Financial Markets and Economy
See Markets React to the Fed in 7 Charts (Wall Street Journal)
The initial market reaction to the Federal Reserve was swift, but it was far from violent. U.S. stocks and gold climbed higher. Ten-year Treasury yields and the dollar fell.
About That U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance … (Bloomberg View)
After a brutal period of downsizing and reorganizing, the U.S. manufacturing sector has become the most competitive in the world. Output per worker is higher than in any other major manufacturing country.
R.I.P. Dollar Rally as Dovish Fed Spurs Worst Slump Since 2011 (Bloomberg)
The dollar headed for its steepest three-week slide in more than four years as an increasingly cautious Federal Reserve spurred analysts and investors to downgrade forecasts for the greenback.
Oil at 2016 high, U.S. crude above $40 on output freeze hopes (Reuters)
Oil prices hit 2016 highs on Thursday, with U.S. crude surging 5 percent to pierce the $40 barrier, on optimism that major producers will strike an output freeze deal next month amid rising crude exports and gasoline demand in the United States.
A weaker dollar .DXY after a Federal Reserve policy decision on Wednesday that indicated two U.S. rate hikes this year instead of four also drew oil buyers using currencies such as the euro.
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase to 265,000 (Calculated Risk)
In the week ending March 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 265,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level.
These companies get the most bang for the buck with their buybacks (Market Watch)
Even as company earnings decline, more activist investors are demanding, and succeeding, in getting bosses to spend money on stock buybacks and dividends.
Oil Holds Gains Near $40 as Dollar Weakness Bolsters Demand (Bloomberg)
Oil traded near $40 a barrel as the dollar declined amid signs central banks will continue to provide economic stimulus and U.S. crude output dropped to the lowest level since November 2014.
US stocks briefly surface for the first time in 2016 (Quartz)
The benchmark gauge of the US stock market, the S&P 500, briefly poked its head above water Thursday, as the index moved into positive territory for the first time during 2016. Alas, the blue-chip index couldn’t hold its scant gainsthrough the close of trading.
Asia stocks turn positive for year, dollar sags after Fed (Business Insider)
Asian shares edged higher on Friday, turning positive for the year, while the U.S. dollar weakened broadly after the Federal Reserve's cautious stance on further rate increases prompted investors to rebuild their bets on riskier assets.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 percent in early trade, entering positive territory for the year for the first time during Asian hours.
Why Canada Is Dumping Gold — and China Isn’t (Bloomberg View)
Canada, home to some of the world’s largest gold-mining companies, recently announced that it had effectively liquidated all of the country’s holdings of the shiny metal and is moving to what a government spokesperson described as “easily tradable” assets.
Treasury eases restrictions on travel, other dealings with Cuba (Washington Post)
New rules loosening the U.S. embargo against Cuba will allow more Americans to travel there, expand the island’s access to the U.S. financial system and permit Cuban athletes to play Major League Baseball in this country without having to defect.
What To Do When You Miss The Move In An ETF (FMD Capital)
Every correction in the stock or bond market unfolds in a different manner. While our natural inclination is to try and make comparisons to prior events or rationalize statistical probabilities for a turn, there is no easy way to know when an investable bottom has truly materialized.
Meet the DIY Quants Who Ditched Wall Street for the Desert (Bloomberg)
In the high desert plain of New Mexico, Roger Hunter monitors automated trades on hog futures and currency pairs.
Figuring Out What Valeant Is Really Worth (NY Times)
As investors dumped shares of the beleaguered Valeant Pharmaceuticals International on Tuesday, erasing more than $11 billion from its market value, the company’s previously large crowd of believers was becoming vanishingly thin.
The Real Reason to Worry About China (Bloomberg View)
The world's largest currency union contains about 1.7 billion people and accounts for more than a third of global economic output. It also may be headed for a breakup — and that’s a risk to which policy makers everywhere should be paying a lot more attention.
I’m talking, of course, about the U.S. and China. For more than 20 years, China has kept the yuan's value against the dollar in a very tight range.
