Financial Markets and Economy
Bond Buyers Readying Defenses for 2016 Leave Nothing to Chance (Bloomberg)
Wall Street is searching for new ways to protect corporate bond investments amid concern that traditional hedging tools arent working properly as default rates rise.
U.S. Gas Jumps to Six-Week High on Outlook for Wintery Weather (Bloomberg)
It’s taken a bit of ice and snow, but U.S. natural gas traders finally are convinced that winter is here.
Gas futures headed for the first monthly gain since June, wiping out December losses of as much as 25 percent, after overnight computer models predicted colder weather would boost demand and may help ease a supply glut. Below-normal temperatures from the West Coast through Texas over the next 10 days will push across the Midwest Jan. 8 through Jan. 12, said MDA Weather Services. Unusually mild weather on the East Coast will retreat.
One of the world's major oil producers could face a huge problem in 2016 (Business Insider)
This coming year is shaping up to be a difficult one for economies that are disproportionately dependent on oil.
Especially for Nigeria, where there's a possibility of renewed conflict in the country's oil-producing Niger Delta region, according to SBM Intelligence's recently published "Nigeria in 2016" report.
DuPont to Cut 1,700 Delaware-Based Jobs Ahead of Dow Merger (Bloomberg)
DuPont Co. said it will cut about 28 percent of its workforce in its home state of Delaware in early 2016 as the chemical company proceeds with a merger with Dow Chemical Co.
Will Inequality Ever Stop Growing? (The Atlantic)
For nearly half a century now, inequality in America has been on the rise. The result is an alarming concentration of wealth among the country’s very well-off: The 400 richest Americans own more than the poorest 61 percent—194 million people. Unsurprisingly, this stratification follows the country’s racial cleavages: Just two of the richest 400 people are black, and the 100 richest households own as much as the nation’s entire African American population combined.
NYSE Arca Rules Partly Responsible for August ETF Rout, SEC Says (Bloomberg)
A bout of market mayhem that halted trading in hundreds of exchange-traded funds in August was exacerbated by stock exchange rules intended to limit extreme price movements, according to a U.S. regulator’s report released Tuesday.
This may be crude oil’s most bullish signal (Market Watch)
Crude-oil prices are on track for their worst 18-month drop ever. But that might be a good thing, according to strategist and technical expert Chris Kimble at Kimble Charting Solutions.
On Tuesday, West Texas Intermediate oil futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange CLG6, -1.64% were enjoying a rally, up 2.6%, in a holiday-shortened week.
The great bitcoin gold rush may already be over (Business Insider)
Bitcoin companies may have already hit their peak.
Venture fundraising in the bitcoin-related space has fallen sharply from the first quarter high, with big banks on Wall Street now looking to develop technology in-house rather than putting money to work in the space.
Oil Investors See Red a Second Year as Futures and Equities Sink (Bloomberg)
Another horrendous year is drawing to a close in the oil patch. After starting out with hopes of a rebound, 2015 will instead punctuate the worst two years ever suffered through by U.S. crude producers.
Broad Rally for Market as Energy Sector Bounces Back (NY Times)
Rising oil prices and encouraging data on housing and consumer confidence helped lift stocks.
Ferrari short sellers face higher costs; shares in short supply (Business Insider)
Short sellers waiting for recently listed shares of Ferrari NV <RACE.N> to swerve off the road may soon face higher costs to maintain their bets on the luxury sportscar maker.
Nearly all of the Ferrari shares available for borrowing by short sellers have been lent out, pushing the cost of borrowing the few remains shares sharply higher, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of Research at S3, which advises investors.
Secret Behind Junk Funds That Made Money in 2015: No Heroics (Bloomberg)
Dont be a hero.
Oil Shown as Culprit for U.S. Steel Woes as Import Threat Eases (Bloomberg)
U.S. steelmakers battered by plunging prices have been quick to blame a flood of cheap Chinese shipments. But with imports nearing four-year lows, another culprit is emerging: the energy collapse.
The hottest stock of 2015: Netflix (Quartz)
Hope you didn’t sleep on Netflix this year.
