Financial Markets and Economy
Rupee closes at four-month high against dollar (Live Mint)
Mumbai: The rupee on Tuesday closed at a four-month high against the US dollar after local equity markets gained over 440 points. Gains were also boosted due to lower-than-expected US payroll data which reduced fears of a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve among the investors.
Lagarde Urges Action to Deliver on G20’s Hangzhou Commitments (International Monetary Fund)
Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement at the conclusion of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Hangzhou, China:
"I would like to warmly congratulate President Xi and the Chinese authorities on their leadership of the G20 this year and their excellent organization of the Leaders Summit meeting in the beautiful city of Hangzhou…"
ECB Faces Bond-Buying Shuffle With QE Extension on the Cards (Bloomberg)
The European Central Bank might need to change the rules of the game if it wants to keep playing in the bond market.
How Much Do We Really Know About Global Trade’s Impacts? (NY Times)
Donald Trump’s campaign has at times resembled a whistle-stop tour of broken-down manufacturing towns. Places like Monessen, Pa., and Hickory, N.C., have come to be seen as central to his rise — and that of Bernie Sanders, before he bowed out …
Economics takes precedence in Japan’s crude buying strategy: Fuel for Thought (S&P Global Platts)
Skimming along the surface of Japan’s crude import numbers gives an impression that the pendulum has swung back in favor of Middle Eastern crudes.
China's Export Machine Is Grabbing More of the Global Market (Bloomberg)
China is eating up a larger chunk of the world’s shrinking trade pie.
Brushing off rising wages, a shrinking workforce and intensifying competition from lower cost nations from Vietnam to Mexico, China’s global export share climbed to 14.6 percent last year from 12.9 percent a year earlier.
A once high-flying startup needs to get back to basics (The Economist)
IF YOU can sell smartphones, you can sell anything. That seems to be the motto of Xiaomi, a Chinese firm best known for making feature-laden but affordable handsets.
Switzerland’s Economy Grows at Fastest Pace Since 2014 (Bloomberg)
Swiss economic momentum accelerated in the second quarter, exceeding that of the euro area and hitting its fastest pace since 2014.
UK retail sales deteriorated in August, says British Retail Consortium (Financial Times)
UK retail sales deteriorated unexpectedly in August, clocking the weakest performance in two years, according to a monthly report…
Tourist Influx Brings No Joy to Singapore Hotels Amid Room Glut (Bloomberg)
Revenue per available room, a metric used by the hotel industry, slumped 7.4 percent in June to S$179.40 ($132) a night, the lowest since 2010, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board. Even as tourist arrivals have risen each month this year, room rates have fallen because of shorter trips by visitors and a 5 percent increase in the number of hotel rooms.
Eurozone GDP growth confirmed at 0.3% in Q2 (Financial Times)
Eurozone GDP growth slowed between April and June as major economies such as France and Italy stalled, official data have confirmed.
Economists Are Losing Faith Draghi Will Boost Inflation: Chart (Bloomberg)
Mario Draghi has promised the European Central Bank will return euro-area inflation — currently 0.2 percent — to its target of just under 2 percent.
German Factory Orders Undershoot Forecast as Momentum Cools (Bloomberg)
German factory orders increased less than forecast in July as domestic weakness damped a surge in investment-goods demand from the euro area.
Robot Macroeconomics: What can theory and several centuries of economic history teach us? (Bank Underground)
Advances in machine learning and mobile robotics mean that robots could do your job better than you. That’s led to some radical predictions of mass unemployment, much more leisure or a work free future. But labour saving innovations and the debates around them aren’t really anything new.
When Unemployment Falls, Thousands of Americans Die (Bloomberg)
Who says recessions are all bad? About 5,000 fewer people die every year in auto accidents for each 1 percentage point increase in U.S. unemployment because downturns keep dangerous drivers off the road.
No 'bazooka' BOJ easing at Sept meeting: ex-BOJ Momma (Reuters)
The Bank of Japan is likely to refrain from expanding government bond purchases or deepening negative interest rates this month as economic conditions have improved since it eased at its previous meeting in July, a former senior central bank executive said on Tuesday.
