Financial Markets and Economy
Strategist Jim Paulsen makes case for why stocks are about to hit record highs (CNBC)
"There's still a lot of pessimism," Paulsen said. "We're an eyelash away from all-time highs and there's a lot of people still in the bear market camp." If too many people shift to the bull camp, he said he might get more cautious.
The US economy was better than we thought in the first quarter (Business Insider)
US economic growth was better than first estimated in the first quarter, according to the Commerce Department.
The second estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 0.8%. Economists had forecast an upward revision to 0.9% from 0.5%, according to Bloomberg.
Wall Street Waits for Yellen Before Taking Off for a Long Weekend (Bloomberg)
The Friday before Memorial Day weekend is typically dead on Wall Street. The bond market shuts early and trading in stocks slows to a trickle as everyone hightails it out of town.
Oil prices ease from seven-month high to below $49 (Reuters)
Oil futures fell below $49 on Friday, moving further away from a seven-month high hit a day earlier, with analysts predicting range-bound markets for the next few months as supply outages slowly help to clear a glut of crude.
California’s Recovery Loses Luster as Tax Increases Set to Lapse (Bloomberg)
California’s three-year boom run is showing signs of fatigue.
Asia stocks edge up after upbeat U.S. data, dollar sags (Business Insider)
Asian stocks pulled ahead on Friday after patches of U.S. data continued to paint the world's largest economy in a positive light, while the dollar was on the defensive against its major peers.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.2 percent to a two-week high. The index was on track to gain 2.3 percent this week.
Gross Says Central Bank Forgiving Debt Is Only Endgame for Japan (Bloomberg)
Billionaire bond investor Bill Gross said the only way for Japan to eventually cut its debt burden is for the central bank to acquire it and forgo repayment, a scenario that may play out in similar ways in other countries.
Gold’s slide extends into 8th day, brings drop in May to 5.5% (Market Watch)
Gold futures extended their slide on Friday, on track to log an eighth straight drop, as U.S. dollar strength in May helped push precious metals prices to their lowest level since early April.
Abe Invokes Lehman Crisis Comparisons at G-7 Economic Talks (Bloomberg)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented documents to his fellow Group of Seven leaders Thursday that he said indicated a risk of the world economy falling into a crisis on the scale of the 2008 Lehman shock if appropriate policy measures weren’t taken.
Activist William Ackman, Valeant Investor, Tries Life as an Inside Man (Wall Street Journal)
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. Chief Executive Michael Pearson was wrestling with a lot of problems in mid-March, but activist investor William Ackman wasn’t one of them.
The Key Questions Asked About Saudi Arabia’s $2 Trillion Fund (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia is planning to expand its sovereign wealth fund into the world’s largest. The Public Investment Fund could eventually control more than $2 trillion, according to Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, making it big enough to buy the world’s four largest publicly traded companies.
The Atlanta Fed Wage Tracker: What’s it saying re wage growth and the Fed? (Jared Bernstein)
As OTEers know, I track various measures of wage and compensation growth. Five—count ‘em!—show up in the wage mashup, recently updated.
Valeant Rejected Joint Takeover Approach From Takeda, TPG (Wall Street Journal)
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. received a joint takeover approach this spring from Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and private-equity firm TPG that the beleaguered drugmaker rejected, according to people familiar with the matter.
The approach came a month or two ago, before Valeant named Joseph Papa as its new chief executive, and didn’t include a firm price, the people said, adding that there are no current talks. The board is seeking to give Mr. Papa, who was hired in late April, time to chart a course for the company, the people said.
What Should the ‘Sharing Economy’ Really Be Called? (The Atlantic)
Among the surprises in last week’s Pew Research Center survey on the new digital economy was the revelation that the phrase “the sharing economy”—the collective and most broadly accepted term for some of the on-demand apps and platforms that have seemingly seized the world of commerce—is overwhelmingly unknown to most Americans. In other words, while AirBnB may have Super Bowl commercials and Uber may have graduated to being used as a verb, 73 percent of Americans are unfamiliar with the banner under which they operate.
Wall Street Waits for Yellen Before Taking Off for a Long Weekend (Bloomberg)
The Friday before Memorial Day weekend is typically dead on Wall Street. The bond market shuts early and trading in stocks slows to a trickle as everyone hightails it out of town.
