Financial Markets and Economy
Chinese Investors Go Missing From Hong Kong Stock-Trading Link (Bloomberg)
One year after China allowed some of its citizens to directly trade Hong Kong shares for the first time, enthusiasm has turned to apathy.
Without buybacks, there is no earnings per share growth (Business Inisder)
Stock buybacks are drawing a lot of heat lately, but it appears they're the only thing keeping big companies earnings afloat.
SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts – Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Gloom of Night (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
The economic news this morning in the form of the Empire Manufacturing number was awful.
Why stocks are taking their cues from crude-oil prices (Market Watch)
Like Reggie Jackson for the Yankees circa the late-1970s New York Yankees, oil is the straw that stirs the drink for global markets.
Korean Billionaire's Gains Pile Up as Pharma Stock Surges 900% (Bloomberg)
The South Korean man who founded two drug companies that are among Asia’s best-performing stocks for the past year is seeing his fortune climb after vaulting into the region’s billionaire’s club.
Dow closes up triple digits as stocks rally on oil recovery; energy up 3% (Yahoo! Finance)
U.S. stocks gained on a sharp jump in oil prices boosted by geopolitical concerns following weekend terror attacks in Paris.
Urban Outfitters is getting slammed (Business Insider)
Urban Outfitters shares fell by as much as 7% in after-hours trading on Monday, after the company reported third-quarter results.
North Dakota burns off one-fifth of its natural gas (Market Watch)
About one-fifth of North Dakota’s natural-gas production is flared, rather than sold, with lack of infrastructure to take the commodity to market the main culprit.
Liberty Global to Buy Cable & Wireless in $5.3 Billion Deal (Bloomberg)
John Malone’s Liberty Global Plc agreed to buy Cable & Wireless Communications Plc in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at 3.5 billion pounds ($5.3 billion), extending the U.S. billionaire’s European cable empire deeper into Latin America.
The FDA asked this company for some data, and its stock fell 72% (Business Insider)
Shares of biotech company Clovis Oncology got decimated on Monday.
Only 5 stocks matter in this market and Apple is not one of them (Market Watch)
In a world narrowly defined by the S&P 500, only five names matter and Apple Inc. is not one of them.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – We Shall Allow No Rally Before Its Time (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Gold is trading inversely to the dollar here.
Standard Chartered's Unraveling India Bet Means More Pain Ahead (Bloomberg)
When India’s billionaire Ruia brothers went looking for loans to expand their steel-to-power empire around the turn of the decade, Standard Chartered Plc stepped up.
The US wants to stop ISIL’s oil industry but is bombing the wrong targets (Quartz)
The US today (Nov. 16) redoubled its offensive on ISIL’s financial bedrock—its oil industry. But it arguably went after the wrong targets—not ISIL itself, but some 300 smuggler-driven trucks carrying fuel to market. By the time such fuel is loaded into trucks, there’s a good chance ISIL has already been paid.
Facebook stock dropped following the news that Marc Andreessen sold most of his stake (Business Insider)
Facebook shares was down almost 3% on Monday following news that board member Marc Andreessen has sold about three quarters of his stake in the company over the past two weeks.
Now the stock has recovered and is down only about 1%.
`Devastating' Blow for Abe Seen in Japan Inc.'s Investment Cuts (Bloomberg)
Japan Inc. is looking like it’s not holding up to its end of the Abenomics bargain.
NYSE-owner ICE to buy commodities trading platform for $650 million (Business Insider)
Intercontinental Exchange Inc <ICE.N>, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, said it would buy commodities trading platform Trayport from BGC Partners Inc <BGCP.O> and GFI Group Inc for about $650 million in stock.
ICE said the deal would help it to provide new services to the European over-the-counter energy markets, including power, natural gas and coal.
Pandora to Buy Rdio Assets for $75 Million to Fuel Expansion (Bloomberg)
Pandora Media Inc., the Internet radio pioneer, agreed to buy assets from streaming music service Rdio for $75 million to help the company add new features.
The deal gives Pandora technology and intellectual property, according to a statement on Monday. Pending its ability to obtain additional content rights, Pandora will be able to offer an “expanded listening experience” by late 2016, it said. Some of Rdio’s staff will be offered roles with Oakland, California-based Pandora.
Stocks move higher in afternoon trading (Yahoo! Finance)
U.S. stocks mounted a broad rally on Monday, snapping a three-day losing streak as investors moved past concerns that the terrorist attacks in Paris could spell big trouble for the global economy.
