Financial Markets and Economy
Gold to Copper Bulls Left Heartbroken as Price Collapse Deepens (Bloomberg)
Metal markets took a pounding on Thursday, sending gold to a five-year low and copper to the cheapest since 2009. Falling prices are dragging down producer shares, pushing the Bloomberg World Mining Index to a five-week low.
Amazon may export delivery lessons from India to cut costs abroad (Yahoo! Finance)
E-commerce giant Amazon.com (AMZN.O) is taking lessons learnt from its daily battles with India's choked roads and cramped cities to some of its largest developed markets, exporting a model of cheaper deliveries and reduced warehousing costs. Online shopping is booming in India, where millions of consumers are newly able to access the Internet thanks to cheap smartphones. For Amazon, it is already the largest contributor of new customers outside the United States.
Friday's retail sales report is the biggest economic news of the week — and it doesn't even matter (Business Insider)
On Friday morning, the Census Bureau will release the October retail sales report.
SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts – The Quantum of the Soulless – Trickle Down Bubble (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
The economic data continued in weakly this morning, with an oversized number of newly unemployed, and a continuing unemployment number that was higher than expected.
Friday could be a make-or-break day for the dollar rally (Market Watch)
Friday could be a big day for the dollar.
After languishing near its lows for the year for most of August and September, the U.S. currency has undergone a stunning rebound in the past few weeks, driven by rising optimism that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.
Asian Futures Show Stocks to Fall After Oil Slump, Fed Hit U.S. (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks are set to follow the retreat in global equities with a commodities selloff and prospects of a U.S. interest-rate increase next month unsettling investors.
Nordstrom is crashing (Business Insider)
Nordstrom reported ugly third-quarter earnings results on Thursday, and the stock got wrecked.
‘Double top’ in Sotheby’s stock a warning to art collectors and the stock market (Market Watch)
Sotheby’s stock selloff suggests billionaire art collector Liu Yiqian is likely to take a bath on the $170.4 million painting he just bought, if he hasn’t already.
Fed Officials Stress Gradual Pace of Rate Rises After Liftoff (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve officials stressed that policy should be tightened only gradually after interest rates are increased for the first time since 2006, with New York Fed President William C. Dudley saying the conditions for liftoff could soon be satisfied.
Cisco earnings is a beat, but its next quarter will be softer than expected (Business Insider)
Cisco just reported its first quarter earnings. Although it reported a healthy beat, investors are not happy. Cisco is warning them that its second quarter won't be as strong as they expected.
Global Stocks Slip as Investors Study Central Bank Clues (Wall Street Journal)
Energy companies dragged down stocks Thursday and investors homed in on speeches by Federal Reserve officials for clues on the central bank’s next moves.
U.S. stocks fell, with the S&P 500 declining 1.4%, as the price of oil tumbled. Energy companies in the S&P 500 dropped 2.4%, bringing their weekly decline to 5.4%.
Gold ends lower, tracking longest weekly losing streak since June (Market Watch)
Gold futures finished lower on Thursday and were on track to post their longest stretch of weekly declines since late June.
December gold GCZ5, +0.28% fell $3.80, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,081 an ounce, after finishing at $1,084.90 an ounce on Wednesday — the metal’s lowest finish since early 2010, according to FactSet data. The metal is on track to register its longest stretch of losses since the week ended June 26, which kicked off a five-week losing streak.
The Chinese Can Cut Trade Deals, Too (Bloomberg)
For President Xi Jinping, it was a much-needed victory. On Nov. 9, Australian lawmakers approved a free-trade agreement with China, overcoming local union opposition.
Xi has made such agreements a major part of his strategy to expand China’s influence. Most of the deals have been with small countries in emerging markets, making the Australia pact all the more significant. Xi may soon get another boost, with South Korea likely to approve a trade pact.
'I QUIT!' is a much more popular saying than 'YOU'RE FIRED!' in this economy (Business Insider)
Almost all of the economic data out there confirm a tight labor market with unemployment very low and job openings high.
Market Weighed Down by Weakness in Mining and Energy Stocks (NY Times)
Prices for copper and other commodities were slumping as investors anticipated that the dollar would get even stronger.