Investment in energy storage vital if renewables to achieve full potential (Science Mag)
Government subsidies should be used to encourage investment in energy storage systems if renewable power is to be fully integrated into the sector, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
A Tale of Two Gluts: Oil and Ore Cross $50 on Opposite Paths (Bloomberg)
Crude oil and iron ore are two of the world’s most important industrial commodities, where supply and demand are tied to the fate of the global economy. Yet, they’re doing very different things right now.
U.S. futures regulator adds hedging exemptions to position limit proposal (Reuters)
The U.S. futures contract market regulator moved closer on Thursday to finishing its rule on limiting positions that traders can hold in commodity markets, which is intended to head off oil and gas hedging abuse, by responding to industry concerns about "bona fide hedges."
Automakers recall 12 million U.S. vehicles over Takata air bags (Reuters)
Eight automakers said on Friday they are recalling more than 12 million U.S. vehicles for defective Takata air bags, expanding the largest-ever auto safety push, documents posted by U.S. regulators showed.
Tesla Has a Problem (JD Markman, Tumblr)
Tesla (TSLA) has a problem. People really like its products and it can sell every electric car it makes. It can also sell every car it promises to make too. It just can’t make as many as it has promised. So it hired a graybeard, an industry veteran to help it actually build cars.
Here's Why All Pension Funds Are Doomed, Doomed, Doomed (Of Two Minds)
There are limits on what the Fed can do when this bubble bursts, as it inevitably will, as surely as night follows day.
Politics
Uniting the Democrats might not be so difficult after all (Business Insider)
Hand-wringing among Democrats has been trending upward along with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s poll numbers. The New York billionaire and Hillary Clinton are tied within the margin of error in national polling, with Trump sometimes holding a slight edge.
California Looking Less Like a Sure Thing for Hillary Clinton (NY Times)
On Wednesday, after days of looking, Karen Furia, 65, finally found what she was searching for: a “Hillary” bumper sticker, at a Clinton campaign rally in Salinas, Calif.
Donald Trump Celebrates Clinching GOP Delegate Race (Wall Street Journal)
Donald Trump on Thursday secured the delegates he needs to become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, and immediately showed what an unpredictable general-election candidate he will be.
Technology
New Digital Face Manipulation Means You Can’t Trust Video Anymore (Singularity Hub)
What if you could alter a video of anyone to emulate facial and mouth movements that never existed in the source video—by yourself, at home, using a cheap webcam?
An Internet Cable Will Soon Cross the Arctic Circle (Scientific American)
More than a century ago polar explorer Roald Amundsen and his six-man crew became the first to navigate the icy Northwest Passage. This month much larger ships than Amundsen's will retrace parts of the sea route but not as adventurers. Instead they will begin laying an undersea fiber-optic cable meant to connect Asia and Europe by crossing the Arctic Circle—the shortest practical distance yet for Internet signals traveling between the two continents.
Health and Life Sciences
Infections resist 'last antibiotic' in US (BBC)
The first case of an infection that resists the antibiotic of last resort – colistin – has been detected in the US.
The 48-year old woman from Pennsylvania recovered and the infection was vulnerable to other antibiotics.
A dreaded superbug found for the first time in a U.S. woman (CNN)
The United States' first known case of a superbug that cannot be killed by a last resort-style kind of antibiotic was detailed in a report by the U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden announced the case at the National Press Club in Washington.
Yes, America's Obesity Rates Are Still Slowly Rising (Forbes)
If recent headlines are to be believed, we are rapidly approaching the future depicted in Wall-E, with a morbidly obese population that can get from place to place only with the help of a hover-scooter. “Americans are fatter than ever, CDC finds,” trumpets CNN. “This Many Americans Need To Go On A Diet ASAP, According To New CDC Report,” content farm Elite Daily smugly proclaims.
Life on the Home Planet
Here’s One Way The Media Confuses The Public About Climate Change (Think Progress)
The overwhelming majority of climate scientists — some 97 percent — have concluded that humans are the primary cause of climate change, as many studies have shown. And every major nation in the world accepted that scientific conclusion back in 2013.
Yet the public has the impression there is considerable scientific debate on a subject where there isn’t, as polling has found
Canadians keep shooting lasers at planes and it's becoming a problem (Business Insider)
Shining laser pointers at airplanes is apparently a big enough problem in Canada that the government is taking swift action, and it thinks a new social media campaign will make culprits stop — even though it hasn't really worked before.
