Financial Markets and Economy
Valeant Drop Ripples Through Drug Stocks (Bloomberg)
A $20 billion selloff in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. spurred a battering in drug stocks seen as sharing its taste for acquisitions,sending Mallinckrodt Plc and Endo International Plc tumbling.
Ripples spread quickly, dragging down an index of the 25 largest and most liquid U.S. pharmaceutical companies, which tumbled 1.7 percent as 21 of its members fell. Valeant’s plunge of as much as 40 percent brought the stock to its lowest level in more than two years after a stock-commentary site run by a short seller questioned its sales practices.
These Are the Fed's Three Weapons If the Economy Falters (Bloomberg)
The Federal Reserve Board's army of economists are the ultimate umbrella people: they prepare for rain on sunny days.
Even though no Federal Open Market Committee member has forecast a recession in the next three years, a shaky global environment has clouded the U.S. economic outlook. With the central bank's main policy rate stuck at zero since December 2008, that means Fed staff is probably already mulling other ways to stimulate growth.
How Could Volkswagen’s Top Engineers Not Have Known? (Bloomberg)
For the gearheads at West Virginia University, it was a minor commission. An environmental group, the International Council on Clean Transportation, had asked the school’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions to test the tailpipes of diesel cars in the U.S., such as those sold by Volkswagen and BMW. Studies suggested that automakers’ diesel cars polluted more on the road than in the lab, and curiously, more in Europe than in the U.S.
Charting the Markets: Ferrari Under Starters Orders (Bloomberg)
Ferrari stock flies, Credit Suisse surprises and one man balks.
Coca-Cola revenue falls 5% in the third quarter (Business Insider)
Coca-Cola Co's quarterly revenue fell nearly 5 percent as a strong dollar reduced the value of sales in markets outside North America.
The net income attributable to shareholders fell to $1.45 billion, or 33 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Oct. 2 from $2.11 billion, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier.
Uber says China counts for 30% of all trips (Market Watch)
About 30% of trips on Uber Technologies Inc.’s ride-sharing app now take place in China, Travis Kalanick, the company’s co-founder and chief executive said Tuesday.
The number of Uber trips in China is nearly as large as in the U.S., he said. Chengdu, in China’s western Sichuan province, has the highest number of rides, Kalanick said in an interview at the WSJDLive conference.
Russia Races Past Saudi Arabia in Tussle for Chinese Oil Market (Bloomberg)
Russia beat Saudi Arabiato become the biggest seller of crude to China for the second time this year in the race to supply the worlds biggest energy consumer.
Western Digital is buying Sandisk for $19 billion (Business Insider)
Storage hardware maker Western Digital (WDC) is buying flash memory giant SanDisk (SNDK) for $19 billion, or $86.50 per share.
SanDisk stockholders will get $85.10 in cash and 0.0176 shares of WDC for each share of SNDK, which closed at $75.19 on Tuesday.
The Fed is right to go slow on raising interest rates (Market Watch)
All year long, the Federal Reserve has been stuck between a rock and a hard place: Wall Street sentiment and the economic data it has to follow. In January, the unemployment rate was 5.7%, and most observers believed the threat of inflation meant a rate hike would make sense sometime this year.
But inflation didn’t happen, so the Federal Open Market Committee has struggled to justify a compromise — raising rates a tiny bit this year and stopping. Some have argued a small rate increase was an important way for the Fed to buy insurance — that it would have more ammunition to fight a downturn if rates were above zero.
Worst of Oil Slump Over as Glut Seen Shrinking, Amundi Unit Says (Bloomberg)
The worst of the oil-price slump is behind us, according to a unit of Europe’s biggest asset manager.
Boeing profit jumps 25 percent (Business Insider)
Boeing Co reported a 25 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by a rise in commercial aircraft deliveries.
The world’s largest jetliner maker earned $1.70 billion, or $2.47 per share, for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $1.36 billion, or $1.86 per share, a year earlier.
