Financial Markets and Economy
New Weapon for Investors Appears in the War on Coal: Politeness (Bloomberg)
Call it the softer side of the fossil fuel divestment movement.
Yogawear retailer Lululemon's profit falls 12 percent (Business Insider)
Canadian yogawear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc <LULU.O> reported a 12 percent fall in quarterly profit, hurt by higher costs.
Net income fell to $53.2 million, or 38 cents per share, in the third quarter ended Nov. 1, from $60.5 million, or 42 cents per share, a year earlier.
Detroit-to-Mexico Shift Predicted After Auto Union's Big Victory (Bloomberg)
The most lucrative contract negotiations for the United Auto Workers in more than a decade wont add a lot to carmakers costs, even though each company committed $2 billion or more for raises, bonus money and benefits.
Russia's collapsing car sales say a lot about the country's shattered economy (Business Insider)
Russian car sales are getting absolutely obliterated at the moment.
Sales of light vehicles plunged by an astonishing 42.7% in the year to November, underlining the country's economic turmoil.
Why Yahoo's Slump Isn't Erasing Marissa Mayer's Stock Options (Bloomberg)
When Salesforce.com Inc. founder Marc Benioff said last week that Marissa Mayer had a “great pay package,” it may have been an understatement.
Shares of her company, Yahoo! Inc., are down more than 9 percent since February 2014, but her stock options granted at that time are still in the money. That’s because the strike price on the options, the biggest portion of her $42.1 million package that year, was set 15 months earlier when she was just four months into her job as chief executive officer and the stock was lower, according to Yahoo’s proxy.
Anglo American is getting smashed again this morning (Business Insider)
The pain doesn't stop for Anglo American.
South Africa's Inflation Rate Increases to 4.8% in November (Bloomberg)
South Africa's inflation rate rose to 4.8 percent in November, the highest since July.
U.S. stocks on track for third down day in a row (Market Watch)
U.S. stock futures edged lower Wednesday, putting the market on track to add to its two-day slump that’s been driven in large part by oil’s tumble.
Kinder Morgan and Costco helped lead the S&P 500 lower in premarket trading, while DuPont, Dow Chemical and Yahoo were among the index’s premarket gainers.
China's Banks That Need Over $600 Billion in New Debt Go Abroad (Bloomberg)
Chinese banks, already the largest issuers of bonds to build capital buffers, are looking beyond the savings of the nation’s 1.4 billion people for more funds as they grapple with mounting bad loans.
Oil gains on Japan data, U.S. stocks, but more weakness expected (Yahoo! Finance)
Oil prices rose on Wednesday on strong Japanese economic data and lower crude oil storage figures from the United States, but many investors expected a fall to below 2008 lows due to a mounting global supply glut. Brent crude oil futures were up 36 cents at $40.62 a barrel at 0951 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $37.86 per barrel, up 35 cents from their last settlement.
The S&P 500 is your best weapon against rising rates next year (Market Watch)
In a week that has so far wiped more than 1% off the S&P and Dow, here’s some food for thought from Barry Ritholtz.
The Big Picture blogger asks what investors should expect after a flat year for U.S. markets. He says the bears take the view that a flat year is a sign that the nearly seven-year-old bull market is “old and tired,” and ready for a big pullback.
Biggest Bank in Denmark Warns `Emergency' Rate Damage Is Growing (Bloomberg)
Danske Bank says Denmark’s negative interest rates have lasted longer than anyone could have expected, with the damage to the financial industry growing increasingly burdensome.
Costco quarterly earnings fall more than 3% (Market Watch)
Costco Wholesale Corp. late Tuesday reported a surprising 3.2% decrease in first-quarter earnings, amid slowing growth in membership fees.
When Abu Dhabi Resembles Frontier Market You Know Oil Is Hurting (Bloomberg)
You would have to go back to the 2008 financial crisis to find the last time markets in the Gulf took a hit like this.
Even cheaper oil would do a world of good for everyone (Market Watch)
It will tip economies back into deflation. It will trigger political chaos in countries where the state depends on it for revenue. It will depress demand as those economies shrivel.
