Financial Markets and Economy
Currency Traders Ensnared by Volatility See 2016 Losses Deepen (Bloomberg)
Money managers trading in the $5.3-trillion-a-day currency market can’t get a break.
Economist says uploaded brains will take over all jobs within 100 years (Business Insider)
We’ve all heard wild visions of the future. Hearing them from an economist, in a new book from Oxford University Press, makes them seem unusually real.
Stocks Rise and Pound Sinks After BOE Stimulus (Wall Street Journal)
Stocks ticked higher, the British pound fell sharply and gilt yields touched new lows after the Bank of England announced an expansive package of stimulus measures to revive the U.K. economy.
Dutch inflation rate negative for first time in 30 years (Yahoo! Finance)
Inflation in The Netherlands dipped into negative territory in July for the first time in nearly three decades, slipping to -0.30 percent, according to official statistics published on Thursday.
As U.S. crude wobbles near $40, new oil rally in doubt (Reuters)
U.S. crude's slide below $40 a barrel this week has hardened the resolve of oil market bears to drive prices lower, with oversupply, refining cutbacks and a breakdown in the oil/dollar trade spelling an end to this year's rally.
'A perfect storm' is making gold one of the hottest assets on the planet (Business Insider)
"A perfect storm" in markets has left investors scrambling to add gold to their portfolios for protection, according to the World Gold Council.
Euro zone's upswing will continue despite Brexit: ECB's Weidmann (Reuters)
Britain's decision to leave the European Union does not fundamentally change the outlook for the euro zone, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said in an interview published on Thursday.
Italy’s Shaky Bank-Rescue Plan (Wall Street Journal)
The best that can be said for Italy’s latest plan to rescue its third-largest bank is that it might just work.
China's Top Economic Researchers Call for More Monetary Easing (Bloomberg)
Researchers at China’s top economic planner called for further monetary easing this year to help lower business costs and boost investment.
Price-Fixing By The Fed And How It's Hurting The Economy (Forbes)
The recurring focus on whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates raises a question no one thinks to ask: Should the Fed–or any other central bank, for that matter–be in the business of manipulating interest rates in the first place?
Tech dealmakers haven't earned this much money since the dot-com bust (Business Insider)
Good news for tech bankers.
Gold May Not Be the Safe Haven Investors Think It Is (Wall Street Journal)
Investors talk of gold as the ultimate asset for stashing wealth in uncertain times. But two Harvard researchers say they’ve got it wrong.
Professor Robert Barro and PhD student Sanjay Misra argue in new research that gold is not the hedge investors believe it to be.
Toyota cuts full-year operating profit forecast on stronger yen (Reuters)
oyota Motor Corp cut its full-year forecast for operating profit, expecting it to fall 44 percent from a year ago as the Japanese automaker expects to take a bigger hit from a stronger yen.
China July data to show broadly steady growth, further slowing in investment (Reuters)
Skittish global investors may be reassured by fairly steady growth expected in a flurry of Chinese data in coming weeks, but tepid demand, slowing investment and rising debt levels remain pressing concerns for the world's second-largest economy.
Goldman Sachs Joins Chorus Saying BOJ Easing Is Nearing Limits (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is the latest to join a chorus reasoning the Bank of Japan is reaching the limits of its stimulus program, just as nation’s bonds tumbled the most in more than three years.
One of America's biggest gunmakers spent its earnings call bashing Hillary Clinton and said it plans to donate millions to the NRA (Business Insider)
One of America's biggest gunmakers is joining the 2016 political fray.
Adidas’s North America Sales Jump 26% After Outlook Raised (Bloomberg)
Adidas AG reported a 26 percent rise in North American sales, underscoring a comeback that’s seen the athletic-shoe maker reclaim market share in the U.S. from Nike Inc.
What Do Inventories Suggest About 3rd Quarter GDP? Can Drones Cure the “Inventory Crisis”? (Mish Talk)
In the second quarter inventory subtracted 1.2% from GDP. It was supposed to add to GDP.
The web startups looking to cash in on 1 billion African consumers (The Guardian)
It reflects a reality of tough customs and import regimes, complex markets and challenging distribution networks that often leave only the lucky few with the means to travel to Europe, the US, the Gulf or other destinations where they are able to buy – and take home – the consumer goods they need or want.
What Happens When Rampant Asset Inflation Ends? (Of Two Minds)
The collapse of asset inflation will implode all the fiscal and financial promises based on ever-inflating assets.
Dear Job Market, Take This Indicator and Shove It! (DiMartino Booth)
Some songs are just destined to be belted out while speeding down an open highway with the all the windows down, your hair whipping in the wind and the dust flying. Donald Eugene Lytle, aka, Johnny Paycheck, delivered one in spades with his catchy, purposely grammatically incorrect rendition of David Allan Coe’s working man’s anthem. The song, Take this Job and Shove It, which has earned cult status in the Honky Tonk hall of fame proved to be the only number one hit of Paycheck’s career.
