Financial Markets and Economy
Global stocks gain, dollar dips after 'dovish' Yellen speech (Business Insider)
Stocks gained on markets worldwide on Monday, while the U.S. dollar edged lower against major currencies after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said U.S. interest rate hikes are likely on the way, but dropped a reference to the timing of any increase.
Mutual Funds Are Scrambling to Buy Corporate Bonds (Bloomberg)
How best to explain the recent run in investment-grade credit?
California Makes America's Economy Great (Bloomberg View)
Most of what makes America great is happening in California, where on Tuesday voters will decide the largest of the presidential primaries. The horse-race reportage from the campaign trail gets caught up in delegate counts and the daily back and forth, but beneath all that there is a consensus about the challenges facing the world: globalization, urbanization, climate change. California is addressing them better than any country, while simultaneously setting an example as the world's most diverse and dynamic economy.
There's definitely something going on between Silicon Valley and the auto industry (Business Insider)
A big story has developed in the last decade: Silicon Valley and the car business are converging — high-tech code meets heavy metal.
The Problem With ‘Low-Volatility’ Stock Funds (Wall Street Journal)
Low-volatility stock funds have taken in gobs of money over the past year. The iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol USA fund (USMV), the biggest low-volatility exchange-traded fund, had about $8 billion in assets early this year. Now it has more than $13 billion, while other stock funds bleed assets.
Crude Oil Holds Gains in New York After Closing at 10-Month High (Bloomberg)
Oil held gains after closing at the highest level in more than 10 months on signs the global glut is contracting more quickly than projected.
David Rosenberg: I don't want to alarm anyone but … (Business Insider)
Before getting into the details of the jobs report, let me just quickly state the broad conclusions up front.
Forget the Fed, Goldman says watch how dollar trades versus yuan (Market Watch)
Forget the focus on the Federal Reserve’s next rate move. Goldman Sachs said stock market investors should instead home in on the U.S. dollar’s strength against the Chinese yuan.
Why Housing is About to Eat the US Economy (Csen, Tumblr)
One of the most influential business op-eds of the decade was Marc Andreessen’s August 20th, 2011 piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Why Software is Eating the World.”
The Shadow Looming Over China (Bloomberg View)
Of all the topics sure to be come up in Sino-U.S. economic talks this week — from the problem of excess capacity to currency controls — the health of China’s financial sector will no doubt feature high on the list. Especially worrying are the multiplying links between the country's commercial and “shadow” banks — the name given to a broad range of non-bank financial institutions from peer-to-peer lending platforms to trusts and wealth management companies.
Latest Hot Buy: Municipal Bonds (Wall Street Journal)
Investors are buying municipal debt at a record clip, enduring low returns in exchange for the relative stability of bonds sold by U.S. state and local governments.
The tiny stock that just jumped more than 500% (Market Watch)
It isn’t every day a stock shoots up more than 500% in one session.
The worst mutual fund in history (Value Walk)
The worst mutual fund Ever?
Carlyle’s big returns for investment funds elude regular shareholders so far (Washington Post)
Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein extolled his private-equity firm’s investment success at a financial conference recently. The billionaire philanthropist proudly pointed to the nearly 20 percent annual return earned by pension funds and others who have placed billions in Carlyle’s investment funds over the past three decades.
SEC Moves to Curb Leveraged ETFs (Wall Street Journal)
It is a rare case of regulator’s remorse.
AEP: 'Irritation and anger' may lead to Brexit, says influential psychologist (Telegraph)
British voters are succumbing to impulsive gut feelings and irrational reflexes in the Brexit campaign with little regard for the enormous consequences down the road, the world's most influential psychologist has warned.
What that bad jobs report really means (Washington Post)
There are certain months when you should close your eyes, click your heels together three times, and think to yourself: The jobs report has a margin of error of 100,000 jobs. The jobs report has a margin of error of 100,000 jobs. The jobs report has a margin of error of 100,000 jobs.
