Financial Markets and Economy
Fed Begins Crawl Toward Rate Hike as Near-Term Risks Diminish (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve policy makers took a step toward raising interest rates later this year but stopped short of signaling that the move could come as soon as September.
A New Normal for the U.S. Economy: Slow and Steady (Bloomberg View)
For the first time since 2009, all sectors of the economy are chugging along at normal rates: The housing industry pulled out of its nosedive, the government sector ended its downturn, and as of this quarter, the industrial recession is over. Policy makers face a new challenge, building on an economy in which no major sector is in contraction. But first, the U.S. deserves some recognition for the feat it just accomplished.
Why Uncertainty Isn’t the Real Threat for Markets (Wall Street Journal)
If there is one thing the world seems to be producing in abundance, it is uncertainty. It is said that markets hate uncertainty, but resolution might be the real problem.
The stock market that really tells you about the UK economy is back at pre-referendum levels (Business Insider)
The FTSE 250 stock market —a bellwether for the British economy that is more UK-focused than the bigger FTSE 100 — has erased pretty much all of the losses suffered since the Brexit vote.
Asia stocks edge up, dollar sags after Fed meeting (Business Insider)
Asian stocks edged up early on Thursday after the Federal Reserve provided a positive assessment of the world's largest economy and lifted risk sentiment.
Yen Rises as BOJ Easing Expectations Keep Traders on Tenterhooks (Bloomberg)
The yen strengthened against all except one of its 16 major peers as traders awaited Fridays Bank of Japan decision on how much it will boost monetary easing to spur growth.
Who Bought U.S. Stocks After 2008? (Morningstar)
In an article entitled "The Fallacy behind Investor versus Fund Returns (and why DALBAR is dead wrong)," investment researcher Michael Edesess questions the notion that mutual fund shareholders and pension funds are similarly poor market-timers. Responds Edesess, "Surely, if one party to a transaction is a bad timer, the counterparty must be a good timer–either consciously or unconsciously."
The Cheapest ETFs In The World (ETF)
All that said, ETFs such as EEM are the exception rather than the rule. Most of the ETF giants are extremely low cost, which is great for long-term investors.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – So Far So Good (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Gold and silver caught some legs to the upside today after the Fed did nothing.
Citron's Andrew Left Says Facebook Could Lose Nearly One-Third Of Its Value (Bloomberg)
Andrew Left, the Citron Research short-seller who shot to prominence following a bearish analysis of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc., said that Facebook Inc. could lose nearly a third of its market value or more as he bets against the social media giant's shares.
Apple Shifts Into Uncertain Gear (Bloomberg Gadfly)
Apple's quarterly results were yucky, but less so than everyone anticipated. Investors and Apple watchers have already basically written off this fiscal year ending in September as a revenue black hole. The big question is whether hints of optimism in Apple's financial results are the first glimmers of a sustained rebound or simply an emergence from a crater to even ground.
Knowing Where To Get Out Before Getting In (All Star Charts)
The one thing that is certain in the market is that nothing is certain. This is similar to the old Socratic Paradox, “I know one thing: that I know nothing”. In other words, while everyone, and I mean everyone, has an opinion of what will happen next, we really have no idea of what’s going to happen tomorrow.
Politics
Why News Junkies Are So Glum About Politics, Economics, and Everything Else (National Post)
Man bites dog. It is one of the oldest cliches in journalism, an acknowledgement of the idea that ordinary events are not newsworthy, whereas oddities, like a puppy-nibbling adult, deserve disproportionate coverage.
The rule is straightforward, but its implications are subtle.
I believe this year’s election is the most important of our lifetime. The next President of the United States will be making decisions that will chart our nation’s course for the next century. We need a strong, principled leader who is ready to shake up Washington. That’s why I’ll be voting for The Demonic Creature That Emerged From the Depths of Hell.
Trump's Putin Flirtation Gets Serious (Bloomberg View)
The defining features of Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda thus far have been obliviousness and instability. Either is disqualifying in a potential commander in chief. Encouraging Russian espionage and interference in a U.S. presidential election, however, represents a depressing new low.
Technology
Artificial Intelligences Are Writing Poetry For A New Online Literary Magazine (Popular Science)
There are innumerable blogs dedicated to posting prose and poetry. CuratedAI, however, is a collection of machine generated creative writing that launched last week. The poems and prose come from multiple different artificial intelligence programs selected by human beings. If the Turing Test is a (debatably) subjective way to measure a machine's passable humanity, then poetry is the subjective cheat sheet.
Health and Life Sciences
Five ways your brain is fooling you, courtesy of neuroscientist Dean Burnett (National Post)
You’ve probably found yourself in situations where you felt like either your memory or your perception was somehow distorted. Maybe you’d confess to having bought into a conspiracy theory, entertained a superstition or even spotted faces in random objects.
Drug 'may slow' Alzheimer's brain death (BBC)
A drug appears to slow the brain's death and preserve mental function in patients with Alzheimer's disease, a study shows.
Developing such a treatment is one of the biggest challenges in medicine.
Life on the Home Planet
It’s Hot, But the Heat Index Means It Feels Even Hotter (Wired)
Are you just dying for this heat wave to end? Do you find yourself reluctant to go outside because the temperature is over 95 degrees Fahrenheit? You might think that’s hot—but it will feel even hotter. Let me be clear: There are two very different definitions of “hot.”
Spiky new ant species is named after Game of Thrones dragons (New Scientist)
This ant may look like a fearsome dragon, but it can be a shy little thing. It is one of two newly described ant species from Papua New Guinea, and has some of the most impressive spikes among the widespread Pheidole genus of ants – found on every continent north of Antarctica.
