Happy Holidays from PSW!
Financial Markets and Economy
Gold's Santa Rally Is Recurring Year-End Gift for Chart Watchers (Bloomberg)
Whether they've been naughty or nice, gold investors can usually count on a year-end Santa rally.
GRANTHAM: Here are 12 ways people get America all wrong (Business Insider)
To illustrate how this bias pervades society, Grantham identified 12 ways the US is thought to be a global leader. And in his charting, he reveals how the facts tell a different, more depressing story.
"It is my attempt to bring home how extreme is our preference for good news over accurate news," he said.
We grabbed his charts to give you a quick summary of what he's talking about.
Financial sector key to final week of trading (Business Insider)
As 2015 draws to a close next week, the fortunes of the last few trading days of the year may be dictated by the direction of the financial sector.
The financials have risen more than 6 percent this quarter, with investors expecting the sector to be one of the main beneficiaries of the first interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve in nearly a decade last week.
11 stocks Wall St. is betting will tank in 2016 (CNN)
Called "short selling," it's a strategy that investors use to profit when a stock goes lower. The trading tactic was featured in the recently-released film "The Big Short," starring Brad Pitt. The movie is based on a book by Michael Lewis about people who bet that a housing meltdown and financial crisis was coming.
Apple Pay Seeks Growth in Asia, Europe After Slow U.S. Adoption (Bloomberg)
Apple Pay is looking overseas in 2016.
Nasdaq short interest down 0.5 percent in early December (Business Insider)
Short interest on the Nasdaq fell 0.5 percent in the first half of December, the exchange said on Thursday.
As of Dec. 15, short interest fell to about 8.85 billion shares, compared with 8.894 billion shares as of Nov. 30.
Rally in Most-Hated S&P 500 Industry Erases Index Loss for Year (Bloomberg)
The year’s most beaten-down stocks are taking a last shot at redemption.
Obscure Corner of Wall St. Draws Skepticism From Investors (NY Times)
Most companies listed on American stock exchanges are conventional, familiar businesses like Apple or Exxon Mobil, but the stock market also contains many obscure, even mysterious, specialized sectors that operate with much less public awareness.
In recent months, one of those groups of specialty firms has been drawing attention as controversy has increased over some of its tactics and results.
When do markets around the world close on New Year’s Eve? (Market Watch)
Virtually all major markets around the world will be closed on New Year’s Day, but U.S. stock traders can forget about strapping on the party hats and starting their New Year’s Eve party during the early afternoon.
Both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will observe regular trading hours on Thursday, Dec. 31, closing at 4 p.m. Eastern. They will be closed on Friday, Jan. 1, and regular trade will resume on Monday, Jan. 4.
Get ready for Google to buy a bunch of cloud startups in 2016, says top cloud investor (Business Insider)
Salesforce's $360 million deal to buy cloud software maker SteelBrick is its biggest acquisition in more than two years.
SteelBrick's quote-automating service is growing fast and could make Salesforce a more robust sales platform.
But some investors believe the deal could also be a sign of much bigger things to come next year: a more active M&A market in the cloud software space.
Emerging Stocks Climb for Fourth Day as Energy Companies Rally (Bloomberg)
Emerging-market stocks posted their longest stretch of gains in seven weeks as a recovery in oil prices supported energy companies. The South Korean won led gains in currencies.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed's Firm Leads $247.7 Million Investment in Lyft (Wall Street Journal)
Ridesharing service Lyft is getting a boost from Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The prince announced Thursday that his Kingdom Holding Co. is paying $104.9 million for 2.3 percent of Lyft, part of a larger investment by an unnamed group of $247.7 million for 5.3% of the San Francisco-based company.
Investors kept dumping bonds after Fed rate hike (Market Watch)
The Federal Reserve finally delivered a long-anticipated rate increase last week, but that did little to stem the rush to the exits in fixed income, according to weekly flow data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
U.S. Junk Bonds + Brazil Currency Bets = Big Headaches in Japan (Bloomberg)
If investors are bracing for their first annual loss on U.S. high-yield bonds since 2008, spare a thought for Japanese moms and pops who put their money into funds that bought the debt and mixed it with bets on emerging currencies. It’s proving to be a toxic cocktail.
These 2 ugly charts show just how brutal it is in the oil business (Business Insider)
Bankruptcies in the oil and gas sector in the US have reached levels last seen in the Great Recession.
The Dallas Federal Reserve Bank put out a report on December 23 noting that at least nine US oil and gas companies with $2 billion in debt have defaulted in the fourth quarter.
Mining Shares Surge as Rally Spreads to Asia on U.S. Optimism (Bloomberg)
The biggest mining equities rally in months lost steam as Glencore Plc and First Quantum Minerals Ltd. fell for the first time this week amid declining industrial metal prices. Gold producers extended gains.
