Financial Markets and Economy
Goldman's BRIC Era Ends as Fund Folds After Years of Losses (Bloomberg)
The BRIC era is coming to an end at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
These stocks are breaking out as a rate hike looks more likely: analyst (Market Watch)
Regional banks stand to benefit from higher interest rates, and one analyst sees their stocks beating the market in the months ahead.
A British mining company is flooding the market with 27 billion penny shares to avoid going broke (Business Insider)
Lonmin, the platinum miner, is trying to sell £270 million ($407 million) worth of shares for a penny each, as it bids to avoid collapse.
The rights issue has been launched to try and stop the company, which is being crushed by the slumping price of platinum, running out of cash. Shares in the company have tanked by nearly 90% already this year, and it is haemorrhaging money.
Charting the Markets: Investors Watch China Data and U.S. Rate Outlook (Bloomberg)
China stocks jump, emerging market stocks drop and Portuguese bond yields rise.
Oil prices rise, but China trade data casts a shadow (Market Watch)
Oil prices edged up marginally in early Asia trade Monday as data indicate China’s appetite for crude oil remains strong, but the sharp drop in overall imports is fuelling worries that slowing demand by the world’s second-biggest economy is unlikely to reverse anytime soon.
Dish Network reports 34.2 percent rise in profit (Business Insider)
Dish Network Corp reported a 34.2 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by higher revenue per user from its core pay-TV business.
U.S. Index Futures Decline After S&P 500 Posts Sixth Weekly Gain (Bloomberg)
U.S. stock-index futures declined, as investors assessed gains, after equities extended their longest weekly winning streak of 2015.
General Motors' stock has 40 percent return potential: Barron's (Business Insider)
Shares in General Motors Co <GM.N> could return as much a 40 percent, including a 5 percent dividend yield, a year from now when investors start to focus on 2017 per share earnings of $6, according to financial weekly Barron's on Sunday.
Whew! U.S. economy hasn’t gone off the rails (Market Watch)
Seems the economy is doing fine after all. The U.S. added a whopping 271,000 jobs in October and apparently a lot of them are parents. Day-care employment hit a record high.
China lifts ban on IPOs as markets rise (CNN)
Beijing is lifting a four-month IPO ban as Chinese stocks rise again, but how long will it last?
Portuguese Bonds Lead Euro Peers Lower With Government on Brink (Bloomberg)
Portugals government bonds slid, leading declines among euro-area sovereign securities, as the nations Socialist Party approved a plan to join forces with three other left-wing parties to oust Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelhos new administration.
Three Best Practices For Dealing With Trading Drawdowns (Trader Feed)
Perhaps the one most important takeaway from my recent book is to intensively study your successful trading, build a list of best practices unique to you, and then turn those best practices into ongoing habit patterns that, combined, become robust best processes.
Get ready for a ton of Fedspeak (Business Insider)
The US economy had a blockbuster October.
US companies added a whopping 271,000 jobs during the month, crushing expectations for an increase of 185,000. This helped bring the unemployment rate down to a 7-year low of 5.0% from 5.1% a month ago. Even the U-6 "underemployment" rate tumbled to 9.8% from 10.0%.
Maersk Oil to Spend Up to $845 Million on African Expansion (Bloomberg)
A.P. Moeller-Maersk agreed to buy African oil assets for as much as $845 million to revive an energy unit struggling with declining output in the North Sea.
Gold rises, trying to snap 7-day losing streak (Market Watch)
Gold futures stepped higher on Monday, working to settle with a gain for the first time in eight sessions.
Activist stampede pushes board directors into shareholders' arms (Business Insider)
A few days after joining the board of Atlantic Power, private equity veteran Gilbert Palter said he got a flurry of calls from the energy company's top shareholders, who wanted more than just to wish him well.
"They wanted to hear my perspective on the company. And they wanted to bend my ear with their own thoughts," said Palter, co-founder of EdgeStone Capital Partners in Toronto.
Speculators Share Andy Hall's Optimism That Oil Prices at Bottom (Bloomberg)
Andy Hall and Daniel Yergin think oil prices are bottoming out. Hedge funds agree.
Bitcoin is off to the races again (Business Insider)
The value of bitcoin has rocketed higher since late August, gaining more than 60% as investors around the world clamor to buy into the cryptocurrency.
It recently hit new highs for the year.