During a year in which the S&P 500 index is barely managing to to eke out a yearly gain, the streaming company’s stock has more than doubled, up 142% (it was as much as much as 168% earlier this year, when it hit a record high). The index’s runner-up was Amazon, which is up 122% percent.
Barclays in $13.75 million U.S. settlement over mutual funds (Business Insider)
Barclays Plc will pay more than $13.75 million to settle U.S. regulatory charges that it let retail brokerage customers make unsuitable mutual fund transactions, including more than 6,100 fund switches, over a five-year period.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Tuesday said the London-based bank's Barclays Capital Inc unit will pay more than $10 million in restitution, including interest, to affected customers, and was fined $3.75 million.
Online Surge Leads to Many Not-So-Happy Returns for Retailers (Bloomberg)
A surge in online sales this holiday season is boosting expenses for some retailers as more shoppers return merchandise purchased with the click of a mouse.
SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts – Painting the Tape (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Well, the end of year shenanigans to add some coin to the bonuses might not be all to waste.
US home prices are at their highest level in 8 years (Business Insider)
Home prices are still rising in the US.
After 39-Point Yield Surge, Argentina Bonds a Buy to Peso Bears (Bloomberg)
Surging yields on Argentina’s dollar-linked bonds are a buying opportunity for investors convinced the local currency has further to fall.
Politics
Republicans Can Stop Obsessing Over Hispanic Voters (Bloomberg View)
Can Republicans win the next presidential election without getting more Hispanic votes? It’s a question that has obsessed the party since 2012. It’s also the wrong question.
Mitt Romney won only 27 percent of Hispanics’ votes when he lost in 2012, to President Barack Obama’s 71 percent. Romney’s defeat convinced a lot of Republicans that they had to court Hispanics by passing legislation offering citizenship, or at least legal status, to most illegal immigrants….
2016 predictions: What presidential election years mean for stocks (Market Watch)
A contentious and bitter battle for the White House lies ahead in 2016. Investors might want to ignore it.
Why’s that?
Technology
Disney is working on a gravity-defying robot that can scale walls (Quartz)
Disney just showed off a new robot that’s capable of scaling walls, taking the term “all-terrain” to a whole other level.
VertiGo is a collaborative project between Disney Research Zurich and university ETH Zurich. The video below, released Dec. 29, shows the robot traversing the ground before effortlessly climbing a wall.
Should we solar panel the Sahara? (BBC)
Dr Gerhard Knies co-founded TREC, a network of experts on sustainable energy that gave rise to the Desertec initiative, which aimed to provide Europe with clean energy by harnessing sustainable power from sun-rich deserts.
"Fifteen minutes after I learned about the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, I made an assessment of how much energy comes from the sun to the earth…
Health and Life Sciences
This New 3D Sensor Can Help Detect Breast Cancer Or See Through Walls (Forbes)
Touted as having the ability to see through walls,Vayyar’s new 3D sensors can see through just about anything, including body tissue and organs.
The company’s low power sensors can see through skin and tissue to detect breast or other cancer masses, peek through walls to detect structural foundations or fractures and track a person’s location and vital signs as they move through a smart home.
Therapy can ease IBS symptoms for up to a year (Futurity)
Doctors have known for some time that psychological therapies can reduce the symptoms of irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) in the short term. Now, a meta-analysis finds that the effects appear to last 6 to 12 months after the therapy ends.
The study, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, looks at the results of 41 clinical trials from a number of different countries containing more than 2,200 patients.
Life on the Home Planet
Severe floods hit Missouri as U.S. storms sweep north (Reuters)
Missouri residents struggled through a fourth straight day of storms on Tuesday, fighting rising floodwaters that inundated homes, forced evacuations and closed highways and even part of the Mississippi River.
A week of chaotic weather continued throughout the United States as a storm system that spawned deadly tornadoes in the Midwest and Southwest pushed north. More than 40 people have died of weather-related causes during the Christmas holidays in the past week.
Why Creativity is a Numbers Game (Scientific American)
It’s a great myth that creative geniuses consistently produce great works.
They don’t. In fact, systematic analyses of the career trajectories of people labeled geniuses show that their output tends to be highly uneven, with a few good ideas mixed in with many more false starts. While consistency may be the key to expertise, the secret to creative greatness appears to be doing things differently—even when that means failing.
