News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

Financial Markets and Economy

Dollar’s Surge Goes From Road Block to All-Clear Signal for Fed (Bloomberg)

When the dollar surged around this time last year, the stock market tumbled and oil prices fell into a tailspin, forcing Federal Reserve officials to scale back plans for the pace of interest-rate increases. Yet if anything, the currency’s strength the last couple months may encourage policy makers to tighten this time around.

Europe’s Bond Rout Unlocks $635 Billion of Debt for ECB Buying (Bloomberg)

The selloff in euro region bonds this month has delivered a boost of more than 580 billion euros ($635 billion) to the European Central Bank’s asset-purchase program.

A handful of giant investors have the fate of the bond market in their hands (Business Insider)

The fate of the bond market lies with a handful of giant investors.

The top five investment companies hold $264 billion in US high-yield bonds, according to a big report from Stephen Caprio and Matthew Mish at UBS. That's equivalent to 20% of the market.

Rate Hike Fear Pushes High-Yield Bond ETF Over a Cliff (Bloomberg)

Right before Halloween, investors got scared by interest rate risk.

Outflows from the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond exchange-traded fund (HYG), the top ranked ETF by assets in the junk bond market, set a new record on Thursday—almost eclipsing the $1 billion mark.

ECB Stimulus Champions Signal QE to Endure as Economy Heals (Bloomberg)

European Central Bank officials signaled that they support extending asset buying beyond the earliest end-date of March, arguing that returning to a healthy level of inflation demands maintaining the pace as the economy heals.

Here’s all the money in the world, in one chart (Market Watch)

The answer is complicated, which you might expect, but not because of the difficulty of tallying up all the rather large numbers. Rather, it’s more about which parameters are used to define “money.”

OPEC meets non-OPEC nations for oil talks, Russia still on board (Reuters)

Officials from OPEC and non-member oil producing countries met on Saturday aiming to build support for an OPEC plan to reduce output one day after OPEC members were unable to agreed on how to implement the deal.

Halloween Looms, But Busy Market Offers Little Time For Trick-Or-Treat Break (Forbes)

Halloween is upon us, and so are more earnings, the monthly jobs report, a Fed meeting, and additional economic data on everything from car sales to factory orders. Don’t get spooked, but this coming week’s full slate of potential market-moving news ahead of the U.S. election might create a little market volatility.

A former hedge fund quant is exposing the dark side of our growing dependence on algorithms (Harvard Gazette, Business Insider)

Whether we know it or not, complex algorithms make decisions that affect nearly every aspect of our lives, determining whether we can borrow money or get hired, how much we pay for goods online, our TV and music choices, and how closely our neighborhood is policed.

Here's How Many Billionaires It Would Take to Buy All of Manhattan (Fortune)

Manhattan may be home to over 1.6 million people and some of the world’s most expensive properties, but it would take just 10 of the world’s richest people to own all of Manhattan’s residential properties.

How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul (The Atlantic)

It was January 1975, and the Watergate Babies had arrived in Washington looking for blood. The Watergate Babies—as the recently elected Democratic congressmen were known—were young, idealistic liberals who had been swept into office on a promise to clean up government, end the war in Vietnam, and rid the nation’s capital of the kind of corruption and dirty politics the Nixon White House had wrought. 

Needham Raises Bitcoin Price Target To $848: Here's Why (Zero Hedge)

With bitcoin breaking out of its recent trading range as Chinese buyers once again flock to the currency as the Yuan slides (as we predicted over a year ago they would), even Wall Street analysts are starting to pay attention, and in a recent report by Needham's Spencer Bogart, the analyst has raised his price target on the digital currency from $655 to $848, due to "1) adoption trending faster than we forecasted in March, 2) improving fundamentals, and 3) upcoming protocol improvements that present attractive optionality for the price of Bitcoin.

Weekend Reading: Stuck In The Middle – Again (Real Investmwent Advise)

The problem with going nowhere is that it makes managing money much more difficult. With the market having broken the bullish trend line from the February lows, as shown below, along with remaining overbought with a sell signal in place, the risk to the downside outweighs the potential for a further advance currently.

RBS: Pullback on Central Bank Stimulus Won’t Happen Soon (Barron's)

A big worry of bond market participants this week has been that foreign central banks will tighten monetary policy now that they are apparently less enamored of the potential for negative interest rates to stimulate growth and are eager for policy makers to implement fiscal stimulus instead.

