Financial Markets and Economy
Best U.S. Stocks Rally Since 2014 Fueled by Optimism in Economy (Bloomberg)
Investors spent the first six weeks of the year concerned the economy stood on the precipice of a recession. Now theyre enjoying the best three-week stretch for U.S. stocks since 2014.
One struggling oil driller could be getting a lifeline from its billionaire founder, and the stock surged 121% (Business Insider)
Stocks didn't do much, but we got a 170% rally somewhere in the market today.
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.
BofA Bond, Stock Trading Revenue Said to Decline This Year (Bloomberg)
Bank of America Corp. has generated less revenue from its equity and fixed-income trading businesses so far this year than in the same period of 2015, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Oil rig count drops for 11th straight week (Business Insider)
The combined count of US oil and gas rigs is one shy of a record low.
Is The US Stock Market’s Bear-Market Bias Easing? (Capital Spectator)
The US stock market has had a rough ride since last summer, dispensing a run of dark signals that align with bear-market forecasts (see here and here, for instance). Does the rally in recent weeks mark a return of the bull market? Maybe, but the evidence is still thin for deciding that the bear-market bias has passed. To understand why, let’s review some numbers.
The Next Amazon (Or Apple, Or GE) Is Probably Failing Right Now (Five Thirty Eight)
When Jeff Bezos founded an online bookstore in 1994, no one could have guessed that in less than 15 years, Amazon would fundamentally reshape the U.S. retail landscape. No one, that is, except Bezos himself: As Brad Stone’s book about Amazon, “The Everything Store,” makes clear, Bezos’s goal from the start was to change the way Americans shop.
Here's how people use gold in the real world (Business Insider)
Gold is on fire.
On Thursday, the shiny metal officially entered a bull market.
It continued to rally on Friday morning, with futures rising about 1% or $18 per ounce to as high as $1,277.10.
Retail Venture Capitalists (A Weatlh of Common Sense)
A couple of years ago, Tadas Viskanta of Abnormal Returns asked me and a handful of other bloggers the following question in his finance blogger wisdom series.
Why Tires Are More Profitable Than Mercedes (Bloomberg)
Seeking a haven from plunging commodity prices? Look no further than the humble tiremaker, whose profit-making prowess appears anything but dull.
In Fledgling Exchange-Traded Fund, Striking a Blow for Women (NY Times)
State Street Global Advisors will introduce its 159th exchange-traded fundon Tuesday, the SPDR Gender Diversity Index E.T.F. Fortunately, the fund’s ticker symbol is catchier: SHE.
The Problem With Trying to Quantify Risk (A Weatlh of Common Sense)
I received a huge response about my post from earlier this week where I showed that a 60/40 Vanguard portfolio beat the majority of college endowment funds over the previous 5 and 10 year periods. I’m always willing to see the other side of an argument, so I wanted to dig a little deeper into the biggest pushback I received which was some variation on this
Politics
The 'Anyone But Trump' Strategy of Voting (Bloomberg View)
As Super Tuesday approached, I saw people on my Facebook feed advocating strategic voting: Cast the vote that would stop Donald Trump, no matter who the other candidate was. That has only continued ever since. Ahead of Saturday's Republican caucuses in Kansas, Kentucky and Maine and primary in Louisiana, I sat down for a chat with RealClearPolitics' Sean Trende, one of my favorite political analysts, about strategic voting — what strategies might work, where they would matter most, and how to see if this phenomenon was widespread.
Technology
New Windows 10 update adds Cortana languages and simpler reminders (The Verge)
Microsoft is today rolling out a new Windows 10 update to its "fast ring" testers that's largely focused on Cortana, the operating system's built-in personal assistant. First, Cortana is expanding its list of supported languages to include Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil), and French (Canada). Those are in addition to the 11 languages that Cortana already understands and speaks in various regions across the globe.
Health and Life Sciences
More Support for Early Exposure to Peanuts to Prevent Allergies (NY Times)
Evidence is accumulating that food allergies in children might be prevented by feeding infants peanuts and other allergenic food in their first year of life, researchers reported here Friday.
Gassier Than Usual? These Functional Food Ingredients Might Be Why. (Forbes)
There’s no delicate way to say this, so I’ll invoke AOL’s famous phrase to make it slightly less icky: You’ve got gas!
Maybe more than you used to. And if the usual bean or vegetable suspects are no more prevalent in your diet today than they used to be, you’re not alone.
Life on the Home Planet
Listen To The Mysterious Sound Of The Deepest Part Of The Ocean (Popular Science)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oregon State University, and the U.S. Coast Guard sent a titanium-encased hydrophone down to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, known as the Challenger Deep, about seven miles below the surface. You might expect such a deep, dark underwater environment to be blissfully quiet. You would be wrong.
Graves show culture clash that let Nubians rule Egypt (Futurity)
In a middle-class tomb just east of the Nile River in what was Upper Nubia, a woman’s remains offer a glimpse of how two civilizations met and mingled, and how a new pharaonic dynasty arose.
Her tomb was Egyptian, but she was buried in the Nubian style—placed in a flexed position on her side and resting on a bed. Around her neck she wore amulets of the Egyptian god Bes, the protector of households.
