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Financial Markets and Economy
U.S. Stocks' 6-Week Win Streak Ends (Wall Street Journal)
U.S. stocks snapped a six-week winning streak as retail shares tumbled on weak earnings and economic data.
SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts – This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
But the wiseguys certainly did not waste any time getting here.
IMF Staff Recommend Yuan Be Included in Reserve-Currency Basket (Bloomberg)
China won the endorsement of International Monetary Fund staff members for the yuan’s inclusion in a basket of reserve currencies, paving the way for a step that would validate President Xi Jinping’s drive to open up the world’s second-biggest economy.
IMF staff determined that the yuan meets the requirement of being “freely usable” and should therefore become the fifth currency in the basket, along with the U.S. dollar, euro, pound and yen, Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in an e-mailed statement Friday.
Investors face quagmire of falling earnings, higher rates (Business Insider)
Investors may wade into unknown territory next month as the Federal Reserve readies the first rate hike in nearly a decade amid a corporate earnings recession.
S&P 500 earnings are on track to close their first reporting season of negative growth since the Great Recession and estimates call for sub-zero growth in the current quarter as well.
Calm Broken as U.S. Stocks Post Worst Week Since August Selloff (Bloomberg)
You have to go back to Augusts selloff to find a week as bad as this one for U.S. equities.
Apple fading out Beats streaming music brand (Yahoo! Finance)
Apple is ending the Beats streaming music service on November 30 as it seeks to bring users to its newly launched Apple Music. The move, which had been widely expected, comes a little more than a year after Apple completed its $3 billion acquisition of Beats, known for its high-end headphones and other audio equipment in addition to its streaming service. Apple's biggest-ever acquisition also brought onboard the talents of Beats brains Dr. Dre, a rap musician and entrepreneur, and Jimmy Iovine, a music producer seen by some as a visionary for recognizing the trend toward online streaming.
The Fed's next move could be bad news for art investors (Business Insider)
The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hike interest rates in December for the first time in nearly a decade, and the move is expected to have wide ranging ripple effects.
When car sales are high, everyone wins (Market Watch)
The stars have aligned for car shoppers in search of a bargain.
In an effort to maintain the strong momentum car sales have been experiencing this year, auto makers have been offering more deals and promotions on their vehicles. In addition, end-of-year clearances, Volkswagen’s VOW, +1.07% emissions troubles, and auto maker fights for market share are creating a consumer-friendly environment for car shopping.
Chesapeake Lenders Flee Debt as Oil Rout Pummels Reserves Value (Bloomberg)
Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s bonds have plunged to half their face value as lenders fret that tumbling energy prices are hurting their chances of getting paid on borrowings that are three times the current worth of the company’s oil and gas fields.
Flightless or no, SpaceX investors say its value has grown 15% since January (Quartz)
With all the focus on fund-manager Fidelity’s 25% markdown of its investment in Snapchat last week, one of the few private investments the firm boosted flew under the radar: Fidelity said its stake in Elon Musk’s rocket-maker SpaceX grew by 15% since January, which would value the company at more than $11.5 billion.
Nordstrom's worst day in 15 years (CNN)
A mysterious sales slowdown has cast a shadow over Nordstrom.
Shares of the upscale department store plummeted 15% on Friday, their worst decline since 2000. The dramatic slide began after Nordstrom (JWN) warned its sales deteriorated late in the summer and things are looking dicey for the holiday season.
U.S. is home to 40% of global shadow-banking assets (Market Watch)
When it comes to shadow banking, the U.S. is the undisputed boss.
Oil rig count climbs for the first time in 3 months (Business Insider)
The US oil rig count rose last week for the first time in 11 weeks, according to driller Baker Hughes.
U.S. Steel Yield Surges to 20% as Metal Rout Imperils Turnaround (Bloomberg)
U.S. Steel Corp. bonds plunged, sending yields to record highs, as slumping metal prices hinder its efforts to return to profitability after three consecutive quarters of losses.
Exxon Mobil cover-up case shows why energy investors need a new strategy (Market Watch)
Investors should take the climate change cover-up investigation into Exxon Mobil as a wake-up call: Climate change considerations — and how they will affect both energy suppliers and users — should now be central to nearly any investment decision.
A recent BlackRock report on the impact of climate change on investing posed the question: “Do securities of companies most susceptible to physical and regulatory climate risks already trade at a discount to the market?” Interestingly, the answer was “no.”
Standard Chartered to pay $6.3 million in U.S., Swiss program deal (Business Insider)
Standard Chartered Bank's Swiss unit [STANB.UL] will pay a $6.3 million penalty as part of a deal it reached with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid possible prosecution for helping Americans evade taxes, the department said on Friday.