Analysis: After brief resurgence, China's oil demand falters yet again (S&P Global Platts)
China's oil demand fell to 11-month lows in July on the back of erratic weather and feeble industrial growth, crushing hopes of a recovery in consumption which the market had expected after the country in June pulled itself out of the red for the first time in many months.
U.S. Economic Confidence Up in August as DNC Rally Persists (Gallup)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Gallup U.S. Economic Confidence Index rose to a five-month high of -11 in August, up from -15 in July. This month's four-point gain notwithstanding, the index remains well below its post-recession high of +3 in January 2015 and is one point below this March's -10, the monthly high for 2016.
WSJ: Musk Faces 'Financial Crunches' At Tesla, SolarCity (Bezinga)
Elon Musk, CEO and founder of Tesla Motors Inc TSLA 2.55% and Chairman of SolarCity Corp SCTY 0.22%, is facing "financial crunches" at both entities.
Oil Industry’s Woes Overflow Into List of Weakest Debtors: Chart (Bloomberg)
Energy companies are crowding into the not-so-exclusive club of “weakest links,” or debt issuers in danger of default. The list compiled by S&P Global Ratings as of August has the most members since the months following the financial crisis.
Construction worker shortage weighs on hot U.S. housing market (Reuters)
The drumbeat of hammers echoes most mornings through suburban Denver, where Jay Small, the owner of company that frames houses, is building about 1,300 new homes this year.
One devastating picture of a Wall Street trading floor says it all (Business Insider)
We've written plenty over the last few days about the brutal conditions on Wall Street.
More than 10,000 front-office jobs have been cut across the top 10 banks since 2011, and that number could swell, as 2016 revenues have disappointed. There are rumors flying around about fresh cuts in the next couple of months.
Welcome to Tax Haven, U.S.A.: Apple, Ireland and the American corporate tax giveaway (Salon)
It’s hard to come up with a better example of just how topsy-turvy the global corporate tax situation is than Ireland’s effort to prevent Apple Inc. from paying it more than $14 billion in back taxes.
Year of Rotation (Bespoke)
Late last week, we sent paid clients our popular “decile analysis” of third quarter market performance through August. Our decile analysis identifies stock characteristics that are driving performance over any given period.
Oil Indicator Just Hit The Lowest Level Ever Recorded (Value Walk)
VLCC Fixtures – This Oil Indicator Just Hit The Lowest Level Ever Recorded by Dave Forest,
The oil market is still in a state of uncertainty — with a lot of major indicators (including crude prices) in rapid flux.
Politics
The middle class needs a raise. Here’s how Hillary Clinton plans to do it. (HilaryClinton.com)
If your paycheck doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, you’re not alone. For the first time in more than four decades, the middle class is no longer the majority in America—and in terms of wealth, working families are falling further and further behind top earners.
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Giving housing to the homeless is three times cheaper than leaving them on the streets (Vox)
The final week of January saw an annual ritual in government statistical gathering that few people know about — the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Point-in-Time survey of the homeless population, in which HUD recruits volunteers around the country to go out and try to count up all the homeless people living in America.
America's New Nuclear-Armed Missile Could Cost $85 Billion (Bloomberg)
The U.S. Air Force’s program to develop and field a new intercontinental ballistic missile to replace the aging Minuteman III in the nuclear arsenal is now projected to cost at least $85 billion, about 36 percent more than a preliminary estimate by the service.
Technology
Google hits back at claims of sub-par Chrome battery life (Engadget)
Google isn't buying Microsoft's claims that Chrome's battery life is terrible. The search pioneer has posted a video showing the battery life improvements between last year's Chrome 46 and the just-launched Chrome 53, and it's clear that Google is taking a dig at Microsoft testing that favored Edge.
Make Apple Great Again? Wait Until Next Year (Bloomberg)
Apple on Wednesday will host its annual media circus in the form of the new iPhone model unveiling. But this year's edition is more of a gentle evolution than a significant remodeling of Apple's most important product.
