Financial Markets and Economy
U.S. Consumer Comfort Drops to Five-Month Low on Economic Views (Bloomberg)
Consumer confidence fell last week to a five-month low as Americans became more downbeat about the economy, Bloomberg Consumer Comfort data showed Thursday. Sentiment around personal finances and the buying climate were little changed after declining the previous week.
GS: Copper is about to hit a “supply wall” (Value Walk)
Metals are heading into a “supply wall”, which will lead to further price weakness over the next three, six and twelve months, that’s according to a report from Goldman Sachs.
EPA Issues Final Rules Cutting Oil, Natural Gas Methane Emissions (Wall Street Journal)
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued the first-ever federal standards aimed at curbing methane emissions from the oil and natural gas industry, the latest in a series of regulations the Obama administration is pursuing in an effort to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.
If You're an Apple Supplier, Reveal Yourself (Market Chess)
The persistent weakness and inability to hold so much as a modest bounce continues to haunt Apple, knifing below the $92 level, which we had been previously observing for Members, this morning.
Freak out over this economic chart… or don’t. You decide. (Quartz)
One of the best high-frequency gauges of US economic health is weekly new applications for unemployment benefits.
Recession Odds Remain Elevated Despite Calmer Financial Markets (Wall Street Journal)
Don’t sound the “all clear” siren yet.
Antitrust in the Age of Amazon (NY Times)
In the age of Amazon, evaluating antitrust concerns is sometimes twisting government officials into knots. That was made clear this week, when the Federal Trade Commission blocked the merger of Office Depot and Staples, in part by drawing elaborate distinctions between who buys pens and printer ink cartridges, and how.
Tesla Needs Billions to Meet Musk's Ludicrous Assembly Timeline (Bloomberg)
Tesla Motors Inc. may raise billions of dollars by selling stock to accelerate production plans, betting the benefits will be enough to outweigh the dilution of the share price.
How Low Vol Emerging Market ETFs Differ (ETF)
The popular idea of bypassing increased market volatility during the summer months by “selling in May and going away” also applies to the emerging market space. That’s why, this time of year, many investors who want to stay in the market opt for funds that offer lower-volatility takes on equities.
Hedging on the Case Against Hedge Funds (Bloomberg View)
Opinions of hedge funds always seem to be unhedged and occasionally unhinged. In the distant past, opinions were too positive. The media focused on stories of outsized success. Big winners were lionized. Failures were castigated, but not allowed to spoil the narrative.
The finance sector is awash in pain, which could well be gain for the US economy (Quartz)
All of the sudden, the smart money doesn’t seem so smart.
Two banks borrow $1 billion from ECB's emergency dollar line (Reuters)
Two banks borrowed $1 billion at the European Central Bank's weekly dollar auction on Wednesday, a rare use of a source of emergency cash created to help troubled lenders during the financial crisis.
The Promise (And Peril) of Going Big in the Stock Market (Wall Street Journal)
If you want to settle for matching the market, buy an index fund that will buy every stock or bond in the basket. But if you want to try doing better, aim big: Buy a fund that makes a few huge bets that look nothing like the market.
Buy, Hold, Or Sell? You Decide! (Zero Hedge)
We're sure it’ll be different this time. The Fed has our back. We’ve entered a new paradigm… Forget the 145 years of stock market history.
P&G Depicts the Economy has Reached Its Peak (First Rebuttal)
If one steps back and simply looks at the accuracy of the world’s prominent PhD economists and market pros’ predictions over the past 7 years one can’t help but shake one’s head. And I believe investors have become wise to their ignorance.
Alibaba Promises to Crack Down on Counterfeiting – Will Luxury Brands Buy It? (Forbes)
Sometimes, it’s hard to shake off a bad rep. China’s Alibaba is learning so the hard way. The e-commerce platform – the country’s largest – has recently been at the center of a storm with the fashion and luxury sectors, and, despite its apparent aspiration for change, things aren’t getting better. Yet.
Wall Street In Pain: 163 Hedge Funds Are Long AAPL Stock (Wall Street Journal)
First it was the blow up of hedge fund darling Valeant that crushed countless funds who were long the name.
Politics
Trump Just Won’t Tell Republicans He's One of Them (Bloomberg)
In the days leading up to Donald Trump's much-ballyhooed courtesy call to Capitol Hill on Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan seemed like a groom wanting his presumptive bride to change before he does. “This is the party of Lincoln, of Reagan, of Jack Kemp,” he said on CNN, letting it be known that the presumptive nominee still had a lot of explaining to do before he could get an endorsement from the top Republican elected official. “What a lot of Republicans want to see is that we have a standard bearer that bears our standards.”
To end corruption, start with the US and UK. They allow it in broad daylight? (The Guardian)
The fight against corruption entails no small amount of absurdity, since so much of the corruption these days occurs in broad daylight. The corruption is so blatant, so indefensible, that attempts at justification are necessarily surreal. Recently, 300 economists, including me, made the point thanks to Oxfam’s mobilization.
Technology
DrinkMate: The smallest breathalyzer in the world is just $30 (The Next Web)
Don’t take any chances with your health and safety when enjoying a few cocktails. Now you can monitor your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) with a device that’s simple and easy to use, plugging right into your smartphone for reliable results every time. The DrinkMate Breathalyzer is the ideal BAC-measuring assistant, a battery-free device that also happens to be the smallest breathalyzer in the world.
Amazon just released a Dash button for AWS IoT (Venture Beat)
Believe it or not, there is now an Amazon Dash button that can integrate with AWS IoT, the managed services from cloud infrastructure provider Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“The AWS IoT Button is a programmable button based on the Amazon Dash Button hardware,” Amazon says in a description of the new product, which is available on Amazon for $19.95. “This simple Wi-Fi device is easy to configure and designed for developers to get started with AWS IoT, AWS Lambda, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon SNS, and many other Amazon Web Services without writing device-specific code.”
Health and Life Sciences
A beer a day keeps a heart attack at bay: Even one can reduces risk of disease by a quarter (Daily Mail)
On a sunny day, there is nothing as delicious as a cool, crisp beer.
And drinking a pint a day is good for the heart, a study has found.
Dreaming brain rhythms lock in memories (BBC)
Disrupting brain activity in sleeping mice, specifically during the rapid eye movement (REM) phase, can stop the animals remembering things they learned that day, a study suggests.
It is the clearest evidence to date that REM sleep is critical for memory.
Life on the Home Planet
Fracking’s Total Environmental Impact Is Staggering, Report Finds (Think Progress)
The body of evidence is growing that fracking is not only bad for the global climate, it is also dangerous for local communities.
Earlier ice melt in the Arctic cuts survival of birds in Africa (New Scientist)
What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.
Warming climates are affecting the high-Arctic breeding grounds of red knots. That means these small shorebirds do not grow as big as they did 30 years ago – and this causes big problems when they reach their wintering grounds in Africa.
