Financial Markets and Economy
Chinese Stock-Index Futures Advance After Interest-Rate Cuts (Bloomberg)
China’s stocks rose to a two-month high and bonds advanced after the central bank cut interest rates for a sixth time in a year as the nation’s leaders gather this week to map out a five-year plan for the world’s second-largest economy.
Forget the tech rally, it’s time to get in early on the oil rebound (Market Watch)
The bears are spinning out. On tilt, like the gambler whose three aces just lost to a full boat on the river.
And who can blame them? This has been an absolute stunner of a stock-market shift in recent weeks. Making matters worse, the “buy the dip” crowd is peacocking in the bears’ face, rejoicing over yet another pullback that offered up an opportunity to scalp big gains.
Saudi Arabia calls $50 oil a 'gift to the world' (Business Insider)
One of Saudi Arabia's top economic officials thinks $50 oil is a "gift to the world."
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Lion Heads Arrive in Record Numbers as U.S. Considers Crackdown (Bloomberg)
Big-game hunters are killing African lions in record numbers as U.S. regulators threaten to curtail one of worlds most exclusive, expensive and controversial pursuits.
Amazon is now an unstoppable stock (Market Watch)
Amazon.com has long been the poster child for a fast-growing but money-losing tech firm. But it might be time to rethink this view.
Amazon AMZN, +6.23% just delivered a smashing earnings report last week, its second in a row. Although the profits were meager at just $79 million, or 17 cents a share, analysts were expecting Amazon to run in the red last quarter as it has so many times before. The top line was equally impressive, as sales soared 23% to $25.4 billion, trouncing forecasts.
Some U.S. bond funds bet on high-yield survivors of oil carnage (Business Insider)
High-yield energy bonds are on track for their worst year since the global financial crisis yet some funds are holding on, convinced that markets underestimate the ability of many oil companies to ride out the crude price slump.
Some money managers such as Western Asset Management Co., Eaton Vance Corp. and Aberdeen Asset Management have broadly held on to their investments in bonds of oil and gas producers (removed "U.S.") throughout the year even as now they lag more than 95 percent of their peers, according to Morningstar data.
Aberdeen Jumps After Report Company Is Looking for a Buyer (Bloomberg)
Aberdeen Asset Management Plc shares rose the most since April 2014 in London trading after a newspaper reported that the company has begun to sound out potential buyers.
The shares rose as much as 7.2 percent to 376.6 pence and were 4 percent higher at 365.3 pence as of 8:23 a.m on Monday. Shares are down about 15 percent this year, giving the company a market value of about 4.8 billion pounds ($7.4 billion).
New York launches probe into speeds at major Internet broadband providers (Business Insider)
The New York attorney general is probing whether three major Internet providers could be short-changing consumers by charging them for faster broadband speeds and failing to deliver the speeds being advertised, according to documents seen by Reuters.
The letters, which were sent on Friday to executives at Verizon Communications Inc, Cablevision Systems Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc, ask each company to provide copies of all the disclosures they have made to customers, as well as copies of any testing they may have done to study their Internet speeds.
European stocks give back gains after reaching 2-month high (Market Watch)
European stocks pulled lower Monday, easing from the two-month high they hit after China cut interest rates and the European Central Bank signaled more stimulus.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.29% fell 0.2% to 376.72, but came off lower levels hit earlier in the session as mining, health care and industrial shares climbed out the red. The pan-European index on Friday jumped 2% to 377.36, its highest close since Aug. 19.
Learning From Our Genius–And Our Idiocy (Trader Feed)
Sometimes, the best path to creative insights is a willingness to challenge one's premises. Suppose, for example, we don't define genius by a fixed IQ level. That, of course, implies that some people are geniuses and the majority are not. If we begin with the premise of multiple, intersecting intelligences, it opens the door to the possibility that everyone is a genius in some respect. I learned this vividly when I first began working with active daytraders in Chicago. Many of the successful traders were not intellectual in the least, but they had a canny sense of rapid pattern recognition that I, with my Ph.D., could not touch. Similarly, I have seen very successful money managers lead teams and make boneheaded decisions when it came to managing their team members. Managing capital and managing human beings represent different skill sets; not all who are classically intelligent are emotionally or socially so.
Unshackling $21 Trillion: China's Risky Bid to Reform Banking (Bloomberg)
China’s lenders are now free to set interest rates for all of the nation’s 134 trillion yuan ($21 trillion) of bank deposits. That’s the idea, anyway, after the government scrapped the last remaining controls.
The move, effective on Saturday, is a milestone for a commercial banking industry that didn’t exist as recently as the early 1980s.
StanChart says to exit equity derivatives, convertibles businesses (Business Insider)
Standard Chartered <STAN.L><2888.HK> said on Monday it plans to exit from its equity derivatives and convertible bonds businesses, following a step earlier this year to close the bulk of its global equities operations.
The move is part of a plan to cut costs and focus on using capital more efficiently, it added in a statement. The wind-down will take place "in a phased manner".
Dollar slips as investors cash in on recent gains (Market Watch)
The dollar lost some of its gains against the yen and the euro in Asia trade Monday, with investors booking profit on recent advances in the greenback that were propelled by brighter risk sentiment and a global stock market recovery.
Junk Rig Bonds Return 22% as Mexico Driller Dodges Industry Woes (Bloomberg)
Oil-services provider Offshore Drilling Holding SA is sidesteppinga default by one of its industry rivals and a deepening swoon in crude prices.