The Blind Traders and the Market (New Trader U)
There is an old parable known as “the blind men and the elephant.” In this story, there are four blind men who are asked to determine what an elephant looks like. The first blind man feels the leg of the elephant and says, “The elephant is like a tree because it is large and round like a pillar.” The second man feels the tail and says, “The elephant is like a rope because it is small and coarse.” The third man feels the ear and says, “The elephant is like a fan because it is flat and thin.” The fourth man feels the trunk and says, “The elephant is like a snake because it is long and curves.”
Class 8 Truck Orders Plunge To Lowest Level Since February 2010 (Zero Hedge)
For those investors that have relentlessly defended equity valuations, shunning hard data in favor of the Fed narrative that lower borrowing costs should move discount rates ever closer to 0% and equity valuations therefore ever closer to infinity, might we suggest you turn your heads now because Class 8 truck orders just dropped a huge dose of economic reality that you might want to promptly ignore.
Junk Bond Issuance Collapses in the US and Europe (Wolf Street)
Standard and Poor’s default rate of US high-yield corporate bonds – the more appealing moniker for junk bonds – jumped to 4.5% in July, the worst since August 2010.
A Most Remarkable Market: In Week The S&P Hit Record High, Everyone Sold (Zero Hedge)
This continues to be truly the most remarkable "market."
The Market Is Wrong On Skechers (Seeking Alpha)
The company is a leisure wear producer Skechers. In an otherwise expensive market, such a financially solid and healthy growing company would warrant a considerable higher multiple, as indeed its peers do.
Politics
The Republican Party’s War On Voting Begins To Crumble Into Sand (Think Progress)
The last two weeks were an orgy of good news for voting rights advocates. It began with a federal court decision effectively restoring voting rights to Wisconsin voters disenfranchised by the state’s voter ID law. Then, the full United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit — one of the most conservative federal courts in the nation — struck down a similar law in Texas.
The New York Times reveals the “unfiltered” voices inside Donald Trump’s rallies (Salon)
Three New York Times reporters who have followed the Republican presidential nominee and reported on his campaign for over one year released a short video compilation of the most extreme, and in many cases common, epithets hurled by Donald Trump supporters at his rallies.
How Hillary Plans to Steal the Election (Info Wars)
The potential for massive voter fraud is more prevalent than ever as the elite desperately attempt to keep Donald Trump from reaching the White house.
Technology
Tesla plans to unveil semi-truck and minibus next year (CNN)
Tesla expects to unveil a semi-truck and minibus in the next six to nine months and then enter production in less than five years, Musk said on a conference call with analysts Wednesday.
The Tesla Semi, for cargo transport, and the smaller bus, built on the Model X platform for more efficient commuting, were first teased in Musk's "master plan" shared last month. But no firm timetable was provided then.
New tech lets you watch 3D movies without the funky glasses (Fox News)
Someday, moviegoers may be able to watch 3D films from any seat in a theater without having to wear 3D glasses, thanks to a new kind of movie screen.
Facial Recognition Tech Will Soon End Your Anonymity in Public (Singularity Hub)
Nearly 250 million video surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the world, and chances are you’ve been seen by several of them today. Most people barely notice their presence anymore — on the streets, inside stores, and even within our homes. We accept the fact that we are constantly being recorded because we expect this to have virtually no impact on our lives.
The Brain Behind Google's Artificial Intelligence (Forbes)
Jeff Dean was one of the earliest employees of the company, having joined in 1999 after receiving his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Washington three years earlier. He has been a prominent figure in the company’s growth, having designed and implemented much of the distributed computing infrastructure that supports most of Google’s products.
Health and Life Sciences
Being fat in middle age may shrink your brain’s white matter (New Scientist)
The brains of overweight middle-aged people resemble brains that are a decade older in healthier people.
A study of 473 adults has found that people who are overweight have less white matter, which connects different brain areas and enables signaling between them. The volume of white matter in the brains of overweight people at 50 were similar to that seen in the brains of lean people at 60.
Researchers have built an artificial neuron (Economist)
Since nobody really knows how brains work, those researching them must often resort to analogies. A common one is that a brain is a sort of squishy, imprecise, biological version of a digital computer. But analogies work both ways, and computer scientists have a long history of trying to improve their creations by taking ideas from biology. The trendy and rapidly developing branch of artificial intelligence known as “deep learning”, for instance, takes much of its inspiration from the way biological brains are put together.
Life on the Home Planet
10 maps that reveal how major cities could be underwater by 2100 (Tech Insider)
Future societies may not need driverless cars so much as driverless boats.
By 2100, research suggests that oceans could be up to six feet higher than they currently are. According to a new report from the online real-estate database Zillow, these changes would have enormous (and enormously expensive) consequences for the US housing market, which stands to lose hundreds of billions of dollars worth of property.
Australia Has Climate Change of Heart (Wall Street Journal)
Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has directed the country’s main science body to again focus on climate research, a policy U-turn after his conservative government almost lost power in last month’s national elections, which saw voter backlash in some environmentally sensitive regions.
