Financial Markets and Economy
Goldman Sachs Slashes S&P 500 Price Target, Sees Negative Return for U.S. Stocks (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs now expects the S&P 500 to finish in the red in 2015.
Chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin lowered his year-end price target for the S&P 500 to 2,000 from 2,100, citing slower than anticipated growth from the world's two biggest economies and lower than expected oil prices.
The red-hot stock market is being supported by an unsustainable earnings mirage (Business Insider)
Carl Icahn warns that trouble is coming to the financial markets.
In a new video titled "Danger Ahead," the billionaire Wall Street veteran lays out the major problems coming out of both Washington and Wall Street to argue that what's coming next will be "very dangerous and could be disastrous."
Charting the Markets: Glencore Ripples are Felt Across the World (Bloomberg)
Global mining stocks slump, India rebounds, while Europe sinks toward a January low.
Wolseley's shares are taking an insane 11% dive on 2 tiny lines in its results (Business Insider)
Plumbing and heating supplies company Wolseley is at a 6-month low on Tuesday — despite big jumps in revenue and trading profit.
Copper Flirting With Key Long-Term Support Into Month-End: Analysis (Bloomberg)
Copper is currently trading roughly 2 percent below its 200-monthly moving average which has supported the metal on a closing basis for every month since the China-led commodity super-cycle began in January 2004, Bloomberg strategist Mark Cudmore writes.
Oil prices remain weak on Asia economy woes; shares in commodity firms tumble (Business Insider)
Oil prices remained low in early Asian trading on Tuesday following a slide of almost 3 percent the previous session, dragged down as concerns over Asia's economic health mounted and as production remained high.
U.K. Mortgage Lending Surges Most Since the Financial Crisis (Bloomberg)
U.K. mortgage lending rose in August by the most since before the financial crisis in 2008 as an improving economy and low interest rates fueled demand.
Oil prices rise on view U.S. crude output will keep slowing (Market Watch)
Oil prices gained on Tuesday on expectations that a slowdown in U.S. oil production will accelerate, though the continued supply from the rest of the world kept a cap on the gains.
Other major producers, from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to Russia, are continuing to pump oil at speed as they look to defend their market share.
Denmark Reveals 6.3% Bigger Borrowing Need as Debt Sales Resume (Bloomberg)
Denmarks government said it will need to borrow more than previously estimated as the debt office prepares to end an eight-month hiatus on bond auctions that has sapped liquidity from its benchmark debt market.
Stock-fund investors: Think like bondholders after this volatile quarter (Market Watch)
Stock mutual funds that have beaten their peers tend to be the investment equivalent of stopped clocks that are right twice a day — or less.
U.S. Stock-Index Futures Climb, Rebounding From Earlier Decline (Bloomberg)
U.S. stock-index futures rose, as investors kept faith in the world’s biggest economy, betting that the selloff that sent equities to a one-month low was overdone.
How clawed mutual fund and ETF investors can eat the bear (Market Watch)
Looking at your quarterly fund statements when they arrive in the next few weeks is going to feel like rubbernecking at a traffic accident; you won’t be able to stop yourself from staring at the wreckage.
U.K. Stocks Fall Second Day as Construction-Related Shares Slide (Bloomberg)
U.K. stocks declined for a second day as construction-related companies tumbled amid deepening concern over global growth prospects.
‘Sell-in-May’ decision to dump stocks was spot-on (Market Watch)
Chalk one up for the “Sell-in-May” crowd. By going away, they dodged the third quarter’s market trauma that is unsettling the investors who stuck around.
German Stock Investors See $400 Billion Vanish as DAX Slumps (Bloomberg)
German stocks are falling at a rate not seen since Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.
Bull market in stocks will resume when we’re older and wiser (Market Watch)
This bull market’s long-term health desperately depends on investors first becoming older and wiser about what’s realistic.
Indonesia Exploits Malaysia Shutdowns to Lure Islamic Investors (Bloomberg)
Indonesia is drawing interest from Middle Eastern banks seeking to tap the world’s biggest pool of Shariah-compliant investors as some Islamic lenders wind down or close operations in Malaysia and Singapore.
Market upheaval forcing many sovereign-wealth funds to adapt (Market Watch)
As representatives of dozens of the world’s sovereign-wealth funds gather at Milan’s posh Hotel Principe di Savoia this week for their annual conference, they will have more than networking on their minds.