Stop Selling Like It's 1900, Start Selling How The World Is Buying (Sales For Life)

The reality is that someday, over time, most companies are going to embrace social selling. We’re still very much in the early adopter phase of the maturity curve.

Weekly Global Markets Overview (Marketsire)

Global Markets Synthetic Divergence (Max vs Min) – 10 Trade Days Cumulative.

Companies

Chipotle Eats Itself (Fast Company)

Chipotle’s annual shareholder meeting on May 11 was set to be a doozy. Angry activists and investors were poised to unload on the restaurant chain’s co-CEOs, Steve Ells and Monty Moran.

Here's Why Amazon's Shares are Plunging (Fortune)

Amazon cut its winning streak short Thursday after unveiling a dissapointing third quarter earnings report.

Technology

Why Snapchat's IPO Could Snap the Stock Market (Fortune)

American initial public offerings have recently rebounded. This week ZTO Express’s $1.4 billion offering, the biggest IPO of the year, made its debut. That followed the news that Snapchat is seeking to raise as much as $4 billion in its own IPO, giving the messaging app company—now officially just called Snap Inc.—a valuation of at least $25 billion when it goes public as soon as March 2017.

Uber Has Revolutionized Transit More In 7 Years Than The Government Has In 7 Decades (Forbes)

There’s a revolution occurring in mass transit, something I’ve witnessed firsthand while traveling the nation. Many newly-christened urbanites who didn’t grow up riding transit now view it as essential to mobility. And it is more convenient than yesteryear’s transit, able to arrive within minutes after pressing a button.

How Economists View the Rise of Artificial Intelligence (Fortune)

To really understand the impact of artificial intelligence in the modern world, it’s best to think beyond the mega-research projects like those that helped Google recognize cats in photos.

Samsung Galaxy S8: all the rumors in one place (Android Authority)

At this stage it would be an understatement to say that a lot is riding on the Galaxy S8. Samsung has already set the hype train in motion though, promising it will have a “slick design”, an “improved camera” and an “enhanced artificial intelligence service”.

Google Says Fiber Internet Service Lives On Despite Cuts (Fortune)

Google Fiber, the search company’s groundbreaking if over-ambitious home Internet service, announced several setbacks this week. CEO Craig Barratt departed as a further expansion into eight more cities was indefinitely delayed.

Google teaches “AIs” to invent their own crypto and avoid eavesdropping (Ars Technica)

Google Brain has created two artificial intelligences that evolved their own cryptographic algorithm to protect their messages from a third AI, which was trying to evolve its own method to crack the AI-generated crypto. The study was a success: the first two AIs learnt how to communicate securely from scratch.

Check out Tesla's four different glass solar roofs (The Verge)

Tesla released photographs of four different solar roofs that the company announced earlier today. Instead of adding bulky solar panels to an existing roof, the roofs themselves will be made of textured glass tiles that incorporate photovoltaic cells.

You Won’t Finish This Article (Slate)

I’m going to keep this brief, because you’re not going to stick around for long. I’ve already lost a bunch of you. For every 161 people who landed on this page, about 61 of you—38 percent—are already gone. You “bounced” in Web traffic jargon, meaning you spent no time “engaging” with this page at all.

Secretive Canadian Company Teaches Robots to Be More Like People (Bloomberg)

You’ve ordered a robot online and are booting it up at home. At first the bot doesn’t do much of anything; it simply follows you around and observes your daily routine: walking the dog, making lasagna, washing the dishes. But before long the bot has learned to be your surrogate, shouldering quotidian tasks so you can focus on more interesting ones.

Politics

F.B.I. Chief James Comey Is in Political Crossfire Again Over Emails (NY Times)

WASHINGTON — James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, faced a dilemma on Thursday when deputies briefed him about the discovery of a trove of emails that might be linked to the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s private email server that was closed months ago.

Republicans Rode Waves of Populism Until They Crashed the Party (The Wall Street Journal)

When Donald Trump rode down an escalator at Trump Tower to launch his presidential campaign in June 2015, he began galvanizing a populist version of the Republican Party.

Inside Donald Trump’s ‘tremendous problem’ in Utah (Think Progress)

Home to the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the downtown area is built around a gleaming Mormon temple, its ivory spires and golden statue of the angel Moroni carving out a dramatic silhouette against the looming, rust-colored mountains that encircle the city.

