Financial Markets and Economy
Tesla has discovered a new energy source: Burning shareholder cash (QZ)
We’re kidding—kind of.
Elon Musk’s auto company is ripping through cash at a prodigious clip, at times burning through roughly $100 million a month.
Bond Traders Return to Fretting as ECB Seen Unfurling More QE (Bloomberg)
As the European Central Bank considers expanding its bond-buying plan, traders initial misgivings are resurfacing.
Japan dips into recession in stumble for 'Abenomics' (Yahoo!)
Japan's economy slipped into recession for the second time since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power nearly three years ago, data showed Monday, dealing a fresh blow to his drive to kickstart weak growth and end years of deflation.
Abe has staked his reputation on a policy blitz of fiscal spending, aggressive monetary policy easing and structural reforms — dubbed Abenomics — aimed at reviving the world's third-largest economy.
This could be 'the beginning of something big' (Business Insider)
With the US economy growing at a meager 1.6% pace, tighter financial conditions may be the absolute last thing we need.
Analysts are baffled by moves in this esoteric but huge market (Market Watch)
Recent moves in one of the most esoteric but also largest and most liquid financial market are baffling Wall Street analysts.
Microsoft Revamps Security Plan as Part of $1 Billion Investment (Bloomberg)
In his first moves on cybersecurity in nearly two years as Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella is building a dedicated site and assembling a new group of experts to help Microsoft Corp. respond faster to threats across its various products.
How can oil go higher with this fact in play? (Business Insider)
As the global economy grows, the demand for oil grows as well.
Saudi Arabia risks destroying Opec and feeding the Isil monster (Telegraph)
The rumblings of revolt against Saudi Arabia and the Opec Gulf states are growing louder as half a trillion dollars goes up in smoke, and each month that goes by fails to bring about the long-awaited killer blow against the US shale industry.
Algeria's former energy minister, Nordine Aït-Laoussine, says the time has come to consider suspending his country's Opec membership if the cartel is unwilling to defend oil prices and merely serves as the tool of a Saudi regime pursuing its own self-interest. "Why remain in an organisation that no longer serves any purpose?" he asked.
7 reasons Wal-Mart’s stock is still the worst (Market Watch)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted earnings that fell less than analysts had expected, and the shares bounced back Tuesday.
But with Wal-Mart’s WMT, +3.54% stock still down about 30% this year, it’s premature to say the company is in recovery mode.
China's Yuan Dreams Pit Germans Against Rest of Exchange World (Bloomberg)
For years, if not decades, just about every financial center in the world has tried to set up a yuan trading hub outside China. Countless memorandums of understanding and letters of cooperation have been signed, numerous official state visits made.
Top healthcare stock fund focuses on costs, orphan drugs in 2016 (Business Insider)
Healthcare companies that can either contain costs or develop medications to treat rare diseases, known as orphan drugs, will be the most likely to outperform in the coming year, said John Fraunces, whose Turner Medical Sciences Long/Short fund is among the top performing healthcare funds over the last 5 years.
How to make money from the coming cold snap (Market Watch)
After last year’s winter wallop, is this bizarrely warm weather great or what? Well, enjoy it while it lasts — because it’s about to go away.
Starting around Nov. 20, it’s going to get a lot colder in much of the U.S., and it will stay that way through the first few weeks of December. After Christmas, the cold weather will back off, but return with a vengeance during mid-January through much of March.
Gold Gets Double Whammy on Weak Inflation, Rising Fed Rate Bets (Bloomberg)
Gold investors have more to worry about than the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates.
France swats aside EU budget rules in rearmament blitz? (Telegraph)
France has invoked emergency powers to sweep aside EU deficit rules and retake control over its economy after the terrorist atrocities in Paris, pledging a massive in increase and security and defence spending whatever the cost.
Apple's largest manufacturer wants to be a bank, too (Business Insider)
Foxconn, best known for being Apple's largest contract manufacturer, wants to be more than just an assembly line. It's now expanding into the financial service space for electronics component suppliers.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Foxconn has "set up half a dozen" financial service companies that provide loans and other financing options to suppliers in China over the past year.
Pimco Dethroned as Emerging-Market Bond King (Bloomberg)
Pacific Investment Management Co. has lost its title as manager of the worlds largest emerging-market bond fund, battered by ill-timed bets that fueled an investor exodus.
Large Banks Postpone Debt Sale as Investor Appetite for Riskier Loans Wanes (NY Times)
Although the biggest leveraged buyout of the year is still set to be completed on time, some of the banks involved in the financing have postponed plans to sell several billion dollars’ worth of debt meant to support the transaction, people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.
The move by the lenders, led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, highlighted the sense of caution that has descended on the market for junk bonds and riskier high-yield loans.
SunEdison is getting butchered (Business Insider)
SunEdison, the renewable energy backed by some of the biggest names on Wall Street, crashed 24% on Tuesday.
China IMF Victory to Sap Central Bank Appetite for Aussie Debt (Bloomberg)
China is about to deal another blow to Australian bonds as the yuans ascent into theInternational Monetary Funds reserves diverts investments from Aussie-dollar assets.
Stocks usually do pretty well during Thanksgiving week (Business Insider)
Buy the hype, sell the leftovers.
Greece and Eurozone Creditors in Deal to Unlock $13 Billion (NY Times)
Greece and its international creditors said on Tuesday that they had reached agreement on the country’s next round of economic changes, a deal that is meant to unlock as much as 12 billion euros, or about $13 billion, in loan money.
