Financial Markets and Economy
Stocks Plunge To 3-Month Lows Amid Crude Carnage, Chinese Currency Collapse (Zero Hedge)
Ok to summarize – China has lost control of its currency (whether intentionally or not) and that is forcing carry unwinds en masse; North Korea tests a nuke; European inflation disappoints; US services economy collapses (follows manufacturing's lead and another pillar of hope is destroyed); Crude crashes to fresh decade plus lows; The Fed offers nothing in the way of hope for growth (or puts); Bernanke says not to expect Fed to save stocks; World Bank cuts global growth outlook… But apart from that, everything is awesome!
Netflix Launches in 130 New Countries in Major Expansion (Bloomberg)
Netflix Inc. began selling its streaming service in India and more than 100 other countries, closing in on its goal of becoming the first global online television service.
Centerview Benefits From Wall St.’s Pivot to Smaller Banks (NY Times)
In a pink marble skyscraper opposite the Museum of Modern Art, 20 summer analysts at the investment bank Centerview Partners listened while Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, opined on the state of the world.
The analysts had been selected from a few thousand applicants, and most would return after graduation to work long days, nights and weekends at Centerview, which advises big corporations on mergers and acquisitions. Blair W. Effron and Robert A. Pruzan, the firm’s co-founders, flanked Mr. Rubin at the head of the table.
Equity Slump Set to Continue in Asia as Crude Lingers Around $34 (Bloomberg)
The selloff that sent global equities to their worst start to a year since 2000 looks set to continue in Asia, as investors question China’s ability to revive its economy without fallout for the rest of the world. Oil was near its lowest level in at least seven years.
One chart shows how U.S. businesses are falling flat (Market Watch)
A little more than a year ago, 34 of the top 36 U.S. industries were experiencing growth in their businesses. And now? Just 17 industries are still expanding, according to the most recent surveys by the Institute for Supply Management.
How Economics Went From Theory to Data (Bloomberg View)
One of the most striking things about attending the annual meeting of the American Economic Association after a long absence is that economics is now really all about the data. Older theorists such as Eric Maskin (who won the 2007 economics Nobel), Jean Tirole (the 2014 Nobelist) and Bengt Holmstrom were still accorded prominent roles as luncheon speakers at this week's gathering in San Francisco, but in the sessions where actual research was being presented most of the activity and excitement surrounded empirical work.
2015 was brutal for oil stocks, and one industry guru thinks 2016 might be even worse (Business Insider)
Energy stocks had a monumentally bad year in 2015. The iShares Global energy ETF, which does a decent job at tracking the industry as a whole, was down over 20%.
Oil prices tumbled, earnings dried up, and there were massive layoffs.
It can only go up from here, right?
What the Fed was thinking when it finally raised interest rates last month (Market Watch)
The Federal Reserve’s December decision to hike its target interest rate above zero was a big deal. Huge deal. We even made a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion. Now that the dust has settled, investors, economists, and layman central bank watchers alike are going to be watching to see what’s going to happen next.
Inflation Now Guiding Light on Feds No-Hurry Rate Rise Path (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve policy makers dwelled on inflation performance at their December meeting, minutes of the gathering showed, in a sign price pressures will play a larger role in setting the pace of interest rate increases this year.
Another Good Quarter for Dividends (Crossing Wall Street)
The fourth quarter was another strong quarter for dividends. Last quarter, dividend payouts rose by 8.38%. This was the 23rd quarter in a row of dividend growth.
TPP could reverse slide in global trade, World Bank says (Market Watch)
The sweeping Pacific trade agreement struck by the U.S. and 11 other Pacific nations should be ratified especially given the weakness in global trade and the risky global economic outlook of 2016, the World Bank said Wednesday.
The deal is “worthwhile” and should be approved by the U.S. Congress and others, said Kaushik Basu, chief economist of the World Bank, during a press conference releasing the organization’s 2016 report on global prospects.
Detroit is selling more cars than ever — but Wall Street doesn't care (Business Insider)
What a time it is to be a major automaker.
General Motors and Ford have just capped off the best year in the history of US auto sales. Together they control a third of the most competitive car market in the world and have been raking in profits as SUVs and pickup trucks stage a monumental comeback amid cheap gas prices.
Asian stocks touch three-month low, China woes remain in spotlight (Yahoo! Finance)
Asian stocks touched a three-month low early on Thursday as worries about the Chinese economy, reflected recently in a sharply lower yuan, kept investors nervous. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1 percent, brushing its lowest level since late September. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) shed 0.5 percent and struggled just above a three-month trough.
