Financial Markets and Economy
Swiss Get the Bill for SNB U-Turn as Economy Seen in Recession (Bloomberg)
The Swiss National Bank may see the fallout from its dramatic policy u-turn delivered in one word this week: recession.
Everyone's got it backward — the market chaos is EXACTLY why the Fed needs to pull the trigger in September (Business Insider)
Peter Tchir at Brean Capital thinks the recent stock market chaos is the reason for the Federal Reserve to raise rates in September.
Amid the recent sell-off in US markets, conventional wisdom has coalesced around the idea that the Federal Reserve's plan to raise interest rates will now have to be put on hold.
Certainly past September, but perhaps indefinitely.
The Hottest Biotech And Healthcare Stocks Among Hedge Fund Billionaires (Forbes)
From mega pharmaceutical mergers to Obamacare, biotech and healthcare stocks are some of the most interesting to watch. To compile this list, we looked at the trades of billionaire hedge fund managers in the half-year ending Mar. 31. The top picks are ranked based on the number of billionaires who bought or sold the stock in a material way–at least 10,000 shares. We included picks only if at least five top managers agreed.
The mysterious 21% plunge in GE's stock (CNN)
General Electric shares mysteriously plummeted 21% on Monday in the midst of the unprecedented 1,089-point plunge on the Dow.
It was a stunning moment for GE (GE), one of America's most iconic companies. An astonishing $53 billion of its value vanish in mere seconds — before rapidly recovering nearly as quickly.
DeMark Says Chinese Stocks Are at Make-or-Break Inflection Point (Bloomberg)
Tom DeMark, who predicted this months selloff in Chinese stocks, said the Shanghai Composite Index may extend its decline by 13 percent should it stay below a critical technical level on Wednesday.
Here's the next high-wire act China is going to have to pull off (Business Insider)
China is about to try to perform a high-stakes balancing act.
The country cut interest rates on Tuesday in a bid to keep money flowing through its economy.
Now that it has done that, it has a new gargantuan challenge on it hands — making sure the yuan stays stable.
These stocks are getting crushed. Time to buy now? (CNN)
Amid all the volatility, sometimes the best time to buy is when there's blood in the streets, as a famous investor once said.
"You get the best buys when doom and gloom are present. That's how investing works," says Kevin Carter, chairman of EMQQ index, an emerging markets index.
Now you see it, now you don’t: Yesterday’s market panic is already dissipating (Quartz)
Just yesterday it felt, to anyone paying attention to the markets anyway, like the world was ending.
Chinese stocks were tanking, and the People’s Bank of China didn’t seem to be doing enough about it, leading investors around the world to get out of the way of whatever might be coming down the pike.
Nigerian Second-Quarter Economic Growth Slows on Oil Plunge (Bloomberg)
Growth in the Nigerian economy, Africa’s largest, slowed in the second quarter due to the slump in oil prices, the country’s statistics office said.
Gross domestic product expanded 2.35 percent on an annual basis, compared with 3.96 percent a quarter earlier, the head of the National Bureau of Statistics, Yemi Kale, said on his Twitter account on Tuesday. The oil industry contracted 6.8 percent, Kale said.
These 2 things are giving stock market bulls a boost on Tuesday (Business Insider)
After a sharp sell-off on Monday, stocks opened the day higher and while they are off their best levels of the day near 2:00 pm ET, the major US indexes are all higher by more than 1%.
Here's How Much the Turmoil in Financial Markets Could Hurt U.S. Growth (Bloomberg)
The Federal Reserve might not be too worried about the billionaires who saw their net worth take a ten-figure hit during Monday's plunge in equity prices, but monetary policymakers will have to be concerned about how the broader tightening in financial conditions could hurt the U.S. economy's growth prospects going forward.
Stocks Tumble at Close, Dashing Earlier Rebound (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. stocks resumed their tumble after a brief upturn on Tuesday, as actions by China to shore up its economy failed to soothe investors rattled by the weeklong rout.
After Monday’s tumultuous session, during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 1,000 points intraday, trading was calmer. But worries about the pace of global growth persisted, and an early rally presented investors with an opportunity to sell shares at prices higher than in previous days.
U.S. stock futures resume descent, not much cheer from China rate cut (Business Insider)
U.S. stock futures resumed descent in early Asian trade and Asian shares were seen on the defensive on Wednesday as monetary easing by China's central bank had limited success in cheering up nervous investors.