Apple Said to Plan Peer Payments to Tap Into Millennials' Demand (Bloomberg)
Apple Inc. wants to make it easier to settle a tab with friends using your iPhone.
Apple has been speaking with banks about introducing a new peer-to-peer payments feature, according to a person familiar with the talks. The service would be incorporated into Apple Pay, the company’s mobile system for making purchases at brick-and-mortar stores with an iPhone and could be introduced as soon as next year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
GoPro crashes below its IPO price (Business Insider)
GoPro shares fell below their initial public offering price on Thursday.
NYSE Goes From Fan to Critic of IEX, Criticizing `Unfair' Plan (Bloomberg)
The New York Stock Exchange blasted IEX Group Inc.’s proposal to convert into a full-fledged exchange, calling it unfair and insufficiently documented.
Gold coin sales haven't been this high since the financial crisis (Business Insider)
Sales of US gold Eagle coins are going gangbusters.
There’s still way too much oil out there to revive crude prices (Quartz)
The glut is going nowhere.
How Economic Issues Turned Into Feminist Issues (The Atlantic)
Measuring the feminist movement in waves has become tiresome and inexact. Perhaps it would be better described like software, with system updates containing patches for old problems.
The movement’s latest update addresses some of the problems embedded in 1960s second-wave feminism, which one might call v2.0, but not addressed by v2.1 in the ’90s. Feminism 2.0 focused on the struggles of better educated, higher-earning white women, with the assumption that all benefits accrued would then trickle down. Feminism 2.1 didn’t so much correct that belief as add a stipulation that all women could shave, wear heels, and embrace sex—whether as work or play—and still be empowered.
Politics
Are you smarter than a presidential candidate? (Market Watch)
After GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump went off on his anti-China rant at the Republican debate earlier this week, a deadpan Rand Paul pointed out that the country isn’t even part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. Oh, how the Trump haters savored the underdog’s zinger.
Since the debate, many have risen to Trump’s defense — including, of course, Trump himself — pointing out that if the TPP is ratified, it will be open to new signatories who can meet its requirements.
Mark Cuban: Here's why Donald Trump wouldn't ever pick me for vice president (Business Insider)
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban continued to shower praise on real-estate mogul Donald Trump's presidential campaign ahead of the Tuesday-night Fox Business Network Republican debate.
"One, he's assertive. Two, he's not afraid to say exactly what's on his mind," Cuban said during a Fox News interview. "I think the American people are definitely interested in somebody that will tell them the truth."
Technology
Asus Will Launch An Augmented Reality Headset in 2016 (Popular Science)
The marketplace of virtual reality headsets is starting to become more clear: Oculus and the HTC Vive will be major top-tier players, while Samsung Gear and other low-cost phone mounts like Noon VR will target the casual viewer. However, in the realm of augmented reality, the Microsoft HoloLens has been the only mainstream contender. Until now.
Health and Life Sciences
US obesity rates 'rising again' (BBC)
Obesity rates are rising again among American adults, despite national efforts to promote healthy lifestyles.
Rates of obesity had been climbing dramatically since the 1980s but started levelling off in about 2004.
The Deadly Axis of TB and Diabetes (Project Syndicate)
Last year, tuberculosis surpassed HIV/AIDS to become the world’s deadliest infectious disease. According to a recent report by the World Health Organization, the illness claims about 1.5 million lives every year. Astonishingly, one out of every three people worldwide lives with a latent TB infection that could eventually develop into the active – and potentially deadly – form of the disease.
Life on the Home Planet
Suicide Bombings Kill Dozens in Beirut Suburb (Wall Street Journal)
At least 43 people were killed and over 200 wounded in a double suicide bombing Thursday in the predominantly Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut, an area considered to be a bastion for the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah, government officials said.
Soldier Who Tackled Suicide Bomber Awarded U.S. Medal of Honor (Bloomberg)
An Army captain who helped tackle a suicide bomber, saving colleagues from an ambush in Afghanistan, received the nation’s highest military honor at a White House ceremony.
President Barack Obama said Thursday that Captain Florent Groberg acted selflessly in confronting the bomber and awarded him the Medal of Honor. Groberg, who suffered severe injuries to his left leg and a brain injury in the 2012 attack, was medically retired from the Army in June.
