Financial Markets and Economy
S&P 500 Futures Are Little Changed as Traders Await Jobs Data (Bloomberg)
U.S. index futures were little changed, with the S&P 500 at a six-week high, after the gauge of private payrolls showed job growth remained steady last month.
World stocks hold near one-week low (Reuters)
World stocks hovered close to their one-week lows on Thursday, dragged down by an earlier 2 percent slump in Japan and lackluster European markets, while concern over Britain's future in the European Union continued to weigh on sterling.
Futures prices signaled a weaker Wall Street open.
U.S. to Curb Payday Lenders (Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration will announce Thursday the federal government’s first move to regulate high-interest, low-dollar “payday loans,” a $38.5 billion market currently left to the states.
This is when stock-market bulls should head for the exit (Market Watch)
Watch for the market to take a dramatic turn today, as everyone’s favorite oil cartel and bazooka-wielding Mario Draghi look set to spark swings.
This one major sector is cashing in on low oil prices (Business Insider)
Airline industry profits will reach $39.4 billion (£27.3 billion) in 2016, according to a report from the International Air Transport Association, and a big reason for that is the persistently low price of oil.
$50 oil is terrible news for some of the world's biggest producers (Business Insider)
Some of the biggest oil producing nations on earth are still struggling to cope economically despite crude oil passing the $50 per barrel mark for the first time since October 2015 in the last couple of weeks.
Nikkei drops another 2% as yen continues to dominate (Market Watch)
Japanese stocks slumped as yen strength persisted Thursday, while shares elsewhere in Asia were mostly higher.
Saudi Arabia’s Gesture for OPEC Unity Meets Iranian Resistance (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia faced resistance from Iran to proposals to restore a production target scrapped at OPEC’s last meeting in December as efforts to build unity were undermined by persistent divisions within the producer group.
Britain's financial regulator made two big 'oversights' that could deter future bank whistleblowers (Business Insider)
Britain's financial regulator made two huge oversights when it came to treating sensitive information from the SME Alliance, a small not-for-profit group that aims to help small to medium enterprises with problems they may have with their banks, says prominent London lawyer.
Oil prices fall as OPEC seen unlikely to agree output restraint (Business Insider)
Oil prices fell early on Thursday as a row between Saudi Arabia and Iran made it unlikely that the OPEC would agree any output constraints during a meeting in Vienna, just as demand worries from China resurfaced.
Pound Trader Keeps His Head When All About Him Are Losing Theirs (Bloomberg)
Adrian Lee is a man in demand. His phone is abuzz with questions on Britain’s European Union vote. Can he brief the board on the referendum, asks a U.S. client. How about later today?
Alibaba Details Price for Buying Back Stock From SoftBank (Bloomberg)
Alibaba Group Holding Inc. is paying $74 a share to buy back $2 billion of its own stock from SoftBank Group Corp., as the Japanese company embarks on an asset-divestment plan to shore up its finances.
Apple Plans to Raise up to $4 Billion From Bond Sales in Asia Pacific (Wall Street Journal)
Apple Inc. is issuing bonds in Taiwan and Australia as part of its plans to raise $3 billion to $4 billion in debt in the Asia Pacific region, a person with knowledge of the plans said.
Uber Turns to Saudi Arabia for $3.5 Billion Cash Infusion (NY Times)
In its quest to build a global empire, Uber has turned to the Middle East for its biggest infusion of cash from a single investor.
BOJ’s Sato Is Pessimistic on Economy, Central Bank’s Strategy (Bloomberg)
A Bank of Japan board member expressed pessimism about the economy and the central bank’s strategy, saying in a speech Thursday that the BOJ won’t be able to reach its 2 percent inflation target as forecast and negative rates won’t work to boost investment.
A Big Merger May Flatten America’s Beer Market (NY Times)
The world’s largest brewer, recently made headlines by announcing that it would temporarily rename Budweiser, one of its best-selling beers, as America. It’s a curious name choice, not only because AB-InBev is based in Belgium, but also because of what the new name stands for: independence.