Nest’s time at Alphabet: A “virtually unlimited budget” with no results (Ars Technica)
Nest CEO Tony Fadell wasn't officially "fired" from Nest, but it certainly feels like it. Nest and Alphabet announced Fadell would be "transitioning" to an advisory role at Alphabet, dropping both Nest and Fadell into a sea of negative press. In just the last few months, Nest has had to deal with reports of an "employee exodus," a string of public insults from Dropcam co-founder and departing Nest employee Greg Duffy, news that even Google supposedly didn't want to work with Nest on a joint project, and fallout from the company's decision to remotely disable Nest's deprecated Revolv devices.
SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts – Hypocrites' Oath (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Stocks were drifting in a relatively lackluster day.
Saudi Arabia OKs ambitious plan to reshape its economy (Market Watch)
Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to more than triple its nonoil revenue by 2020 while cutting state handouts, in a broad bid to reshape the kingdom’s economy amid falling energy prices.
Panama Papers Show How Rich United States Clients Hid Millions Abroad (NY Times)
Over the years, William R. Ponsoldt had earned tens of millions of dollars building a string of successful companies. He had renovated apartment buildings in the New York City area. Bred Arabian horses. Run a yacht club in the Bahamas, a rock quarry in Michigan, an auto-parts company in Canada, even a multibillion-dollar hedge fund.
The Distraction of Investment Noise (Bloomberg View)
This has been a very noisy few months in terms of the information that investors have to think about.
Politics
Donald Trump does not have a campaign (MSNBC)
Donald Trump is a candidate without a campaign – and it’s becoming a serious problem.
Republicans working to elect Trump describe a bare-bones effort debilitated by infighting, a lack of staff to carry out basic functions, minimal coordination with allies and a message that’s prisoner to Trump’s momentary whims.
Clinton's Still Talking About Aliens. Good. (Bloomberg View)
Among the underappreciated oddities of the 2016 election is that Hillary Clinton keeps talking about aliens. On the radio, in newspaper interviews, on late-night TV, she and her surrogates are vowing to “go into those files” and “get to the bottom of it.” What she wants to get to the bottom of is Roswell, UFOs, Area 51 — you know, the whole thing.
Technology
Is the Jetpack Movement Finally Taking Off? (Wall Street Journal)
David Mayman's right thigh is covered by a skin graft, the aftermath of a jetpack crash. In 2010, a “rocket belt” he bought in Mexico shot 1,300-degree steam down Mayman’s leg after he missed a landing in Australia, leaving him with third-degree burns. Today, in an avocado orchard north of Los Angeles, the clean-cut, 53-year-old Australian millionaire wears a thick, black flame-retardant jet suit. He asks the small crowd to don protective eyewear.
China doesn’t have enough robots, so it’s coming for Germany’s (Quartz)
Germany’s top robotics company, Kuka, is being courted by a Chinese home-appliance maker. Chinese firm Midea has offered $5 billion for the company, which produces the high-tech machines found on Tesla’s factory floors and elsewhere.
Midea’s bid is entangled in politics: Germany is reluctant to let go of a key asset that drives its manufacturing sector, and Berlin is reportedly trying to arrange for a German buyer (paywall) behind the scenes.
Health and Life Sciences
Cancer cure needs Ebola-level action (BBC)
The hunt for a cancer cure should be treated with as much urgency as the Ebola outbreak, says US Vice-President Joe Biden.
He said he had dreamed of being the president that cured cancer and believed it was possible.
Life on the Home Planet
Desalination Breakthrough: Saving the Sea from Salt (Scientific American)
Farid Benyahia wants to solve two environmental problems at once: excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and excess salt in the Persian Gulf (aka the Arabian Gulf). Oil and natural gas drive the region’s booming economies—hence the excess CO2—and desalination supplies the vast majority of drinking water, a process that creates concentrated brine waste that is usually dumped back into the gulf.
US and India set to join UN climate deal and agree on renewables (New Scientist)
It would firmly put the Paris deal on the road to becoming a reality.
When he meets with US President Barack Obama on Tuesday, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is likely to announce that his country will ratify the 2015 Paris agreement to limit global warming.