Buy Long-Term S.Africa Bonds as Economy Wilts, Futuregrowth Says (Bloomberg)
South African long-bond yields offer better value than cash and medium-dated bonds in an economy battered by a drop in commodity prices and a weak currency, according to Futuregrowth Asset Management Pty Ltd., a unit of Old Mutual Plc.
7 ways your brain makes you a terrible investor (Business Insider)
It doesn't matter how rational you think you are.
You have a brain, and the chemicals in your brain often force you to make irrational decisions. This affects everything from decisions you make in your love life to trades you make in your investment portfolio.
The 401(k) Crisis Is Getting Worse (Bloomberg)
Tim Egan has been working since he was 14. He's now 56 and has spent most of his career as a restaurant manager. He has virtually nothing saved for retirement and, until last month, never had a 401(k) account.
6 investing lessons I learned growing up on a farm (Market Watch)
I’ve been told, when I’m trying my hardest to get through to my students, that I drop into my “Michigan farm drawl.” There may be something to that. Farming rarely rises to the top of a list of occupations where one expects to find sophisticated investors or financial wisdom. But, for me, growing up on a farm turned out to be a source of valuable career and investing lessons.
Morgan Stanley just slammed Twitter (Business Insider)
Morgan Stanley has downgraded Twitter stock to "underweight" with a price target of just $24, below the ~$30 it is currently trading at.
In a blistering note, titled "A Moment Too Late?", Morgan Stanley's analysts say Twitter shows signs of limited user growth, declining engagement, a lack of material, incremental advertiser demand, an already-high ad load and ad pricing, and rising competition from rivals in the mobile space.
Junk-Bond Investors Said to Seek Cheat Sheets in Sale Documents (Bloomberg)
High-yield bond investors are fed up with pouring through hundreds of pages of sale documents looking for potential problems that could come back to bite them.
America's companies might be running out of people to hire (Business Insider)
The number of employers saying that they can't fill open jobs is surging while the number of people being hired each month is starting to fall.
15 stocks for the Santa Claus rally (and beyond) (Market Watch)
“Christmas creep” occurred again this year, with both Wal-Mart and Target advancing their holiday-layaway programs by a few weeks into August and September.
Teasing consumers to start Christmas shopping in August? Come on — whatever happened to the days when retailers waited until after Thanksgiving?
U.S. Index Futures Are Little Changed After Paring Earlier Gain (Bloomberg)
U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, after earlier reaching as high as 0.7 percent.
Real estate is a lot different post-recession (CNN)
The housing market is finally starting to be a real boost to the U.S. economy, but it's different today than before the recession.
Dollar slightly higher, hits resistance at ¥120 (Market Watch)
The dollar traded at its highest level against the yen in nine days Wednesday morning ahead of a hotly anticipated meeting of European Central Bank policy makers.
The buck USDJPY, +0.05% rose to ¥120.10 in recent trade, its highest level against the Japanese currency since Oct. 12. It traded at ¥119.92 late Tuesday in New York.
Sinosteel's Not-Default and More Moral Hazard: Katrina Nicholas (Bloomberg)
Sinosteel Co. looks set to avoid recording the first default by a Chinese steel company and a central state-owned enterprise. Good news for bondholders; not so good for the development of the nations debt market.
A big earnings problem just waiting round the corner for stocks (Market Watch)
But it’s “back to the past” this morning, with a redux of China volatility. The Shanghai Composite slumped 3% overnight as investors cashed in on recent gains. So far, Wall Street seems to be staring this fickle Chinese market down, on another heavy day for earnings.
China's Stocks Fluctuate After Reaching Eight-Week High (Bloomberg)
China’s stocks dropped the most in a month on heavy volume, led by smaller companies, as investors weighed whether an equity rebound had gone too far.
What to expect from eBay’s earnings (Market Watch)
In its first report as a standalone company, eBay Inc. reports third-quarter earnings after the market closes Wednesday.
Ebay EBAY, +0.61% spun off its PayPal business and PayPal PYPL, -2.98% began trading as an independent company on July 20. Now investors are looking to see how the legacy marketplace fares without its fast-growing payment counterpart.
