Financial Markets and Economy
Oil Trades Near $42 as Investors Seen Covering Bearish Bets (Bloomberg)
Oil headed for the first weekly gain in three as declining U.S. output and easing gasoline stockpiles fueled speculation that supplies at the highest seasonal level in at least two decades will ease.
Oil jumps 2 percent, U.S. crude firmly over $40 on short-covering (Reuters)
Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Thursday, with U.S. crude advancing firmly above the $40-per-barrel mark on short-covering and after a modest stockpile drop at the delivery hub for U.S. crude futures.
For Economy, Aging Population Poses Double Whammy (Wall Street Journal)
Planning to retire in the next few years? Please reconsider: The economy needs you more than you know.
A $500 Billion Stampede in Money Markets Even Before New Rules Hit (Wall Street Journal)
The last big post-Lehman regulatory change is reverberating across the financial system, potentially squeezing short-term lending for businesses and local governments.
Investors Await Moodys Turkey Verdict to Move Billions in Funds (Bloomberg)
The fate of billions of dollars in investments in Turkish bonds hangs in the balance as Moodys Investors Service prepares to reveal whether its handing the country a second junk rating on its debt.
A College Degree Just Might Get You a Side Job (Bloomberg)
A lot of Americans are doing work on the side these days. This isn't apparent in the monthly employment data, which showed only 4.6 percent of workers holding multiple jobs in June, down from more than 6 percent in the mid-1990s. But evidence has been emerging in dribs and drabs from other sources. Here's a new drib, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Board's "Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2015,".
What Brexit will do to Britain, according to the Bank of England (Quartz)
Right now, Brexit is just a theoretical concept. The British public voted to leave the European Union, but negotiations on the terms of the divorce haven’t even started yet. That hasn’t stopped the referendum result from hitting the UK economy like a sledgehammer.
In Tesla’s Earnings Report, GAAP Measures Gain New Prominence (Bloomberg)
When Tesla Motors Inc. reported its latest earnings on Wednesday, there was a notable twist to its financials. It wasn’t just that the company failed to hit analysts’ estimates again but that it emphasized conventional financial measures.
Apple Trying to Break Two-Year Downtrend Channel (Bespoke)
After making a “higher low” when it bottomed at the end of June during the Brexit market sell-off, Apple has rallied roughly 15%. Included in this rally is the 6.5% gain it experienced on July 27th following its Q2 earnings report.
Vanguard’s Gain Is Wall Street’s Pain as Billions Leave the Financial Industry (Bloomberg)
While Washington has long been debating how to reform big Wall Street banks, Vanguard Group is quietly doing just that as the company and its army of index funds remove about $20 billion a year in revenue from the financial industry.
Chevron to sell Asia assets worth up to $5 billion (Reuters)
Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company, is planning to sell certain assets in Asia worth up to $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company is set to start selling its offshore China assets in August, the Journal reported on Thursday.
These 5 Big Companies Control The World’s Beer (Value Walk)
The next time you hit your local pub, the odds are that the pint of beer you order will come from one of five global beer conglomerates.
The number of people who are trying to buy guns keeps breaking records (Business Insider)
One of the biggest measures of gun sales is setting record after record.
How Moving Gasoline Tankers From New York To Florida Fooled Oil-Trading Algos (Zero Hedge)
One month ago, before the commodity trading world's attention turned to the unprecedented glut in gasoline stocks, we wrote "PADD 1 Is A Holy Mess" – Is This What Finally Drags Crude Oil Lower, in which we showed the historic excess of gasoline stocks on the US East Coast, known as the PADD 1 region.
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts – Respect (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Gold and silver were marking time today ahead of the Non-Farm Payrolls Report tomorrow.
Nuclear Power Is Losing Money At An Astonishing Rate (Think Progress)
Half of existing nuclear power plants are no longer profitable. The New York Times and others have tried to blame renewable energy for this, but the admittedly astounding price drops of renewables aren’t the primary cause of the industry’s woes — cheap fracked gas is.
"Mystery" Buyer Revealed: Swiss National Bank's US Stock Holdings Rose 50% In First Half, To Record $62BN (Zero Hedge)
In a month, quarter and year, in which many have scratched their heads trying to answer just who is buying stocks, as both retail and smart money investors have been aggressively selling…
Politics
Sen. Ayotte down 10 in latest New Hampshire poll (Washington Post)
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) is trailing her Democratic rival, Gov. Maggie Hassan, by 10 points in what has been one of the tightest Senate races in the country, according to a new poll from WBUR Radio.
Trump's Worst Enemy (Bloomberg View)
Perhaps Donald Trump will come to America's rescue after all. The past week leaves no doubt, at least, that the biggest threat to Trump's campaign for the presidency is Trump.
For days, quite unbelievably, he's been criticizing the Muslim parents of a U.S. soldier who died a hero's death in Iraq.
If You Think Voter ID Is About Voter Fraud, This Republican Congressman Has News For You (Think Progress)
On Tuesday, Wisconsin held its first presidential election since the state’s new voter ID law took effect. It didn’t go smoothly, with students facing long lines and residents struggling to get the ID cards needed to vote.
The voter ID bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Scott Walker is a solution in search of a problem, as study after study shows voter fraud isn’t a real issue in Wisconsin or elsewhere.
Technology
Toyota's hydrogen-powered car wants to be the alternative to plug-ins, but there's one major drawback (Business Insider)
Right now, if you want an alternative-fuel vehicle, you have to pick from offerings that either require gasoline or an electrical outlet. The gas-electric hybrid and the battery-powered car — your Toyota Priuses, Chevy Volts, and Teslas — are staples in this space.
Health and Life Sciences
Counting genetic mutations predicts how soon you’ll get cancer (New Scientist)
Mutations in a variety of genes can cumulatively push a person closer to developing cancer at a younger age.
We already know that mutations in cancer genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2 increase cancer risk. But now David Thomas at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney and his colleagues have shown for the first time that mutations in genes associated with a lower cancer risk can little by little add up to an even deadlier effect.
Being overweight 'ages people's brains' (BBC)
The brains of overweight people look "10 years older" than those of leaner peers, a study has found.
Brains naturally lose white matter – the part of the brain that transmits information – as people age.
Life on the Home Planet
Israel Proves the Desalination Era Is Here (Scientific American)
Ten miles south of Tel Aviv, I stand on a catwalk over two concrete reservoirs the size of football fields and watch water pour into them from a massive pipe emerging from the sand. The pipe is so large I could walk through it standing upright, were it not full of Mediterranean seawater pumped from an intake a mile offshore.
Climate Change Is Hell on Alaska's Formerly Frozen Highways (Bloomberg)
For seven decades, the Alaska Highway has mesmerized adventure-seeking travelers. In one breathtaking stretch through the Yukon, glacier lakes and rivers snake through aspen forests and rugged mountains that climb into the clouds.
In recent years, though, a new sight has been drawing motorists’ attention, too, one they can spot just a few feet from their cars’ tires.
Chinese hackers are attacking organizations involved in the South China Sea dispute (Business Insider)
There's a new front in the South China Sea dispute: Cyberspace.
For decades, China and its neighbors have been arguing over the proper ownership of contested areas of the Sea, with tensions particularly high after the Hague's international tribunal ruled against China in favor of Philippines in July 2016. China later disregarded the ruling, branding it "ill-founded."
