Financial Markets and Economy
Oil slump has uneven impact on global prices at the pump (Business Insider)
A dramatic drop in oil prices is translating into a mixed bag for motorists across the globe – from hefty savings at the pump in the United States to a rare fuel price hike in Venezuela.
Economist: For The ECB, It's No Longer About Oil (Bloomberg)
Inflation in the euro area came in at 0.2 percent in February, piling further pressure on policymakers at the European Central Bank ahead of next week's monetary policy meeting.
U.S. stock futures in a holding pattern ahead of jobs report (Market Watch)
U.S. stock futures on Friday switched between small gains and losses, as investors braced for a much-anticipated jobs report and the market looked set to notch its third straight weekly gain.
S&P 500 futures traded flat at 1,990.50, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures inched up by 1 point, or less than 0.1%, to 16,920. Nasdaq 100 futures edged higher by 0.25 point, or less than 0.1%, to 4,320.50.
Dollar Rises as U.S. Jobs Growth Rekindles Fed Rate Rise Wagers (Bloomberg)
The dollar rose to a two-week high against the yen after payroll data showed jobs growth in the U.S. exceeded forecasts, supporting the case for Federal Reserve interest-rate increases this year.
Facing record oversupply, U.S. oil looks for a home in Europe (Business Insider)
As U.S. oil inventories reach all-time highs, cargoes of crude are increasingly flowing towards Europe, where higher prices and lower shipping costs have made the region an attractive hunting ground for those selling light sweet oil.
Why the U.S. stock market now has scary parallels to 1929 (Market Watch)
Russell Napier is a stock market historian who sees bad things coming in the near future, and an old-style solution for investors looking to push through.
Author of “Anatomy of the Bear: Lessons from Wall Street’s Four Great Bottoms,” Napier has studied extensively what goes into a decline that takes U.S. stocks into bargain-basement territory. The four great market bottoms — and his definition excludes the financial crisis of 2007-08 — occurred in 1921, 1932, 1949 and 1982.
China's premier says economy faces greater difficulties in 2016: state radio (Reuters)
China's economy is facing greater difficulties and challenges in 2016 as the government forges ahead with structural reforms, state radio on Friday quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying.
The government will keep economic growth within a "reasonable range" this year, Li said.
The Rise of Co-Investments (Chief Investment Officer)
Real estate managers are more open than they used to be to alternative fundraising methods despite giving up some control.
A technology merchant bank just created a new group to launch a huge network for startups to work with big corporates (Business Insider)
British technology merchant bank Restoration Partners created a new company — the VTC Group — that helps tech startups and small businesses bid for jobs with big corporates, after the project it launched with defence giant Lockheed Martin last year was so successful.
Here’s why you can expect more upside for U.S. stocks (Market Watch)
Even though the stock market’s rally has stalled over the last couple of trading sessions, contrarians still give it the benefit of the doubt.
Copper Stockpiles in China Surge to Record as Metal Flows East (Bloomberg)
Stockpiles of refined copper in Shanghai extended their advance to a record as the difference between domestic and foreign prices encouraged imports by China, the world’s biggest consumer. Inventories tracked by the Shanghai Futures Exchange are higher than stockpiles monitored by the London Metal Exchange for the first time in a more than a decade.
Junk Bond Funds Report Record Inflows (Zero Hedge)
Two days ago, Credit Suisse reported something which had been rather visible in the markets: an onslaught of retail buying had entered the junk bond market in which institutions were delighted to sell to retail bagholders, in the process repricing the entire HY space if only briefly.
Trade Gap in U.S. Widens More Than Forecast as Exports Slump (Bloomberg)
The U.S. trade deficit widened more than forecast in January as exports slumped to the lowest level in more than four years.
Politics
Rivals rip Trump but promise support if he is the nominee (Reuters)
Chief rivals to U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump assailed him for shifting positions on the issues at a debate, but said in the end they would reluctantly support him if he were their party's nominee.
Under questioning by Fox News Channel moderators on Thursday, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich made the promise despite efforts by party elders to build an anti-Trump coalition of Republican voters to pick someone other than the incendiary New York billionaire.
Clinton Takes Aim at Another Government Watchdog (Bloomberg View)
The Hillary Clinton campaign has gone on the attack against the government official who conducts oversight of the State Department she used to run, accusing him of partisanship and misconduct without any direct evidence. That strategy could backfire by politicizing the role of the government's inspectors general and undermining needed State Department reforms.
Will Mitt Romney’s Anti-Trump Pitch Work? (The Atlantic)
Just when you thought Mitt Romney was out, the Republican Party pulled him back in.
Nearly four years after losing the 2012 election and assuming the role of party elder, Romney offered a detailed indictment Thursday of Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Romney called out Trump as having neither the temperament nor the smarts to be the nominee and accused Trump of manipulating Americans’ anger about the state of the country for ignoble ends. But in promoting no single alternative to the front-runner—who he says is destined to lose—Romney offered little more than a sermon to the Republican choir.
Technology
The future of movie theaters? Letting moviegoers choose which films play (Venture Beat)
One of Britain’s biggest movie theater chains has revealed plans to let film fans decide which movies are played from a library of more than 400 titles. Vue Cinemas is teaming up with Our Screen, a social crowdfunding platform that lets people “vote” for a particular movie to be aired by committing to buying a ticket in advance.
'Largest floating solar farm' to open (BBC)
The biggest floating solar farm in Europe is being constructed on a reservoir.
More than 23,000 solar photovoltaic panels are being laid on the surface of the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
New SD Cards Will Support 360, 3D and 8K Video at up to 90MBps (Gizmodo)
It’ll soon be time to toss out your dusty old memory cards. The SD Association has announced that the next generation of cards will support 360 degree, 3D and 8K video, all at write speeds of up to an amazing 90MB per second.
Health and Life Sciences
Emotional Abuse During Childhood Linked to Adult Migraine Risk (Medicine Net Daily)
Adults who suffered emotional abuse as children may have an increased risk of migraines, but such a link wasn't seen with physical or sexual abuse, researchers are reporting.
Life on the Home Planet
Cash Can't Fix the Village Ruined by Shell's Oil (Bloomberg)
As canoes glide past mangroves blackened by oil in the Niger River delta, two dozen children splash around in a creek covered by a sheen of crude while families take shelter from the punishing midday sun in half-built houses.
Once a bustling farming and fishing town in the region of Ogoniland, Bodo has become a poster child in Nigeria for the devastating impact on local communities caused by the leakage of about 240,000 barrels of crude a year in the delta, close to the amount that spilled in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground off Alaska.
Rare Death Valley "super bloom" carpets desert with color (Phys)
A rare "super bloom" of wildflowers in Death Valley National Park has covered the hottest and driest place in North America with a carpet of gold, attracting tourists from all over the world and enchanting visitors with a stunning display from nature's paint brush.
Death Valley National Park is the hottest and driest place in North America and holds a world record for the hottest temperature ever recorded: 134 degrees Farenheit (57 degrees Celsius) on July 10, 1913.
