Financial Markets and Economy
Amundi Finds Currency Bargains in Beaten Down Emerging Markets (Bloomberg)
Trillion-dollar asset manager Amundi SA is looking to scoop up beaten-down developing-nation currencies including India’s rupee and Mexico’s peso as it hunts for bargains in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.
HSBC looks to global loan book to boost profits (Business Insider)
HSBC is looking to boost investment banking profits by packaging more of its loans into bonds and selling them to investors in the United States.
Keurig is getting bought for $13.9 billion by the owner of Peet’s, Stumptown, and Intelligentsia (Quartz)
Keurig Green Mountain, the company best known for its K-Cup coffee, is being bought and taken private for about $13.9 billion. The main acquirer is JAB Holding Company, the investment arm of the billionaire family that in 2014 combined its coffee business with that of Mondelez to create a company with annual revenue topping $7 billion. JAB’s portfolio also includes Peet’s Coffee & Tea, a chain that has recently acquired two smaller coffee brands, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia.
‘Bearish engulfing’ in Netflix’s stock warns that the uptrend may be over (Market Watch)
The intraday swing lower in Netflix Inc.’s stock produced a textbook “bearish engulfing” reversal pattern, which candlestick chart watchers believe warns that the uptrend may have run its course.
Smith & Wesson Soars to Highest Since 2007 on Gun Control Talk (Bloomberg)
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. jumped to an eight-year high and Sturm Ruger & Co. climbed on investor expectations that gun enthusiasts will purchase more pistols and rifles as calls for restrictions increase.
These 2 charts basically tell the entire global demographic story (Business Insider)
The populations of emerging economies are young and growing, while the populations of developed economies are aging and/or shrinking.
China’s capital outflows seen tripling in November (Market Watch)
China’s capital outflow accelerated in November, forcing the Chinese government to more aggressively prop up the yuan via interventions, according to an estimate from Capital Economics.
“The pick-up in capital outflows appears to have been predominantly driven by increased expectations for renminbi depreciation,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics.
Asian Stock Futures Slide Amid Oil Rout; Aussie Down on Iron Ore (Bloomberg)
Australian stocks joined a global selloff amid oil’s slide to its lowest level in six years and record-low prices for iron ore. Copper futures dropped ahead of data on Chinese trade projected to provide evidence of ongoing deterioration in Asia’s largest economy.
Regulators want to block the Staples-Office Depot merger, and now both stocks are crashing (Business Insider)
Shares of both Office Depot and Staples are each down double digits on Monday after the Federal Trade Commission announced it is suing to block the transaction that would make for the country's biggest office supply company.
Fitbits and iPhones will punish the PC this holiday shopping season (Market Watch)
As consumers fill out their holiday wish lists with mobile devices and wearables, the venerable personal computer continues to suffer.
The market for PCs is expected to further contract in the fourth quarter and expectations for a potential rebound next year rest mostly on businesses instead of computers. Global shipments of PCs are expected to fall 10% this quarter from last year’s holiday shopping period, pushing full-year shipments down 10.3% to 276.7 million, according to estimates from industry tracker IDC. IDC had previously estimated a 9.2% annual decline.
Facebook Falls Back in War on YouTube (Bloomberg)
Over the past year or so, Facebook has made increasingly aggressive attempts to chip away at YouTube’s dominance in the world of short Internet videos. It hasn’t made a dent yet, according to one key measure.
The most influential name in activist investing you've never heard of crushed it in 2015 (Business Insider)
There is a big name in activist investing that has been involved in more than 70 campaigns so far this year.
It isn't Pershing Square, Icahn Associates, or Third Point. You've probably never heard of it.
Gold ends lower, loses steam after big Friday rally (Market Watch)
Gold futures settled lower Monday as a stronger U.S. dollar dulled demand for the metal, which recently scored its first weekly gain in seven weeks.
JAB's Billionaire Backers Want to Create a Global Coffee Empire (Bloomberg)
JAB Holding Co. wants to rule the coffee world. The closely held investment firm that manages the fortune of Austria’s billionaire Reimann family took another step toward that goal Monday by acquiring Keurig Green Mountain Inc. for almost $14 billion in the industry’s biggest-ever deal.
General Electric Calls Off Sale of Appliance Unit to Electrolux (NY Times)
General Electric has called off a deal to sell its century-old appliance division to Electrolux of Sweden for $3.3 billion after the United States Justice Department moved to block the transaction, Electrolux said on Monday.
