Financial Market and Economy
Fed's Williams wants low rates, hot economy in 2016 (Business Insider)
The Federal Reserve will aim to keep the U.S. economy running hot next year to boost the job market and inflation, a top central banker said, and to achieve that goal interest-rate hikes will be slow but will not follow any predictable pattern.
U.S. Gas Climbs From 16-Year Low on Slightly Cooler Forecasts (Bloomberg)
Natural gas advanced from a 16-year low as forecasts showed cooler weather in the Midwest later this month.
This is how much money exists in the entire world, in one chart (Market Watch)
Ever wonder how much money there is in the world?
The answer is complicated, which you might expect, but not because of the difficulty of tallying up all the rather large numbers. Rather, it’s more about which parameters are used to define “money.”
Dow plunges 367 points (CNN)
The Dow plunged 367 points on Friday, its fourth-biggest decline of the year. The S&P 500 retreated 1.8% and the Nasdaq lost 1.6%.
2009, the year after the economy collapsed, was the best year to launch a $1 billion unicorn (Business Insider)
There's no question that 2015 was the year of the unicorn — the term for a startup worth one billion dollars or more (once considered so rare, it was like a unicorn).
At the start of 2014, there were about 43 startups, across all industry sectors, that were considered to be worth $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
JPMorgan Forgot to Tell Clients It Wanted to Make Money (Bloomberg View)
JPMorgan Chase Bank is in the business of, among other things, investing rich people's money for them. It charges them a fee for this service. It invests a lot of their money in mutual funds. The mutual funds also charge fees. If the mutual funds are run by JPMorgan, then JPMorgan gets both fees. If they're not, it only gets one fee. Two fees are more than one fee. JPMorgan invests some of its clients' money in its own mutual funds, and some of it in outside mutual funds, but it says: "We prefer J.P. Morgan managed strategies unless we think third-party managers offer substantially differentiated portfolio construction benefits."
Citigroup Plans at Least 2,000 Job Cuts Next Month (Bloomberg)
Citigroup Inc. plans to cut at least 2,000 jobs starting next month as Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat restructures some of the banks businesses.
Technical analysts are spotting a bullish signal in the S&P 500 (Market Watch)
Even with Friday’s selloff, the S&P 500 index is on the verge of passing into territory interpreted by market technicians as a bullish indicator.
You can get paid $18 an hour at Target (Business Insider)
Shoppers are buying online more than ever, and that could be great news for workers.
Walmart, Target, and Best Buy have reported unprecedented online demand this holiday season, and the companies are hiring thousands of staffers to work in new fulfillment centers — where online orders are packed and shipped — across the country.
Don't Hold Your Breath Waiting for a Wave of Defaults by American Commodity Companies (Bloomberg)
The fresh stretch of softness in commodity prices since early December has been at the epicenter of exploding junk bond spreads, causing many investors to doubt the ability of companies to service their debt.
The year 2015, according to credit strategists at Société Générale, was devoted to pricing in rising default risk.
US oil rig count jumps (Business Insider)
The US oil rig count jumped for the first time in five weeks, by 17 this week to 541, according to driller Baker Hughes.
For Investors, the Brilliance of Diamonds Is All in Their Color (NY Times)
If there is a holiday gift almost guaranteed to make a recipient swoon with joy, it is a diamond. But while such stones remain appealing as jewelry, the value of certain colored diamonds has increased while traditional white diamonds have fallen.
Colombia Lifts Key Rate to 5.75% as Inflation Nears 7-Year High (Bloomberg)
Colombia’s central bank raised its policy rate for a fourth straight month as it seeks to curb spending growth and cool the fastest inflation in almost seven years.
SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts – Out On the Lows For Option Expiry (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
The Current Account Balance came in worse than expected due in part to the stronger dollar, which like rate increases is one of the lesser things one might prescribe for a shallow and fragile recovery.
The only thing uglier than Chipotle's stock price is its reputation (Business Insider)
It's been a bad year for Chipotle.
Weekend Reading: All About Janet (Real Investment Advice)
Well…she did it. After eleven years of maintaining emergency rates in order to boost asset prices, valuations, speculative debt accumulation back to pre-financial crisis levels, Janet Yellen officially hiked rates this past week.
Wall St. slides on lower crude prices, stock options expiry (Yahoo! Finance)
U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday for the second straight day, as concerns, ranging from a decline in crude oil prices to the global response to the Federal Reserve's interest hike, weighed down the market.
The expiration of stock and index options contracts added volatility in a heavy trading volume day.
How Yahoo!s Identity Crisis Infected Tumblr (Bloomberg)
Marissa Mayers biggest acquisition has turned into a symbol of Yahoo's inability to innovate.
Here's what makes someone a good trader (Business Insider)
Wall Street has a variety of tribes — the traders, the bankers, the analysts, the managers.
Each requires a specific skill set.
Business Insider caught up with John Koudounis, CEO of the Japanese investment bank Mizuho Securities USA, to get a sense of what makes a good trader. Based on his response, it's clear he thinks the game has changed.
Politics
Bernie Sanders campaign: Democratic Party is undermining us (Market Watch)
The Bernie Sanders campaign has accused senior Democratic Party officials of actively seeking to undermine the Vermont senator's insurgent campaign by withholding valuable voter data they need to compete.
Marco Rubio's Gamble in Early States (Bloomberg View)
Senator Marco Rubio appears to be attempting a risky strategy: running in Iowa and New Hampshire with a less-than-traditional field operation. We won’t know whether it will pay off until after those states vote, and perhaps not even then. But here are the potential risks and rewards…
Technology
Seven Ways Technology Will Make The Mall Of The Future Not Suck (Popular Science)
'Tis the week to frantically finish your last-minute gift shopping. Whether you’re trolling Target or scrolling Amazon, it can be a pain.
Luckily, big data and a bunch of savvy psychologists are here to help. They're figuring out novel ways to track your in-store behavior, anticipate your needs, and help you find exactly what you need—or a pretty nice trade-off if it's no longer available.
A Sensor for Your Water Bottle Glows with Reminders to Hydrate (PSFK)
On the days when work is piling up and the phone is ringing off the hook, it can be hard to make time to break for lunch, and even more difficult to remember the importance of drinking enough water. While there are plenty of smartphone apps and specially designed water bottles that aim to take the effort out of staying hydrated, a smart sensor called Ulla takes a different route.
Health and Life Sciences
Risk factors, not chance, may cause most cancers (Futurity)
Researchers report quantitative evidence proving that extrinsic risk factors, such as environmental exposures and behaviors, weigh heavily on the development of approximately 70 to 90 percent of cancers.
The finding, published in the journal Nature, may be important for strategizing cancer prevention, research, and public health.
Life on the Home Planet
Towards a Global Definition of Sustainable Palm Oil (Huffington Post)
A green activist walks into a packed bar, followed by a human rights activist, a government official and a corporate buyer.
They noticed that patrons of the bar were all having the same drink so they asked the bartender for that drink. On tasting it, the green activist spits it out and complains that it tasted too much of forests. The human rights activist disagreed and said that the dominant flavor tasted too much of human rights abuse. The official liked it however, noting that it was made from raw materials his country produced. The corporate buyer liked it as well but only because it was the cheapest drink in the house.
