Financial Markets and Economy
Investors Lose Faith – Slumping Stocks Give Up All Yellen Gains (Zero Hedge)
It appears the "what the market missed" that we detailed earlier – This sets the Fed on a collision course with the market because "with the market pricing fewer hikes than the Fed suggests, someone is going to end up being wrong," – is starting to filter out to the mainstream. Despite exuberant buying in FANGs, the broad market indices have retraced the post-Yellen exuberance as bond yields fade, hinting at the market's growing realization that this could be a policy error.
Why are we selling off? Simple – Gartman "went modestly long of equities" because "he really had no choice."
Charting the Markets: Investor Relief After Fed Liftoff (Bloomberg)
The dollar rises for a sixth day, gold drops for the first day in three and German-U.S. yield spread widens.
Confident and clear, Yellen says rate path will be well signaled (Business Insider)
The unanimous backing Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen got for the Fed's first rate hike since the financial crisis let her deliver a clear message: Don't expect further rate hikes for a while, and when we are ready, we'll tell you.
Yellen's confident and measured performance – she even managed a joke about the Fed's forecasting record – came as she ended the "extraordinary" measures that revived the U.S. economy from the worst recession since the 1930's.
Dollar keeps going up after Fed raises interest rates (Market Watch)
The dollar continued to edge up against the yen, the euro and a broad range of Asian currencies during the trading session in Asia on Thursday, following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to raise short-term interest rates for the first time since 2006.
Oil nears 11-year low on oversupply, strong dollar (Yahoo! Finance)
Oil slipped toward an 11-year low on Thursday, dented further by a seemingly relentless build in oversupply, and as the dollar strengthened after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. Brent crude for February delivery, the front-month contract from Thursday, fell 20 cents to $37.19 a barrel by 1016 GMT. Brent has tumbled from a high above $115 in June last year.
Norilsk's Potanin Says Fed Rate May Aid Worst-Performing Metal (Bloomberg)
The billionaire chief of one of the worlds biggest nickel miners said the first U.S. interest-rate increase in almost a decade may be good news for the metal thats trading near a 12-year low.
A banking dream team is looking at technology that could 'impact financial services the way the Internet changed media' (Business Insider)
The banking dream team looking at blockchain — the technology that underpins bitcoin — is finally complete.
R3 on Thursday announced that 12 more banks have joined its project, taking the total number of banks signed up to 42. The doors are now closed on the first round of banking membership.
It’s a good time to harvest losses (Market Watch)
Most advisers suggest it’s a good idea to harvest losses this time of year, as part of your year-end retirement planning and investment management strategies.
“This year people actually have some losses in their portfolios, mostly from international stocks, but it’s worth seeing if you can net out gains and losses to rebalance at year-end,” said Sue Stevens, the CEO of Stevens Wealth Management in Chicago.
Zuma Bungle Over Nene Almost Forgotten as Stocks Retrace Losses (Bloomberg)
South African shares rose for a third day to erase the declines that followed in the wake of President Jacob Zumas shock dismissal of his finance minister. Its still a way to go for bonds and the rand to regain losses.
G.E. Expects Growth in Its Earnings in an Uncertain 2016 (NY Times)
General Electric, the nation’s largest industrial company, expects next year to be one of economic uncertainty, geopolitical turmoil and slow growth.
Black Friday's move online helped boost UK retail sales in November (Business Insider)
UK retailers had a great month in November.
The Office for National Statistics' monthly retail sales data for November just dropped, and the figures beat expectations.
U.S. stocks set to continue Fed-fueled Santa rally (Market Watch)
Wall Street was set for a fourth straight day of gains on Thursday, as investors read the first U.S. interest rate rise in nearly 10 years as a vote of confidence for the U.S. economy.
Analysts said the move also drew a line under the financial crisis for markets.
The Irony of Ending the U.S. Oil Export Ban Is Imports May Rise (Bloomberg)
The lifting of the U.S. ban on oil exports might actually make imports more appealing.
Here's what 8 banks are saying about the US Fed rate hike (Business Insider)
The US finally raised interest rates on Wednesday, after seven years of monetary policy designed to stimulate the economy and counter the 2008 global financial crisis.
Oil stocks will get worse before they get better (Market Watch)
Crude oil prices have had a rough 2015, but things just went from bad to worse.
Oil prices are now in the mid-$30s, down 30% from their October highs and down 40% since January. Worse, the price of crude is roughly a third of what it was in the summer of 2014.
Good Things Come to Those Gas Bulls Who Wait Another Two Years (Bloomberg)
Dont fret,U.S. natural gas bulls. Futures prices point to better days ahead — if youre willing to wait two years.
Stocks Bounce (Business Insider)
The FTSE 100 opened well over 1.4% higher in London on Thursday, after the US Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates for the first time in 9 years late on Wednesday.
These mutual fund fumbles cost investors real money in 2015 (Market Watch)
When it comes to the holidays, there’s nothing quite like second helpings, an overindulgence in the gluttony and excess that feels good, even when it isn’t.
