Financial Markets and Economy
How Bad Off Is Oil-Rich Venezuela? It’s Buying U.S. Oil (NY Times)
EL FURRIAL, Venezuela — One oil rig was idle for weeks because a single piece of equipment was missing. Another was attacked by armed gangs who made off with all they could carry. Many oil workers say they are paid so little that they barely eat and have to keep watch over one another in case they faint while high up on the rigs.
Get ready for the mother of all stock market corrections once central banks cease their money printing (The Telegraph)
Global stock and bond markets have been all over the place of late. Rarely have investors been so lacking in conviction. Confusion as to future direction reigns, and with good reason after the spectacular returns of recent years.
The Fed Put A 50% Tax On Your Retirement Plan (Forbes)
If a politician said he thought he should tax the income from your retirement plan, right now, at 50% (no matter where you are in the retirement process, that would certainly hurt the ability of your portfolio to compound), what would you think (other than that he was completely Looney Tunes)?
BOE’s Forbes Sees No Case for Additional Easing Yet After Brexit (Bloomberg)
Bank of England policy maker Kristin Forbes said the initial effect of the Brexit vote on the U.K. economy has been “less stormy” than expected and she doesn’t yet see a need for more stimulus.
S&P 500 Futures Signal More Stock Gains After Fed-Spurred Rally (Bloomberg)
U.S. index futures rose, with equities poised to add to a rally yesterday prompted by the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged.
Russian Bonds Rise as Fed Relief Outweighs Hawkish Central Bank (Bloomberg)
Russian bonds advanced, eliminating declines driven by hawkish comments from the country’s central bank last week, as the Federal Reserve’s decision to delay a rate increase spurred appetite for riskier assets.
China’s prudential housing bubble bind (Macro Business)
The spike in August home prices and sales was driven by the introduction of buying restrictions and rumors of buying restrictions.
European stocks are rocketing (Business Insider)
Wall Street chiefs and US business leaders are reportedly asking Britain's prime minister Theresa May for a "long runway" to prepare for Brexit.
In other words, they want her to delay triggering Article 50, and therefore a Brexit, for as long as possible.
Turkey Cuts Overnight Lending Rate Amid Signs Growth Slowing (Bloomberg)
Turkey’s central bank cut its overnight lending rate for a seventh month, maintaining the slower pace of easing adopted days after July’s failed coup attempt.
Draghi Watches as BOJ Yield Curbs May Give ECB Food for Thought (Bloomberg)
As the Bank of Japan pushes monetary policy closer to its limits, Mario Draghi is likely to be watching carefully.
Like his BOJ counterpart Haruhiko Kuroda, the European Central Bank president is finding his extraordinary measures to combat low inflation are hurting banks, draining the bond market and flattening the yield curve — outcomes that threaten to impede or even reverse the impact of his monetary stimulus.
U.S. jobless claims drop to two-month low as labor market firms (Reuters)
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to a two-month low, pointing to labor market strength that could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by December.
Dong Plans Multi-Million Pound U.K. Offshore Wind Hub (Bloomberg)
Plans for the east coast of England to become a hub for the emerging offshore wind industry received a boost Thursday, after Dong Energy A/S said it would invest in a “multi-million pound” facility at the mouth of the river Humber.
EDF Warns on Profit as Nuclear Plant Outages Increase (The Wall Street Journal)
PARIS—State-controlled power utility Electricite de France cut its earnings outlook on expectations of lower nuclear output from an increase of plant outages, sending its share price down.
Nasdaq hits record high after Fed leaves rates unchanged (Reuters)
The Nasdaq hit a record intraday high on Thursday amid broad gains in U.S. stocks, a day after the Federal Reserve stood pat on interest rates.
Stocks Explode Higher After Fed Cuts US Growth Potential To Lowest On Record (Zero Hedge)
So to refresh – deteriorating macro data, depressed long term growth expectations, 3 Fed dissenters, and the response – Buy Everything!
Companies
Amazon Faces Questions Over How It Lists Prices For Non-Prime Customers (Fortune)
Amazon came under fire Monday after ProPublica reported that the e-commerce giant more prominently displays its own products and those of merchants that pay for its shipping services—even if other merchants sell the same products on the site for less.
Wells Fargo has one heck of a scandal on its hands (Business Insider)
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf endured a nearly three-hour questioning from the US Senate banking committee on Tuesday.
