Financial Markets and Economy
This Table Shows What's Happening With Chinese Trading Partners All Around the World (Bloomberg)
China, according to Citi chief economist Willem Buiter, could be the proximate cause of a global recession in the not-too-distant future.
As Chinese policymakers attempt to shift to growth driven by domestic demand, rather than credit-fueled infrastructure binges, the effects of this reorganization are reverberating around the world.
Investment banks' lousy year is being saved by one business (Business Insider)
Investment banks are forecast to make more money this year than they did last year for one reason and one reason only: their equities units.
Coalition, a business intelligence provider, published its first half index for the top ten investments, setting out how much banks made in each business in the first half and providing estimates for the rest of the year.
U.S. Oil Export: Coming Soon? (CNN)
America could soon be exporting a lot of oil.
Momentum is building fast on lifting the ban on U.S. oil exports. Some believe the ban may not even live to see its 40th birthday this December.
There has never been as many job openings on record as in July (Market Watch)
The good news is that companies have never had as many jobs to fill as in July. The bad news is, they’re not filling them, and workers aren’t quitting to pursue the openings.
That’s the latest takeaway from the Labor Department’s job openings and labor turnover report released Wednesday.
Luxury Homes Unsold After a Year Showing South London Glut (Bloomberg)
Investors betting on making a quick profit on luxury apartments in south Londons Nine Elms district, Europes largest project for prime new homes, are facing long waits for buyers.
Wall Street's Masters of the Universe are now just 'service providers' (Business Insider)
There was a time when Wall Street's activities made up one of the most dynamic parts of the US economy.
Fortunes were made. Young traders secured multimillion-dollar bonuses. Banks regularly made, and then lost, billions of dollars.
The dynamism has been hampered, in part, by post-financial-crisis regulation requiring banks to reduce debt, stop trading with their own money, and cut down on risk across the board.
Lessons From Basketball: Trade Like a Free-Throw Shooter (Trader Feed)
Looking back on my years at Duke, it seems I remember the time in the gym as well as the time in the classroom. Many life lessons are taught on the court, in practice and during games. Seemingly little stuff, like having Coach pull a key player from a game because he didn't acknowledge the assist that led to his score or ending practice by having to make 10 consecutive free throws. Nothing quite prepares you for pressure at the stripe as wanting desperately to get showered and get home and needing to make that 8th, 9th, and 10th free throw–knowing that, if you miss the tenth one, you start over again.
Cyber-Extortionists Targeting the Financial Sector are Demanding Bitcoin Ransoms (Bloomberg)
A cybercriminal group going by the name “DD4BC” is blackmailing financial institutions, threatening to take down their customer websites unless they pay a hefty bitcoin ransom.
The numbers don’t lie: Apple’s stock is a bargain (Market Watch)
In late July, I said investors were looking at a “golden opportunity to buy Apple’s stock” after the iPhone maker’s shares declined 4%.
That drop followed a fiscal third-quarter earnings report that showed strong earnings and sales growth, but the company disappointed investors with a lower-than-expected outlook for fourth-quarter sales.
Stocks are giving it all back (Business Insider)
Stocks are slightly higher following the second-best day of the year for the Dow and the S&P 500.
IRS rejects Yahoo's tax-free request on Alibaba spinoff. Stock tanks (CNN)
Yahoo's spinoff of its massive stake in Alibaba just got dealt a blow by the government.
Yahoo (YHOO, Tech30) had been hoping the IRS would bless the spinoff as a tax-free transaction, saving investors huge sums of money.
Charting the Markets: Investors Race to Riskier Assets (Bloomberg)
Stocks are rallying around the world on expectations China will be able to stabilize its financial markets. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose for a second day, bringing its two-day gain to 5.3 percent. Asian equities, as measured by the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, jumped the most since 2009. The moves came after all three major U.S. indexes – theS&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite – registered their second biggest gains of 2015.
Japan's 7% market jump is fear disguised as greed (Business Insider)
Japanese stocks are worth 7.7% more on Wednesday than Tuesday, and there's no good reason why.
Well, there are lots of reasons why but none of them are really good.
One Thing China Got Right (Bloomberg)
China's management of the world's second-largest economy hasn't gone swimmingly of late, but authorities have succeeded in one vital though little-noticed mission. They've closed the gap between the market value of the yuan and its official daily value, known as the "fixing."
Dollar rises against yen as Abe promises tax cuts (Market Watch)
The dollar was on track to strengthen against the yen for a second day Wednesday after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised a corporate tax cut, a fiscal measure that strategists said hinted a further easing of monetary policy might also be in the works.
The news caused the Nikkei 225 to shoot higher, and the yen to sink. The stock index finished Wednesday’s session up 1,343.4 points, or 7.7%, to 18,770. Meanwhile the dollar USDJPY, +1.06% strengthened 0.7% to ¥120.88.
Each day in the stock market has become 'all or nothing' (Business Insider)
Every day in the stock market has started to become "all or nothing": Either everything is good, or everything is bad.
On Tuesday, stocks surged higher, rising more than 2% across the board with the Dow having its second-best day of the year, gaining 390 points. The previous trading day, Friday, stocks got slammed, with the Dow falling 270 points as markets capped one of their worst weeks in the past few years.
The 600% Jump in Dollar Loans That Shows Saudis' Riyal Aversion (Bloomberg)
Dollar borrowing in Saudi Arabia has surged seven-fold this year as the kingdoms companies switch out of increasingly expensive local currency-denominated loans.
Private equity firms keep striving to do anything but private equity (Business Insider)
The three most important letters in the private equity industry are no longer "LBO." Now, what really matters is "AUM," assets under management.
