Financial Markets and Economy
Want to See Who's Happy About Low Oil Prices? Look at Refiners (Bloomberg)
While oil drillers cut spending to the bone, U.S. refiners are reaping a windfall from low oil prices.
Wall Street’s October stock-market performance was scary good (Market Watch)
What a difference a couple of months can make. Shrugging off global-growth fears that dogged the market back in August, Wall Street managed to log one of its best monthly gains in years.
Google slammed the brakes on its acquisition machine, with the lowest dealmaking since 2009 (Business Insider)
Google has idled its mergers and acquisition machine, with the company reporting the lowest deal activity, by value, in six years.
Bearish Gas Bets Surge to Record in Ugliest October Since 2008 (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds raised bearish bets on U.S. natural gas to an all-time high just before prices capped their worst performance for the month of October since 2008 on the outlook for record stockpiles.
Stocks finish their best month in 4 years: Here's what you need to know (Business Insider)
The US stock market just logged its best month since October 2011, amid a decline on Friday.
This month, stocks went positive for the year, regaining the losses incurred during the sharp drops in August and September. The benchmark S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow both gained ~8% during the month, while the Nasdaq rallied 9.4%.
Junk-Bond Paranoia Gives Way to Relief in October Bargain Hunt (Bloomberg)
Feeble global growth, a fidgety Federal Reserve and a tepid earnings outlook have given junk-debt investors a lot of reasons for pause in recent months. But when a bargain shows up, you just can’t hold some of them back.
A $93 billion corporate-profit headwind is about to become a tailwind (Business Insider)
The strong US dollar has been a multibillion-dollar headache for multinational US corporations.
Ackman, and His $448-a-Share Call, Fall Flat in Valeant Defense (Bloomberg)
The billionaire William Ackman spent more than three hours Friday defending his outsize bet on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., the besieged drug giant. The rest of Wall Street shrugged.
Oil rig count collapses for 9th straight week (Business Insider)
The US oil rig count plunged by 16 to 578 this week.
Mozambique has suffered a brutal drop in its currency (Quartz)
Talk of the commodities slump hitting Africa is rampant right now, with the IMF having recently cut projections for the continent’s economic growth this year to 3.75%, down from an earlier forecast of 4.5%. Declining demand for the continent’s resources, from China especially, is also having an impact on the region’s currencies.
The Grinch Could Ruin Christmas for Most Retailers (Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley analysts aren't predicting a lot of cheer for retailers this holiday season.
The bank sees holiday sales growth slowing this year despite an increase in the financial health of many consumers, according to analysts led by Kimberly Greenberger.
Investing in Startups Is No Longer Just for Millionaires (The Atlantic)
Though crowdfunding has become immensely popular in recent years, the perks of buying into companies early through platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo have mostly come in the form products. Starting in mid-2016, startups won’t just be taking pre-orders—they will be able to distribute shares to investors.
Brazil's Stocks Set for Best Month Since April as Itau Rallies (Bloomberg)
Brazilian stocks extended their biggest monthly advance since April as banks rallied on speculation they are too cheap to pass up amid forecasts for higher profits. The real dropped.
Politics
Chief operating officer leaves Jeb Bush campaign (Market Watch)
The highest-ranking official known to lose their job in Jeb Bush's flagging campaign is Christine Ciccone, the campaign's chief operating officer.
News of Ciccone's departure comes a week after the Bush campaign announced a re-organization that it said would reduce payroll by 40%.
Portuguese President Asks for Stability as Coelho Is Sworn In (Bloomberg)
Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva warned against instability at the swearing-in of a new government that may be blocked by opposition parties, which now hold a majority of seats in parliament.
“Throughout our history we’ve only had true economic and social progress when we had political stability,” Silva said in Lisbon on Friday.
Is There Any Hope of Fixing the Republican Debates? (The Atlantic)
Priebus said the RNC intends to go forward with the debate, along with the already-announced conservative-media partner, National Review. The suspension seems like a rather dramatic overreaction to CNBC’s moderation. But as Dave Weigel points out, it’s not unprecedented—Democrats similarly pulled out of a Fox News debate in 2007.
Technology
This Flexible Sensor Sticks To Your Skin And Measures Your Blood Flow (Popular Science)
The blood coursing through your arteries and veins bring necessary nutrients to organs throughout the body as well as take waste away. But conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, and certain types of inflammation can limit blood flow to various parts of the body and lead to permanent damage that is often hard to catch early on. Now a team led by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a flexible electronic sensor that can measure blood flow on top of the skin or, can possibly be implanted onto the tissues themselves, according to a study published today in Science Advances.
Health and Life Sciences
Heat-triggered 'grenades' hit cancer (BBC)
Scientists have designed microscopic "grenades" that can explode their cancer-killing payload in tumours.
The team will present its findings at the National Cancer Research Institute conference next week.
Injected Drug Approved for Melanoma Skin Cancer
Imlygic (talimogene laherparepvec) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat melanoma of the skin and lymph nodes.
Life on the Home Planet
An Unexpected Eruption From Chile’s Lascar Volcano (Wired)
Lascar, In the northern Andes of Chile, erupted unexpectedly today, producing a small plume of light grey ash that reached 2.5 kilometers (~8,200 feet) above the volcano (see above). The fact that there seemed to be little in the way of precursory activity (earthquakes, increased gas emissions) from Lascar suggests that this blast may have been a phreatic explosion driven by water flashing to steam in the volcano’s summit crater or conduit.
The US is Finally Heeding Warnings About a Monster Solar Storm (Gizmodo)
We’re all too familiar with the dangers posed by earthquakes, droughts, and hurricanes. But there’s another natural phenomena that represents a growing threat to our tech-driven society, and that’s space weather. And at long last, the US government seems to be taking the issue seriously.
