Financial Markets and Economy
U.S. Stocks Slip From Three-Week High, Paring S&P 500 2015 Gain (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index struggling to hold its gain for the year in 2015’s penultimate session, as energy companies followed oil lower and a slide in Apple Inc. weighed on technology shares.
What Would It Take for the Economy to Be More Fair? (The Atlantic)
People talk about “the economy” all the time. The economy is growing. The economy is falling apart. The economy is strong.
What are people talking about when they talk about the economy? Billions and billions of transactions, the jobs that people have and how they are compensated for them, all the things that people make and consume.
9 favorite stocks for investors playing a 2016 oil rebound (Market Watch)
Is it different this time? That’s the big question for investors looking to make a lot of money on a rebound of oil prices that could manifest, in a major way, during 2016.
Amazon Investors Emboldened by 3 Million New Prime Members (Bloomberg)
Amazon.com Inc. shareholders are cheering the companys big push to accommodate last-minute holiday orders and a coinciding shift of consumer spending from brick-and-mortar stores to websites and smartphone applications.
Tesla stock boosted by bullish note on deliveries (Market Watch)
Tesla Motors Co. has likely delivered more than 18,300 car units in the fourth quarter, putting it on track to meet the higher end of its quarterly guidance and latest annual forecast, Global Equity Research said Wednesday.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk predicted at the beginning of the year that the electric-car company would deliver 55,000 automobiles in 2015, but that number slid in each of the past two quarterly reports, to a range of 50,000-to-55,000 and then 50,000-to-52,000.
KaloBios, formerly led by Shkreli, files for bankruptcy (AP)
KaloBios, the troubled drugmaker taken over by Martin Shkreli last month, is seeking bankruptcy protection less than two weeks after his arrest for securities fraud.
It is the second pharmaceutical company with ties to the former hedge fund manager now in turmoil following his indictment on charges unrelated to his involvement with them, though the drugmakers are not lacking for problems of their own.
ConocoPhillips Beats Rivals in Race to Export U.S. Shale Crude (Bloomberg)
A Swiss trader of everything from gasoline to sugar is the first overseas buyer to export U.S. shale oil since a 40-year ban on most shipments was lifted less than two weeks ago.
Vitol Group, which owns stakes in refineries from Belgium to the Persian Gulf to Australia, has agreed to buy two cargoes of U.S.-sourced crude, the first of which will be ready to sail as soon as Thursday. ConocoPhillips will supply the first tanker-load, made up of crude and a type of ultra-light oil known as condensate from wells in the Eagle Ford Shale formation in south Texas, according to a statement by the Houston-based company.
Here's One Transportation Fuel Ending 2015 on a Positive Note (Bloomberg)
Not every transportation fuel is ending 2015 on a sour note.
Pending home sales unexpectedly fall (Business Insider)
The number of pending home sales unexpectedly declined by 0.9% month-over-month in November.
China: Best country for investors in 2015 may be the best in 2016 too (Market Watch)
If you remember this past summer’s stock-market swoon in China, you might be surprised to see Chinese plays topping all others in an end-of-year ranking.
And some investors argue those investments could keep performing well in 2016.
Hayman's Bass Sees Energy as Investment Opportunity as Glut Ends (Bloomberg)
Kyle Bass, the hedge fund manager who made half a billion dollars betting against subprime-mortgage securities in 2007, says the time is ripe to invest in energy companies as the global oil surplus reverses.
"We’re going to go from a glut to all of a sudden a deficit, and the world’s not ready for a deficit," Bass, the founder of Hayman Capital Management, said in an interview with "Wall Street Week," an excerpt of which was posted on the Internet. "If you’re going to allocate capital for the next three to five years you should do it now" or within the next six months.
China Fires a Warning Shot at Yuan Speculators With Bank Bans (Bloomberg)
China has a message for currency speculators: the free lunch is over.
Weight Watchers stock spiked 18% (Business Insider)
Weight Watchers shares spiked Wednesday after the company's first advertisement featuring Oprah Winfrey was released online.
These Charts Show the Astounding Rise in Passive Management (Bloomberg)
This year brought a lot of good news for those in passive management.
Ocado shares tanked because of this worrying revelation from Amazon UK's boss (Business Insider)
Ocado shares tanked in Wednesday's trading session after investors started to abandon the stock on one piece of terrifying news.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Sweet Dreams Baby (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
There were no meaningful deliveries in any of the precious metals yesterday at The Bucket Shop.
The 5 Best-Performing Non-S&P Stocks of 2015 (Forbes)
The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index tracks 500 publicly listed companies selected by committee and having three requirements: market caps greater than or equal to $5.3 billion, annual dollar value traded to float-adjusted market cap greater than 1.0 and minimum monthly trading volume of 250,000 shares in the trailing six months of the evaluation date.
This could be the story that dominates 2016 (Business Insider)
We could be hearing a lot more stories like this. Big stories.
On Tuesday night, Moody's became the first ratings house to downgrade Asia's largest commodity trader, Noble Group, to junk.
Politics
Watching Trump From the Cheap Seats (The Atlantic)
Listening to Donald Trump speak is like walking into an ongoing conversation. It doesn’t matter where in his speech you start; it feels like he’s already in the middle of a thought on polls or the size of the crowd or some lowlife reporter, and he has just decided to open his mouth and let you in on it. At his Nashua, New Hampshire, rally on December 28, no one introduced him. He just sauntered onstage to Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It”—the anthem of high school seniors everywhere—and grinned as the crowd chanted his name.
Technology
3 Big Tech Trends for 2016 (Yahoo! Finance)
Prognostication is a humbling business. Last year at this time Mark Anderson, a tech futurist type and CEO of the Strategic News Service, predicted that Amazon (AMZN) would have a tough time in 2015, citing e-book squabbles, drone expenditures and the Fire phone flop. Oops.
All Amazon did was blow the doors off in 2105, with the stock up over 120% in a flat market. What's up with that, Mark?
Enigmatic car maker Faraday Future shows teaser trailer ahead of CES press conference (The Verge)
Faraday Future is a secretive, young, well-founded company that will debut to the world next week at CES. And, like so many other car companies, Faraday is slowly building the hype. Drip… by drip… by drip.
The company posted a 10-second teaser video to Twitter that… well, really doesn't show much of anything aside from a glimpse of a race car with absurd headlights that may or may not be the concept to be introduced.
Health and Life Sciences
Is Anxiety Genetic? (Scientific American)
So are less anxious people born with their ability to roll with the punches or have they just had the good fortune to not experience high stress environments? In other words, do our genes predispose us to being anxious? Or do our environments and life experiences dictate how mellow we are?
Does Teeth Whitening Work? And Is It Safe? (Popular Science)
The new year is upon us. That means resolution time. Millions of people will dive into the anxifying world of self-improvement—through diet, exercise and whatnot. One thing that's sure to be flying off drug store shelves: teeth whitening treatments.
Bleaching and scrubbing our pearly whites (so they become pearlier and whiter), has become an $11 billion-plus national obsession. Some of these off-the-shelf products, and even dental office procedures, have downsides. Before you beautify those canines, here are a few things to consider.
Life on the Home Planet
Syrian Refugees Help English Town Devastated By Floods (Huffington Post)
A group of Syrian refugees in northwest England are lending a hand to communities devastated by flooding in the wake of one storm and bracing for another.
