Financial Markets and Economy
Shorts Throw In The Towel: S&P Short Interest Tumbles To Three Year Lows (Zero Hedge)
Earlier today, we showed Barclays' calculation how, in a market in which there have been a gargantuan $128 billion in stock outflows YTD, the stock market has seen an unprecedented surge higher.
BHP Billiton Reports a $6.4 Billion Record Loss—But There's Good News (Reuters)
BHP Billiton BHPLF 0.00% reported a record $6.4 billion annual loss on Tuesday, hammered by a bad bet on shale, a dam disaster in Brazil, and a commodities slump, but said it expects its cash flow to more than double this year.
What China's U.S. Buying Spree Means For The Future Of Hospitality (Forbes)
This year’s pace comes on top of the all-time high, record-breaking $15 billion they plowed into the U.S. in 2015, which was a 30% increase over the previous year.
SEC Halts Trade in Mysterious $35 Billion OTC Stock (Reuters)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday temporarily halted trade in Neuromama, whose shares have quadrupled to about $56 in over the counter trading this year, citing concerns including “potentially manipulative” transactions.
Bank Jumps 44% in Shanghai Debut Even After China Debt Warnings (Bloomberg)
The shares of a Chinese bank surged by 44 percent in their Shanghai debut on Tuesday even after a spate of warnings that the nation’s bad loans are understated and lenders may need bailouts in coming years.
4 surprising reasons why you shouldn't buy bonds (Mauldin Economics)
I try to be a long-term thinker and filter out all the short-term noise. That’s hard nowadays, because there is so much short-term noise!
Banks across Europe are considering taking a drastic step to avoid negative rates (Business Insider)
Banks across Europe are considering the possibility of physically storing cash in vaults as a means of avoiding the charges incurred for leaving money with the European Central Bank thanks to negative interest rates,according to a report from the Financial Times.
UK inflation hits 0.6% after Brexit vote (Financial Times)
Inflation hit 0.6 per cent in the first month after the UK voted to leave the EU, reaching its highest level since November 2014.
Germany and Saudi Arabia are facing the same lurking disaster (Mauldin Economics)
Germany’s largest bank said it is deeply concerned about stagnation in the United States. Separately, Saudi Arabia’s central bank gave $4 billion to the country’s banks to help them deal with liquidity issues.
Japan Is Said to Be Negotiating with Banks to Borrow At a Zero Rate (Reuters)
Japan’s Ministry of Finance is negotiating with the country’s major banks to lend to the government at a zero interest rate in auctions beginning in October or November, a government official familiar with the procedure said on Monday.
What P&G's Digital Ad Shift Says About Facebook and Twitter (Fool.com)
Sheryl Sandberg comes prepared for every Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) earnings call with examples of advertisers using the social network's ad tools to drive sales. The COO's examples range from small family-owned business to big brands such as Mondelez, which used Facebook's targeting tools last quarter to sell its snacks.
4 Assumptions About Risk You Shouldn’t Be Making (Harvard Business Review)
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” The line is instantly recognizable as the conclusion of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. And, the misunderstood poem helps to highlight how innovation-seeking executives need to reframe the word risk.
Donald Trump made $39 million running failed casino company (CNN Money)
In 1995, Donald Trump's first and only initial public offering raised $140 million from public investors under the ticker symbol DJT. A decade later, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, filed for bankruptcy.
4 Reasons Barnes & Noble Isn't Dead Yet (The Street)
Any company that has seen sales decline every year since 2012 and has companies like the formidable Amazon (AMZN) as competition would have any investor running in the opposite direction.
Opec won't agree to an output freeze – here's why (Trading Floor)
The verbal intervention in the oil market which initially came from weaker Opec members got a strong boost when Saudi Arabia's energy minister joined in last Thursday. While weaker members desperately need higher prices, Saudi Arabia's agenda was more likely to try to stabilise the market after having seen oil prices revert to a bear market in the weeks following the Brexit vote on June 23.
BHP Horror Show: Mining giant posts record $6.4 billion loss, crushes dividend (Business Insider Australia)
BHP Billiton posted a loss of $6.385 billion (8.28 billion Australian dollars) for the full year to June, its biggest in history, and cut dividends as weaker global commodity prices cut the flow of cash to the world's biggest miner.
Xiaomi China Phone Shipments Fall 38% as Huawei Takes Lead (Bloomberg)
Xiaomi Corp., the once-hot Chinese smartphone maker, saw shipments tumble 38 percent in China in the second quarter as Huawei Technologies Co. took over the top spot in the world’s largest market, according to research from International Data Corp.
Barrack Says U.S. Real Estate Market Is Getting ‘Bubblicious’ (Bloomberg)
When U.S. retail sales came in lower than expected last week, some began to worry that the average consumer wasn't as strong financially as previously believed, but according to analysts at Macquarie Capital Markets Ltd., this is just a blip on the radar.
German ZEW Investor Confidence Recovers as Brexit Shock Settles (Bloomberg)
German investor confidence rebounded in August after the initial shock of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
How to Turn $25K into $35B (sort of) (The Aleph Blog)
Would you like a 100 million-plus percent return on your money in a little more than four years? You would? Well, it can be done, but there are a couple of catches at the end that may prevent the enjoyment of the unearned riches.
Here’s Why Wages Have Stagnated–and Will Continue to Stagnate (The Wall Street Examiner)
Mainstream economists are mystified why wages/salaries are still stagnant after 7+ years of growth / “recovery.” The conventional view is that wages should be rising as the labor market tightens (i.e. the unemployment rate is low) and demand for workers increases in an expanding economy.
All Quiet On The Gold Front (The Wall Street Examiner)
Indicators and cycle conditions were little changed last week. Here’s what it means for the uptrend for the rest of this year and beyond.
