Financial Markets and Economy
Asia Stocks Gain on Fed Minutes While Yen Pressures Japan Shares (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks outside Japan rose after Federal Reserve meeting minutes showed officials were divided over the urgency to raise interest rates. Shares in Tokyo slipped as the yen strengthened past 100 per dollar.
Fed policymakers divided over whether to raise rates soon: minutes (Reuters)
Federal Reserve policymakers agree that more economic data is needed before raising interest rates, although some see a need to tighten policy soon, according to the minutes from the U.S. central bank's July 26-27 policy meeting.
GlobalWafers to Buy SunEdison Semiconductor for $683 Million (Bloomberg)
GlobalWafers Co., a Taiwanese supplier to chipmakers, agreed to buy SunEdison Semiconductor Ltd. for $683 million including debt to add new customers and production facilities.
Visa is planning a mobile payments push into Nigeria (BI Intelligence)
Visa plans to launch its mVisa mobile-payment solution in Nigeria before the end of 2016, according to Finextra.
Philippine Economy Grows Faster Than Expected in Second Quarter (Bloomberg)
The Philippine economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter amid healthy investment levels and strong domestic demand.
Amazon sellers are facing stiffer competition (BI Intelligence)
ChannelAdvisor, which helps retailers sell online, reported that its clients' same-store sales growth onAmazon.com was 6.4% YoY during July, a decrease from June’s 11.6%, cites Internet Retailer.
Gannett Sweetens Bid for Chicago Tribune Parent Tronc (The Wall Street Journal)
Gannett Co. has privately sweetened its bid for Tronc Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, hoping to overcome resistance to a sale from the parent of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.
Update: Predicting the Next Recession (Calculated Risk)
CR August 2016 Update: In 2013, I wrote a post "Predicting the Next Recession". I repeated the post in January 2015 (and last summer and early this year) because of all the recession calls. Late last year, the recession callers were out in force – arguing the problems in China, combined with the impact on oil producers of lower oil prices (and defaults by energy companies) – would lead to a global recession and drag the US into recession. I didn't think so – and I was correct.
Emerging markets are popular with investors again (The Economist)
EMERGING markets are back. The stockmarkets of developing countries have flipped in and out of fashion over the past 20 years as investors have switched from naive enthusiasm about their long-term growth prospects to heightened concern about their riskiness. This year they are once again in style, having generated a return of more than 13%.
Exclusive: Saudi signals it may hit new oil output record ahead of freeze talks – sources (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia is sending signals that it could boost its crude oil supplies in August to a new record level, overtaking Russia, the world's top oil producer, as it gets ready for tough talks next month for a global output freeze pact.
MBA: "Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest Weekly Survey" (Calculated Risk)
Mortgage applications decreased 4.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending August 12, 2016.
Here's what Cisco's CEO Chuck Robbins told investors about his decision to cut 5,500 jobs (Business Insider)
That's much smaller than the 14,000 job cuts some reports suggested on Tuesday, but still one of the largest in Cisco's company history.
SolarCity slashing costs, including CEO pay (Reuters)
SolarCity Corp on Wednesday said it would cut operating costs, including slashing its chief executive's salary, to bring expenses in line with its reduced solar installation outlook.
Iron Ore Veteran Foresees a Challenging ‘17 for the Commodity (Bloomberg)
Iron ore strayed well off-script in 2016 as a rally surprised the bears. Michael Zhu, former global sales director at Vale SA, says the commodity will probably face a tough year in 2017 as supply keeps on expanding while China’s steelmakers struggle to sustain output at current levels.
AIA: Architecture Billings Index "moderates slightly, remains positive" in July (Calculated Risk)
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) was positive in July for the sixth consecutive month, and tenth out of the last twelve months as demand across all project types continued to increase.
Ex-Wall Street banker convicted for giving father insider tips (Reuters)
An ex-Wall Street investment banker was convicted on Wednesday of engaging in insider trading by tipping his father off to unannounced healthcare mergers, a victory for prosecutors after an appellate ruling made it harder to pursue such cases harder.
Emerging Assets Rebound as Fed Minutes Temper Rate Increase Bets (Bloomberg)
Emerging-market currencies rebounded and a rally in technology companies lifted stocks as Federal Reserve minutes tempered speculation U.S. interest rates will rise this year.
Politics
House Democrats Call Out Marsha Blackburn For ‘Reckless Disregard’ After Unredacted Memo Goes Public (Think Progress)
In March, the House investigation into Planned Parenthood took a dark turn, subpoenaing a list of names of doctors and researchers involved in fetal tissue research. At the time, Democrats on the committee likened it to a witch hunt.
Here's Another Reason Not To Support Trump's Border Wall (Gizmodo)
There are a number of reasons why Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall on the US-Mexican border is kind of dumb, primarily being that nobody wants to fund such a crazy expensive operation. However, scientists have presented another reason why the border wall plan would be terrible, and it’s not just for the people who may or may not have to pay for it if Trump gets elected.
This U.S. Senator Just Became The First Republican To Un-Endorse Donald Trump (Think Progress)
Just hours after the Democratic Party of Illinois released a statement criticizing Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) for remaining silent about Donald Trump’s racist attack on a federal judge, Kirk took the bold step of un-endorsing his party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Technology
Latest Windows Insider Preview Build Tosses A New Feature On Mobile Devices (Digital Trends)
After finally serving up mainstream Windows 10 Mobile customers with the long-awaited Anniversary Update on Tuesday, Microsoft is now dishing out a new preview build to Windows Insider participants for both desktop and mobile platforms.
World's longest aircraft takes its first flight (Engadget)
Hybrid Air Vehicles hassuccessfully flown the Airlander 10, a long-endurance airplane/airship hybrid billed as the longest aircraft ever at 302ft end to end. It was just a short, minutes-long trip around the countryside in UK's Bedfordshire, but it showed that the massive (if more than a little posterior-like) design is airworthy.
Health and Life Sciences
Invasive Species Known to Be Resistant to Pesticides Spotted Outside in US (Gizmodo)
The whitefly is kind of cute looking as far as invasive pests go, but they’ve recently been expanding their reach and are presenting a new threat to landscapers, gardeners, and farmers in the United States.
Gene editing helps spot evolutionary link between fins and hands (Engadget)
Gene editing technology isn't just useful for curing the world's ills, it seems. University of Chicago scientists have used the CRISPR technique to discover a key evolutionary connection between fins and hands.
Life on the Home Planet
Turkey Was Just Hit With The 7th Major Terrorist Attack In The Last Year (Think Progress)
A car bomb ripped through a central district of Istanbul Tuesday morning, killing seven police officers and four civilians, and wounding 36 more. The attack is the latest in a series of deadly attacks to hit Turkey in the last 12 months, and is the third terrorist bombing to hit Istanbul since January.
California wildfires: Ferocious fires evict thousands (BBC News)
Firefighters are continuing to tackle a huge blaze in southern California, with several of them describing it as the most ferocious they have ever seen.
Volkswagen plans to reveal an EV in September that could trounce Tesla (Mashable Asia)
If you thought the Tesla Model 3's 200-mile-range was impressive, wait until you hear what Volkswagen has in store.
Nearly 300 Stanford Students, Alumni, And Professors Stand With Brock Turner’s Rape Victim (Think Progress)
At the sentencing trial for Brock Turner, convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster at Stanford University, Judge Aaron Persky relied on a handful of public testimonies to inform his final decision.