And so it goes with the fund industry this year, where there was plenty of piggishness and stupidity for investors to gawk at.
Poland's $41 Billion Bond Investors at Risk From New Asset Tax (Bloomberg)
By taxing banks’ assets, Poland’s new government risks losing its biggest local investors.
Oil price slide unlikely to scuttle Shell's takeover of BG (Business Insider)
Royal Dutch Shell's takeover of BG Group may look less attractive after the slide in oil prices but the fact the same investors own nearly half of both firms means the deal is still likely to go through.
Big Blue can make investors big green (Market Watch)
It’s not often we can buy one of the bluest blue chips at the same price it traded five years ago. And while the trend has been down for three years, the technicals are shaping up to make International Business Machines a good buy for investors with a longer time horizon.
IBM IBM, +1.09% seems to have been left behind as technology changed. It ditched its best known personal computer division in 2004 as it moved into services, cloud support and software yet the company’s fortunes have been sliding.
Gilead to Invest $725 Million in Galapagos After Snub by AbbVie (Bloomberg)
Gilead Sciences Inc. plans to pay $725 million to acquire a stake in Belgian drugmaker Galapagos NV and buy into an experimental drug that had been spurned by AbbVie Inc. less than three months ago.
Asian central banks, governments breathe sigh of relief after Fed lifts off (Business Insider)
Asian governments and central bankers breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday after currencies edged up and stocks rallied rather than recoiled at the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates.
The prospect of the first hike in U.S. rates in almost a decade had kept emerging markets on edge in the weeks leading up to the Fed's decision, amid fears investors would redirect capital to higher-yielding U.S. debt in a fresh blow to their shaky economies.
BlackRock Spurns `Stretched' U.S. Stocks for Europe, Japan (Bloomberg)
BlackRock Inc. says its staying away from U.S. stocks amid high valuations and a strengthening dollar, preferring equities in Europe and Japan.
AstraZeneca to buy 55 percent of cancer firm Acerta for $4 billion (Business Insider)
AstraZeneca <AZN.L> said on Thursday it had agreed to buy a 55 percent stake in privately held biotech firm Acerta Pharma for $4 billion to give it access to a new kind of drug for fighting blood cancers.
Traders Holding Fast on 2017 BOE Rate Increase After Fed's Move (Bloomberg)
The Federal Reserves first interest-rate increase in almost a decade has barely budged investors outlook for the Bank of England to follow suit.
Politics
How Democrats and Republicans differ on Social Security (Market Watch)
Social Security is the bedrock retirement income source for American workers. The program, which faces a long-term financing shortfall, has drawn little attention from the 2016 presidential candidates so far but will likely become a major issue as the campaign proceeds. For this reason, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has compiled a comparison of the candidate’s proposals for Social Security.
Long Live Spain's Radical Center (Bloomberg View)
What if, for a change, a protest party challenged for power in Europe not by blaming the nation's woes on immigrants, the European Union or free markets, but by promising to fix the economy? On Sunday, Spanish voters will decide whether that can happen.
Technology
‘Wireless power’ is about to make charging cables obsolete (Market Watch)
I still haven’t met a person who likes cleaning. And if untangling power cords is part of the task, it’s even more arduous. Which led me to wonder whether we really need so many cables.
We live in age where you can beam 4K streams directly to the screen of your choice, connect your computer to the Internet with no strings attached and communicate over great distances wirelessly. But when it comes to electricity, we still have to depend on power cables that clutter our floors and walls. Wireless electricity would be superior even to the neatest of cable-management setups.
These earthquake-proof beds will bury you alive in comfort (The Verge)
Earthquakes. Humanity's oldest foe. Right up there with snakes, fire, and other humans when it comes to things that will definitely probably kill you some day. Which is why you need one of these terrifying earthquake-proof beds. In the event of a quake, your conspicuously massive four-poster will simply swallow you up whole, letting you get back to sleeping while the world itself shatters around you.
Health and Life Sciences
Stem Cell Transplants May Not Help Tough-to-Treat Crohn's, Study Says (Medicine Net)
Stem cell transplants seem no better than conventional therapy forCrohn's disease that hasn't responded to other treatments, a new study finds.
The European study also found that for patients who cannot undergo surgery for the condition, stem cell transplants resulted in serious side effects, including infections.
Cancer 'not just down to bad luck' (BBC)
Cancer is overwhelmingly a result of environmental factors and not largely down to bad luck, a study suggests.
Earlier this year, researchers sparked a debate after suggesting two-thirds of cancer types were down to luck rather than factors such as smoking.
The new study, in the journal Nature, used four approaches to conclude only 10-30% of cancers were down to the way the body naturally functions or "luck".
Life on the Home Planet
2016 'very likely' to be warmest (BBC)
A new global temperature forecast from the UK's Met Office says that 2016 is likely to be even warmer than 2015.
This year has already been provisionally declared the warmest on record thanks to a combination of global warming and a strong El Nino.