U.S. S&P 500 mini futures
fell 0.7 percent to 1,858.75, edging closer to Monday's 10-month low of 1,831.
Politics
Trump Top But Sanders Surges As Hillary 'Hope' Hammered In New Hampshire (Zero Hedge)
A stunning 78% of Democrats in New Hampshire view Bernie Sanders favorably in the latest polls. As The Hill reports, Hillary Clinton was viewed favorably by that percentage in April, but that has dropped 15 percentage points among Democrats. With Sanders topping Clinton by a 44 to 37 percent margin (VP Joe Biden garnered 9%), and Trump support among Republicans at 35%, it appears serial lying is not paying off for the Oligarchy (for now)…
Donald Trump Just Had Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos Thrown Out of a Press Conference (Mother Jones)
At a press event in Iowa Tuesday, Donald Trump had Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos removed by security after the Trump critic challenged the GOP front-runner for his positions on immigration.
"Sit down, go back to Univision," Trump said, before Ramos was removed.
Technology
Robots are using wikiHow to figure out how to cook us breakfast (Quartz)
If there’s anything you’ve ever needed to know how to do, from building a birdhouse to tying a bowtie to dressing like a “pastel goth,” you’ve probably ended up on wikiHow. Now, robots are using the user-generated advice site to learn how to do all sorts of tasks for us—including making pancakes and pizza.
RoboHow, a group of robotics researchers from multiple European universities, are trying to teach robots how to cook, among other things, MIT Technology Review reported. The robots learn, like most budding cooks these days, through a combination of being shown how to make something by a knowledgable human, and then parsing information from how-to websites and videos, just to make sure.
The Air Force Wants You to Trust Robots–Should You? (Scientific American)
A British fighter jet was returning to its base in Kuwait after a mission on the third day of the 2003 Iraq War when a U.S. anti-missile system spotted it, identified it as an enemy missile, and fired. The two men in the plane were both killed. A week and a half later, the same system—the vaunted Patriot—made the same mistake. This time, it was an American plane downed, and an American pilot killed.
The missile battery that targeted the two jets was almost entirely automated. There were people there watching over it, but they deferred to the machine’s analysis, and these friendly fire deaths were the result. A decade later, the issue underlying the problem hasn’t gone away. Indeed, it’s become more pressing as the military comes to rely more and more on automation, and spends huge sums of money researching and developing artificial intelligence. In the future that could include what it calls autonomous weapons systems, one of the most controversial fields of artificial intelligence.
Health and Life Sciences
Omega-3 fish oil ‘does not boost elderly brains’ (The Telegraph)
Millions of older people are wasting their time and money taking fish oils supplements to boost brain power after a study showed they do not slow mental decline.
Scientists who monitored the progress of 4,000 people over five years found no evidence that omega-3 capsules kept them any sharper witted as they aged.
Other studies have associated regular fish consumption with lower rates of the eye condition age-related macular degeneration (AMD), heart disease, and dementia, as well as larger brain volumes.
Wider Reach Is Sought for Costly New Hepatitis C Treatments (NY Times)
Federal and state Medicaid officials should widen access to prescription drugs that could cure tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C, including medications that can cost up to $1,000 a pill, health care experts have told the White House.
The experts, from the Public Health Service and President Obama’s Advisory Council on H.I.V./AIDS, said restrictions on the drugs imposed by many states were inconsistent with sound medical practice, as reflected in treatment guidelines issued by health care professionals and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Universal flu vaccine comes closer (BBC)
Researchers say they are closer to developing a vaccine to give life-long protection against any type of flu, after promising trials in animals.
Two separate US teams have found success with an approach that homes in on a stable part of the flu virus.
That should remove the problem with current flu vaccines which must be given anew each year because they focus on the mutating part of the virus.
Life on the Home Planet
NOAA's new Climate Science Strategy outlines efforts to build resilience (Phys)
As ocean conditions continue to change, putting ocean ecosystems and the communities that rely upon them at risk, today, NOAA took a first step in providing regional fisheries managers and stakeholders with information they need to reduce the effects of climate change and build resilience.
"NOAA just announced that for the globe the month of July—and actually, the entire year so far—was the warmest ever recorded, driven largely by record warm ocean temperatures," said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries. "Those warmer waters – along with rising seas, coastal droughts and ocean acidification – are already putting people, businesses, and communities at risk. With this strategy, we're taking a proactive approach in providing information on current and future conditions to try and reduce impacts and increase our resilience."