Hackers Apparently Folled Clinton Official With Bogus Email (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — New evidence appears to show how hackers earlier this year stole more than 50,000 emails of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, an audacious electronic attack blamed on Russia's government and one that has resulted in embarrassing political disclosures about Democrats in the final weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

A Woman Was Arrested for Voter Fraud. It Was a Donald Trump Supporter (Fortune)

Police in Des Moines, Iowa, arrested a woman on suspicion of voting twice in the general election.

Hillary Clinton's Emails: The Real Reason The FBI Is Reviewing More Of Them (Newsweek)

The disclosure by the Federal Bureau of Investigation late on Friday, October 28 that it had discovered potential new evidence in its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s handling of her personal email when she was Secretary of State has virtually nothing to do with any actions taken by the Democratic nominee, according to government records and an official with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke toNewsweek on condition of anonymity.

French President Vows To Clear Paris Streets  Of Migrant Camp (Associated Press)

PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande vowed Saturday to shut down a bulging migrant camp in Paris, after his government moved 5,000 people from a camp in northern France in an overdue effort to tackle the migrant crisis.

Evan McMullin not surprised by 'Mormon Mafia' attacks (CNN Politics)

Washington (CNN) – Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin said Friday he's not surprised that supporters of Donald Trump have labeled him a "Mormon Mafia Tool" because the campaign has made a habit of attacking opponents based on their race and religion.

Marco Rubio can’t bring himself to say bad things about Donald Trump (Salon)

When reporters at a press conference in Naples, Florida, asked Rubio about the Republican presidential nominee, he did his best to avoid alienating both the factions of the GOP that adore their candidate and those that despise him.

Russia denied membership of UN human rights council (The Guardian)

Russia has lost its bid to become a member of the UN’s human rights council, in a defeat that reflects the diplomatic cost of its war in Syria.

How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul (The Atlantic)

It was January 1975, and the Watergate Babies had arrived in Washington looking for blood. The Watergate Babies—as the recently elected Democratic congressmen were known—were young, idealistic liberals who had been swept into office on a promise to clean up government, end the war in Vietnam, and rid the nation’s capital of the kind of corruption and dirty politics the Nixon White House had wrought. 

Health and Biotech

The Cure for Cancer Is Data—Mountains of Data (Wired)

A FEW YEARS ago Eric Schadt met a woman who had cancer. It was an aggressive form of colon cancer that had come on quickly and metastasized to her liver. She was a young war widow from Mississippi, the mother of two girls she was raising alone, and she had only the health care that her husband’s death benefits afforded her—an overburdened oncologist at a military hospital, the lowest rung on the health care ladder.

Cramer: The drug wholesale price war has officially begun — steer clear (CNBC)

In the blink of an eye, drug wholesaler stocks like McKesson and Cardinal Health went from being low-risk safe-havens to getting crushed. Jim Cramer was speechless.

Life on the Home Planet

Shiite militias join offensive to retake Mosul from Islamic State (The Washington Post)

IRBIL, Iraq — Iraq’s Shiite militias said Saturday that they had joined the operation to recapture the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, a move that could whip up sectarian and regional tensions in an already complex battle.

Exxon boss: climate change is ‘real’ and ‘serious’ (Think Progress)

Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said Wednesday the company backs a price on carbon and believes climate change brings “real” risks that require “serious” action.

Germany announces ‘zero tolerance’ policy against creepy clowns ahead of Halloween (The Washington Post)

This Halloween will probably be different from previous years: Clowns have made headlines for weeks now, but not in a good sense. Now, there are fears in Europe and the United States that things could get much worse this weekend.

WikiLeaks Documents Reveal United Nations Interest In UFOs (The Huffington Post)

Revelations in a set of hacked emails released by WikiLeaks earlier this month have sparked new conversations about UFOs and speculation that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth. But a very significant and possibly overlooked group of WikiLeaks items relevant to the topic was released on May 18, 2015.

The alcohol industry is bankrolling ads to scare you about legal pot (Think Progress)

Opponents of a ballot initiative in Massachusetts that would legalize recreational marijuana are up with a ridiculous new campaign ad that touches on every anti-legalization talking point in 30 seconds.

Aleppo: Putin rejects army request to resume air raids (Aljazeera)

The Russian army said on Friday that it had asked the president for authorisation to resume its bombing campaign, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin "considers it inappropriate at the current moment", adding the president thought it necessary to "continue the humanitarian pause" in the war-battered city.