Quantum Computers Are Coming. The World Might Not Be Ready. (Bloomberg)
Quantum mechanics, Carl Sagan once observed, is so strange that "common sense is almost useless in approaching it." Scientists still don't understand exactly why matter behaves as it does at the quantum level. Yet they're getting better at exploiting its peculiar dynamics — in ways that may soon upend the technology business.
Health and Life Sciences
NASA's Impossible Space Engine, The EMdrive, Passes Peer Review (But That Doesn't Mean It Works) (Forbes)
“For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.” So goes Newton’s third law, and despite the developments of relativity and quantum mechanics, that fundamental law of the Universe — otherwise known as the conservation of momentum — has never been challenged.
Four Infographics That Show How Climate Change Is Affecting Your Health (Think Progress)
The dog days of summer were particularly dogged this year. July clocked in as the hottest month on record, marking the midpoint of what is likely to be the hottest year on record.
EU Announces That All Scientific Articles Should Be Freely Accessible by 2020 (Futurism)
This week was a revolutionary week in the sciences—not because we discovered a new fundamental particle or had a new breakthrough in quantum computing—but because some of the most prominent world leaders announced an initiative which asserts that European scientific papers should be made freely available to all by 2020.
3 Big Trends Shaking Up the Energy Industry (Singularity Hub)
We are at the cusp of an energy revolution.
This post is a look at how three technologies — solar, batteries, and electric vehicles (EVs) — are poised to disrupt a $6 trillion energy industry over the next two decades.
Global health outcomes and determinants (Our World in Data)
Health is a fundamental aspect of quality of life, not only because being free from illness or injury directly affects our capacity to enjoy life, but also because health indirectly affects our capacity to produce and consume other valuable goods and services.
CRISPR Targets Cancer in First Human Trial — What You Need to Know (Singularity Hub)
It’s happening: as early as later this year, the gene-editing power tool CRISPR could be used in its first ever human trial.
On Tuesday June 21, an advisory panel from the National Institute of Health (NIH) green lighted a proposal to use the game changing technique to tackle three different kinds of cancer.
Life on the Home Planet
Our Impoverished, Pathological Society (Of Two Minds)
If asked what's intrinsic to human happiness, most people in consumer societies will offer up answers such as money, status, a nice house, etc. But as Sebastian Junger observes in his book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, what's actually intrinsic to human happiness is: meaningful relationships within a community (i.e. a tribe); opportunities to contribute to the group and to be appreciated; being competent at useful tasks and opportunities for authentic experiences.
Jersey Shore Shopkeepers Are Hit by a Storm That Never Arrived (NY Times)
WILDWOOD, N.J. — At the Dolphin Gift Shop on the boardwalk, sales of T-shirts, beach balls, hats and sunglasses plunged over Labor Day weekend as customers fled from a storm that never arrived.
Most Japanese want to be married, but are finding it hard (The Economist)
Most Japanese want to be married, but are finding it hard.
John Oliver’s updated arbitrary holiday rules (Holy Kaw)
When you think about it, why should you stop wearing white after Labor Day? It’s an arbitrary fashion rule that seems out of date, so John Oliver presents a new set of random holiday rules for you to stress over and use to shame family and friends.
The time Triumph the Insult Comic Dog harassed David Blaine (Holy Kaw)
Remember Triumph the Insult Comic Dog? He the one who ends all of his setups with “for me to poop on!” But that’s not his only bit. In this old clip, he exposes David Blaine.
Starbucks rolls out New York bagel balls at more than 7,000 locations (CNBC)
The husband and wife team of Nick and Elyse Oleksak have a lot to celebrate. Starting Tuesday, their New York City bakery is bringing cream cheese-stuffed bagel balls to Starbucks' more than 7,000 U.S. locations.
The definitive ranking of the 30 best universities in the world (Business Insider)
Picking the right university is one of the first big decisions of adulthood.
To help, QS has ranked universities since 2013 using a methodology that evaluates academic reputation, employer reputation, student-to-faculty ratio, as well as international reputation.
