Financial Markets and Economy
Apple Falls on Nikkei Report That Sees IPhone Production Cut 30% (Bloomberg)
Apple Inc. fell after Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review reported the U.S. company would reduce the output of its latest iPhones by about 30 percent in the first quarter of 2016.
Stock analysts more bullish in 2016 than S&P 500 strategists (Market Watch)
Stock analysts who cover individual companies on the S&P 500 index are much more optimistic about 2016 than their market strategist counterparts.
Pimco Total Return posts December inflow on reinvestments (Business Insider)
Pacific Investment Management Co's flagship fund posted an inflow of $1.3 billion in December on clients' reinvestments of capital gains, the Newport Beach, California-based firm said on Tuesday.
That marked the fund's first inflow since April 2013. The fund's assets stood at $89.9 billion at the end of December, the firm said. The Pimco Income Fund had a $14.4 billion inflow in 2015.
Asian Stock Futures Mixed After Muted Rally With Oil Below $36 (Bloomberg)
Index futures gave few clues as to the outlook for Asian stocks as investors catch their breath following the tumultuous start to the new year. Oil rallied back above $36 a barrel after an industry report indicated growth in U.S. stockpiles may be easing.
Wall Street banks have been left hanging in a critical market (Business Insider)
The credit markets took a turn for the worst late last year.
The high-yield market blew out over the course of a couple of weeks in December, with the impact of that sell-off likely to show up in fourth quarter bank earnings.
Get your ‘wishlist of stocks’ ready as the bulls regroup (Market Watch)
Bruised bulls are huddling up and revising game plans after 2016 began with a rout, as global markets aren’t looking so hot yet again.
While the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.26% closed down a modest 0.3%, that’s after “Chinese authorities worked like dervishes to soothe investors’ furrowed brows,” as Panmure Gordon’s David Buik puts it.
Bond Traders Skeptical on Fed Rate Path Before December Minutes (Bloomberg)
Treasuries were little changed before Wednesday’s release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s December policy meeting as traders doubt officials will be able to raise interest rates as often as they envision.
Here's a sign the stock market could deteriorate from here (Business Insider)
Investment research firm TrimTabs says money committed to cash takeovers and buybacks by public US companies hit a record $1.41 trillion in 2015. “It’s not surprising that corporate America turned more to financial engineering as revenue and profits stagnated,” TrimTabs CEO David Santschi said in a press release. According to TrimTabs, cash takeovers for 2015 totaled $682 billion, and says previous peaks in 1999 and 2007 coincided with stock market tops. In addition, the $725 billion of share repurchases was second to only the $810 recorded in 2007. "Stock performance tends to deteriorate after periods of heavy merger activity, which is what we saw in the second half of last year," Santschi noted.
Why 2015's Best Commodity Could Turn Into This Year's Nightmare (Bloomberg)
Last year’s best-performing commodity is poised to become the market’s worst nightmare.
Euro falls to 1-month low versus dollar as global growth worries linger (Market Watch)
The euro tumbled Tuesday to its weakest level against the dollar in a month as weak economic data from across the globe helped support the greenback ahead of Friday’s eagerly anticipated U.S. jobs report.
One chart that shows Chipotle's sales declines are far from over (Business Insider)
Chipotle's sales are declining following an E. coli outbreak tied to its restaurants across nine states.
Carmakers Enter 2016 Facing Slower Growth After Record U.S. Year (Bloomberg)
With record U.S. vehicle sales now on the books for 2015, automakers are propelling into the new year with a sense that they’ll have to work harder to see more growth ahead.
China's Thirst for Fun Fuels Hot IPOs Doubling Investors' Money (Bloomberg)
As a boy in China in the 1970s, Jason Zhuang Xiangsong was captivated by comics based on the legendary Monkey King and dreamed of creating a Chinese version of Astro Boy — a renowned Japanese animated character who flies through the air on rocket-propelled feet.
Now Zhuang, chief executive officer of China Animation Characters Co., has managed to soar high himself. His company had the best-performing initial public offering in Hong Kong last year, returning more than 125 percent to investors between its March debut and the end of the year.
