Financial Markets and Economy
Global Stocks Extend Gains (Wall Street Journal)
Stocks around the world extended gains Wednesday as a recent rebound in commodities prices and signs of improvement in the U.S. economy helped calm fears of a global slowdown.
European stocks rose and Asian shares surged following a strong finish on Wall Street.
The Rise and Fall of Commodities Hedge Fund King Willem Kooyker (Bloomberg)
Thirty miles west of Wall Street, in an anonymous office park set among rolling hills and shady streets, lurks a giant of the commodities world.
Stock Exchange Prices Grow So Convoluted Even Traders Are Confused, Study Finds (NY Times)
Computer-driven American stock markets have become so complex that at any moment in time more than 800 different pricing possibilities are being offered to trading firms across 12 official exchanges, according to new research attempting to explain the tangled system.
A new study confirms your worst suspicions: Financial firms prey on “unsophisticated” consumers (Quartz)
If you were furious after watching The Big Short, you had good reason. A new study looking at a decade’s worth of data on financial advisers in the United States found evidence that financial firms really do take advantage of people.
About one in 14 financial advisers (7.3%) in the US have engaged in misconduct at least once in their careers, according to researchers from the University of Chicago who looked at the records of 1.2 million stockbrokers and investment advisers registered to work in the US from 2005 to 2015.
The amount of money pouring out of China has soared by 1,500% in just 10 years (Business Insider)
The amount of money flowing out of China has multiplied by 15 times over the past ten years, as the market for global cross border investments has soared.
U.S. Shoppers Heeding Loonie's Call Flock to Canada's Websites (Bloomberg)
It’s long been common practice for Americans to head north for bargains whenever the Canadian dollar falls meaningfully below the greenback. During the current slump, they’re doing so from the comfort of their homes by shopping online from small-time Canadian merchants.
CSX rebuffed $20 billion Canadian Pacific merger offer (Market Watch)
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., which is pressing an unwanted takeover bid for Norfolk Southern Corp., recently revived a $20 billion-plus effort to combine with CSX Corp. in the latest sign of its eagerness to bring consolidation to the industry.
IBM plans to sell up to $150 million worth of Lenovo Group shares: IFR (Business Insider)
Computing giant International Business Machines Corp (IBM)plans to sell up to $150 million worth of shares in China's Lenovo Group Ltd , IFR reported on Wednesday, citing a term sheet of the deal sent to investors.
Mexicans Are Disappearing From Texas in Latest Twist on Oil Bust (Bloomberg)
The plunge in the peso has throttled the purchasing power of Silvia Guerra’s most important customers: shoppers from south-of-the-border cities like Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Saltillo who walk over the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge a few blocks down Convent Street.
Monsanto slashes its outlook, stock falls 5% (Business Insider)
Agriculture giant Monsanto has cut its earnings and cash flow targets for both the 2016, citing concerns about the global economy.
What to buy as the bulls get to partying again (Market Watch)
The happy-clappy start to this month has left investors wondering if it’s actually OK to celebrate.
There are warnings, of course, that this market is being stupid and too greedy. “Nobody knows whether we’re out of the woods, or if we were ever really in them in the first place,” writes Michael Batnick, over at The Irrelevant Investor.
Ranks of World's Wealthiest Thin Most Since the Financial Crisis (Bloomberg)
The number of people with $30 million or more in net assets fell 3 percent last year, the biggest annual decline since the financial crisis, as the collapse in commodity prices fueled stock market volatility and slowed economic growth.
U.S. Stocks Decline After S&P 500 Rallied to Eight-Week High (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks slipped, after a rally Tuesday sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to an almost two-month high, with optimism on the economy curbed by increased odds of higher interest rates this year.
Indians have a love-hate relationship with stock markets, says CEO of Asia’s first stock exchange (Quartz)
Only 2% Indians invest in stocks, and exchanges are to be blamed for keeping most investors in Asia’s third largest economy away from equity markets.
“We have a market that is not safe for investors to a large extent,” said Ashish Kumar Chauhan, CEO and managing director of the 140-year-old BSE, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange. The BSE, Asia’s first stock exchange, has developed the Sensex, India’s benchmark equity index.
Politics
Ted Cruz's Alaska Win (The Atlantic)
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is projected to have won the Republican presidential caucuses in Alaska.
With all the precincts reporting, Cruz narrowly defeated Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, 7,973 votes (36.4 percent) to 7,346 (33.5 percent), according to the Associated Press.
Super Tuesday Didn't Stop Sanders's True Believers (Bloomberg View)
East High School in Denver, Colorado, home to 14 precincts for the Democratic caucuses, was a mob scene on Tuesday night. It was hard to judge the turnout, but one of the organizers told me there were about 5,000 people there, and I believed him: Rooms designated for caucusing were overflowing, and several precincts gave up and held their votes in the stairwell or outside the building.
Hillary Clinton’s Got This (Five Thirty Eigth)
To borrow a phrase from Dan Rather, Hillary Clinton swept through the South like a big wheel through a delta cotton field on Super Tuesday. She won seven states total, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia in the South. She also won Massachusetts and American Samoa. Bernie Sanders emerged victorious in four states (Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Vermont), but his victories tended to come by smaller margins and in smaller states. The end result is that Clinton has a clear path to winning the nomination, and Sanders’s only hope to derail her is for something very unusual to happen.
Technology
The Battle For Control Of Your TV Has Only Just Begun (Fast Company)
Just because the FCC voted to break the set-top box monopoly and open competition doesn't mean it will happen anytime soon.
It just sits there next to your television, dusty and neglected, taunting you. But you're almost powerless to get rid of it. It's that ugly black set-top box.
The Amazing Tech That Makes The Koenigsegg Regera A Hyperfast Hybrid Spaceship On Wheels (Gizmodo)
The Koenigsegg Regera is an automotive research laboratory with a wing, a 1,500 horsepower hybrid capable of hitting 185 mph in about 11 seconds. While the Bugatti Chiron was an evolution of the Veyron, the Regera is on a completely different level—and it just stole the Chiron’s thunder entirely.
Health and Life Sciences
Sleep Apnea May Take Toll on Your Mood, Thinking Skills (Medicine Net Daily)
Sleep apnea may have an impact on brain function, new research suggests.
"In previous studies, we've seen structural changes in the brain due to sleep apnea, but in this study we actually found substantial differences in … two chemicals that influence how the brain is working," said lead researcher Paul Macey. He is an associate professor at the UCLA School of Nursing in Los Angeles.
Learning a New Sport May Be Good for the Brain (NY Times)
Learning in midlife to juggle, swim, ride a bicycle or, in my case, snowboard could change and strengthen the brain in ways that practicing other familiar pursuits such as crossword puzzles or marathon training will not, according to an accumulating body of research about the unique impacts of motor learning on the brain.
Life on the Home Planet
Magnitude 8.3 Quake Hits Off Indonesia, Triggers Tsunami Threat (Bloomberg)
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami alert in a region where an undersea tremor killed hundreds of thousands in 2004.
Himalayan seeds 'illegally sold' in UK (BBC)
Seeds of exotic plants illegally collected in the Himalayas are being sold in the UK, the BBC has found.
National Himalayan authorities say no permission was obtained to gather and export the plant material.
The activity harms the environment and deprives local people of benefits from the trade of plants, they add.
