Financial Markets and Economy
A Breakdown in Old Rules Leads to a Rethink on How Global Markets Work (Bloomberg)
A standard textbook relationship that every student of economics learns in school has been flipped on its head, and it’s leading to a major rethink on the connection between bank balance sheets, exchange rates, global asset prices, and monetary policy.
Oil rig count rises for 2nd straight week (Business Insider)
The US rig count rose for a second straight period this week, by 3 to 328, according to driller Baker Hughes.
S&P 500 Record Taunts Investors Before Floor Caves In on Friday (Bloomberg)
Another run at a record ended in frustration for stock investors as the biggest selloff since mid-May erased gains for the week and dragged the S&P 500 further from a 10-month high.
Here’s why government bonds are actually risky right now (Market Watch)
Investors across the world have recently flocked to government bonds, in a frenzied rally fueled by central-bank stimulus and worries about slowing global economic growth.
Billionaires are loading up on gold (Business Insider)
It wasn't so long ago that some of the more famous investor gurus were shrugging off gold as nothing more than shiny trinkets with no investment value. They were wrong. This safe haven is back, the recovery is clear, and there have been some very big changes of heart.
Shareholders Are Disappearing Before Our Eyes (Wall Street Journal)
In the stock market, more ownership seems to be concentrated in fewer hands all the time.
US oil plunges 2.9 percent after rig count rises for 2nd straight week (CNBC)
U.S. oil prices fell about 3 percent on Friday as the U.S. rig count rose for the second straight week and as a strong dollar again weighed on demand for crude futures.
Canada's oil nightmare is entering phase 2 (Business Insider)
Oil prices have rebounded in the last few months.
Economists See Two 16 Fed Rate Hikes, Unsure on Timing of First (Bloomberg)
Wall Street economists aremore inclined than traders to see the Fed raising interest rates twice this year, though theyre less certain on the timing of the first increase.
The End of the U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance (Such as It Was) (Bloomberg View)
Last Friday's employment report cast a pall over the economic outlook. Headline jobs growth of just 38,000 was much weaker than expected and left us all wondering whether the Federal Reserve would wait longer to raise interest rates.
Shareholders Are Disappearing Before Our Eyes (Wall Street Journal)
In the stock market, more ownership seems to be concentrated in fewer hands all the time.
China is walking its economy right into a trap (Business Insider)
You've heard that China has a debt problem.
New ETFs face more skepticism from financiers (Reuters)
After a decade of aggressive expansion, the U.S. exchange-traded fund industry may be bumping up against a ceiling: Investment firms that have seeded thousands of funds since the 1990s are balking when asked to finance more.
Goldman: Here are the stocks to buy and sell if you want to beat the S&P 500 (The Globe and Mail)
With Wall Street expecting the S&P 500 to end the year not far from its present level, stock-picking has become attractive for investors seeking anything better than meager returns.
Dollar Heads for Weekly Gain as Focus Shifts to Fed, Brexit Risk (Bloomberg)
The dollar posted a weekly gain against the euro as traders weighed upcoming risks, including next week’s Federal Reserve meeting and the potential for a U.K. exit from the European Union.
Apple wants to sell you green power to go with that iPhone (Quartz)
Apple asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday (June 6) for permission to sell its surplus renewable energy at retail prices. Its move into energy markets seems to be one more step for the company to own, and ultimately profit, from its own power supply.
Here's Why Europe Is at Risk of Suffering Lasting Economic Damage (Fortune)
Europe is at risk of suffering lasting economic damage from weak productivity and low growth, the European Central Bank’s president warned on Thursday, underscoring his argument that monetary policy alone cannot end the bloc’s economic malady.
Consumers In Good Shape, But Price Expectations Slip (Be Spoke)
Today’s University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index beat expectations, coming in at 94.3 versus 94.7 in May and 94.0 expected this morning. As shown, consumers are broadly optimistic and the confidence index has been in a range similar to that of the last expansion’s peak for about two years now.
How to Manage $2 Trillion If You're New at It (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia is about to confront a serious challenge: Where and how to invest the money in a gigantic new sovereign wealth fund created as part of an effort to diversify its economy and pivot away from its dependence on oil.
Burger King’s parent has an all-male board, and investors just helped ensure it stays that way (Quartz)
Even against the corporate world’s dismal track record on bringing gender parity to the boardroom, the all-male board of Restaurant Brands International seems like a vestige from a bygone era. But in Canada, where prime minister Justin Trudeau famously explained last November that half his cabinet would be composed of women “because it’s 2015,” a 100% male board seems especially out of place.
So Who Is Buying? Selling Continues With $2.6 Billion In Equity Outflows, Stocks Sold In 10 Of Past 12 Weeks (Zero Hedge)
The fund flow paradox continues: US stocks trade just shy of all time highs as global outflows from equity funds continue with another $2.6 billion yanked in the past week; this represents 10 weekly outflows in the past 12 weeks. More confusing is that just in the US, $2 billion was withdrawn leading to outflows in 5 of the past 6 weeks.
Poltics
This Campaign Broke the U.S. Two-Party System (Bloomberg View)
Americans find it hard to imagine that the two-party system could ever break down. "Democracy works, this country works when you have two parties that are serious and trying to solve problems," President Barack Obama said recently. Yet U.S. democracy and the country itself would be better served if politicians started acting as if there were more parties — which might be the case after this year's election.
4-in-10 GOP insiders want to derail Trump at the convention (Politico)
After a rocky start to his general-election campaign, a sizable number of GOP insiders want the party to change the rules to short-circuit Donald Trump’s nomination at the July national convention.
Technology
Spaceship Apple (Popular Science)
Three miles from Apple’s Cupertino, California headquarters, the tech giant is building something as massive as its own global reach: Apple’s Campus 2. The Spaceship, as many have nicknamed it, is over one mile in circumference—that's wider than the Pentagon. When it’s completed later this year it will house 13,000 employees—including design grandmaster Jony Ive, who helped sculpt the iPhone, and CEO Tim Cook, who helps keep profits in the “billions-with-a-B” territory.
Health and Life Sciences
Discovery of molecular protection linked to a degenerative neuromuscular disease (Phys)
Knowledge of the minute details of the proteins that are linked to diseases is crucial if we are to discover therapeutic targets and thus pave the way for possible treatments. Such knowledge gains even more relevance when dealing with rare diseases that have received little attention and for which no treatments are available, such as the case of Kennedy's disease. This week Xavier Salvatella, ICREA researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), in collaboration with scientists from the University of Florence (Italy), has described a molecular system of protection that involves the androgen receptor protein, a molecule that is mutated in patients with Kennedy's disease and which cause progressive muscle wastage.
Life on the Home Planet
The world’s light-pollution problem, in one amazing map (Market Watch)
If you can’t see the Milky Way from where you live, you’re not alone.
Thanks to an overabundance of artificial light at night, roughly a third of the world’s population can’t either. For North American and European dwellers, the figures are even grimmer: 60 and roughly 80%, respectively, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances.
This Former Schoolteacher Is Building a U.S. Alliance With Syria's Kurds (Bloomberg View)
Sinam Mohamed does not look like the kind of woman who would have much influence over America's quiet war in Syria. But this soft-faced former English teacher has emerged as a crucial liaison between the Barack Obama administration and the largely Kurdish army fighting alongside U.S. special operators to encircle the Islamic State's capital at Raqqa.