Here's your preview of this week's big market-moving events (Business Insider)
The Federal Reserve will mull over monetary policy and the economy at its next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
With market volatility elevated and global growth slowing, most economists see the Fed leaving easy monetary policy unchanged with interest rates near-zero.
Apple clashes with energy to save earnings season (Market Watch)
Expected strong profits from Apple Inc. and consumer-based companies go up against a rash of weak energy sector results this week in a battle to try to save the S&P 500 from a projected earnings loss for the quarter.
Grey Hairs Needn't Be a Deflation Headache for Central Bankers (Bloomberg)
Old age isn’t what it used to be — at least where the academic consensus is concerned.
A bunch of loser fund managers may be just the thing the stock market needs to go higher (Business Insider)
The next leg of the bull market could be fueled by an unexpected source: the investment pros that have been lagging the market.
Gold Demand in China May Increase to Record, Bullion Bourse Says (Bloomberg)
Gold consumption in mainland China may match or exceed the record in 2013 after financial-market turmoil and the yuan’s devaluation boosted the metal’s appeal, according to the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society, which also saw higher sales at jewelers in Hong Kong.
The junk bond market isn't the only place to look for signs of trouble in the lending markets (Business Insider)
Surging yields in the junk bond market have everyone nervous that it's going to get a lot tougher for businesses to access financing.
Japan’s Struggling Economy Finds ‘Abenomics’ Is Not an Easy Fix (NY Times)
Japan’s economy has contracted so many times in the last few years that the meaning of recession has started to blur. If an economy is shrinking almost as often as it is growing, what does any single downturn say about its health?
Now Japan appears to be faltering again.
Asian Stocks Extend Two-Month High as China Cuts Interest Rates (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks rose after Chinas central bank cut its benchmark lending rate, stepping up efforts to cushion a deepening economic slowdown.
U.S. stocks set for a pause ahead of FOMC, big earnings (Market Watch)
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a slight pullback for Wall Street at the start on Monday, as investors take a breather ahead of a Federal Open Market Committee meeting later this week and a crop of important earnings.
Politics
Syria’s Assad Said to Favor Vote, But Only After Victory (Time)
President Bashar Assad is willing to run in an early presidential election, hold parliamentary elections and discuss constitutional changes, but only after the defeat of “terrorist” groups, Russian lawmakers said after meeting with the Syrian leader on Sunday.
Technology
The Inside Story of Surface Book, Microsoft’s Next Big Thing (Wired)
One night about two years ago, Panos Panay couldn’t sleep. This happens a lot, waking up in the middle of the night with loud thoughts rattling around in his head. Panay popped off the pillow, reached for his new Surface Pen and his old Surface Mini, and wrote himself an email. (He loves the Mini, a small tablet his team built but never shipped. “It was like a Moleskine,” he says. “It was awesome.”)
Amazon's Alexa voice assistant can now tell you about local businesses using Yelp (The Verge)
Alexa just got some street smarts. The voice assistant — who lives inside of Amazon's unusual Echo Bluetooth speaker — now plugs into Yelp to pull local search results. That means that you can now ask it about nearby restaurants. So if you're just about to hop in the car to head out to a new thai spot, you can quickly ask Alexa what time they close to make sure you're not in for an unpleasant surprise. The searches also work for local businesses.
Health and Life Sciences
Therapy Dogs Really Do Help Cancer Patients (Gizmodo)
Therapy dogs may actually make a difference in the health of the patients they visit by reducing anxiety and leading to more stable blood pressure.
Dogs usually aren’t allowed in hospitals, but therapy dogs are there for a purpose. The idea is that the simple act of petting a friendly dog can reduce stress and make patients’ lives a little better. Heartwarming tales abound, but until recently, few researchers had looked for hard scientific data on whether therapy dogs actually made a difference.
Why Screams Are So Upsetting (Scientific American)
If there is one sound that bettered our ancestors' chances of survival, it might be the scream. When a baby needs food, it hollers; if a ravenous lion prowls a little too close, a blood-curdling shriek alerts the tribe. Yet from an acoustic standpoint, screams—and how our brain processes the sound—have been largely overlooked by researchers, until now. A study published in July in Current Biology found that screams are sonically unique in a way that perfectly captures our attention.
Life on the Home Planet
Magnitude 7.2 Quake Shakes Hindu Kush Area, Tremors in Delhi (Bloomberg)
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan with tremors felt as far away as Islamabad and New Delhi, the second major temblor in South Asia in six months. There were early reports of deaths.
The quake struck 254 kilometers (158 miles) north of Kabul at a depth of 213 kilometers at 2:39 p.m. Indian time, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Desperation in the epicentre of Southeast Asia's haze crisis (Phys)
When the smoke from forest fires turned a thick, acrid yellow, casting an apocalyptic glow over Palangkaraya, Kartika Sari decided to grab her child and flee the Indonesian city at the epicentre of the haze crisis smothering Southeast Asia.
Should we kill animals for food? (BBC)
Peter Singer is professor of bioethics at Princeton University and the author of Animal Liberation.
"You could say that if you kill a cow you're depriving it of the rest of its existence, which could also have been a happy, good existence, so why deprive it of that just because you want to eat some meat when you've got other healthy, nutritious, delicious things that you could also eat?"