Dow Turns Positive for 2016 (Wall Street Journal)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned positive for the year and U.S. crude oil settled above $40 a barrel, rebounding after a rough start to 2016.
Expecting A Bounce In Volatility (Andrew Thrasher)
The S&P 500 has rallied over 10% since the February low, push the index up to its 50-week Moving Average. Meanwhile the Volatility Index ($VIX) has declined approx. 47%, sending the ‘fear index’ to its lowest level so far this year.
Politics
How Republicans Rebuild After the Trump Disaster (Bloomberg View)
A few weeks back, I interviewed Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics about strategic #NeverTrump voting: How would people do it, and was it a real effect? This week, as the race consolidates, I followed up with Trende to talk about we’ve learned from recent primaries, and more importantly, what the prognosis is for the Republican Party.
Measuring Donald Trump’s Mammoth Advantage in Free Media (NY Times)
Of all the ways Donald Trump has shocked the political system, one of the most significant is how he wins primary after primary with one of the smallest campaign budgets.
What Now, Marco Rubio? (The Atlantic)
The Florida Republican returned to his day job in the Senate on Thursday, two days after dropping out of the GOP presidential primary. He finds himself in an odd position. At 44, he should be in the prime of his political career, but he’ll be unemployed in less than 10 months, having chosen to run for the presidency instead of reelection to another six-year term in the Senate.
Technology
Aston Martin is about to build the fastest car in the world (Business Insider)
Aston Martin announced today that it has teamed up with Formula One's Red Bull Racing to create what it calls the "ultimate hypercar."
Codenamed Project AM-RB 001, the new Aston will be a follow up to the limited edition, million dollar One-77 and $2 million Vulcan hypercars.
Amazon’s Ingenious Plot to Take Over Your Living Room? (Slate)
When Amazon released the Echo in late 2014, people didn’t quite know what to make of it. It looks like a speaker, but it listens to your voice, talks back, and can play songs, radio broadcasts, or podcasts on demand. It can also do some other, seemingly unrelated tasks, like telling jokes, checking your calendar, and buying stuff on Amazon.com. Smarter than a stereo but dumber than a virtual assistant like Siri, it seemed like a novelty gadget, albeit a fun and somewhat useful one.
Health and Life Sciences
What Science Tells Us Can Affect Our Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease (Forbes)
The biggest risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease are aging and genetic predisposition. That is, all of our risks go up as we get older, and those with certain genetic variants, like APOE e4, are also at heightened risk. But aside from these factors that we can’t control, there are some things that we do in the way of activities and lifestyle, which seem to affect our risk, both for better and for worse. Research has found that different factors are linked to Alzheimer’s, depending on how they influence our neurology, metabolisms, immune systems and cardiovascular systems.
How Gut Bacteria Are Shaking Up Cancer Research (Bloomberg)
Top scientists at Roche Holding AG and AstraZeneca Plc are sizing up potential allies in the fight against cancer: the trillions of bacteria that live in the human body.
Quitting Smoking Cold Turkey May Be Your Best Bet (NY Times)
Some people try to quit smoking gradually, cutting down the number of cigarettes they smoke each day. But a new clinical trial concludes they would be better off picking a day to stop and quitting cold.
Life on the Home Planet
February breaks global temperature records by 'shocking' amount (The Guardian)
February smashed a century of global temperature records by a “stunning” margin, according to data released by Nasa.
The unprecedented leap led scientists, usually wary of highlighting a single month’s temperature, to label the new record a “shocker” and warn of a “climate emergency”.
A Mystery of Our Time: The People Who Enjoy Commuting (The Guardian)
Commuting is a drag. Every minute spent getting to and from work has been shown to take away from time spent working out, cooking, and sleeping. When two economists polled 900 Texans in 2006 about their favorite activities, the morning commute ranked last. Longer commutes make people less healthy, worse at their jobs, and more likely to get divorced—and commutes are only getting longer.
