Financial Markets and Economy
Performance vs. Outcomes (Morgan Housel, Motley Fool)
Coca-Cola is fighting 12 consecutive years of soda consumption decline. Its stock is at an all-time high.
Tesla is changing the world, and orders for its new car are off the charts. Its stock is lower than it was 18 months ago.
Cigarette consumption has dropped 44% since 1981. Altria stock is up 71,000% since 1981.
WalMart net income has tripled since 2000. Its stock has lost 1.5% since 2000.
Apple has earned almost a quarter trillion dollars of profit since 2012. Its stock has barely budged.
Amazon's profits round to zero since 2012. Its stock has tripled.
[Picture via Pixabay]
Empire Fed manufacturing spikes to 15-month high (Business Insider)
Business activity in New York grew at a solid pace in April.
Global stocks, dollar and oil cool ahead of Doha meeting (Reuters)
Reassuring Chinese GDP data helped stocks, commodity markets and the dollar consolidate strong weekly gains on Friday, as the focus turned to a meeting of top oil producers about a potential output freeze.
Moves in most markets were small in Europe but urges to lock in some profit was beginning to kick in after a 2.5 percent weekly rally in world shares, a strong run by the dollar and an 11 percent surge in oil prices this month.
Oil Falls Before Doha as Global Markets Brace for Weekend Risk (Bloomberg)
Oil fell for a third day before major suppliers meet in Doha to discuss an output freeze, boosting bonds and sending European stocks lower, with investors wary of potential disappointment from the talks.
Businessman in New York corruption probe linked to hedge fund investment (Reuters)
A businessman at the center of a federal corruption probe involving New York police officers and Mayor Bill de Blasio's fundraising helped arrange an investment by the correction officers' union in a hedge fund, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Push for Treasuries Trading Data May Gather Steam by Year-End (Bloomberg)
The U.S. government expects to come up with a plan by year-end to gather more complete data on trading in the Treasuries market. It may also decide how much of the information — if any — it will release to taxpayers.
Bats Global IPO Prices at High End of Range (Wall Street Journal)
After a flubbed stock-market debut in 2012, Bats Global Markets Inc. is set to list again in a high-stakes test of its own exchange and of the wider new-issue market after a lackluster first quarter.
China Growth Slows; Revival Policies Appear to Gain Traction (Wall Street Journal)
China’s economy slowed further in the beginning of the year, though Beijing’s policies to revive growth with old-style tools such as lending and construction appeared to gain traction in March.
Goldman's Blankfein Demands Deepest Cost Cuts in Years (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is embarking on its biggest cost-cutting push in years as it tries to weather a slump in trading and dealmaking, according to two people with knowledge of the effort.
Gold bounces higher, but on track for weekly decline (Market Watch)
Gold futures inched higher Friday, but remain on track for a slim weekly loss as strength in the U.S. dollar dulled demand for the precious metal.
Currency trading was largely following any news out of the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Washington and its potential impact on the dollar, which could touch gold pricing. But gold was underpinned but general broad market cautiousness as earnings news continues to flow and a major meeting on oil production in Doha, Qatar, looms.
Valeant calls in investment banks to weigh options – sources (Reuters)
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc has brought in investment banks to review its options amid interest from buyout firms and other companies in a number of its businesses, according to people familiar with the matter.
Activist Hedge Funds Wounded by Former Shale-Boom Star (Wall Street Journal)
Activist investors lobbied successfully a few years ago to remove Tom Ward from SandRidge Energy Inc., the oil-and-gas producer he founded and led.
Citigroup's quarterly profit plunges 27 percent (Business Insider)
Citigroup Inc's quarterly profit plunged 27 percent as bank set aside money to cover losses on energy loans and its costs related to shrinking some businesses rose.
The No.4 U.S. bank by assets said its net income fell to $3.5 billion, or $1.10 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31 from $4.8 billion, or $1.51 per share, a year earlier.
Everyone Worries Too Much About 'Black Swans' (Bloomberg View)
In his 2007 book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” finance writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb attempted to educate the public about the danger of rare, unusual events. This is obviously important in the world of finance — asset market crashes come infrequently, but have an enormous impact on investors’ wealth, and potentially on the economy. Taleb implies that human beings underestimate the risk of these so-called black swans — in fact, he started one hedge fund (which closed in 2005), and advised another, based on this thesis.