Stumpf was constantly taken to task by senators, both Democratic and Republican, for the scandal in which Wells Fargo employees opened roughly 2 million checking and credit accounts without customers' knowledge.
Yahoo set to confirm massive data breach: Recode (Reuters)
Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) will confirm this week a massive data breach of its service, technology news website Recode reported on Thursday, citing several sources close to the situation.
Maersk to Split Into Two Separate Divisions (The Wall Street Journal)
Danish shipping and oil giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S said Thursday it will split its operations into two separate divisions focused on transport and energy as it battles one of the worst ever shipping down-cycles and a historic oil-price rout.
Politics
Samantha Bee Condemns NBC and Jimmy Fallon’s Trump Interview (NY Times)
Monday was in many ways typical for the late-night comedy shows, with network hosts like CBS’s Stephen Colbert and NBC’s Seth Meyers performing pointed satirical monologues about Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and his many years spent propagating lies about President Obama’s birthplace.
Donald Rumsfeld On George H.W. Bush Voting For Hillary Clinton: ‘He’s Up In Years’ (The Huffington Post)
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took a shot at George H.W. Bush’s age on Thursday after being asked in an MSNBC interview whether he was surprised that the 92-year-old former president was supporting Hillary Clinton in November.
Technology
What You Need To Know About The New Federal Rules For Driveless Cars (Popular Science)
Yesterday, the President of the United States did something unusual. In an op-ed published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Barack Obama explicitly made the case for putting people inside of robots and moving them around.
Who Cares about 5G Wireless? You Will (Scientific American)
Mobile gadgets may have changed the way people live and work, but today’s once-groundbreaking ability to stream live video to a smartphone will seem pretty blasé compared with what the next generation of wireless technology promises.
How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds? — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist (Medium)
I’m an expert on how technology hijacks our psychological vulnerabilities. That’s why I spent the last three years as a Design Ethicist at Google caring about how to design things in a way that defends a billion people’s minds from getting hijacked.
Health and Biotech
Brewers have bigger things to worry about besides legalized marijuana (The Motley Fool)
Support for marijuana legalization has grown dramatically over the past decade since California first passed laws permitting its use for medical reasons, but not everyone is on board.
Obamacare Doesn't Cost More Than Other Health Insurance, Report Finds (NBC News)
Obamacare may have come under fire for rising health insurance premiums, but plans offered by employers, which cover far more people, are rising even faster, a new report shows.
Kuwait lawyers fight world’s first mandatory DNA sampling law (New Scientist)
Lawyers in Kuwait have issued a legal challenge to the only law in the world forcing citizens and visitors to give samples of their DNA to the government.
The Kuwait government has said that the law is needed to combat terrorism. DNA testing is reportedly due to begin within weeks.
NASA Is Investigating The Microbes Abroad ISS (Popular Science)
There may soon be a field guide to the microbes of the International Space Station. NASA announced on September 21 that it is seeking research proposals to investigate tiny creatures ferried from Earth on the bodies of the more than 200 astronauts who have visited the space station.
'YOU ASKED FOR IT' — Congress railed on the maker of EpiPen (Business Insider)
Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan — which makes the EpiPen — testified in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the drug's price Wednesday.
Life on the Home Planet
Indigenous Australians most ancient civilisation on Earth, DNA study confirms (The Guardian)
Claims that Indigenous Australians are the most ancient continuous civilisation on Earth have been backed by the first extensive study of their DNA, which dates their origins to more than 50,000 years ago.
What Does the F.B.I. Do to Prevent Terrorist Attacks? (NY Times)
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. is the government agency in charge of investigating terrorism. But the bureau has been criticized for failing to thwart a series of terrorist attacks in recent years in Boston; Orlando, Fla.; Garland, Tex.; and now New York. In each of those cases, the person suspected of carrying out the attack had been investigated previously by the F.B.I.
America’s rivers and streams are overflowing with microplastic pollution (Quartz)
For years, cosmetic, toothpaste, and body care product manufacturers added “microbeads,” microscopic balls of plastic, to their merchandise, touting their skin-exfoliating effects.
Warplanes hit Aleppo in heaviest attack in months, defy U.S. (Reuters)
Warplanes mounted the heaviest air strikes in months against rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo overnight, as Russia and the Syrian government spurned a U.S. plea to halt flights, burying any hope for the revival of a doomed ceasefire.