Japanese Exports Grow at the Slowest Pace in More Than a Year (Bloomberg)
Japans exports grew by the slowest pace in more than a year in September, with a drop in shipments to Asia all but overwhelming gains in sales to Europe and the U.S.
Asian Stocks Follow U.S. Equities Lower as Drugmakers Retreat (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks fell after U.S. shares declined amid mixed company earnings. Drugmakers and finance shares led losses on the regional benchmark gauge.
G.M. Earnings Beat Estimates, but Ignition Switch Scandal Took Toll (NY Times)
General Motors’ ignition switch scandal, tied to at least 124 deaths and numerous injuries, dragged down earnings in the third quarter as the company recorded some of the largest financial costs to date stemming from the recall.
The automaker reported on Wednesday that nearly half of its earnings for the quarter, 66 cents a share out of $1.50, were eaten up by $1.5 billion in settlements with federal prosecutors and civil litigants.
Politics
Joe Biden Announces He Will Not Run For President, "Window Has Closed" (Zero Hedge)
We are sure Hillary is much relieved.
So where do his "votes" go… Bernie or The Battle-axe?
Jeb Bush's Dilemma (The Atlantic)
It’s now clear: Jeb Bush wants to speak about his brother’s record on 9/11 as much as possible. Donald Trump launched the controversy last Friday when he told Bloomberg News, “When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time.” But then Trump quickly tried to tamp it down. Later that day, after Bush called his remarks “pathetic,” the billionaire candidate refused to answer questions about the controversy while leaving a rally.
Technology
Researchers want to use Google Glass to help autistic people ‘see’ emotions (Quartz)
“OK, Glass: What are other people feeling?”
This is the thrust behind a new tool that helps kids on the autism spectrum understand other people’s emotions. The Autism Glass Project, as it’s called, uses Google Glass, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to recognize other people’s faces and give real-time feedback on their expressions, a challenge for many people on the autism spectrum.
Robots and the Cloud Will Steal Jobs From Thais, Kazakhs (Bloomberg)
Robots, 3D printers and cloud networks will steal jobs in Asia with workers in Thailand and Kazakhstan facing the highest risk, according to a new study.
About 28 percent of regular wage jobs in Kazakhstan, 26 percent in Thailand, 21 percent in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 20 percent in the Philippines are at high risk of disappearing as technology displaces workers, the Asian Development Bank said in a report Tuesday. Including temporary wage and informal self-employment, the estimates would be two to three times higher.
Health and Life Sciences
Heart disease gene 'found in women' (BBC)
Scientists have identified a gene that puts women at higher risk of heart disease, an early study suggests.
The work showed that women who had a particular version of the BCAR1 gene were more likely than other women to have heart attacks and strokes.
Could A Cancer Drug Reverse Parkinson's Disease? (Forbes)
A drug already on the market approved to treat leukemia might also be able to treat the hallmark signs of Parkinson’s disease, report researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center.
In a small Phase I clinical trial, Parkinson’s patients who took nilotinib, marketed as Tasigna by Novartis NVS -1.05%, experienced striking improvements in cognition, motor function and non-motor function, such as constipation.
Can bad dreams be good for you? (CNN)
After a traumatic event, people often relive the experience in their dreams.
Survivors of serious car and motorcycle accidents still have nightmares about them months later, one study found, and these recurring dreams were linked to long-term sleep problems. Another study reported that about 21% of women who were victims of sexual or physical assault experienced nightmares three months later, and those who were having such dreams were more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
Life on the Home Planet
Love it or hate it, McDonald's is seeing more customers with all-day breakfast (Yahoo)
McDonald's (MCD) franchisees may not be happy about all-day breakfast, but customers are loving it, according to the latest data from Foursquare.
This is the cover of USA Today for “Back to the Future” day (Quartz)
The future, for better or worse, is now. As in—right now. Today, Oct. 21, 2015, is the day in the future that Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to in the 1989 sci-fi classic Back to the Future Part II. Time flies, doesn’t it?