Oil and gas stocks were among the biggest gainers as the price of crude rose. Traders also bid up shares in defense contractors, while travel-related stocks slumped.
Business in New York is still terrible (Business Insider)
Business conditions in New York state are still terrible.
One Of Wall Street's Biggest Bulls Ends Six-Year Overweight on Consumer Stocks in Favor of Energy (Bloomberg)
After six years of betting on the U.S. consumer, one of Wall Street's biggest bulls is now boosting his exposure to an unloved segment of the market.
Thomas Lee, managing partner at Fundstrat Global Advisors, has opted to upgrade energy to overweight while downgrading the consumer discretionary sector, citing rising labor costs and the inverse relationship between energy and consumer-oriented stocks over the past decade and a half.
Politics
A Grand Bargain With Putin Against ISIS?? (Huffington Post)
What follows is not very pretty. But it may be the best option available in a crisis without good options.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made no secret of the fact that he would like some kind of political settlement with the West. The German magazine Der Spiegelhas just published a leaked official Russian memo outlining a proposed grand bargain in which Putin eases out its close ally, Syrian President Assad, in favor of a still pro-Russian regime that at least stops killing its own people. In return the West acknowledges what has been an open secret for several decades–that Syria is Russia's sphere of influence in the Arab world.
U.S. governors object to White House Syrian migrant policy (Market Watch)
The governors of several states said Monday that they wouldn't resettle refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria in their states, complicating the Obama administration's efforts to bring thousands of displaced migrants to the U.S.
G20 leaders: We'll fight terror funding & help refugees (CNN)
The attacks on Paris pushed the fight against terrorists to the top of the agenda at this weekend's summit of world leaders in Turkey.
In a joint statement, the leaders of the 20 biggest economies condemned terrorism in the wake of the deadly attacks in France on Friday, and in Turkey last month, and vowed to redouble their efforts to close down its sources of finance.
Technology
Bike Lock Powered by the Fingerprints of 20 Users (PSFK)
Grasp is a new biometric bike lock that opens using the owner’s thumbprint, creating a faster, easier and smarter user experience for cyclists. Developed by a pair of Canadian mechatronics engineering grads from the University of Waterloo, the lock provides heavy-duty security with minimal user effort.
Health and Life Sciences
‘Last resort’ antibiotics could pose a growing threat to healthcare (Business Insider)
The use of antibiotics of last resort has risen significantly in England during the last five years as antibiotic-resistant infections continue to grow, posing a threat to healthcare.
Fireman has extensive face transplant (BBC)
US surgeons say they have carried out the world's most extensive face transplant to date, including the entire scalp, ears and eyelids.
Plastic surgeon Dr Eduardo Rodriguez led the team that performed the 26-hour surgery to give injured volunteer firefighter Patrick Hardison, aged 41, a new face.
Coffee could literally be a lifesaver (CNN)
Throughout the ages, coffee has been called a virtue and a vice for our health. The latest study comes down in favor of virtue: It says that drinking coffee, whether regular or decaf, could reduce the risk of death.
Researchers started with data from surveys of adults in the United States that asked how much coffee they consumed, as well as other foods and drinks, and then they looked at their rates of death and disease over the following two decades.
Life on the Home Planet
Leading Harvard physicist has a radical new theory for why humans exist? (Business Insider)
Where do we come from? There are many right answers to this question, and the one you get often depends on who you ask.
For example, an astrophysicist might say that the chemical components of our bodies were first forged in the nuclear fires of stars.
Mastermind of Paris Attacks Seen as Belgian With Islamic State (Bloomberg)
French investigators think they know who masterminded the deadliest terrorist assault in peacetime France: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 20-something Belgian who joined the ranks of the Islamic State a few years ago.
The son of a Moroccan shopkeeper, familiar to the intelligence community for his high-profile presence on social media, Abaaoud is being studied by investigators as the man who orchestrated the seven attacks in the Paris area on Friday that left at least 129 people dead and hundreds more wounded, the prosecutor’s office said.
Mystery ancestral 'tribe' revealed (BBC)
Geneticists have detected a fourth ancestral "tribe" which contributed to the modern European gene pool.
Research shows Europeans are a mixture of three major ancestral populations – indigenous hunters, Middle Eastern farmers and a population that arrived from the east during the Bronze Age.
DNA from ancient remains in the Caucasus has now revealed a fourth population that fed into the mix.