Buffett buys more Apple as Soros sells (Wealth Manager)
According to regulatory filings Buffett increased his stake in the iPhone maker by 55% in the second quarter from 9.81 million shares to 15.23 million shares through his Berkshire Hathaway investment house. The stake in worth $1.5 billion.
China’s Economy Gives the Central Bank Cause to Pause, Economists Say (The Wall Street Journal)
China’s central bank may press the hold button for a longer period of time as it sorts out conflicting signals from the economy.
How Many of Our Vehicles Could Be Electric? How Does 87% Strike You? (Bloomberg)
With all the limits on electric vehicles—battery life, cost, the availability of charging stations—you might expect that at most 50 percent of the vehicles on U.S. roads could be replaced by more-sustainable cars.
Politics
The State of the Clinton-Trump Race: Is It Over? (NY Times)
It has been three weeks since Democrats gathered for their convention, andHillary Clinton still holds a large and consistent lead in national and battleground state polls.
Donald Trump becomes the worst possible thing: Forgettable (The Washington Post)
The other night, I went to a dinner party. The guests were all friends of mine — a scattering of writers and some business people — and we talked about the ouster of Roger Ailes amid a sexual harassment scandal and wondered why he was awarded a multimillion-dollar settlement …
Technology
Beyond AI: Human + Machine Collaboration For The Advancement Of Humankind (IBM Voice)
It seems like almost every day a new headline warns us that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon take over the world, or at the very least steal jobs. Even when AI is not in the news, Hollywood offers up a steady stream of entertainment that depicts a very near future in which life as we know it is threatened by super-intelligent machines.
Hyperloop Technology to Be Studied as Shipping Tool (The Wall Street Journal)
Hyperloop One Inc., one of two companies racing to build the futuristic speed-of-sound transportation technology, announced a new partnership with the one of the world’s largest port-terminal operators, DP World.
Health and Life Sciences
Scientists May Have Implanted An Artificial Vision Into The Brain Of A Mouse (IFL Science)
Researchers from Columba University believe they may have found a way of fooling the mind’s eye into seeing things that aren’t real, after manipulating the wiring of a mouse’s brain. By reconfiguring the neuronal connections in the visual cortex, the team not only achieved the remarkable feat of implanting a non-existent image into the animal’s consciousness, but also highlighted the extent of the brain’s plasticity.
Scientists find the brain's generosity center (Science Daily)
Scientists have identified part of our brain that helps us learn to be good to other people. People who rated themselves as having higher levels of empathy learned to benefit others faster than those who reported having lower levels of empathy. They also showed increased signalling in their subgenual anterior cingulate cortex when benefiting others.
Virtual reality is allows scientists to walk into a cancer cell on a human scale (Mashable Asia)
Calling his project the "stuff of science fiction," director of the 3D Visualisation Aesthetics Lab at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) John McGhee is letting people come face-to-face with a breast cancer cell.
Are Earth Humans The 'Aliens' Early To The Universe's Life Party? (Forbes)
A few months ago there was a theory proposed in the astronomy community that surmised that we humans might be too late for alien life. The theory pretty much stated that alien life is already extinct and we are all that was left of life in the universe.
The Right Way To Do Drugs (The Economist)
IT IS like a hash-induced hallucination: row upon row of lush, budding plants, tended by white-coated technicians who are bothered by the authorities only when it is time to pay their taxes.
Life on the Home Planet
In the U.S., VW Owners Get Cash. In Europe, They Get Plastic Tubes. (NY Times)
Volkswagen owners in the United States will receive about $20,000 per car as compensation for the company’s diesel deception. Volkswagen owners in Europe at most get a software update and a short length of plastic tubing.
Hackers Have Allegedly Stolen NSA-Linked 'Cyber Weapons' and Are Auctioning Them Off (Fortune)
Hackers claim to have stolen attack code from a team of sophisticated cyber spies known as “the Equation Group,” widely believed to be associated with the U.S. National Security Agency, one of the world’s top intelligence outfits. The hackers have offered to sell their purloined exploits to the highest bidder in an online auction conducted in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Harry Potter play tickets on sale for $6,000+…but don't guarantee entry (CNN Money)
Harry Potter fans are forking out thousands of pounds to see J.K. Rowling's new sold-out play — 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' — at the Grand Palace Theater in London.
Want a BMW? No disposable income? No problem – have a loan anyway (The Sydney Morning Herald)
BMW has been so desperate to get people behind the wheel of its luxury cars that its finance company gave loans to people with zero or even negative disposable incomes and accepted false loan documents while paying big bonuses to its most reckless salesmen.
Is Terrorism Getting Worse? In the West, Yes. In the World, No. (NY Times)
If it feels as if terrorism deaths are rising in the West, it’s because they are. Yet the numbers remain relatively small, and globally, deaths from terrorism appear to be declining, not rising.
Payroll Employment Growth: Strong Enough? (Ritholtz)
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ estimate of nonfarm payroll employment is the most closely watched indicator of overall employment growth in the U.S. economy. By this measure, employment increased by 255,000 in July, well above the 12-month average of 190,000. Yet despite this outsized gain, the unemployment rate barely budged. What gives?
5 absurd right-wing moments this week: Katrina Pierson displays most stunning ignorance yet (Alternet)
Sure, sure, sure, Donald Trump had his worst and most heinous week ever. (If we had a dollar for every time we’ve said that!) The man floated the idea of assassinating Hillary Clinton; insisted repeatedly that President Obama founded ISIS, then chided everyone for taking him seriously; suggested illegally trying U.S. citizens at Gitmo; and railed about a rigged election that has not occurred. More conservatives and dozens of national security officials fled the Republican nominee, as did voters. Just another week in the Trumpoverse.
