Markets and Economy
Abe Pledges Corporate Tax Cut as Investments Slump (Bloomberg)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to follow through with a corporate-tax cut, a day after government data underscored businesses’ reluctance to ramp up domestic investment.
In a message read out at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch event in Tokyo, Abe said that he would lower the effective corporate tax rate by at least 3.3 percentage points "next year" and will "aim to go beyond that if possible."
Ukraine's debt saga (The Economist)
UKRAINE’S economy, racked by war, is in free fall. In the second quarter of this year its GDP shrunk at an annualised rate of 15%, after shrinking by 18% in the first. Its public debt is probably worth 100% of its GDP. Small wonder, then, that Ukraine wants to cut some of the debt it owes. After months of bitter negotiations, Ukraine and its creditors may reach a deal this week. On what issues do Ukraine and its creditors disagree, and what is likely to happen?
Nikkei jumps more than 5% as policy hopes buoy Asia (Financial Times)
Japanese shares led regional markets higher with a gain of more than 5 per cent as investors pinned hopes on further stimulus from global policymakers.
Late on Tuesday evening, following grim trade figures, China’s Ministry of Finance posted an article on its website stating it would carry out “stronger proactive fiscal policy” to counter headwinds to economic growth. The mere hint of such a filip helped fuel a global rally now reaching Asian shores.
China just gave the game away (Business Insider)
Chinese leaders expressed deep concern for their country's economy last weekend at a meeting of G-20 nations in Ankara, Turkey.
That is weird for two reasons.
First, China's leaders are normally incredibly confident about their economy in public.
Second, amid the worry — despite the Chinese economy's visible slowdown and dramatic action over the past month — officials maintained that the economy would continue to grow at 7% annually.
Warren Buffett spent $500m a week on shares during market turmoil (The Telegraph)
Mr Buffett revealed he has been adding to his company's sizable stake in IBM, adding that Berkshire Hathaway's $32bn Precision Castparts deal hasn't left him short on cash for other investments.
Silicon Valley’s Quest to Defy Death May Make Inequality Worse (Bloomberg)
Death is the great equalizer, right? It always has been, but Silicon Valley might be changing that.
More and more tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists see the effort to extend life as the next big thing. “Death will eventually be reduced from a mystery to a solvable problem,” billionaire Peter Thiel, the Facebook director and PayPal mafia member, wrote in the foreword to a book on longevity a few years back. More recently, Bill Maris, who invests hundreds of millions of Google’s dollars, told Bloomberg Markets magazine, “I just hope to live long enough not to die.”
The push to keep mortality at bay could be a defining characteristic of the current era, says Yuval Harari, a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
Asian Stocks Surge With Aussie, Metals as China Gains Spur Rally (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks surged, led by the the biggest gain in four years for Japanese shares, while emerging-market and commodity-producer currencies strengthened amid optimism China will be able to stabilize its financial markets.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed by 5.6 percent, while a gauge of Chinese shares in Hong Kong headed for its first back-to-back increase in a month after Tuesday’s late-afternoon recovery in Shanghai set off a global equity rally. Australia’s dollar rose a third day, while Malaysia’s ringgit rebounded from a 17-year low. The yen traded near its weakest level this week and bonds from Japan to New Zealand fell as demand for haven assets abated.
Yahoo is sliding after getting rejected by the IRS (Business Insider)
Yahoo's stock is sliding after an unfavorable ruling on its planned tax-free Alibaba spinoff. Yahoo shares are down about 4% in after-hours trading.
Yahoo owns 384 million shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which it plans to spin off into a separate company (along with Yahoo's own small-business unit) in a tax-free transaction that will ultimately return much of the value to Yahoo shareholders.
The explosion in M&A is just getting started for two key reasons (Business Insider)
Global mergers and acquisitions activity this year is on course to surpass the record high set in 2007.
That has led some, like Centerview Partners cofounder Blair Effron, to sound the alarm over the level of activity, saying the market may be overheated. Others, such as Michael Carr, the global co-head of mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, have said that only thing that could stop the record breaking pace of activity is hubris.
How to Catch a Spoofer (Bloomberg)
Take a look here.
Health and Life Sciences
Walk this way: Surgeon general wants Americans moving (USA Today)
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has a prescription for the poor state of American health: a brisk walk.
With half of Americans suffering from a chronic disease – and two-thirds overweight – Murthy wants the USA to make walking a priority.
"I'm asking for individuals and communities across America to reclaim the culture of physical activity that we once had," said Murthy, who released a "call to action" on walking Wednesday. "It's not just a call for individuals to walk more, but for all of us to make communities more walkable."
Life on the Home Planet
UN refugee chief : History will judge us harshly over Syria crisis (The Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,)
The flood of refugees into Europe from the Middle East and Africa has only just begun as states disintegrate in a maelstrom of religious war, the United Nations has warned.
"We cannot comfort ourselves that this is a temporary phenomenon," said Peter Sutherland, the UN's special envoy for migrants and refugees.
Quite apart from Syria, much of the Sahel across sub-Saharan Africa is hanging by a thread, and ISIS is expanding into every country of the Maghreb.
