Financial Markets and Economy
Global Stocks Climb as Rising Oil Prices Encourage Investors (Wall Street Journal)
Global stocks climbed Friday while haven assets cooled, as rising oil prices helped rekindle investors’ appetite for risk at the end of a rocky week.
Stocks and crude oil are rallying (Business Insider)
US stocks opened higher, following the steepest sell-off in two months on Thursday.
The Japanese yen reverses course — Here's what's happening in FX (Business Insider)
It's pretty quiet in FX on Friday, April 8 as of 8:15 a.m. The Japanese yen is once again the main attraction — although this time, the currency has reversed course.
This bottoms-up forecast says stocks will pop 10% higher (Market Watch)
It’s Friday and high time to raise a glass to this market, as stock futures point up.
Except the S&P is on track for its second weekly loss in three weeks, after turning negative for the year again yesterday.
Treasuries Set for Two-Week Gain; Greenspan Warns of Global Risk (Bloomberg)
Treasuries headed for their biggest two-week gain since January as the Federal Reserve warned the global economy presents heightened risks.
Yen Strength Trips Up U.S. Stocks (Bloomberg)
The yen’s strength may be tripping up U.S. stocks. In the last 10 instances the yen rallied at least 1 percent against the dollar, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.8 percent on average, the most since at least 2008, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Why You Should Ignore the "Best" Timing Signal on Wall Street (Cordant Wealth)
I came across an article the other day on Yahoo Finance with the scary sounding title of “One of the best signals in the stock market is saying it may be time to sell.”
Oil Prices Lifted by Fed Comments on U.S. Economy (Wall Street Journal)
Oil prices rebounded on Friday on optimism about the U.S. economy and hopes of an agreement between major producers to limit their output.
Yellen, alongside Fed alum, says rate hikes on track (Reuters)
The U.S. economy is on a solid course with some hints of inflation so the Federal Reserve is on track for further interest rate hikes, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday in a defense of her decision to tighten policy late last year.
Gold snubbed for riskier assets, clings to weekly gain (Market Watch)
Gold prices tipped lower early Friday, while silver grasps a modest gain as global investors pass over the safety of precious metals for riskier, and potentially higher rewarding, stocks and oil.
BofA Calls Out Aggressive Swaps Traders as Mexico Growth Slows (Bloomberg)
To Bank of America Corp., traders speculating on the direction of interest rates in Mexico may be underestimating the worsening outlook for the economy.
It Was a Good Bet (Motley Fool)
Warren Buffett has many disciples. Hedge fund manager Mohnish Pabrai is one of them, and one of the extreme few with excellent long-term returns to show for it.
HSBC: Helicopter money isn't going to work (Business Insider)
When Mario Draghi got out the bazooka in March, the ECB president hoped that the bank's programme of renewed rate cuts and increased bond buying would finally be the driver to growth and inflation across the continent.
U.S. Stocks Rebound as Crude Rally Boosts Commodity Producers (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks rose, trimming the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s weekly decline, as a rally in crude prices boosted energy producers.
No Love for Swiss Stocks Despite Record Payouts Versus Bonds (Bloomberg)
Swiss stocks aren’t finding buyers, even after their declines this year pushed the cash reward for owning them to a record compared with government bonds.
The Art of Calling Brazil's Currency Rally From 6,700 Miles Away (Bloomberg)
A strategist in Tuscany, a forecaster in Warsaw and an analyst in Stockholm are proof that it’s possible to follow a market too closely.
Here's why the Canadian dollar is called the loonie (Business Insider)
It's Canadian Jobs Day, and Canada crushed expectations.
We are now witnessing Elon Musk’s slow-motion disruption of the global auto industry (Quartz)
In 2007, Nokia was the biggest and most fashionable name in cell phones, with an unassailable lead in hand-held technology. Things had been so good for so long that company executives saw little chance for any competitive challenge–phones were a tough business, they said, and Nokia was reaping the harvest of decades of hard work that no one else could hope to match.
Politics
Trump, under fire on many fronts, expands campaign team (Reuters)
Donald Trump, under pressure to show a more presidential image, elevated a top adviser on Thursday and said he planned to hire additional staff to prepare for the possibility of a long fight for the Republican nomination.
War of Words Escalates in Democratic Race (Wall Street Journal)
The Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders detoured Thursday from high-minded debate over issues into a he-said-she-said squabble ahead of the presidential primary fight for New York, a contest with outsize importance to both candidates.
Bernie Heads to the Vatican (The Atlantic)
A socialist, Jewish, “not particularly religious” senator from Vermont will soon make his debut at the Vatican. On Friday, Bernie Sanders announced that in a week or so, he will be speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, a scholarly body that’s part of Catholic Church in Rome.
“I was very moved by the invitation,” he said during an interview on Morning Joe. “People say Bernie Sanders is radical? Uh-uh. Read what the pope is writing.”
Technology
New Bipedal Robot Is All Legs (Popular Science)
At the New Economic Summit Conference in Tokyo, where Andy Rubin, the former head of Google’s robotics program, was a keynote speaker, a new bipedal robot put in an appearance as well.
Created by SCHAFT, one of the many robotics companies Google (now known as Alphabet) has acquired over the years, the unnamed bot looks like a pair of body-less legs.
The US government just launched a self-driving ship to counter Russian and Chinese submarines (Quartz)
The future of naval warfare may well not involve any seamen. Yesterday, April 6, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research unveiled Sea Hunter, a prototype autonomous submarine-hunting ship that could one day be used to counter advancements in the Russian and Chinese Navies, according to Reuters.
Health and Life Sciences
Marijuana For Menstrual Cramps? New Jersey May Just Say Yes (Forbes)
Menstrual cramps may get added to the list of approved conditions for medical marijuana in New Jersey and women can thank Whoopi and Maya.
Assemblyman Tim Eustace is introducing legislation on Friday that would add conditions primarily aimed at women to the approved list of conditions for medical marijuana.
Do Pain Relievers Heal Tendinitis, or Just Ease Pain? (NY Times)
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or Nsaids, such as ibuprofen, are commonly given to blunt the pain and inflammation of tendinitis. But most physicians now believe that tendinitis – the suffix “itis” means inflamed – is misnamed, since the condition may involve little or no inflammation.
Life on the Home Planet
Why Women Put on the Suicide Vest (Bloomberg View)
On a list of history's most notorious assassins, alongside John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald and Gavrilo Princip, the name Thenmozhi Rajaratnam would probably draw mostly blank stares. But in her way, the Tamil Tiger terrorist — who blew up herself, the Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi and 13 others in May 1991 — has perhaps had the largest lasting influence.
Pope calls for compassionate Church open to 'imperfect' Catholics (Reuters)
Pope Francis on Friday called for a Church that was less strict and more compassionate towards "imperfect" Catholics, such as those who divorced and remarried, saying "no one can be condemned forever".