Brazil Is Throwing a Big Impeachment Party (Bloomberg)
On Sunday, at 2 p.m., the bitter political drama that has all but paralyzed Brazil will take its climactic turn. The country is ready. Barricades are up on the esplanade in front of the National Congress. A big soccer match has been rescheduled, shopping malls may close. Huge outdoor screens will broadcast the vote by the Chamber of Deputies that could put President Dilma Rousseff a hair’s breadth from impeachment.
Politics
U.S. defense secretary visits carrier in disputed South China Sea (Reuters)
The chief U.S. defense official visited an American aircraft carrier transiting the disputed South China Sea on Friday, as China said one of its top military officers had visited islands and reefs in the region to oversee building work.
Sanders Can’t Clarify Wall Street Plan in Testy Clinton Debate (Bloomberg)
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton engaged in their sharpest, testiest debate yet ahead of next week's New York presidential primary, but Sanders' barbs did little to knock Clinton off stride—or to clarify his own plan for overhauling Wall Street.
White House hopefuls Clinton, Sanders joust in Brooklyn brawl (Reuters)
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and rival Bernie Sanders challenged each other's judgment and experience in a fiercely combative U.S. presidential debate ahead of Tuesday's crucial nominating contest in New York.
Technology
Will weaponised drones end the need for boots on the ground (New Scientist)
The choice between soldiers and technology is a key political issue. Donald Trump has insisted that the US needs ground forces in Syria, while Hillary Clinton favours a remote war.
Cruise missiles were used in 1998 to strike Al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan without risking pilots. Drones got laser-guided missiles in 2001. Now air strikes can target individuals, such as Islamic State killer Mohammed Emwazi.
Is Amazon’s Dome Headquarters The Workspace Of The Future? (Popular Science)
In the Denny Triangle section of downtown Seattle, one of the city’s fastest growing neighborhoods, Amazon’s new corporate headquarters is starting to take shape.
Amazon Tower I, a 37-story office building also known as Doppler, opened in December of 2015. A nearly identical building, Amazon Tower II, is projected to be finished in September, and Amazon Tower III (see a pattern emerging?) will be completed by decade’s end. Though these towers will forever change the look of Seattle’s distinctive skyline, another one of Amazon’s construction projects seems to be getting all the attention: the spheres.
Wild Shape-Shifting Sofa Can Be Whatever You Want It to Be (Wired)
Carlo Ratti, who founded MIT’s forward-thinkingSenseable City Lab, has designed a sofa called Lift-Bit. It is on display at La Triennale in Milan, where innumerable furniture-makers showcase their work in an annual design fair. Sofas (and chairs, for that matter) at Salone del Mobile are like fish in an aquarium: plentiful and beautiful, but, after a while, hard to discern. Yet Ratti’s sofa is hard to miss, and harder to forget; after all, his might be the only one powered by an app.
Health and Life Sciences
You may not know it but your favorite frozen pizza is getting healthier (Quartz)
The world’s largest food companies are reworking the recipes of some of their most famous brands, an attempt to make them healthier for consumers who demand it.
DNA tweak 'boosts' cancer-killing cells (BBC)
Cancer scientists have genetically modified the immune system to help it attack tumours in mice.
The immune system is the body's own defence against infection and cancer, but tumours develop ways of stopping the onslaught.
Life on the Home Planet
The Tree of Life Gets Redrawn (Sorry, Humans) (Bloomberg View)
This week, we found out some "humbling" things about the tree of life, which has been redrawn to accommodate thousands of newly discovered forms of bacteria. Some people may be inclined to feel diminished by such advances in science, though this one could just as easily make people feel more elite, given that, unlike the bacterial multitudes, we’re made from many cells working together.
Icelandair Wants You To Better Understand The Magic Of The Northern Lights (Fast Company)
WHAT: An interactive website, full of big blocks of science, that leads to an interactive "create your own aurora" game, where you can use sliders to adjust the variable factors that influence what the Northern Lights look like.
WHO: Icelandair, who would very much like you to visit Iceland to see those Northern Lights.