Stocks are getting whacked (Business Insider)
Stocks opened lower on Monday following a surge in the previous session, and crude oil plunged to a six-year low.
Verizon Would Explore Yahoo Deal If It Made Sense, CFO Says (Bloomberg)
Verizon Communications Inc. would explore a possible acquisition of Yahoo! Inc. if a deal made sense, Verizon Chief Financial OfficerFran Shammo said.
Crude oil is sliding (Business Insider)
Crude oil is extending a slide that began on Friday as OPEC met in Vienna.
OPEC's Oil Market Disarray Looks Like 1990's Slump All Over Again (Bloomberg)
OPEC has seemingly dropped any attempt at trying to fulfill its founding mission and manage the oil market, sending global benchmark Brent crude to a six-year low. For Saudi Arabia’s Ali al-Naimi, the most powerful and longest-serving of the group’s oil ministers, it may have seemed like history was repeating itself.
RBS Said to Plan Cost Cuts at Coutts U.K. in First Half of 2016 (Bloomberg)
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britains largest taxpayer-owned lender, will prioritize cost cutting at its Coutts private bank in the U.K. in the first half of next year, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Waiting (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Gold and silver gave back a little of their gains from last week in lethargic trade.
Gun stocks go nuts (Business Insider)
Meanwhile, the broader stock market was lower, with the Dow and the benchmark S&P 500 losing about 1% following a surge in trading on Friday.
Last Wednesday, a couple shot and killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.
Politics
Donald Trump's Call to Ban Muslim Immigrants (The Atlantic)
In a written statement late Monday afternoon, the Trump campaign said the Republican frontrunner wanted a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.” As backing, Trump cited a controversial six-month-old survey from the right-wing Center for Security Policy finding that one-quarter of U.S. Muslim respondents believed that violence against Americans was justified as part of global jihad and that a slim majority “agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah.”
Politicians Talk Nonsense Because It Works (Bloomberg View)
Do you think that this is a profound statement? “Intention and attention are mystery’s manifestation.” What about this one? “Hidden meanings transform unseen beauty.”
Both statements are, of course, bullshit, understood in a particular sense: not a lie, but a kind of verbal smokescreen, designed to suggest depth and insight but actually vague, vacuous or meaningless. As we’ll see, an understanding of pretentious-sounding gibberish and its frequent power tells us something important about contemporary politics. But we need a little social science first.
Technology
People With Disabilities Can Now Control Robots With Their Brains (PSFK)
Every day, technological products are made to make life more convenient and comfortable. But sometimes, we fail to see which people really need these products the most. Who else better to benefit from an improved quality of life than people with disabilities? Thankfully, a telepresence robot has been created by researchers at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) to help people control robots with brain signals.
America’s Most Futuristic Warship Is Boldly Going Out To Sea (Popular Science)
The very shape of future American warships is in the hands of none other than Captain James Kirk. In development for years, the USS Zumwalt looks as much like a spaceship as an ocean-going vessel, with sharp angular sides and a body that looks upside down. The commanding officer does indeed share a name with fictional Star Trek captain James Kirk. No naval vessel is really complete without first proving that it can survive on the open seas, and now it’s headed out for sea trials.
Health and Life Sciences
Hundreds tested after TB at school (BBC)
Hundreds of pupils at a Lincolnshire primary school are being tested for tuberculosis after it was confirmed two children had the disease.
Mablethorpe Primary has also cancelled some Christmas activities, even though the risks of it spreading are low.
Can light therapy treat non-seasonal depression too? (CNN)
The days are short and the nights are long, and you can't help think that winter would be so much more pleasant if it were just a bit more like summer.
That is the rationale for light therapy, in which people sit in front of a special light box in their home for about 30 minutes in the morning every day. And experts agree that the therapy can be an effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a form of depression that affects about 5% of people in the United States during fall and winter months.
Life on the Home Planet
China Chokes As Beijing Issues "Red Pollution Alert" For First Time Ever (Zero Hedge)
Just a week after Beijing's major literally had his head saved, thanks to a cold front which swept away some of the worst pollution ever, the city has raised the alarm once again.. but this time to a record level. For the first time ever, the municipal government has issued a so-called red pollution alert – imposed car bans and suspending schools – after acrid-smelling haze returned to the Chinese capital.
Warming speeds 'slowest landslides' (BBC)
Rising global temperatures are helping to speed up slow moving landslides across Alaska.
Researchers told BBC News that the geological features, known as frozen debris lobes, are now threatening a major highway.