Amazon The Gorilla in the Cloud, Google, Microsoft ‘Chimps,’ Says Citi (Barron's)
Citigroup analysts Mark May and Walter Pritchard today teamed up for a 20-page report on the state of cloud computing, opining that there are opportunities for Amazon, Alphabet’s, and Microsoft, although the biggest promise is that of Amazon, given that it is a “gorilla,” of the 800-lb variety, while the two competitors are merely “chimps.
Puerto Rico’s U.S. Rescue Won’t Come Soon Enough to Halt Default (Bloomberg)
Even if U.S. lawmakers return next week and push through their Puerto Rico rescue with unusual speed, it may not come fast enough to save the island from its biggest default yet.
Politics
Trump's Rhetoric of White Nostalgia (The Atlantic)
The most important word in Donald Trump’s lexicon may be: “again.”
The word anchors many of his signature declarations, as when he insists: “If I’m elected president, we will win again.” In a jab at the secularization of American life, he’s promised: “If I’m elected … we’re all going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.” And of course, the word is the exclamation point on his trademark pledge to “make America great again.”
Clinton to blast Trump on North Korea, NATO in foreign policy speech (Reuters)
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton will berate Republican Donald Trump for being too friendly with North Korea and too harsh on European allies on Thursday in a foreign policy speech in California designed to portray the billionaire businessman as unfit for the White House.
Technology
You Probably Don't Need a Laundry Folding Machine (Gizmodo)
The makers of the FoldiMate realize that the worst part of doing laundry is having to fold all your clothes once they come out of the washer and dryer. A third machine that does all that for you could revolutionize chores as we know it, but the FoldiMate might not be the answer to our lazy prayers.
Internet Boom Times Are Over, Says Mary Meeker’s Influential Report (Bloomberg)
Growth of internet users worldwide is essentially flat, and smartphone growth is slowing, too. Those sobering insights were among the hundreds packed into the much-awaited Internet Trends report, an annual tech industry ritual led by Mary Meeker, a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Health and Life Sciences
Your stroke risk climbs if you work weird hours (Futurity)
People who work rotating shifts or who change sleeping and eating schedules often are more likely to have a severe stroke, a new study finds.
It’s not the longer hours—or the weird hours—that necessarily seem to be the problem, according to David Earnest, a professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Instead, it’s the change in the timing of waking, sleeping, and eating every few days that “unwinds” body clocks and makes it difficult to maintain a natural, 24-hour cycle.
We're in the middle of a gold rush in the cancer-drug industry (Business Insider)
In the past five years, 70 new cancer treatments have been approved for more than 20 types of tumors.
That surge in treatments is coming with a high cost. In 2015, global spending on cancer treatments hit $107 billion — up 11.5% over 2014, according to a new report released Thursday by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Those costs are expected to hit $150 billion by 2020.
Scans Spot Brain Region That Misfires in Depressed People (Medicine Net Daily)
A part of the brain that responds to bad experiences acts in an unexpected way in people with depression, a small study finds.
One theory suggested that the pea-sized structure called the habenula was overactive in people with depression, so researchers decided to test that hypothesis.
Life on the Home Planet
Why So Many Refugees Are Fleeing To Europe From Libya (Think Progress)
A spate of capsized boats and shipwrecks off the Libyan coast last week led to the deaths of more than 880 people trying to cross the Meditteranean Sea to Italy. It marked the worst week at sea for refugees since April of last year. Among those dead included an infant whose photo is being used by a German humanitarian aid group in an effort to force the European Union to pay attention to the human toll of the migration crisis.
The world's longest tunnel is finally open (Business Insider)
Just like Hannibal in ancient times, Swiss engineers have conquered the Alps.
More than 2,200 years after the commander from the ancient North African civilization of Carthage led his army of elephants and troops over Europe's highest mountain chain, the Swiss have completed another gargantuan task: Burrowing the world's longest railway tunnel under the Swiss Alps to improve European trade and travel.
Guns N' Roses In Chicago: Their Wild, Drunken, Lost Summer on Clark Street (DNA Info)
Guns N' Roses is coming back to Chicago in a month — but it's unlikely the visit will come close to rivaling the non-stop, two-month party the band secretly held here in the summer of 1989.
