Financial Markets and Economy
Hedge Funds That Choked on Momentum Stocks Taking Another Bite (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds are piling into the same shares that zapped their returns at the start of the year.
G-7 Shows Gaps on Currency Tactics as Leaders Summit Looms (Bloomberg)
Two days of talks between finance chiefs from the world’s biggest advanced economies at a hot springs resort in northern Japan were marked by some of the sharpest dissonance in years between the U.S. and Japan over exchange-rate policies.
Saudi financial crisis 'could leave oil at $25’ as contractors face being paid in IOUs (Telegraph)
Saudi Arabia faces a vicious liquidity squeeze as capital continues to leak out the country, with a sharp contraction of the money supply and mounting stress in the banking system.
Three-month interbank offered rates in Riyadh have suddenly begun to spiral upwards, reaching the highest since the Lehman crisis in 2008.
Venezuela: how the socialist paradise turned into debt and hyperinflation hell (Telegraph)
They call them bachaqueros. Venezuela’s army of black market shoppers descend every day at dawn outside Caracas’s biggest stores.
Named after the bachaco leaf-cutting ant that carries several times its weight, the men and women queue alongside hundreds of other Venezuelans for food, nappies, milk and other basic goods.
OPEC Set for Another Meeting With No Deal After Doha Failure (Bloomberg)
After failing to reach an accord on oil supply in Doha last month, OPEC is poised to go another meeting with no agreement on how much crude to produce.
Iran has no plans to freeze oil exports, official says ahead of OPEC meeting (Business Insider)
Iran has no plans to freeze the level of its oil production and exports, Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi was quoted on Sunday as saying, as the country tries to raise its crude exports to pre-sanctions levels.
Weighing the Week Ahead: How Should Investors React to the Oil Price Rally? (Dash of Insight)
This week’s economic calendar is pretty light. Market participants will be looking to an early getaway for the long weekend.
Carney Limbers Up for Awkward Brexit Encounter in BOE Testimony (Bloomberg)
Mark Carney is limbering up for another encounter with members of Parliament’s Treasury Committee after a fiery exchange with pro-Brexit lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg in March over the U.K.’s referendum on European Union membership. In what’s due to be his last public engagement before a pre-vote purdah, the Bank of England governor will testify at 10 a.m. in London on Tuesday, alongside Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent and fellow officials Martin Weale and Gertjan Vlieghe.
Tsipras Survives Austerity Vote, Opening Path for Loan Payment (Bloomberg)
Greek lawmakers on Sunday approved additional austerity measures required to unlock more emergency loans from the euro area, ahead of a meeting of finance ministers that will assess the country’s compliance with its bailout program and determine the scope for debt relief.
Only About One-Quarter of Corporate Stock is owned by Taxable Shareholders (Tax Policy Center)
Only about one-quarter of U.S. corporate stock is held in taxable accounts, far less than most researchers and policymakers thought. The share has declined sharply from more than four-fifths in 1965.
A $1 Billion Central Bank Guide for Enriching Friends and Family (Bloomberg)
Gyorgy Matolcsy is rewriting the rules for central banking inside the European Union to include family and friends.
GE's Tech Talk: No `B.S.' (Bloomberg Gadfly)
Every year around this time, executives from some of the biggest U.S. industrial companies fly south to Florida for their annual confab. This year, one would think they all mistook Longboat Key for Silicon Valley.
Dollar Slips as Fed Angst Ebbs While Oil Drop Hits Asian Shares (Bloomberg)
The dollar retreated versus major and emerging-market peers as traders mulled the implications of a potential U.S. interest-rate hike next month. The yen’s recovery weighed on Japanese shares, while energy producers fell across Asia as oil extended losses.
Energy Funds: When Discounts Don’t Go Deep Enough (Wall Street Journal)
A type of investment that is up 11.5% so far this year, often pays hefty income and is trading at a discount might sound like perfection. Instead, the quirky funds producing these results are a reminder of why skepticism is the cardinal investing virtue.
The Surprising Reason We're Not In The Zone When We Trade (Trader Feed)
If you click on the graphical display above, you'll see the results of a very simple demonstration using heart rate variability biofeedback.
Stop Worrying About the Stock Market Crashing! (Barrons)
What’s the likelihood the stock market this year will experience a 1987- or 1929-style crash?
Was That A Bear Market And Is It Over? (The Irrelevant Investor)
Maybe. It’s possible. Since 1970, the S&P 500 has on average made a new all-time high every 38 days. It’s now been 252 days since this has happened (price only, not dividend adjusted). And since the S&P 500 last made a new all-time high, many areas of the market have been put through the ringer.
Politics
Clinton Foundation Would Weigh Down a Hillary Presidency (Bloomberg View)
The Clintons have been targeted by trumped-up scandals from Whitewater to Benghazi. There also are self-inflicted wounds: President Bill Clinton's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky and Hillary Clinton's use of private e-mail servers while secretary of state.
They may be on the verge of creating another one…
Methodist Politics (The Atlantics)
Here’s an interesting reader comment on my piece on the tensions over LGBT issues in the United Methodist Church. The denomination considered schism this week, but it later decided to establish a commission to review and potentially revise their positions on gay pastors and same-sex marriage over the next four years.
Why Puerto Rico’s new, unelected shadow government is exactly what it needs (Fusion)
After months of dramatic negotiation in Washington, complete withheartfelt pleas from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Puerto Rico is switching out its leadership. Soon, the U.S. territory will be run by a group of seven unelected individuals, most of whom will be appointed by Republicans in Washington.
Technology
Robot ranchers monitor animals on giant Australian farms (New Scientist)
Farmers, put your feet up. Autonomous robots are already being used to inspect crops, count yields and dig up weeds– now they are shepherds too.
Sheep and cattle farms in the Australian outback are vast as well as remote. For example, the country’s most isolated cattle station, Suplejack Downs in the Northern Territory, extends across 4000 square kilometres and takes 13 hours to reach by car from the nearest major town, Alice Springs.
'Magenta' Is Google's New Project To Make Art With Artificial Intelligence (Popular Science)
On June 1, Google is set to launch Magenta, a research project to explore using artificial intelligence to create art, and make that process easier for TensorFlow users. The group has about six researchers now, and will invite other academics to help try to solve the problem of creative machines. The project exists within Google Brain group.
Health and Life Sciences
Pro-fat dietary advice 'irresponsible' (BBC)
Advice to eat more fat is irresponsible and potentially deadly, Public Health England's chief nutritionist has said.
Dr Alison Tedstone was responding to a report by the National Obesity Forum, which had suggested eating fat could help cut obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Life on the Home Planet
World’s Largest Cruise Ship Departs From England on First Voyage (Time)
The largest cruise ship ever will depart from England on Sunday and head toward The Netherlands with paying passengers for its inaugural voyage.
Royal Caribbean’s Harmony weighs 226,963 tons and boasts several luxury amenities, including tall water slides, surf simulators, rock climbing walls, a zip line, a basketball court and an ice-skating rink, according to the cruise line. It also features a “bionic bar” where robot bartenders serve drinks, USA Today reports.