The bank also agreed to cooperate in any criminal or civil proceedings involving U.S. accounts and to adopt procedures for avoiding future misconduct, the Justice Department said.
Twitter Stock Slips Back Below IPO Price on Waning Optimism (Bloomberg)
Any market optimism Twitter Inc. earned by picking a new leader has faded.
The Vanguard effect on fund fees, in one handy table (Market Watch)
Price cuts to ETFs earlier this week sparked fresh talk about the continuous “fee war” in that fast-growing region of the investing world.
But one analyst suggested on Twitter Friday that a better description for the situation is the “Vanguard effect.”
How companies pay for those billion dollar stock buybacks (Business Insider)
With limited growth opportunities, companies have increasingly opted to deploy their excess cash in the form of cash dividends and stock buybacks.
Economic Takeaways of Retail Sales, Consumer Sentiment in U.S. (Bloomberg)
What you need to know about Friday’s U.S. economic data
An Oil-Soaked Globe as Production Keeps Climbing and Demand Falls (NY Times)
Such is the state of the oil industry these days that there is sometimes nowhere to put it. Off the coast of Texas, a line of roughly 40 tankers has formed, waiting to unload their crude or, in some cases, for a willing buyer to come along. Similar scenes are playing out off the coasts of Singapore and China and in the Persian Gulf.
There is little sign that the logjam will ease, as the price of oil continued its yearlong plunge this week, declining by nearly $10 a barrel.
Nasdaq in talks to buy Chi-X Canada for about $100 million: Report (Business Insider)
Nasdaq Inc <NDAQ.O> is in talks to buy the Canadian unit of alternative equities trading platform, Chi-X Global Holdings, according to a Bloomberg report that appeared on The Globe and Mail.
A deal would value Chi-X Canada at about $100 million, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Politics
The Presidential Race Turns Ever More Bizarre (The Atlantic)
Wasn’t this supposed to be the week that the presidential race stabilized?
The furor over debate hosting was dead—or at least dormant. The Republican debate in Milwaukee was long on policy and short on personal conflict, and it didn’t seem to offer any real race-changing shifts. Marco Rubio was finally rising to the top of the establishment field, as had long been predicted.
This is what Ben Carson said about Donald Trump’s rant against him (Market Watch)
Ben Carson thinks Donald Trump needs a dictionary.
Carson, the former neurosurgeon who’s neck and neck in national polls with billionaire Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, hit back Friday in his low-key style at Trump’s Thursday night speech in Iowa.
Technology
Think You're Important At Work? A Robot Could Probably Do Your Job Today (Fast Company)
And guess what? It doesn't matter if you're a CEO or a minimum wage worker.
Over the last few years, we've heard a lot about how artificial intelligence could put large numbers of people out of work. An often-cited study from Oxford University found that 47% of jobs in America are at "high risk of computerization" in the next 20 years. And more recent research from Forrester predicts a net loss of 9.1 million jobs in the next decade.
This smartphone battery charges 10 times faster (CNN)
Smartphone battery life has gotten better over the years, but charging them to 100% still takes more time than we'd like.
Huawei, China's top smartphone maker, says it has found a way to speed it up 10 times faster than current batteries.
Health and Life Sciences
‘Killer cells’ seek and destroy lymph node tumors (Futurity)
Biomedical engineers have developed specialized white blood cells—dubbed “super natural killer cells”—that seek out cancer cells in lymph nodes with only one purpose: destroy them to halt the onset of metastasis.
Scientists find key to malaria growth (BBC)
The key to malaria's rampant growth has been explained by scientists.
They say it is down to protein molecules called cyclins which cause cells to divide rapidly in the malaria parasite.
The study, led by a team from the University of Nottingham, could lead to new treatments for malaria, the researchers said.
Life on the Home Planet
Paris Shootings, Blasts Said to Leave at Least 26 People Dead (Bloomberg)
Paris declared an emergency after a wave of deadly attacks Friday left dozens of people dead and dozens more reportedly held hostage at a rock concert.
President Francois Hollande said the country closed its borders and imposed a state of alert as the cabinet held an extraordinary meeting. Police told people to stay indoors.
Rapidly Melting Glacier Has Enough Mass To Raise Sea Levels By Nearly 2 Feet (Think Progress)
Say goodbye to the beaches of your youth.
A massive glacier in Greenland is on the very verge of collapse, researchers have found. From 1996 to 2010, the edge of the glacier lost 2.2 miles into the ocean. But over just the next five years, it lost another 2.2 miles. The rapidly diminishing ice block, Zachariae Isstrom, has enough mass to raise the level of sea by nearly two feet.