Mining Stock Rout Abates as Chinese Inflation Beats Estimates (Bloomberg)
Most mining stocks fell, with Anglo American PLC set for the biggest two-day loss since 2008, on deepening concern that the companies are struggling as commodity prices decline.
Asian shares continue to fall despite upbeat data (Market Watch)
Asian markets headed lower for a second day Wednesday, with better-than-expected economic data from Japan and China failing to stem the selling.
But Chinese stocks made tentative gains after the People’s Bank of China set the yuan reference rate—which determines the currency’s trading levels—at its weakest point against the dollar in four years.
Tech Romance Heats Up as Microsoft Leads Stocks to 15-Year High (Bloomberg)
Oil’s plunging, drillers are in free fall, retailers can’t find a floor — so how has the entire U.S. stock market managed to avoid caving in? The reason is technology stocks.
Emerging Stocks Drop for Sixth Day as Yuan Extends Decline (Bloomberg)
Emerging-market stocks fell for a sixth day as health-care companies led losses and data showed China’s producer prices extended declines. The yuan weakened after the nation’s central bank cut its reference rate to the lowest level since 2011.
Wall St. set to open flat as commodities sell-off ease (Yahoo! Finance)
Data showed China's November consumer price index surprised on the upside, rising 1.5 percent on-year from 1.3 percent in October. Calmer commodity prices helped steady sentiment too. Oil prices clawed back some of their losses as U.S. crude inventories dipped, while copper prices also held their ground.
China Stock-Index Futures Little Changed Before Inflation Data (Bloomberg)
Chinese stocks fell for a fifth day in Hong Kong after data showed producer prices extended declines and the central bank cut the yuan’s reference rate to the weakest level in four years.
Politics
The Polls May Be Underestimating Trump's Support (The Atlantic)
Donald Trump’s persistent lead in the GOP presidential-preference polls has been a great source of confusion for the chattering classes. But Trump is actually just the latest manifestation of a more global trend: Data suggests the appeal of anti-immigrant policies to working-class voters is much deeper than most American elites want to believe. And because Trump draws the bulk of his support from less-educated, working- and middle-class voters, he may be positioned to do even better still—for now. Polling data from Europe shows that parties with similar voter profiles to Trump’s consistently do better in both online polls and at the ballot box than in live-interview polling.
Technology
How New Tech Will Become Your Intimate Partner (PSFK)
A companion knows us so intimately and can successfully predict our desires and anticipate our needs before we announce them; they remember when we forget, know how we feel before we do, read our body language and offer solutions before a problem arises, reminding us to regain our balance and footing. We learn in PSFK’s 2017 Forecastreport that today, technology can passively navigate our daily routines for us. Smart devices restock coffee beans before they run out, alert us when our dry cleaning is ready, order an Uber ride in anticipation of an appointment, if we so choose to welcome them into our life.
This Life-Changing, Low-Cost Artificial Knee Is On The Market After Years Of Design (Fast Company)
The ReMotion Knee lets people in the developing world share some of our advanced prosthetic technology, but at a price you can afford if you make $4 a day.
After he lost his leg in a traffic accident, Sonu Kumar, a 20-year-old electrician in Jaipur, India, was one of the first people to test an early prototype for a low-cost prosthetic that helped him comfortably walk again—and become so mobile he was eventually able to almost double his income.
Health and Life Sciences
Infertile Men May Have Higher Risk of Heart Disease, Diabetes (Medicine Net)
Infertile men may have a higher risk of developing other health problems such asdiabetes, heart disease and substance abuse disorders, compared with fertile men, a new study suggests.
The Ethics of Prescribing Worthless Treatments (Science-Based Medicine)
Is it ever ethical for a physician to prescribe a treatment to a patient that they know to be entirely without efficacy? Is it ever possible to do this without deceiving the patient to some degree? I think the answer to both questions is a clear “no.”
Life on the Home Planet
Beijing’s Red Alert for Pollution Rekindles Anger and Confusion (NY Times)
Families in Beijing waited anxiously on Monday evening to hear whether schools would shut the next day, posing unexpected child-care challenges, after the city issued its first-ever red alert for heavy smog about 6:30 p.m. and advised school closings in an effort to protect students’ health and reduce traffic on the roads, among other measures.