Athens had initially hoped the money would be dispensed after the Greek Parliament passed a package of economic measures last month.
Here Are Some of the Big Bets Being Made at the Robin Hood Investor's Conference (Bloomberg)
t's that time of year. Big names of the financial world, including David Einhorn, Whitney Tilson, Dan Loeb, and T. Boone Pickens, are at the Robin Hood Investor's Conference in New York, and they're presenting some of their best long and short ideas.
Air Liquide is buying Airgas for $13.4 billion (Business Insider)
Air Liquide SA is buying Airgas for $143 per share in cash, the companies announced on Tuesday.
The deal gave Airgas, an industrial gas supplier, an enterprise value of $13.4 billion. Paris-based Air Liquide SA paid about a 40% premium to Airgas' closing price on Monday.
Oil Retreats as U.S. Supplies Seen Adding to Growing World Glut (Bloomberg)
Oil declined in New York, closing at the lowest level in more than two months, as U.S. crude stockpiles are estimated to have expanded for an eighth week.
The once-unthinkable has finally happened in North Dakota (Business Insider)
Proof that the shale boom is practically over keeps growing.
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Politics
Hillary's Heavy Obligations to Wall Street Money and The Banks' Favorite Candidates (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
People are discouraged and disillusioned after almost thirty years of distorted governance, specially in the aftermath of the 'Hope and Change' which quickly became 'Vain Hope for Change.' Most cannot admit that their guys were in the pockets of Big Defense, Big Pharma, Big Energy, and Wall Street.
The Paris attacks exposed a rift that could lead to a new government-shutdown battle (Business Insider)
The burgeoning dispute over the issue of resettling Syrian refugees could complicate plans to keep the federal government from shutting down in December.
President Barack Obama's administration is planning to resettle about 10,000 refugees from the war-torn country during the 2016 fiscal year, which began October 1. But two dozen governors across the country have said over the past two days that they will oppose letting Syrian refugees into their states.
Technology
Spray Can Works Like a Handheld Printer, “Prints” Out Murals (PSFK)
The SprayPrinter is a high-tech spray can that works with your hand. By mapping a wall or a big canvas, it “prints” out murals of any size requiring only a hand to move it around.
It wouldn’t be far off to think of the SprayPrinter as an independent inkjet printer cartridge. It knows where to print and it builds up images with tiny dots. However, instead of a bar where it can slide back and forth across a page, it relies on the human arm. To work, it maps the surface and sprays a dot (or a pixel) every time your hand goes over the designated spot.
Atmotube tells you if the air you’re breathing is toxic (Venture Beat)
Like you, I assume that the environment I am sitting in right now is pretty safe. I mean, I don’t see anything dangerous, feel uncomfortable, or smell anything that I should be worried about. Yet I may be filling my lungs with harmful elements that my cognitive sensory abilities are incapable of noticing.
To detect the level of harmful elements in the air, I’d typically need a machine with a fairly large footprint, which isn’t the most convenient thing to carry around.
The 2017 Ford Escape Is An Extension Of Your Smartphone (Gizmodo)
The 2017 Ford Escape has been completely redesigned with new engines and a new look. But the vehicle’s built around driver-aiding technology, and in particular, your phone.
The new Escape will be the first Ford to feature “SYNC Connect;” an optional interface that links your phone with your car via an app. SYNC Connect lets you start the car, schedule starts for your car (morning commute?) lock and unlock.
Health and Life Sciences
The largest group of American doctors just called for a massive change in how we advertise drugs (Business Insider)
Doctors want to stop US drug companies from advertising directly to the public, the American Medical Association said Tuesday, according to Bloomberg Business.
In a reversal of its previous position, the country's largest group of doctors voted at a meeting in Alabama to put a stop to advertising drugs via TV commercials and magazine ads, saying they make patients seek out expensive treatments and artificially inflate demand for the drugs.
A Quiet Revolution In Organ Transplants (Forbes)
A quiet revolution is underway in human transplantation. Four children have been born to women in Sweden who were given a uterus by their mother or sister. Face and hand transplants have been performed in France, Turkey, China, Spain and the United States with the latest face transplant being announced yesterday at my institution, NYU Langone. Plans are in the works to use cadaver sources for uteri. Voiceboxes have also been done and teams are gearing up to transplant the penis, ovary and fallopian tube. Some of these parts can come from the living but all of them will primarily come from the newly dead.
Brain wrinkle linked to hallucinations (BBC)
A study of 153 brain scans has linked a particular furrow, near the front of each hemisphere, to hallucinations in schizophrenia.
This fold tends to be shorter in those patients who hallucinate, compared with those who do not.
Life on the Home Planet
Germany cancel Netherlands match after 'serious bomb threat' (Yahoo!)
The friendly soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands was canceled 90 minutes before kickoff on Tuesday due to the suspected threat of a bomb at the stadium.
"We had concrete evidence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device in the stadium," Hannover police chief Volker Kluwe told German TV.
Mine Disasters Seen Showing Real Cost of Cheap Waste Solutions (Bloomberg)
As miners globally review the way they store waste in the wake of another horrific dam spill, the solution may be as simple as it is dramatic: spend a lot more.
Images of sludge spewing into towns and rivers could be a thing of the past if mines used different types of storage such as removing water or building on more stable ground. While that can be as much as 10 times costlier for companies already squeezed by slumping prices, the cost is much higher when things go wrong.
