Financial Markets and Economy
Global stocks hit highest in a year but banks take shine off Europe (Reuters)
Global stocks hit their highest in almost a year on Monday as investors pared back expectations of when U.S. interest rates would rise, although a fall in bank shares after stress tests took the shine off European shares.
Fed’s Kaplan Says September ‘On the Table’ If Data Support (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan said a rate increase at the next policy meeting in September is still possible even after a report last week showed second-quarter growth was weaker than expected.
Investors Like Election Years, No Matter Who Wins (Bloomberg View)
Whether you favor the Democrat or the Republican, you have to like the stock market when the U.S. elects its president.
The Fragile U.S. Economy Now Facing a Slowdown in Building Boom (Bloomberg)
At a quarry in Bridgeport, Texas, where rock is crushed, sorted and cleaned, it’s hard to tell that the nation’s construction boom may be hitting a wall. Workers maneuver front-end loaders to fill a long line of rail cars and trucks with up to 25 tons of washed stone each. The destination: one of many construction projects that dot the Dallas-Fort Worth area 70 miles away.
Robots Are Actually Helping People To Buy More Stuff (Bloomberg)
It's not just about the labor that robots can save; it's also how much they can create.
China's July official manufacturing activity 49.9, down from 50 in June (Reuters)
Activity in China's manufacturing sector unexpectedly shrank slightly in July from the previous month, an official survey showed on Monday.
‘Sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids’ (Market Watch)
The dog days of summer enter the August phase on Monday, but don’t expect much lethargy over the next few sessions as heavy doses of corporate data and earnings color trade. Investors are certainly looking for something to light a fire under this market, considering the S&P 500 over the past 11 days has been stuck in the narrowest range in 45 years.
Fed's Dudley urges caution on rate hikes, cites risks to U.S. (Reuters)
The Federal Reserve should be cautious on interest rate increases due to lingering risks to the U.S. economy, one of its most influential policymakers said on Monday, appearing to signal the chance of a hike by the end of the year was fading.
Investors Aren't Rewarding Share Buybacks Like They Used to (Bloomberg)
A big component of the run-up in the stock market might be slowing down.
Oil dips as global supplies rise, fresh concerns over Asian economies (Reuters)
Aug 1 Oil prices started August trading with fresh falls on Monday after several bearish reports, including rising output from OPEC, a rise in U.S. drilling and weak economic data from Asia.
Tesla has to overcome a major problem for its massive new Gigafactory to succeed (Business Insider)
Tesla held a grand opening for its $5 billion Gigafactory in Nevada last week.
This massive facility, which will have the largest footprint of any building in the world when complete, is critical to achieving CEO Elon Musk's lofty goal of building 500,000 vehicles annually by 2018.
Billionaire investor Howard Marks just dissed hedge fund 'geniuses' (Business Insider)
Howard Marks, cofounder of Oaktree Capital Management, just splashed some cold water on the hedge fund industry.
Bearish Pound Positions at Record High Before BOE Rate Decision (Bloomberg)
Hedge funds and other large speculators are the most bearish on the pound in at least 25 years amid speculation the Bank of England will cut interest rates for the first time in more than seven years this week.
Three Questions to Ask About Your Trading Psychology (Trader Feed)
A little while ago, I wrote on the topic of three questions to ask about any market. That post became far and away the most popular post in TraderFeed's 10+ years online. That was followed by a post on three questions to ask about your trading. All too often, we turn to psychology for answers when the stark reality is that our distress and frustration are caused by poor trading practices.
Politics
Now, Get Ready for an Unpredictable General Election (Bloomberg View)
The U.S. general election officially begins on Labor Day, but the dynamics for this volatile race will be established in August. Or: With a polarized electorate, many of the parameters of the contest are already baked into the cake, so little will change over the next five weeks.
Trump Fires Back at Khizr Khan, Citing His 'Sacrifices' (The Atlantic)
On Thursday, Khizr Khan, the father of slain U.S. Army solider Humayun Khan, delivered the most memorable moment of either party convention. Speaking at the DNC, Khan said, “Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son ‘the best of America.’ If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America.” Khan continued asked whether Trump had ever read the Constitution and said, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
The Democratic National Convention was great for Hillary Clinton (Business Insider)
Political pundits often talk about the "convention bump" that Presidential hopefuls get when they officially accept their party's nomination. Bookmakers think Hilary Clinton had a great one if her new odds are anything to go by.
Technology
Man-machine interaction—comprehensive assessment of user states (Phys)
Machines are taking over more and more tasks. Ideally, they should also be capable to support the human in case of poor performance. To intervene appropriately, the machine should understand what is going on with the human. Fraunhofer scientists have developed a diagnostic tool that recognizes user states in real time and communicates them to the machine.
Health and Life Sciences
Dealing with vaccine hesitancy and refusal (Science-Based Medicine)
As long as there have been vaccinations, there has been an antivaccine movement, and as long as there has been an antivaccine movement, there have been parents who refuse to vaccinate. In a past that encompasses the childhood of my parents, polio was paralyzing and killing children in large numbers in yearly epidemics, the fear of which led to the closure of public pools every summer. In such an environment, the new polio vaccine introduced by Jonas Salk in the mid-1950s wasn’t a hard sell.
Dissecting brains for medical research (BBC)
What is a brain bank and why do we need them in the age of high-tech scanners?
Dr Laura Palmer, manager of the Bristol Brain Bank, explains how to donate and why researchers still need real tissue to understand neurological conditions from Alzheimers' and autism to multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia.
Yet Another Warning On Fluoroquinolone Antibiotic Side Effects (Forbes)
I’ve been following fluoroquinolone antibiotics ever since I was a graduate student in the 1980s. We were working on a class of enzymes shared by bacteria and higher organisms called topoisomerases. One of the bacterial forms of this enzyme is the target of quinolone and fluoroquinolone antibiotics.
Life on the Home Planet
California’s wildfires blaze on as communities evacuate (New Scientist)
Firefighting teams are battling a massive wildfire near California’s Big Sur that is threatening thousands of homes for a 10th day, as a much newer blaze spread, rapidly, damaging homes as it more than doubled in size.
Boot-Camp Prisons Find Their Time Running Out (Wall Street Journal)
At 5:30 on a misty morning in the Adirondacks, 180 prisoners leapt out of bed when a bugle call blasted over a loudspeaker.
Fifteen minutes later, they were performing synchronized exercises while a drill instructor barked orders.
