Financial Markets and Economy
U.S. crude oil prices stabilize but market sentiment remains bearish (Business Insider)
U.S. crude oil prices stabilized in early Asian trade on Thursday after hitting fresh 2003 lows the session before, but analysts said a persistent global glut would keep pressuring markets.
U.S. oil futures crashed below $27 dollars a barrel on Wednesday for the first time since 2003, caught in a broad slump across world financial markets as traders worried that a huge oversupply in oil was coinciding with an economic slowdown, especially in China.
Wall Street braces for another volatile day as Dow futures leap and fall (Market Watch)
Wall Street was setting up for another volatile session on Thursday as stock futures seesawed lower, overshadowed by sharp losses for Asian stocks and continued pressure on oil prices.
In back-and-forth trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMH6, -0.59% dipped several times into triple-digit-loss territory.
These 17 charts explain China's economy (Business Insider)
A close friend of mine shared an anecdote that he had run into on a trip to Seattle the day before.
It seems that one of his friends bought a rather large, roughly $8 million, new home in a nice part of Seattle and was selling his old home for a mere $4 million. Thirty prospective buyers came through to look at the property, and not one of them spoke English—they were all Chinese.
This is the single best reason to buy U.S. stocks now (Market Watch)
Another day, another half-trillion-dollar panic in the U.S. stock market.
At some point, even the most hardened bear has to consider whether the prospect of growth slowing to 6.9% from 7.3% in China, a nation that imports less than 1% of U.S. output, is really going to cause a recession here. Or whether it should cause a bear market. Charts or no charts, it’s just common sense.
Emerging Markets Lost $735 Billion in 2015, More to Go, IIF Says (Bloomberg)
Global investors and companies pulled $735 billion out of emerging markets in 2015, the worst capital flight in at least 15 years, the Institute of International Finance said.
Jack Dorsey Juggles Twitter and Square, Both Caught in Downdraft (NY Times)
It is not shaping up as a happy new year for Jack Dorsey and his two companies.
Even as the stock market’s volatility has dragged down many businesses, Mr. Dorsey and the public tech companies that he runs as chief executive —Twitter, the social network, and Square, the mobile payments company — have been particularly buffeted.
Oil in charge, short-term relief coming for stocks? (Yahoo! Finance)
Wednesday's market action smacked of short-termcapitulation , but analysts expect more volatility — and more selling — ahead, even if there is a relief rally.
Crude keeps a weak hold on $28 ahead of U.S. stockpile data (Market Watch)
Oil prices extended their fall on Thursday, ahead of key U.S. data expected to show a further increase in oil supplies.
U.S. crude stockpiles are already near levels unseen in decades and their growth adds to the persisting glut of crude around the world, which has battered the market for nearly two years. Worries about China’s economy, world’s second biggest crude consumer, have aggravated the oversupply fears, driving oil prices down by more than a quarter since the beginning of the year.
Asia stocks up as crude bounces, sentiment still fragile (Business Insider)
Asian shares and the dollar were higher on Thursday, but investors remained cautious as another shakeout on Wall Street and oil prices suggested volatility in financial markets will continue to temper risk appetite.
The searing selloff in oil markets appeared to abate in the early Asian day, though data out of the United States underlined the fragile state of the global economy and investor confidence.
European stocks lick wounds after mauling, oil steady (Reuters)
European shares and oil prices held steady at multi-year lows on Thursday after a torrid two days that has wiped trillions of dollars off global markets.
A 3-percent slump in Chinese stocks had given Asia another bruising, so there was relief as early 0.2-0.4 percent gains for London's FTSE .FTSE, Germany's DAX .GDAXI and France's CAC 40 .FCHI pulled markets out of their nosedive.
Tanking stock prices will scare CEOs, and they'll start firing people (Business Insider)
One of the fun things about the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is that you can just hang out in a lounge and wait for interesting people to wander by.
Some of the interesting people who wander by are billionaires.
One of the billionaires who wandered by yesterday made an interesting observation about the stock market's effect on the real economy.
Is This An Epic Market Breach Or Flash In The Pan? (Forbes)
I don’t tend to overreact to the market action of any single week or so. Over the years, I’ve seen many upswings follow panics and many plunges replaced by steady gains. I was lucky enough to call the current cyclical bull market that began in March 2009 what it was three days before the actual low (and was roundly heckled by those too deeply immersed in the day-to-day heartbreak from October 2007 to March 2009).
China shares follow Asian bourses lower as oil rally fizzles (Yahoo! Finance)
China's fragile stock markets ended sharply lower on Thursday as oil prices failed to sustain a bounce from 13-year lows and other Asian markets went into reverse. With tumbling oil prices indicative of slowing global growth, in which China plays a central part, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended down 3.2 percent. The index has slumped more than 18 percent in 2016 as China's currency has come under pressure and economic indicators have confirmed its declining growth, putting the world's second-largest economy at the foreground of global investors' concerns.
Asian Markets Follow U.S. Stocks Downward (NY Times)
Markets in Asia sank on Thursday, as traders surrendered to the fears that had sent shares tumbling in Japan, Europe and the United States the previous day.
Markets have been volatile this year, as slowing growth in China and lower oil prices have worried investors. Those concerns drove global markets lower on Wednesday; at the close of trading, London and Japan were down more than 20 percent from their near-term highs, in bear market territory.
Deutsche Bank's horrible results have sent shares crashing (Business Insider)
Shares in German giant Deutsche Bank are crashing on Thursday morning as European investors get their first chance to react to the company's horrible preliminary earnings, released on Wednesday.