What Little Difference a Year Makes in the U.S. Treasury Market (Bloomberg)
For all the angst over where the world’s benchmark bond yield is going, its level on Christmas Eve is almost exactly the same as a year ago.
Dow ‘divisor’ change gives its stocks a little more influence (Market Watch)
The keeper of the Dow Jones Industrial Average tweaked the blue chip barometer’s “divisor” after Nike Inc.’s stock split, effectively giving every other stock a little more influence on the index’s price.
Dollar to Strengthen Versus All Major Peers Except Pound, Loonie (Bloomberg)
The dollar will strengthen against all its Group-of-10 peers except the pound and Canadian currency in the first quarter while New Zealands kiwi will be the worst performer, according to analyst forecasts.
Politics
The Collapse of the Carson Campaign (The Atlantic)
When Ben Carson appeared on CNN Wednesday night to defend his campaign’s management, he praised his staffers’ ability to shape him into a candidate. But his campaign still requires a boost after being rattled by dysfunction within.
“I would wonder who else could get someone who is an outsider, who has no organization, to this point, this quickly,” Carson told Don Lemon, who’d asked him about reports suggesting Carson planned to shake up his staff.
Technology
The worst and best tech IPOs for investors in 2015 (Business Insider)
2015 wasn't a great year for tech IPOs.
Some companies like Fitbit and Atlassian made splashes with above-average performance and a ton of enthusiasm from Wall Street.
But this was also the year that so-called "unicorn" startups like Box, Square, and Apigee went public with market caps well below their last private valuations of more than $1 billion.
Mood Lighting Takes a Step In the Right Direction (PSFK)
Do you have a room in your house, the uses of which are…in flux? Then a new lamp called FLUXO is for you. Using app-controlled LEDs, the Austrian-designed lamp improves upon recently popular smart lighting technologies like the Philips Hue, but adds a feature that’s likely to win hearts for those seeking task lighting or displaying art: the dimension of direction.
Health and Life Sciences
Guess who pioneered chemoprevention through diet? (Science-Based Medicine)
This is an expansion of a post I did over on the Society for Science-Based Medicine blog about this time last year. The original post, which got far more traffic than is usual for the SFSBM, is a good example of how science works and the good that it can do. The hard work of real science illustrated here serves as a striking counterpoint to the slap-dash system of pseudoscience, which churns out fake diseases and cures by the dozen based on a fuzzy understanding of real science fueled by a healthy dose of imagination.
The Gene-Editing Tool on Every Drugmaker's Wish List This Year (Bloomberg)
In a single year, Rodger Novak’s gene-editing startup raised $89 million in venture funding, got $105 million to enter a partnership with big drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. — and, this week, announced a deal with Bayer AG worth $335 million.
DEA Eases Cannabis Study Requirements (Forbes)
Christmas came early for cannabis research scientists. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) decided to ease some of the regulatory requirements that had been imposed on those who were conducting FDA-approved clinical trials on cannabidiol (CBD).
“This is certainly a step in the right direction towards the development and proof of CBD as an empirically efficacious compound. These modifications will streamline the research process regarding CBD’s possible medicinal value and help to bolster existing scientific research and studies,” said Seth Yakatan, CEO of Kalytera.
Life on the Home Planet
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Santa Brings Summer (TIME)
July on Christmas?
In parts of the U.S. accustomed to cozying up to the fireplace this time of year, it’s going to feel more like summer thanks to the record-breaking holiday heat.
Just after midnight Friday, a daily record high reached 66 degrees in New York City’s Central Park, besting the previous record of 64 degrees in 1982, according to the National Weather Service.
What We Know About When Jesus Was Actually Born (TIME)
It probably wasn’t on December 25th
The birth of Jesus Christ is pretty much the most basic element of the Christmas story. From common carols to the imagery of the nativity scene, the idea that Christmas is his birthday is everywhere.
Rare Christmas Full Moon Will Add to Holiday Light (Scientific American)
Holiday lights will adorn many neighborhoods this Christmas, but look out for a very special lighting treat in the form of a full moon this Friday.
This month, the full moon will peak at 6:11 a.m. EST (1111 GMT) on Dec. 25. This will be the first time a full moon has graced the skies on Christmas Day in 34 years, and it won't happen again until 2034.
Americans’ Quest for the Christmas of Their Childhoods (The Atlantic)
On an icy Maine pond one December morning, Chester Greenwood, a 15-year-old boy with oversized ears, was freezing. He cut a few strokes on his new skates before the ear-piercing cold became unbearable. Turning back to his grandmother’s farmhouse kitchen, a sudden inspiration blazed against the chill. The boy gathered a few scraps of farm wire, beaver fur, and cloth. In a moment, he fashioned a solution for the long winter cold: earmuffs.
