Financial Markets and Economy
This is one of the biggest days in the US economy that we can remember (Business Insider)
Friday is one of the busiest days on the US economic calendar in months.
The next recession will blow out the US budget (Business Insider)
The weakest recovery in modern history has stretched on for 69 months.
Cheap Oil Has Bankrupted More Than 50 American Producers—So Far (Fortune)
As oil prices nosedived by two-thirds since 2014, a belief took hold in global energy markets that for prices to recover, many U.S. shale producers would first have to falter to allow markets to rebalance.
With U.S. oil prices now trading below $40 a barrel, the corporate casualties are already mounting.
Congratulations! You just witnessed one of the greatest comebacks in stock market history (Business Insider)
The first quarter of 2016 is in the books.
Inflation-proofing your portfolio? Then worry about this (Reuters)
With U.S. gasoline selling under $2 a gallon, food prices relatively flat and Wall Street bond traders betting on 1.5 percent annual inflation as far the eye can see, it may seem like the wrong time to worry about rising consumer prices.
How Wall Street's Favorite Solar Company Spent Itself to the Brink (Bloomberg)
Just nine months ago, SunEdison Inc. was Wall Street’s favorite clean-energy company. It sopped up every dollar it could come by to finance a breathtaking buying binge of wind and solar farms, and in the process became the world’s largest renewable-energy company.
Saudi Arabia to Sell Stake in Parent of State Oil Giant by 2018 (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia plans to sell a stake “of less than 5 percent” in the parent of its state-owned oil company, the kingdom’s deputy crown prince said, revealing details of a listing that could make it the world’s biggest publicly traded firm.
Biotech's Top 5 Stock Winners, And Losers, In Q1 2016 (Forbes)
These are grim days for biotech investors. The backlash over high drug prices, and the uncertainty over whether drugmakers will face some kind of crackdown in the U.S., has cast a cloud over those who invest in the development of new medicines.
What fresh hell awaits European banks after brutal first quarter? (Market Watch)
European bank shares were hammered during the first quarter, and more rough times may be ahead with all eyes on British voters as they prepare to decide whether to remain in the European Union.
U.S. Moves to Give Iran Limited Access to Dollars (Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration is preparing to give Iran limited access to U.S. dollars as part of looser sanctions on Tehran, according to congressional staff members and a former American official briefed on the plans.
U.S. Fed buys $5.7 billion of mortgage bonds, sells none (Reuters)
The Federal Reserve bought $5.739 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities in the week from Mar. 24 to Mar. 30, compared with $5.816 billion purchased the previous week, the New York Federal Reserve Bank said on Thursday.
As U.S. shale drillers suffer, even the bankrupt keep pumping oil (Reuters)
As oil prices nosedived by two-thirds since 2014, a belief took hold in global energy markets that for prices to recover, many U.S. shale producers would first have to falter to allow markets to rebalance.
Japanese business sentiment hasn't been this gloomy in years (Business Insider)
Sentiment among Japan’s largest manufacturing firms fell to a three-year low during the March quarter, dragged lower by concerns surrounding profitability due to the strengthening Japanese yen.
The S&P 500 Will Fall 20% in 2016 (Fox Business)
In an interview with the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney, Todd Horwitz, chief strategist at BubbaTrading.com, said he expects to see the S&P 500 drop down in the 1500-point range by the end of this year.
The Amazing Chart Showing What All The Debt Issued This Century Has Been Used For (Zero Hedge)
Over the past three years, we have beaten the topic of soaring, record stock buybacks to a bloody pulp.
U.S. repo rates jump to highest level since 2008 at quarter-end (Reuters)
A key overnight borrowing cost for Wall Street surged on Thursday to its highest level since the height of the global credit crunch in the fall of 2008, as investors slashed their lending to dealers and banks at quarter-end.
Eyeing Brexit and Trump, British funds cut equity holdings to five-year low (Reuters)
British funds appear increasingly to be positioning for the country to exit the European Union, by slashing equity holdings to five-year lows and sharply raising the share of cash and debt in portfolios.
China’s FX regulator is the latest member of Beijing’s stock-boosting “national team” (Quartz)
China’s foreign exchange regulator injected $4 billion in the mainland stock market, even as it was dumping billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves to stem capital flight.
Investors should avoid these momentum stocks ‘at any price’ (Market Watch)
Remember Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google—the four stocks that became synonymous with phenomenal gains and, along the way, gave birth to the catchy acronym FANG?
So far this year, with the exception of Facebook, growth stocks have largely failed to live up to expectations, prompting a J.P. Morgan analyst on Thursday to recommend that investors avoid them at “any price.”
