News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

Financial Markets and Economy

U.S. Gas Bulls Are Counting on This Heat Wave for a Price Rally (Bloomberg)

The heat that’s gripping parts of the eastern U.S., prompting power plants to burn record volumes of natural gas, has traders banking on a rebound in the market.

The market might be 'topping out' (Business Insider)

The way two groups of investors on Wall Street are trading options suggests that stocks may be leveling off.

U.S. Gasoline Demand Reaches Record Levels (Forbes)

Last week the Energy Information Administration released its most recent Short Term Energy Outlook, and the forecast now calls for record U.S. gasoline consumption this year.

China's ballooning corporate debt a key tail risk for global credit (Reuters)

Chinese companies will consume nearly two-thirds of new credit raised globally by 2020 as the world's second-largest economy leans on the corporate sector to support growth, said a report from S&P Global published on Thursday.

Art Sales Suffer Global Slump (Wall Street Journal)

The global art market has gone on a diet.

The Fracklog Isn't Growing Anymore And That's Bad News for Bulls (Bloomberg)

The number of dormant crude and natural gas wells in the U.S. stopped growing in the first quarter — and may all but disappear in the nation’s biggest oil field should prices hold steady.

The steel rally is going to ‘fizzle out’ soon (Business Insider)

Steel prices have rallied so far in 2016, but the increase in prices could be short-lived.

Asian Stocks to Weaken as Central Bank Stimulus Optimism Wanes (Bloomberg)

Asian stocks pulled back from an eight-month high after prospects for central bank stimulus in Japan cooled and the latest U.S. corporate earnings failed to impress.

Here’s why a new bull market might just be getting started (Market Watch)

The stock market—with a few major hiccups along the way—has managed to leave the lows of 2009 in the dust, emerging from the financial crisis to push deeper into uncharted territory. The rally has been lauded as the second-longest bull-run ever.

Apple is about to take a huge risk with its new iPhone strategy (Business Insider)

Sales of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac are all dropping, which is having an effect on Apple's bottom line.

Yellen Needs to Make More Speeches (Bloomberg View)

What does the U.S. Federal Reserve think about the repercussions of Britain's vote to leave the European Union? Amazingly, we still don’t really know — and we might not get a proper chance to find out until August or September. This dearth of information illustrates an important flaw in the way the world's most powerful central bank communicates.

Elon Musk's Dream for Tesla Could Be an Investor's Nightmare (The Street)

Elon Musk laid out a vision for the future that most would likely love to see become reality. It's far less certain the plan makes Tesla a company worth investing in.

We Can’t Borrow from the Future Anymore (Mauldin Economics)

While everyone was talking about Brexit last month, the Bank for International Settlements released its 86th annual report.

Iceland rises from the ashes of 2008 financial meltdown (RT)

The country worst affected by the global financial crisis eight years ago has made a miraculous turnaround. Iceland saw an unexpected GDP surge of 4.2 percent in the first three months of the year.

How one defrauded binary options ‘investor’ got his cash back (Times Of Israel)

When Wenxuan Su, 37, a semiconductor engineer from Singapore, lost $15,900 to binary options firm SecuredOptions, he thought to himself, “I am quite foolish but I am not stupid.”

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Comex Options Expiry and FOMC Next Week (Jesse's Cafe Americain)

And so we did a bungee jump over the past two days, a trading phenomenon colloquially known hereabouts as 'shenanigans.'

Politics

There’s Probably Nothing That Will Change Clinton Or Trump Supporters’ Minds (Five Thirty Eight)

What would it take for Donald Trump to lose his supporters’ votes? When the Jimmy Kimmel show ran a man on the street segment asking that very question, one Trump enthusiast replied, “Nothing. There’s nothing he could do to lose my vote.”

Republicans rip Trump over NATO plan (Politico)

Donald Trump's latest broadside against NATO, the military alliance that has long served as a pillar of Western unity, has further aggravated the disunity in the Republican Party as he prepares to accept its nomination for president.

RNC Erupts As Ted Cruz Refuses To Endorse Trump In Convention Speech (Buzz Feed)

Ted Cruz did not endorse Donald Trump in his much-anticipated speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, instead urging Republicans to vote their conscience — to anguished reactions from Trump supporters in the room.

Technology

Mossberg: I just deleted half my iPhone apps. You should too. (Recode)

Over the past few days, I’ve methodically deleted 165 apps from my iPhone, about 54 percent of the 305 apps I had on the phone when I started culling the herd. When I was done, I had significantly decreased the phone’s clutter: I’d gone from 15 home screens to eight, and reclaimed nearly eight gigabytes of free space, about a 24 percent gain in my case.

Amazon patent proposes drone perches atop streetlights and other protruding infrastructure (Tech Crunch)

You’re a delivery drone with a flight duration of 20 minutes with your current payload, but because of delays (use your imagination) you’re never going to make it in time. What do you do, hot shot? What do you do? You land on a street light that’s been converted into a drone charger! Thank goodness Amazon patented those.

Health and Life Sciences

Brain map carves cortex into twice as many areas (BBC)

A new brain map, based on multiple scans of more than 400 individuals, has carved the "cortex" into 180 different compartments – 97 of which are new.

This crumpled outer layer of the brain is home to our advanced cognition, perception and movement.

Life on the Home Planet

Fewer Nukes Could Make the World Less Safe (Bloomberg View)

Tony Schwartz, ghostwriter of Donald Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal,” recently issued a dire warning about the man he worked for. “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization,” Schwartz declared. Whether Schwartz is exaggerating the danger, talk of the risk of nuclear war seems to be more common these days. 

The Only Person Designed To Survive On Our Roads (Gizmodo)

In a shift from its traditional road safety campaigns, the Transport Accident Commission has collaborated with a leading trauma surgeon, a crash investigation expert and a world-renowned Melbourne artist to produce ‘Graham’, an interactive lifelike model demonstrating human vulnerability.