Financial Markets and Economy
We are in an investing 'twilight zone' (Business Insider)
It has been a crazy year for markets.
Oil hits two-month low on glut fears, technical selling (Reuters)
Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday, hitting two-month lows on extended selling after the market's break below a key technical support level last week due to oversupply fears.
The market last week slumped nearly 8 percent in its biggest weekly losses in six months and already hit a two-month low on Thursday after disappointing drawdowns in U.S. crude and gasoline inventories pointed toward weak demand.
Bonds Aren’t as Wretched an Investment as They Seem (Wall Street Journal)
With bonds producing near-record-low levels of income worldwide, there’s never been a worse time to invest in government and corporate debt. You earn next to nothing now and, if interest rates finally rise, you will get clobbered later.
How to pay less for index funds and ETFs (Market Watch)
Some people stop to pick up pennies or nickels they find on the street. Others pass by until the denomination is something much higher. The same goes for investment portfolios, and investors recently got a reminder that they might be able to pick up handfuls of change thanks to increasing competition between fund companies.
China Proves Doubters Wrong For Now as Credit Boom Stokes Growth (Bloomberg)
You can’t have your fish and your bear paw too.
S&P 500 Record-Setting Week Lures Cash Before Ending With a Thud (Bloomberg)
The most hated bull market ever was finally getting some love before ending the week with another bout of geopolitical angst.
These Sectors Are Still Undervalued (Value Walk)
If you are a data geek looking for a vast quantity of information on the market’s performance over the past decade, JP Morgan’s third quarter equity playbook offers everything you need.
Could Gold Hit $10,000 In A Few Years (Value Walk)
You have to be careful writing about gold.
The Bull Market You Haven’t Seen (Bloomberg)
The way Douglas Peebles talks about the $100 trillion global bond market, you’d never guess that bond investors have been on a winning streak. “The market in most countries is completely dysfunctional,” says Peebles, chief investment officer of fixed income at Alliance Bernstein.
A top Wall Street strategist explains why he's not more bullish even with stocks at all-time highs (Business Insider)
The S&P 500 this week jumped to new highs, leaping above the median Wall Street year-end target of 2,152.
Here’s why 10-year Treasury may still drop below 1% (Market Watch)
The U.S. government bond market has been flirting with record low yields but some analysts and strategist think that yields could fall even further.
Microsoft Won’t Get to 1 Billion Windows 10 Device Goal in 2018 (Bloomberg)
Microsoft Corp., which last year pledged to get Windows 10 on 1 billion devices within two to three years, said it will not meet that goal for its new operating system because of the dramatic reduction of its Windows phone business.
All Ten Sectors Overbought For the First Time Since March (Be Spoke)
In Thursday’s Sector Snapshots report, we included the chart to the right showing that the S&P 500 and all ten sectors were trading at overbought levels (more than one standard deviation above 50-day moving average).
World's Top Investors "Ring Alarm" At All Time Market Highs (Zero Hedge)
First it was bond gurus Bill Gross and Jeff Gundlach; then yesterday equity titan, Blackrock's Larry Fink joined in; now add Oaktree's Howard Marks. As Bloomberg puts it, the big rally in stocks and bonds has some of the world’s top money managers "ringing the alarm" just as the S&P hits all time highs day after day after day.
Politics
The Republican Media Ticket (Bloomberg View)
When John F. Kennedy Jr. created George magazine in 1995, the idea was to blur the distinctions between politics, media and celebrity. The magazine failed, but the merger succeeded beyond anyone’s imagination — and the 2016 Republican presidential ticket suggests that it’s now complete.
Evangelicals Rally to Trump, Religious ‘Nones’ Back Clinton (Pew Research Center)
Evangelical voters are rallying strongly in favor of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Indeed, the latest Pew Research Center survey finds that despite the professed wariness toward Trump among many high-profile evangelical Christian leaders, evangelicals as a whole are, if anything, even more strongly supportive of Trump than they were of Mitt Romney at a similar point in the 2012 campaign.
Technology
Robots Replacing Developers? This Startup Uses Automation To Build Smart Software (Forbes)
The role of technology within our personal and professional lives continues evolving at an exceptionally fast pace. From utility-based mobile apps and wearable devices, to the emergence of augmented and virtual reality, the digital revolution is expanding to cover every aspect of the human experience.
These microchip press-on nails could revolutionise London travel (Mashable)
When it comes to commuting, the struggle is so very real.
And even in our desperation to escape the sardine tin conditions of the Tube, our blasted travel cards are always nowhere to be found.
Health and Life Sciences
Watch These Tiny Living Creatures Play Microscopic Pac-Man (Singularity Hub)
Ever wondered what Pac-Man in real life would look like? Well, here's your chance.
In collaboration with University College of Southeast Norway, filmmaker Adam Bartley captured a “real-life” version of the popular 80s video game—under a microscope. The neon game board is less than a millimeter across and uses competing single and multicellular organisms as prey and predator for characters.
Life on the Home Planet
Turkey has seen several military coups over the last 50 years, but this one is different (Business Insider)
The Turkish military apparently staged a coup on Friday night, deploying military into the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey's largest city and capital, respectively.