The world's largest education company is slashing 4,000 jobs (Business Insider)
Pearson, the world's largest education company, is slashing 4,000 jobs as part of a £320 million ($500 million) restructuring plan.
IMF Deputy: This scares everyone (Business Insider)
Volatile market conditions could get worse, a senior official from the International Monetary Fund is warning.
As oil plunges below $27 a barrel and equity markets sell off in panic, Zhu Min, the IMF's deputy director, says markets are becoming more fragile.
Market liquidity is the main concern. Prices move faster and further when investors make the same decisions at the same time.
U.S. stocks set for a comeback, or another blow? (Yahoo! Finance)
The deep selling that has been synonymous with Wall Street in the new year became bad enough on Wednesday to start drawing in buyers, but it is still too soon to tell whether they will look brilliant or battered in the weeks ahead.
The steep declines on Wednesday morning sent mixed signals regarding a market bottom. Several technical indicators – the number of stocks hitting new lows, for example – pointed to a market recovery coming soon.
Oil can reach $20 this year because 'The Saudis are willing to play the long game' (Business Insider)
Oil prices are more than 70% lower than they were in the Summer of 2014. Right now, they're around $26.40 per barrel.
But according to IHS Insight's chief economist Dr. Nariman Behravesh, who oversees a team of more than 400 economists, worse is yet to come.
"Is it feasible for oil to reach $20 per barrel in 2016? Yes it is. Oil can reach $20 this year. But if it does, it will be temporary, because at those prices a lot of production will be unprofitable and will cease," said Dr Behravesh in an interview with Business Insider at theWorld Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Politics
Putin is calling for Jews to emigrate to Russia (Business Insider)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Jews to emigrate to Russia amid an increase in anti-Semitic violence in Europe. At a meeting between Putin and members of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) in the Kremlin, Putin was told that discrimination suffered by Jews in Europe was worse than at any time since World War II.
"The position of Jews in Europe today is the worst since the end of World War II. Jews [are] gripped by fear and there is a very real new exodus of Jews from Europe," EJC President Vyasechlav Moshe Kantor told Putin, Russia Today reported.
On Friday night’s season premiere of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed made it perfectly clear which Democrat he’d prefer as the presidential nominee: Bernie Sanders. Not because Sanders’ policies align with Reed’s, of course. Simply put: The GOP thinks it can more easily triumph over a crumpled democratic-socialist candidate in the general election.
Indeed, it’s not difficult to find Republicans floating this theory. As early as May 2015, the GOP was actively nosing its way into Democratic social media, trolling for a matchup against the senator from Vermont.
Technology
China and Russia plan to cover the oceans with floating nuclear power plants (Market Watch)
In an effort to become the largest exporter of nuclear-energy technology, China has started building a reactor housed in a floating vessel, which is scheduled to be finished by 2020. If that sounds alarming, brace yourself: More than 100 additional nuclear reactors are planned for the next decade.
The idea behind this “micro” 200-megawatt reactor (1 megawatt can power 1,000 homes) was to create a mobile energy source for offshore oil and gas exploration, as well as provide electricity, heating, and facilitate desalination for islands and coastal areas.
Self-Driving Cars May Get Here Before We’re Ready (NY Times)
Sometime in the future – although no one quite knows when – your morning commute may look something like this: Open an app, summon a car and wait for the arrival of a driverless vehicle that will whisk you to work like a ghost chauffeur.
For many of the automakers and technology companies gathering at theWorld Economic Forum in Davos this week, the big question is not whether such an event could become a reality, but whether we are ready.
Health and Life Sciences
Staying Safe And Healthy During The Snow Storm (Forbes)
Ready for the snow? The Winter Storm Jonas (not a member of the Jonas Brothers) has been making its way to the Northeast and MidAtlantic. The storm has the potential of dropping a record amount of snowfall on some location. According to the National Weather Service, anywhere between a foot and half and two feet of snow will blanket the Baltimore-Washington, DC, region this weekend. This is your opportunity to build not only snowmen or snowwomen, but snowkids, snowfamilies, snowteams, snowflashmobs, etc. Just take some of the following precautions so that the snowstorm does not adversely affect your health.
Scientists may have accidentally found the cure for cancer (Tomo News)
Scientists researching for a vaccine against malaria in pregnant women may have accidentally discovered an effective weapon against cancer.
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) may have found a breakthrough in fighting cancer, which could result in a medical treatment for those affected with the deadly disease.
Life on the Home Planet
Ancient 'massacre' unearthed in Kenya (BBC)
Archaeologists say they have unearthed the earliest evidence of human warfare to be scientifically dated, at a site in northern Kenya.
The 10,000-year-old remains of 27 people found at a remote site west of Lake Turkana show that they met violent deaths.
They were left to die there rather than being buried.
Climate Change and Poverty — The Underappreciated Link (The Huffington Post)
Climate change made headlines in recent months as global leaders converged upon the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, better known as COP21, and emerged triumphantly with a climate deal. Yet for the estimated 400,000 people a year already dying from the effects of climate change, the Paris Agreement comes too late. Far from the comfortable negotiating rooms of Paris, the people in developing countries who bear the brunt of environmental degradation do not have the luxury of time or symbolic agreements. Having an emissions reduction agreement on paper is only the first step; policymakers and leaders must now move decisively to protect the advances in human development and poverty reduction already threatened by environmental degradation and climate change.