This Battered Emerging-Market Stock May Be Due for Quick Bounce (Bloomberg)
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. may be poised for a short-term rebound after becoming one of the developing world’s most oversold stocks, according to three technical indicators that some analysts use to predict share price moves.
Apple breaks $100 (Business Insider)
Apple just broke $100 per share for the first time since August.
Macy's lowers earnings forecast; to cut jobs (Yahoo! Finance)
Macy's shares rose 3.7 percent to $37.51 in after market trading. Warm weather, low spending by tourists and a pileup of unsold inventory prompted Macy's to cut its full-year forecast in November, raising wide concerns about the retail sector's financial health. Macy's on Wednesday cut its full-year 2015 earnings forecast to $3.85-$3.90 per share, excluding charges associated with the cost-savings program, from $4.20 to $4.30 per share.
Loeb Investing Losses Wipe Out Third Point Re Gain From 2013 IPO (Bloomberg)
Third Point Reinsurance Ltd., which counts on hedge fund manager Dan Loeb to oversee its portfolio, fell below the price of its 2013 initial public offering after investments faltered.
Here's evidence of consumer pain lurking beneath the surface of this economic recovery (Business Insider)
Since the financial crisis, most sectors of the US economy have dramatically improved.
World Bank Sees Global Growth Sputtering Along Amid China Slump (Bloomberg)
The global economy will sputter along this year as Chinas slowdown prolongs a commodity slump and contractions endure in Brazil and Russia, the World Bank said.
Hedge Fund: Here's what's going to happen at Yahoo (Business Insider)
Yahoo is under pressure.
Politics
What Trump and Sanders Have in Common (The Atlantic)
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are the two most surprising candidates to emerge as major factors in the 2016 presidential race. They draw the biggest crowds. They’re shouty. But there the resemblance ends, Adele M. Stan insists, in an American Prospect column that calls the comparison “the latest stupidity from Punditville.”
Bernie Sanders: Hillary Clinton doesn't have the 'courage' to stand up to Wall Street (Business Insider)
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Wednesday questioned whether Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton had the "courage" to deal with Wall Street.
In a "Morning Joe" interview, Sanders called out his Democratic presidential rival repeatedly by name. He said Clinton had not demonstrated that she could properly control misbehavior in the financial industry.
Technology
SoftBank's Pepper robot is getting an intelligence boost from IBM's Watson (The Verge)
Just under a year after Watson learned how to speak Japanese, IBM's supercomputer is about to get more familiar with one of the country's most famous robots. Pepper, the emotional android developed by SoftBank and Aldebaran Robotics, will get a version powered by Watson with an SDK that allows developers to tap into what IBM calls "cognitive computing."
Could This One-Passenger Autonomous Drone Change Transportation Forever? (Fast Company)
Amazon may have shaken things up when it first talked about delivery drones, but the Chinese company EHang now wants to take disruption to the next level with the unveiling today of its 184, which if it actually works as promised, could be the world’s first autonomous human delivery drone.
As in delivering humans.
Health and Life Sciences
Experts Argue That Cancer Screening Doesn't Save Lives (Gizmodo)
We live in a society that trumpets the benefits of early cancer detection and campaigns to get people tested. If a new analysis is correct, that could change completely. What if cancer screening became largely a thing of the past, because we’ve learned it doesn’t reduce the number of deaths?
'How I lost my confidence when I lost my face' (BBC)
I don't think there is anyone who could honestly say that they are 100% confident.
We all have those aspects of our appearance, personality or abilities that cause self-doubt at one time or another. The teenage years are often the worst and my teens were an uphill struggle against bad skin, frizzy hair and body woes.
Life on the Home Planet
Refugee children got into an adorable snowball fight with Serbian police (Mashable)
These kids may not see snow very often, but they can throw a mean snowball.
The tiny snowball throwers in the video above are refugees traveling with their families from the Middle East. They stopped in the Serbian town of Šid on their way to Croatia, according to N1 Info and Nemanja Bozovic, who uploaded the footage this week.
Science Can Tell if North Korea’s Test Was Really an H-Bomb (Wired)
It was the whomp felt ’round the world. Last night, at around 1:30 AM UTC, monitoring stations—over two dozen total in North America, Asia, and Europe—picked up a telltale seismic rattle. They triangulated the signal back to its source in North Korea’s northeastern highlands at almost the exact moment that the rogue nation distributed a triumphal press release declaring that it had successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb.
I refused to put money into the office Powerball pool because of math — but my boss' rationale for playing is economically sound (Business Insider)
Business Insider considered the dollar costs and probabilities involved in winning Wednesday's massive $500 million Powerball jackpot, and concluded that buying a ticket is a pretty bad decision.
