an $11, or 1%, climb from a day earlier amid a global selloff in stocks, including a more than 300-point plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.06% Thursday.
How cheap oil will hurt Iran's comeback (CNN)
Iran may be about to emerge from decades of economic isolation — at an absolutely terrible time for an oil-producing country.
Years of painful economic sanctions by the West have ravaged Iran's economy, sending unemployment and inflation soaring.
Dow plummets 358 points on global fears (CNN)
Fears of a China slowdown ripped through global markets and sent U.S. stocks to their lowest level of the year on Thursday.
All the major indexes were in the red. The Dow fell 358 points to close below 17,000, for the first time since last October. The index fell 2.06% — the the worst loss since February 2014.
Twitter Falls Below IPO Price of $26 (Bloomberg)
Twitter Inc. shares dipped below their $26 initial public offering price, down almost two-thirds from a peak soon after the stock began trading.
Gold Bulls Cheer as Inflation Flop Foils Fed Tightening Zeal (Bloomberg)
The Federal Reserves quest for U.S. inflation is proving frustrating, and that's good news for gold bulls.
Media stocks in fresh slide led by Disney (CNN)
Major media stocks led by Disney slid markedly on Thursday, continuing a month-long reassessment of the industry's valuation.
You could call it an August Reset. A sell-off that started more than two weeks ago was refueled Thursday morning when a prominent analyst, Bernstein's Todd Juenger, downgraded Disney (DIS)and Time Warner (TWX).
Venezuelan Inflation Could Average 86% This Year, Survey Shows (Bloomberg)
Venezuelan inflation will average 86 percent in 2015, up from 57 percent last year, according to a median estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Asia slides after Wall Street caves, dollar extends losses (Business Insider)
Asian stocks fell early on Friday, following Wall Street, as fears took hold of a China-led deceleration in global growth.The dollar continued retreating on shrinking expectations of an U.S. interest rate hike in September.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> was down 0.5 percent. Japan's Nikkei <.N225> lost 1.8 percent and South Korea's Kospi <.KS11> shed 2.2 percent.
Politics
Hillary Clinton's beef with quarterly reports (CNN)
Hillary Clinton says quarterly capitalism is "bad for business, bad for wages and bad for our economy." Her solution has received a lot of criticism because it would require a complex change to the tax code.
But a top U.S. law firm says it has an easier way to combat quarterly capitalism: End quarterly reporting.
North and South Korea exchange fire (Market Watch)
The two Koreas briefly exchanged heavy-arms fire in an escalation of confrontation days after two South Korean soldiers were maimed by land mines.
Thursday’s incident, which began when a single rocket was fired across the border from North Korea, also comes as the U.S. and South Korea stage annual summer military exercises to ensure readiness for a possible North Korean invasion. Pyongyang portrays the drills as preparation for an attack on itself.
Jeb Bush Suggests Donald Trump Is A Secret Progressive. Is He Right? (Think Progress)
You can’t run for president in this day and age without being asked repeatedly about Donald Trump. And you can’t avoid Donald Trump’s wrath without repeatedly dodging the question.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, however, is taking the chance. In a video released by his campaign on Wednesday, Bush came down on the Republican presidential frontrunner for promoting policies that are progressive to the core. Even Trump’s aggressively nationalist immigration policy, Bush said, is progressive compared to what he would support.
Technology
In the future, iPad Smart Covers could have screens of their own (Mashable)
Apple wants to make the iPad an essential work tool. Now there's evidence the company is sprucing up the tablet's Smart Covers to give users faster access to information.
Apple was granted a patent for built-in displays on iPad covers, according to aUnited States Patent and Trade Office patent found by Business Insider.
Device Displays the CO2 Footprint of Factories (PSFK)
With every bold and provocative puff of a generator, BIG wants to express to the public how much CO2 their Waste-to-Energy power plant in Copenhagen will emit. They will release one solid steam stack into the air from their factory’s largest pipe for every ton of CO2 they release. This informs locals how much CO2 enters the air at any given minute, providing a visual reminder of how responsible (or irresponsible) a manufacturer is about their carbon footprint.
The project, which was originally planned as part of the power plant’s original proposal but that is currently on Kickstarter seeking funds specifically for a prototype, derives steam for the stack from a factory’s excess steam (a byproduct that is nearly universal in manufacturing). The steam builds up until a monitor allows the smoke stack to release, creating a dramatic and highly visible display in contrast to the often-invisible outgassing of modern factories.
Health and Life Sciences
E-cigarettes much safer than real cigarettes and an aid toward quitting, UK study finds (CNN)
The question of whether e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking is hotly debated. Studies looking at the effectiveness of the devices as cessation aids have been unclear, but at best, they suggest that they work about as well as nicotine patches.
The uncertainty surrounding use of e-cigarettes, also known as vaping, did not stop a government body in the United Kingdom from concluding in a new report that e-cigarettes could help people quit smoking.
Why we're smarter than chickens: Team uncovers protein part the controls neuron development (Phys)
Toronto researchers have discovered that a single molecular event in our cells could hold the key to how we evolved to become the smartest animal on the planet.
Benjamin Blencowe, a professor in the University of Toronto's Donnelly Centre and Banbury Chair in Medical Research, and his team have uncovered how a small change in a protein called PTBP1 can spur the creation of neurons – cells that make the brain – that could have fuelled the evolution of mammalian brains to become the largest and most complex among vertebrates.
Life on the Home Planet
Humans are 'unique super-predator' (BBC)
Humans' status as a unique super-predator is laid bare in a new study published in Science magazine.
The analysis of global data details the ruthlessness of our hunting practices and the impacts we have on prey.
It shows how humans typically take out adult fish populations at 14 times the rate that marine animals do themselves.
Climate Change Increases the Odds of Epic California Droughts (Scientific American)
There’s a drought in California. Perhaps you’ve heard a few things about it.
Like the fact that it’s cost the state $2.7 billion in losses, helped burn up roughly 118,000 acres of forest this year to date and inspired Los Angeles to release a 96 million-strong armada of shade balls into reservoirs (though it was apparently a PR stunt). Oh, and the state is also missing a year’s worth of rain.
