Financial Markets and Economy
Surging Copper Stockpiles Point to Concerns Over Global Demand (Bloomberg)
Another surge in copper stockpiles tracked by the world’s top base-metals bourse is reigniting concerns about demand for the material that’s often viewed by investors as a bellwether for the global economy.
China's Renewed Drive to Tame Its Debt Pile Starts to Bite (Bloomberg)
The number of wealth-management products issued by Chinese banks slumped 39 percent in April from the previous month, while trust firms distributed 35 percent fewer products, according to data compilers PY Standard and Use Trust.
April Jobs Report: Everything You Need to Know (The Wall Street Journal)
The pace of hiring picked up again in April and the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade, providing reassurance the broader economy is poised for a strong spring after a lackluster start to the year.
European markets to benefit most from global upswing – Blackrock's Hildebrand (Reuters)
The continued global economic expansion offers an "extraordinary window of opportunity" for investors, particularly in European markets that haven't yet fully priced in the positive outlook, Blackrock vice chairman Philipp Hildebrand said on Friday.
Big Oil's Message to OPEC: We're Making Good Money, Thanks (Bloomberg)
Big Oil generated a gusher of cash in the first quarter. The surge shows how a mix of cost-cutting and assets sales — plus the tailwind of new output from projects approved several years ago — helped companies to survive and then thrive with prices that are less than half what they were a few years ago.
Canada Wage Gains Fall to Record Low as Jobs Run Stalls (Bloomberg)
Canada’s run of job gains stalled in April and wage gains slowed to record lows, casting a shadow over what had been a stellar employment performance.
Here’s the latest reason to trim your hedge fund holdings (Market Watch)
Hedge funds, among the most sophisticated and expensive investments available to market participants, continue to get walloped by the simplest and cheapest vehicles one can buy.
Oil Is a Buy for Citigroup as Goldman Says Market Getting Tight (Bloomberg)
Oil’s slump to a five-month low is driven purely by technical trading and supply is still getting tighter, according to Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Five Charts That Explain Crude Oil's Sudden Nosedive Toward $45 (Bloomberg)
Thursday’s collapse in oil prices brought with it big shifts to many of the indicators that analysts follow as they try to figure out where the market’s headed next. Here are five charts monitoring many of those key barometers. In them, a trend emerges: capitulation.
Plunging oil prices show OPEC has lost its grip on the market (CNBC)
OPEC is widely expected to extend production cuts that initially boosted oil futures above $50, but prices just keep falling.
Price-bots can collude against consumers (The Economist)
Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, is a favourite summer retreat for well-to-do Americans. A few years ago, visitors noticed that petrol prices were considerably higher than in nearby Cape Cod.
Never Mind the Chewing Gum, Singapore is Global Trade Colossus (Bloomberg Benchmark)
The world's easiest place to do business, the second-largest container port and the biggest center for commodities trading. There's a lot more to Singapore than a ban on chewing gum, which is mostly honored in the breach.
Fannie Mae Will Pay $2.8 Billion to U.S. Treasury After Profit (Bloomberg)
Fannie Mae said it expects to make a $2.8 billion dividend payment to the U.S. Treasury in June after reporting a first-quarter profit driven by a relatively stable mortgage market and a continued decline in delinquencies.
Money is pouring in on Macron to win the French election (Business Insider)
Centrist French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron extended his lead in the polls over his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Friday, the final day of campaigning in a tumultuous election race that has turned the country's politics upside down.
An unrealistic amount of growth is needed to justify investment in US (versus European) stocks (Value Walk)
Most investors are terrible at estimating future growth potential. Unfortunately, being able to estimate a company’s projected growth rate is an essential part of the valuation process and the whole concept of investing, putting money away today to receive more cash at some point in the future, is based on estimating a company or country’s future growth potential.
Did the Star Wars Economy Crash After the Death Star Blew Up? (Money Badger)
Star Wars villains sure love their Death Stars. Over the course of the film series, villains built three giant, orb-like annihilation machines that the good guys eventually destroyed.
Employers Lost Their Minds in April (Daily Reckoning)
Federal tax collection data for April was both strong and weak. Withholding taxes showed a massive gain. All other taxes were soft or down.
Middle Class Fortunes in Western Europe (Pew Research Center)
The fortunes of the middle classes in Western Europe’s largest economies are moving in opposite directions. From 1991 to 2010, the shares of adults living in middle-income households increased in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, but shrank in Germany, Italy and Spain.
Where The April Jobs Were: It Was All About Minimum Wage Again (Zero Hedge)
April was a month of economic recovery: after a disappointing March, jobs rebounded strongly last month, rising from a downward revised 79K to 211K, providing some validation to Yellen's claim that the recent economic weakness was transitory.
One Of The World's Biggest Oil Hedge Funds Just Liquidated All Its Longs (Zero Hedge)
Earlier in the week we shared Pierre Andurand's hedge fund note blame-casting his fund's dismal drawdowns on "CTA flows eclipsing the gradual improvement in fundamentals."
Peak Gold, Silver On Small Finite Planet With Near Infinite Currency (Max Keiser)
Peak gold and silver and the case for peak precious metals on “our small, finite planet” was the topic for discussion on the latest episode of the the Keiser Report.