Indonesian Fragility Shown by Drop in Reserves Amid Rupiah Surge (Bloomberg)
A drop in Bank Indonesias foreign-exchange reserves last month even as the rupiah led emerging markets to surge 7 percent highlights the nations vulnerability to an increase in U.S. borrowing costs.
World's biggest shipping company: Global economic growth is even worse than it looks (Business Insider)
The CEO of the biggest shipping company on earth is pretty much as exposed to global growth as anyone gets, and he's got a worrying message for the world.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Moeller-Maersk CEO Nils Smedegaard Andersen suggested that consensus forecasts for global growth are still too strong, despite already being trimmed from more optimistic levels earlier this year.
Politics
Why Ted Cruz isn’t bothered that some Republicans don’t like him (Market Watch)
Ted Cruz has been called a “wacko bird” by a Senate colleague and a “jackass” by the former House speaker. But he doesn’t seem to be bothered.
The Washington Post writes that the list of Republican politicians and operatives willing to take open shots at the White House hopeful from Texas has grown long. But Cruz seems to relish the fact that so many fellow Republicans love to hate him, the Post writes.
Don't Underestimate Bernie's Brand (The Atlantic)
Like many new and different brands, Bernie Sanders has a message that resonates with supporters. But just as big brand managers make the mistake of dismissing new competition, the media has discounted Sanders’s chances of nomination. Indoctrinated by years of “business as usual” both groups assume that history will repeat itself; they assume that the frontrunner has the upper hand; they assume that the parameters of success are fixed and what has worked in the past will work in the future. The real challenge when forecasting future success—for brands or politicians—is to test existing assumptions, not simply to accept them at face value.
The Bihar elections will test just how much India can reform itself (Quartz)
Nitish Kumar, the leader of Grand Alliance that won 178 of the 243 seats of Bihar state assembly, has been the chief minister of the state since 2005. Kumar had also been a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA). But he quit the NDA in June 2013 to ultimately become its nemesis.
Technology
Toshiba’s new humanoid will give Tokyo mall visitors information in three languages (Quartz)
Here’s one way to staff a mall information desk: A new Toshiba robot will start offering visitor information in three languages in a Tokyo shopping center next month.
Her name is Junko Chihira, and “she” has been giving a brief demo loop at the Aqua City mall in Tokyo’s Odaiba entertainment district since late October. Starting in December, she’ll be able to answer a variety of visitor questions in Japanese, English, and Mandarin—you can pick the language from a touchscreen display.
The Helmets From "Star Wars" Redesigned For Elephants, Hippos, And Rhinos (Fast Company)
"A long time ago, in an African savannah far, far away…"
Health and Life Sciences
Sleeping sickness study claims success (BBC)
Researchers from Edinburgh University have claimed thousands of lives may have been saved in Africa by a new initiative to combat sleeping sickness.
The disease, caused by a parasite that attacks the nervous system, is fatal if it is not treated.
Thyroid follicles from stem cells thrive in mice (Futurity)
Researchers have found a way to coax stem cells to grow into working thyroid follicles.
The work offers scientists a new laboratory tool to study the thyroid and may someday lead to the development of a cell-based regenerative therapy for people who lack functioning thyroids. The research appears online in Cell Stem Cell.
Tapeworms — It's Not Just Cancer That Should Worry You (Forbes)
While the science world is abuzz about a Colombian man who died from a tapeworm cancer?, there are common and serious complications from tapeworms you should know about, because they are avoidable and treatable.
In this startling Columbian case, a 41 year old man with end-stage AIDS developed widespread tumors. The tumors were atypical, prompting them to be sent to the CDC. Lab tests there ultimately showed that the cancer cells were not human in origin, but were from a dwarf tapeworm, Hymenolepis nana, common in impoverished regions and especially in children.
Life on the Home Planet
Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Hit High, Likely to Become 'Permanent Reality' (Gizmodo)
A new bulletin from the World Meteorological Organization reports that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another new record high in 2014 that could become a ‘permanent reality.’
Russia Fears Islamic Terror Blowback Over Syria Amid Sinai Crash (Bloomberg)
As evidence grows that a bomb may have downed a Russian passenger jet over Egypt, the Kremlin is focused on countering the threat of terrorism at home from sympathizers of Islamic State.
Officials insist they were prepared for the risk of terrorist reprisals after President Vladimir Putin ordered air strikes against militants in Syria. Even if an attack on Russians abroad wasn’t among their most likely scenarios, the loss of 224 lives in the Metrojet crash is underlining the importance of keeping a simmering domestic insurgency under control.