Rand Drops Record Low as Commodities Rout Weighs on Currency (Bloomberg)
The rand dropped to record lows against both the dollar and the euro as concern grew that China’s weakening economy will deepen a rout in prices of commodities that South Africa exports and relies on for foreign exchange.
Caesarstone Plunges 17% as Short Sellers Seize on Board Changes (Bloomberg)
Caesarstone Sdot-Yam Ltd. tumbled to a two-year low as bearish investors seized on changes to its board of directors as evidence of deeper problems at the company.
Volkswagen’s value destruct-o-meter: $55 billion and counting (Quartz)
Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scandal rumbles on. It is readying a recall of up to 11 million cars. Public trust in the brand has collapsed. Its former boss faces a criminal investigation for fraud that some think was worse than Enron. Fines, lawsuits, and other penalties loom, with a final bill likely to be measured in the tens of billions of dollars.
China Stocks Head for Worst Quarter Since '08 on Economy Concern (Bloomberg)
Chinese stocks tumbled in Hong Kong, with the benchmark gauge heading for its steepest quarterly loss in four years, as a commodity rout deepened concern about the nation’s growth outlook.
Yen Advances as Stock Slide Fuels Safety Bid; Aussie Kiwi Weaken (Bloomberg)
The yen strengthened for a second day versus the dollar as investors fled to the safest assets amid an extension of Monday’s $800 billion slump in stocks.
Goldman Sachs just cut its outlook for the stock market (Business Insider)
After stock prices slumped in late August, the analysts at Goldman Sachs were quick to argue that we could see a rapid snap back in prices like we did in 1998.
Politics
Obama, Putin trade barbs in showdown over Syria (Market Watch)
President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday clashed publicly over how to resolve the conflict in Syria, in a showdown in front of the rest of the world’s leaders that added uncertainty to the burgeoning crisis in the Middle East.
World Leaders Must Bring Russia Back From the Cold, Renzi Says (Bloomberg)
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said western leaders trying to end the carnage in Syria must accept the central role of Russia in world affairs as a renewed drive to end the war got off to a difficult start in New York.
The youthful premier, in a sweeping interview that tackled issues ranging from reform of Italy’s Senate to the Middle East and the migration crisis, urged his partners to show they could "build a Europe without walls, but with hope."
Technology
High-Tech Wheelchair Accommodates Any Level of Technological Competence (PSFK)
The once farfetched idea of device interconnectivity is now journeying to shelves at light speed and on wheels. This year’s CTIA wireless industry conference boasted Swedish company Permobil’s latest invention, a smart wheelchair that connects to the internet via AT&T services.
This high-tech plush toy will be your child's new BFF (Mashable)
The square-shaped bear on my desk knows my nameHis name is Oslo, a moniker I chose from a list of options on the app that accompanies the bear.
Oslo is one of Fisher-Price’s Smart Toys — a high-tech plush animal designed to be your child’s new BFF. It's like a mix of Teddy Ruxpin, Kanye's Dropout Bear and Domo Kun. There’s a monkey version, too, and a panda version will be available soon. A lot of people who walk by my desk think it’s creepy…
Health and Life Sciences
How can scientists 'cure' blindness? (BBC)
The team from the London Project to Cure Blindness have created a tiny patch or carpet of cells which they have implanted into the eye of a woman who has sight loss caused by a condition called Age-related Macular Degeneration or AMD.
The cells they used to make the patch are called stem cells and came from a donated early embryo.
Breastfeeding Won't Turn Your Baby Into Einstein (Forbes)
The latest large-scale study searching for a link between breastfeeding and increased intelligence finds no such connection, contrary to the findings of previous, smaller studies.
Plenty of research suggests that breastfeeding can potentially boost an infant’s health in a number of ways, including elevated resistance to maladies like asthma and diabetes…
Life on the Home Planet
Anti-Nuclear Austria Should Lead the Way on Nuclear Power (Scientific American)
If you ever happen to meet a government official from Austria and would like to have some polite fun at their expense, tell them to get Austria to build nuclear power plants so it can better fight global warming. They will probably smile and squirm as they explain that the Constitution of Austria prohibits nuclear power. That’s how anti-nuclear Austria is: they put it in their constitution.