Goldman Begs Clients To BTF-Crude-Dip Again… "Oil Nearing Capitulation" (Zero Hedge)
Two short weeks ago, Goldman Sachs was sure the plunge in oil prices was "technical" and that clients should BTFD in WTI at $51. With prices tagging $43 overnight (in a mini-flash-crash), Goldman is back assuring clients it's safe to buy as "oil is nearing capitulation."
Companies
New York City Cafe Says Starbucks Stole Its Unicorn Drink (Associated Press)
A Brooklyn cafe that created a "Unicorn Latte" is accusing Starbucks of "overshadowing" its health-conscious drink with the sugary Unicorn Frappuccino in a new lawsuit.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos is 'the most remarkable business person of our age,' says Warren Buffett (CNBC)
Warren Buffett, the world's second richest man, told CNBC that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world's third richest, is "the most remarkable business person of our age."
After Beating Down Banks, Home Capital May Hurt Canada's Economy (Bloomberg)
The downward spiral of Home Capital Group Inc. is rippling across North America as investors and regulators try to piece together the impact it could have on the fastest growing economy in the developed world.
Justice Department Opens Criminal Probe Into Uber For Deceiving Regulators (Forbes)
Uber's already deep into a fraught civil legal battle with Google. Now it could be called into court against a bigger opponent: the federal government.
How the New York Times saved itself (Recode)
The New York Times saw its stock shoot up this week after it announced strong Q1 results, punctuated by the addition of 308,000 digital subscribers.
Technology
Tesla Has a Lot More in Store Than the Model 3 (Bloomberg)
After Tesla Inc. reported earnings on Wednesday, Elon Musk cracked open the lid on his box of secrets.
New Solar Plane’s Next Target: Space (Associated Press)
A group of Swiss adventurers say they have completed the first test flight of a new solar-powered airplane they hope will eventually reach the edge of space.
Apple Is Under Attack on All Fronts (Bloomberg)
The next iPhone better have some good features. Another quarter of falling iPhone sales has underscored the need for Apple to come out with blockbuster reasons to upgrade to the next generation of its flagship product, Bloomberg’s Alex Webb reports.
Politics
Did a selfie accidentally reveal the administration’s plan to halt all visas? (The Economist)
People tend to disagree on which adjective best describes Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s strategy chief, but most agree that he is canny. So in reporting that on May 2nd, a rabbi tweeted a selfie with Mr Bannon posing in front of a whiteboard in his office, and thus “inadvertently” revealed a list of possible policies, it feels appropriate to use quotation marks.
Donald Trump praises Australia’s single-payer health care system (Salon)
Considering that some House Republicans voted for the new Trumpcare bill without even reading it, can we be surprised that President Donald Trump himself isn’t up-to-date on the health care systems in other countries?
House Republican didn’t know the health care bill he voted for could cost his state $3 billion (Think Progress)
Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) didn’t read the American Health Care Act (AHCA), legislation to dismantle Obamacare that will result in millions of people losing access to affordable insurance, before House Republicans voted to pass it on Thursday.
A grotesque failure of leadership: Republicans celebrate — but we’ll all pay for the way they jammed the Trumpcare atrocity through the HouseAfter they had voted Wednesday to screw tens of millions of Americans out of the health care and financial protections granted them by the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, House Republicans marched over to the White House for a Rose Garden press conference.
Every Republican who voted for this abomination must be held accountable (The Washington Post)
Here at the Plum Line, we write a lot about the mechanics of politics — the processes of governing, the interplay of political forces, the back-and-forth between citizens and lawmakers, and so on.
On Thursday, Republicans in the House of Representatives will attempt to force through a health care “reform” bill that is likely to leave millions of Americans without health insurance, especially those who suffer from chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Republicans’ plan to protect sick people has a long history of not protecting sick people (The Washington Post)
Welcome to “high-risk pools,” the government-subsidized groups for people who — in the world where insurance companies can go back to their pre-Obamacare practice of discriminating against those with preexisting conditions — can't get covered on their own.
The American Health Care Act will affect you, even if you’re insured through your employer (Salon)
Trumpcare 2.0 is the latest terrible bill being pushed by President Donald Trump and the House Republican Party as their substitute for the Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare), and a new report illustrates just how bad the bill might really be.
In spite of Trump’s lobbying ban, transition staffers are now registering as lobbyists (Salon)
While former national security adviser Michael Flynn has the most notorious lobbying record of the former Trump officials — he lobbied on behalf of the Turkish government during the 2016 presidential election — he apparently is by no means alone when it comes to violating President Donald Trump’s famous promise to “drain the swamp.”
Trump Tells Australian PM: ‘You Have Better Health Care Than We Do’ (Talking Points Memo)
During a meeting Thursday night with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, President Donald Trump praised Australia’s universal health care system.
Health and Biotech
Anti-vaccine activists spark a state’s worst measles outbreak in decades (The Washington Post)
The young mother started getting advice early on from friends in the close-knit Somali immigrant community here. Don’t let your children get the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella — it causes autism, they said.
Life on the Home Planet
Open thread for night owls: NRA launches new ad campaign urging hunters to prepare for war (Daily Kos)
The gun group is rolling out a new ad campaign geared toward hunters, a segment of firearm owners whose concerns have been eclipsed as the NRA transformed into a political powerhouse and threw its weight behind fights over self-defense and access to weapons.
Clashes in northwest Syria after de-escalation zones take effect: sources (Reuters)
Syrian government forces and rebels clashed in the northwestern province of Hama on Friday shortly after a Russian-led deal to establish de-escalation zones took effect, a monitor and a rebel official said.