Railroad stocks are getting crushed by the collapse in oil and coal prices (Business Insider)
There has been a lot of focus on the collapse of the energy industry over the last two years and how badly bruised many of the associated company’s stocks have become. What investors often overlook though is the ancillary damage that has been done to firms that do business with the energy industry.
Global shipping industry takes a hit from China slowdown (CNN)
The bellwether sector is in crisis mode as it navigates oil price volatility, a drop in global demand and a glut of supply in ship capacity. Around 90% of the world's goods are transported by sea, so when demand drops, shipping companies are among the first to notice.
How Hedge Funds Held Argentina for Ransom (NY Times)
Perhaps the most complex trial in history between a sovereign nation, Argentina, and its bondholders — including a group of United States-based hedge funds — officially came to an end yesterday when the Argentine Senate ratified a settlement.
With $340 million in revenue, Nest is underperforming, and its future at Google is at risk (Recode)
Nest generated about $340 million in sales last year, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. That’s an impressive figure for a company in the very nascent market of Internet-connected devices.
Can ConocoPhillips Really Break Even at $45 Oil? (Fox Business)
ConocoPhillips recently surprised investors by resetting its breakeven oil price to just $45 a barrel, down from roughly $60 just a quarter ago.To achieve this goal, the company has been cutting discretionary spending programs, ramping up major projects, and reducing operating costs. Still, the feasibility of such a big reduction has to be questioned, especially considering the company's profitfluctuates$100 million to $120 million for every $1 change in Brent oil prices.
Politics
It wasn’t China that ruined the middle class; it was Republican policies (Market Watch)
One does not need to be particularly good at hearing to decipher the dog whistles being used during this year’s election campaign in the United States. Listen even briefly, and you will understand that Mexicans and Chinese are working with Wall Street to forge lousy trade deals that rob American workers of their rightful jobs, and that Muslims want to blow everyone up.
The Pathos of Republican Reformers (NY Times)
Ross Douthat has a wonderfully written, heartfelt takedown of the WSJ editorial page, which is — surprise! — dead set against any deviation from the tax-cuts-for-the-rich agenda. Definitely worth reading. But my question is, did Republican reformers like Douthat really think there was any chance that their ideas would achieve headway within the party? If so, they were remarkably naive.
America Needs An Energy President (Forbes)
Anyone who has been waiting for leadership on energy policy during this year’s tumultuous Presidential campaign may be waiting in vain. There’s little talk of energy and, even when the candidates offer a few proposals on their campaign websites or mention them during a debate, there is a dismaying lack of detail.
Technology
LG says its wireless charging tech for phones is as fast as wired (Mashable)
Wireless charging, once a must-have feature for a smartphone, has fallen out of style largely due to slow charging times and competing wireless charging standards.
LG Innotek, a division within LG Corp. that develops cutting-edge tech components, has created a wireless charging technology for phones it claims is as fast as charging with a wired cable.
Microsoft paves way for ad blocking in its new Edge browser (CNet)
Microsoft is making sure its new Web browser can be a part of the war on Internet ads.
At its Build conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Microsoft outlined improvements to the new Edge browser it introduced with Windows 10 last year. High on the list is technology that will let you customize the browser's behavior — by installing building ad-blocking extension, for example.
Health and Life Sciences
Weird Loops Of Genetic Material Help Cause Cancer (Forbes)
Scientists have shown that an unusual form of genetic material can help cause blood cancers.
While DNA stores life’s instructions, another genetic material – RNA – relays information. And although proteins are encoded by genes in DNA, a cell’s protein-making machinery actually reads instructions from an RNA message that’s been copied from DNA.
Does Confessing Secrets Improve Our Mental Health? (Scientific American)
Any type of open and truthful disclosure reduces stress and helps individuals come to terms with their behavior. It is not coincidental that some of the most powerful people or institutions in many cultures encourage people to confess their transgressions. And there is very strong evidence that writing about upsetting experiences or dark secrets can benefit your mental and physical well-being.
Life on the Home Planet
Here's How the Number of Fish in the Ocean Could More Than Double by 2050 (Vice)
Fish populations around the world have been decimated by overfishing — but new research suggests that this could soon change if the world got its act together.
If You Want to Solve World Hunger, First Understand Farmers (Huffington Post)
On January 1, 2016, the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) came into effect, creating a new international development agenda for the next 15 years. These 17 goals will mobilize international agencies, governments, NGOs, and the private sector to help tackle such enduring problems as persistent poverty, climate change, and gender inequality.
Brussels attacks: Airport 'ready to partially reopen' (BBC)
Zaventem airport has been closed since 22 March when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the departure hall.
View From Space Hints at a New Viking Site in North America (NY Times)
A thousand years after the Vikings braved the icy seas from Greenland to the New World in search of timber and plunder, satellite technology has found intriguing evidence of a long-elusive prize in archaeology — a second Norse settlement in North America, further south than ever known.