Thanks to big banks being regulated out of businesses like hedge fund investing, investors like Henry Kravis and Steve Schwarzman have been presented with a golden opportunity… and they're putting it to work.
Gold futures set for lowest settlement in a month (Market Watch)
Gold futures fell on Wednesday as a rise in global equities and strength in the U.S. dollar lured investors away from the precious metal and helped position prices for their lowest settlement in about a month.
Gold for December delivery GCZ5, -1.53% gave up $11.10, or 1%, to $1,110.10 an ounce on Comex, putting the precious metal on track to settle at its lowest level since Aug. 11. Gold prices have been down nine of the past 11 sessions. That doesn’t include Monday, which did not see a Comex settlement price because of the Labor Day holiday.
Politics
Donald Trump storms Capitol Hill for Iran protest (Market Watch)
Donald Trump will join a rally at the Capitol on Wednesday in a show of force against the Iran nuclear deal.
The Hill writes the rally by Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and top conservative leaders will contrast with a speech by Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who is slated to speak in support of the agreement earlier in the day. Cruz, like Trump, is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. “The message, I think, from many of the speakers will be that this deal funds and arms the Nazi Germany of today,”
Trump to CNN: Donate the profits from your debate (CNN)
Donald Trump has an unusual proposal for CNN: He wants the network to donate its profits from next week's Republican primary debate to charity.
"I believe that all profits from this broadcast should go to various VETERANS groups, a list of which I will send to you in the near future," the GOP frontrunner said in a letter to CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker.
Jeb Bush: Here's my plan to get to 4% growth (Business Insider)
Presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is out Wednesday with his plan to overhaul the federal tax code, which he says will help him achieve an ambitious goal of averaging 4% GDP growth during his time as president.
Bush outlined the plan in a Wall Street Journal op-ed released late Tuesday night, and he plans to give a speech in North Carolina detailing its points later Wednesday.
Technology
The Robot Will See You Now (Scientific American)
When we think of empathy, we don’t usually think of machines. But computer scientist Louis-Philippe Morency and others are getting closer to building machines that can interpret not just the words people say, but also the emotion that informs their meaning. Oliver Cann at the World Economic Forum caught up with him ahead of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, which is taking place in Dalian, China this week, to talk about artificial intelligence and healthcare. Morency, who is Assistant Professor at the Language Technology Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, is also a WEF Young Scientist.
Is Technology Changing How We Fall in Love? (Popular Science)
In this episode of Futuropolis, we tackle the age-old question: what is love? Okay, we don’t actually answer that question, but, we do talk to a sociologist at Tinder, the co-founder of OkCupid, and a sociologist who has studied how the ways through which we find mates has changed over time. Plus, we take an entertaining look back at our archives to see why people were marrying young back in 1960. In the end, we think we have a pretty good handle on how technology is butting into our love lives. For better or for worse. (In sickness and in health.) And when all else fails, we ask Siri.
Health and Life Sciences
Drug made from herbs may fight breast cancer (Futurity)
Luteolin, a natural compound found in herbs such as thyme and parsley and in vegetables such as celery and broccoli, may reduce the cancer risk for women who have taken hormone replacement therapy.
More than 100 women die from breast cancer every day in the United States. The odds increase in postmenopausal women who have taken a combined estrogen and progestin hormone replacement therapy—and these women also have an increased risk of developing progestin-accelerated breast tumors.
Implant 'traps' spreading cancer cells (BBC)
A small sponge-like implant that can mop up cancer cells as they move through the body has been developed by US researchers.
So far tested in mice, it is hoped the device could act as an early warning system in patients, alerting doctors to cancer spread.
The implant also seemed to stop rogue cancer cells reaching other areas where new tumours could grow.
High rates of bacteria in ground beef sold in US (CNN)
Every time you eat a burger, you could be getting a side of bacteria with it. Most packages of ground beef in the grocery store contain at least one type of bacteria that could make you sick, according to a survey by Consumer Reports.
Researchers looked at 300 samples of ground beef from grocery stores in 26 cities across the United States. They included a range of leanness and cuts, from sirloin to chuck. About 40% of the packages bore labels stating they were "organic" or that the cows had been grass-fed or had not been given antibiotics.
Half Of Adults In The U.S. Have Diabetes Or Pre-Diabetes, Study Finds (Forbes)
A national wake up call to intensify efforts to control the obesity crisis with added focus on diet, exercise and monitoring blood sugar
According to a study published online in JAMA today, nearly 50% of adults living in the U.S. have diabetes or pre-diabetes, a condition where a person already has elevated blood sugar and is at risk to develop diabetes.
Life on the Home Planet
Refugee-tripping Hungarian journalist video may help put humanitarian crisis on map (Market Watch)
Media outlets worldwide have gotten credit lately for helping to bring the refugee crisis in Europe to our attention and our screens, with powerful images, such as that of a dead child on a Turkish beach last week. But journalistic involvement in the crisis stemming from the conflict in Syria and Iraq took a bizarre turn in Hungary on Tuesday.
A camerawoman from Hungary’s N1TV online television news service, widely described as a nationalist organ, was herself caught on film and in still images extending a foot to trip a refugee and the crying child he was carrying, while other videos emerged showed her kicking additional refugees.
Dark history of American leper colony (CNN)
"In those days patients were sent to Kalaupapa thinking they were going to die," says 92-year old Nancy Brede. "It was a traumatic time."
For 79 years, Brede was a resident of the Kalaupapa peninisula — a lush, serene stretch of land on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. The peninsula is isolated by harsh cliffs glaring down on each side, making it the ideal location for a life of exile.
