Financial Markets and Economy
Treasury Investors Uncowed by Fed Rate Prospects Amid Oil Rout (Bloomberg)
You’d never know a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase may be days away judging by demand for Treasuries.
Why one critic thinks the Fed 'did this to themselves' and will be forced to raise rates next week (Business Insider)
In just a few days, the Federal Open Market Committee will determine whether or not to raise interest rates for the first time since they were cut to 0% in 2008.
Most economists, analysts, and market players expect the long-awaited increase to happen.
Fannie and Freddie’s Government Rescue Has Come With Claws (NY Times)
On May 9, 2012, the executives of Fannie Mae, the beleaguered mortgage finance company, finally went public with good news: After three and a half years as a ward of the state, it was profitable again.
Since being bailed out by the government at the height of the financial crisis, Fannie had drawn $116 billion from the Treasury. But it had been clear for months inside the company that things were looking up.
Building Success By Breaking Things (Trader Feed)
There's an interesting fallacy in trading psychology: Because many trading errors are made when people are in states of high physiological/emotional arousal, the conclusion is that a state of Zen-like calm and emotional restraint is necessary for trading success. That would be a great theory, except in over a decade of working with professional traders, I can't find any successful ones who are particularly close to enlightenment. It takes a degree of achievement orientation and drive for success to perform well in any field. Those qualities ensure that failure will not be an easy experience.
Hedge Funds Trim Bullish Dollar Wagers on Brink of Fed Liftoff (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds are less bullish on the dollar even as the final countdown to next week's likely Federal Reserve interest-rate increase begins.
Fintech's big secret — 'banks really have to fear smarter banks' (Business Insider)
Fintech — or financial technology — is one of the hottest areas of technology right now, with money pouring into the sector, startups springing up all over the place, and plenty of column inches devoted to the phenomenon.
China economy shows signs of steadying, more policy support needed (Yahoo! Finance)
China's activity data was stronger than expected in November, with factory output growth picking up to a five-month high, signaling that a flurry of stimulus measures from Beijing may have put a floor under a fragile economy. "Real interest rates are still high due to falling producer prices," Wang Jun, senior economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), a Beijing-based think-tank.
China Steel Output Slumps to a One-Year Low as Prices Collapse (Bloomberg)
Steelmakers in China reined in production last month as prices collapsed and the onset of winter in the largest producer curbed demand already hurt by a cooling economy.
A Junk Bond Fund Freezes Out Investors, and the Chills Spread (NY Times)
Two months ago, Thomas Lapointe, lead portfolio manager of the Third Avenue Management junk bond fund, delivered a bullish presentation at a conference at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.
Yes, fund assets were down, he assured worried investors, but there was value out there. The right approach was to stay the course, he said, according to an investor in attendance.
One of the world's biggest miners is cutting 85,000 jobs (Business Insider)
Anglo American, the FTSE-listed commodities giant, is in serious trouble and is set to cut around 85,000 jobs, roughly two-thirds of its staff, the company confirmed at an investor day on Tuesday.
The company also announced on Tuesday that it has been forced to undertake what it calls a "radical" restructuring of its business to try to weather the commodity crash.
China Factory Output, Retail Sales Gain as Demand Stabilizes (Bloomberg)
Chinas industrial production increased in November and retail sales held up during a key shopping season, offering reassurance that the worlds second-largest economy is showing signs of stabilization.
The US is still trying to decide which woman will be the face of the new $10 bill (Business Insider)
Americans will have to wait a little longer to find out which woman will appear on the new $10 bill.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will delay his announcement of the $10 bill redesign until 2016, a spokeswoman said in a statement Friday, extending a selection process that Lew initially said would be over by the end of this year.
Wall Street Slips on Oil’s Big Drop (NY Times)
The fall in oil prices showed little sign of slowing as crude futures in New York continued their slide on Friday, falling for the sixth straight day and settling near a seven-year low.
Oil futures of American benchmark crude settled at $35.62 a barrel, down 3.1 percent, their lowest level since December 2008. At the time, during the depth of the recession, they dropped as low as $32.40 a barrel.
Pound's Prospects Look Better Than Fed Week Would Normally Imply (Bloomberg)
The pound is shaping up to approach the year-end on a positive note versus the dollar, even with the Federal Reserve set to raise interest rates for the first time in almost a decade.
Volatility the surest bet in stocks after Fed meets (Business Insider)
Stock market investors are ready for the first U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hike in nearly a decade next week, but they may not be fully prepared for all of the nuanced remarks likely to accompany that announcement.
Beyond the Fed, Euro-Area Bonds May Be Driven by Oil Next Week (Bloomberg)
Euro-region sovereign bonds may weather higher U.S. interest rates next week.
Politics
The Seldom-Read Books of U.S. Presidential Candidates (The Atlantic)
These days, you can’t run for president without writing a book.
Yes, Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope is the famous one, and it was actually pretty good. (Dreams From My Father doesn’t count—it’s a memoir and wasn’t released during a presidential campaign.)
Putin's former finance minister says the Russian government is running out of money (Business Insider)
Russia's economic prognosis is dire.
Alexei Kudrin, who was Russia's finance minister from 2000 to 2011, said, that within the next few years, Russia's "reserve funds will be exhausted and they will have to raise taxes."
Technology
Ducati Multistrada 1200S is spectacular — and safe (Market Watch)
I cannot pretend to be level headed about the following and I am reluctant to abandon my state of ventilated bliss only to be objective. I had a tremendous day riding a new Ducati Multistrada 1200S around Los Angeles and into the scrub of the Antelope Valley, the kind of out-of-body riding that happens only in L.A., where lane-splitting through slower traffic is commonplace and the motorcycle, not the automobile, is king.
Health and Life Sciences
Could a Scan Someday Replace Lymph Node Biopsy? (Medicine Net)
Scientists are testing a noninvasive alternative to lymph node biopsy for detecting early signs that melanoma skin cancer has spread.
Life on the Home Planet
In the City With the World’s Worst Traffic, Uber Is an Awkward Fit (Wired)
I'd learn to dread turning that corner. It was the first corner out of the gate from Magallanes Village, where my family’s house is, feeding into Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, the perpetually snarled main highway in Manila. Since heading back home to the Philippines over the Thanksgiving holiday, I’d have to turn that corner every time I wanted to meet up with friends at a bar, join my parents for dinner at a restaurant, or just try to get a coffee. And that’s when I’d see it.
Activists Turned a Busy Paris Roundabout into a Symbol of Hope for the Planet (Gizmodo)
The final climate agreement draft won’t come until this weekend but a group of activists have found a way to mark the end of the COP21 summit on a somewhat hopeful note.