Smith & Wesson Jumps to Highest Since 1999 as Gun Sales Soar (Bloomberg)
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. rose to its highest value ever after raising its forecast for gun sales as President Barack Obama announced new restrictions on arms sales.
A Shaky Start to 2016 for Global Markets (The Atlantic)
The first two days of trading in 2016 have been a rough ride for investors.
On Monday, markets tanked due to concerns about a global economic slowdown and a sell-off in the Chinese markets—where, for the first time, trading was halted after weak manufacturing data sent indexes down 7 percent. In the U.S., the Dow fell 1.6 percent and the S&P fell by 1.5 percent on Monday—the worst annual start for the Dow since 2008 and for the S&P since 2001. The Nasdaq fell 2 percent.
FOMC Minutes Guide: From 2016 Rate Path to Inflation Projections (Bloomberg)
Heres what to look for when the Federal Reserve releases minutes from the Federal Open Market Committees Dec. 15-16 policy-setting meeting at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Washington.
All Bubbles Are Different (But End The Same) (Real Investment Advice)
In the last “Technical Update” I discussed the outlook for 2016 (you can also get the full version here) and the risks that lay ahead as we approach the end of the first half of the full market cycle.
January Effect Lives On As Municipal Bond Funds Flush With Cash (Bloomberg)
Mutual funds in the $3.7 trillion municipal-bond market are flush with cash heading into 2016.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Peak Boredom (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
From a practical and a technical standpoint very little happened in the precious metals today.
Politics
Bernie Sanders Attacks Hillary Clinton Over Regulating Wall Street (NY Times)
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont laid out in a fiery speech Tuesday his plan to break up “too big to fail” commercial banks and pointedly attackedHillary Clinton for taking speaking fees from the financial industry and, in his view, for not going far enough in her plan to regulate Wall Street.
The President of China sounds like Ronald Reagan (Business Insider)
For the last two months Chinese President Xi Jinping has been using a phrase closely associated with Ronald Reagan to describe his economic plan to fix his country's slowing economy — "supply-side" structural reform.
The thing is, his use of the word has people around the world scratching their heads.
Trump Is a Sore Winner. Imagine Him as a Loser. (Bloomberg View)
It’s now clear that a big chunk of voters, especially working-class men, are behind Donald Trump, no matter what. These are the kinds of people who work two jobs, if they’re lucky enough to have them, and still can’t afford college or sports gear for their kids.
Technology
A gunshot victim invented this smart gun device (CNN)
Omer Kiyani believes he has a device that can secure guns using that technology, but also avoid the fury that has marked efforts to make guns harder to buy and easier to track.
New York City Unveils Its First Super-Fast WiFi Kiosks (Bloomberg)
The future is on the corner of 15th Street and 3rd Avenue. There looms one of two Link NYC kiosks unveiled Tuesday, which will provide free one-gigabyte WiFi to anyone in roughly a 150 foot radius. The other 9-and-a-half-foot tall slab is two blocks away on 17th Street.
Health and Life Sciences
Is "Emotion Training" the Next Brain Training? Let's Hope Not (Gizmodo)
News broke today that Lumosity — the company behind all those brain-training games that are supposed to make you smarter — had to fork over $2 million for being 99% bullshit and 1% cutesy commercials. Coincidentally, a team of Israeli scientists announced that “emotion training” might be possible.
Life on the Home Planet
Blizzard Buried Some Dairy Cows in the Snow; 35,000 Die (NY Times)
After a mild and dry Christmas Day, a fierce blizzard whipped across the rolling plains of West Texas and eastern New Mexico. The wind blew mercilessly for 48 hours, leaving snow drifts as high as 14 feet.
Though winter storms are not strangers to this region, the unrelenting wind — sometimes gusting to 80 miles per hour — and blinding snow ofthis blizzard surpassed even the most dire of forecasts. Dairy farmers in the region, who produce 10 percent of the milk in the United States, are now tallying their losses.
Oregon occupiers want to work with residents; locals critical (Reuters)
The leader of a group of self-styled militiamen who seized a remote U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon said on Tuesday their plan was to help local residents regain their rights from the federal government, and "then we will go home."
