Financial Markets and Economy
Gold Extends Advance as Fed Decision Breathes Life Into Demand (Bloomberg)
The precious metal is heading for the biggest weekly advance since July after U.S. central bankers opted to leave interest rates unchanged while reining in their outlook for future increases.
Why China Bears Are Buying Chinese Stocks (The Wall Street Journal)
Foreign investors are loath to own Chinese stocks. Few strategists think the economy is turning a corner. But a message is developing: Buy the stocks anyway.
OPEC Under Pressure to Act in Algiers as Surplus Triples (Bloomberg)
As OPEC prepares to meet in Algiers next week, the oil market is reminding the group’s members what’s at stake if they fail to reach a deal.
China Steadies Economy With Risk-Laden Tactics (The Wall Street Journal)
BEIJING—China’s economy is showing signs of stability, a welcome break for both investors and a leadership that has spent much of 2016 battling economic headwinds. But it is an engineered calm that comes at a cost, say economists.
How The Incredible Shrinking Stock Market Affects Your Fund (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — More companies don't want you, or any other investor, to buy their stock.
Instead of listing their shares on a stock exchange, businesses are going private or never going public in the first place. Security company ADT, for example, pulled its shares off the market this spring after going private in a nearly $7 billion buyout. Uber, meanwhile, makes it simple for customers to hail a car, but investors can't easily buy a piece of the privately held company, which is valued at more than $60 billion.
U.S. states' sluggish revenue dims outlook for financial year 2017 budgets: study (Reuters)
Drooping U.S. state tax revenue in the first half of 2016 could put holes in the states' budgets for fiscal 2017, according to a report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government released on Thursday.
Saudis, Iran Said to Meet Again for Oil Talks, No Agreement Yet (Reuters)
OPEC members Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose rivalry derailed an oil supply accord earlier this year, met in Vienna for a second day of discussions to prepare for wider group talks next week in Algiers.
Energy’s Worst Performing Commodity Sinks Lower Amid Oversupply (Bloomberg)
Uranium prices have gone from bad to worse, slumping to an 11-year low as brimming global inventories weigh on a market that hasn’t recovered from the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Greenspan Says He Would Like to See Dodd-Frank Bank Law Repealed (Bloomberg)
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said sweeping post-crisis reforms of the U.S. financial system haven’t fixed the problem they were designed to tackle and should be scrapped, escalating his long-standing criticism of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
Emerging economies could gain $3.7 trillion from digital finance (Mashable Asia)
A new report just quantified the potential: $3.7 trillion.
Increasing the availability and use of financial technologies in emerging economies could create around $3.7 trillion in growth by 2025, the McKinsey Global Institute said in a report released Wednesday
Johnson Says U.K. Expects to Start Brexit Talks Early 2017 (Bloomberg)
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the U.K. government is leaning toward triggering formal talks on leaving the European Union in the early part of next year.
Why Investors Are Watching Sotheby's and the Art Market (Fortune)
In the fall of 2013, activist hedge-fund manager Dan Loeb announced his campaign to remake Sotheby’s, the venerable auction house. The global art market had been booming, nearly doubling in value over the previous decade, thanks to soaring demand for work by contemporary artists.
REIT Rankings: Shopping Center (Hoya Capital Real Estate, Seeking Alpha)
In our "REIT Rankings" series, we introduce readers to one of the 13 REIT sectors and the individual REITs that comprise these sectors, focusing only on the larger, internally managed REITs with proven track records of performance.
What Businesses Need To Know About The Fourth Industrial Revolution (DELL Technologies Voice, Forbes)
The fourth industrial revolution is here, blurring the lines between the physical and digital spheres, and bringing with it new battles. To remain competitive, businesses must arm themselves with innovation, information and insight.
U.S. Outlines Steps to Resume Beef Exports to China (The Wall Street Journal)
U.S. trade officials on Thursday set out steps necessary for China to resume imports of American beef after a 13-year ban, though they didn’t lay out a timetable for the resumption of trade.
German Politicians Are Getting Nervous About Deutsche Bank (Zero Hedge)
Just a few short days after Germany's premier financial publication Handelsblatt dared to utter the "n"-word, when it said that in the aftermath of last week's striking $14 billion DOJ settlement proposal, "some have even raised the possibility of a government bailout of Germany’s largest bank, which would be a defining event and a symbolic blow to the image of Europe’s largest economy", German lawmakers are finally starting to get nervous.
Companies
:format(webp)/cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50984837/455203068.0.jpg)
Recode previously reported that Yahoo was about to reveal the breach and Yahoo had declined to comment when contacted last night. Now, the company is unveiling a situation much worse than expected, although the Recode report noted that it would be.
Chesapeake Energy: Sell-Off Candidate? (Achilles Research, Seeking Alpha)
Stocks benefited yesterday from the Federal Reserve's decision to hold interest rates steady. Major stock market indices gained ground on Wednesday – again – on the Fed's irritating reluctance to hike interest rates.
Airbnb Raises $555 Million in Funding (Bloomberg)
Airbnb Inc. said it has raised $555.5 million in new funds as the company, which lets people rent out their homes to travelers, expands around the world.
JPMorgan tops investment bank table again, top five all U.S. banks (Reuters)
JPMorgan retained its place at the top of the global investment bank rankings in the first half of this year despite a fall in revenues, while Deutsche Bank's troubles ensured the top five were all U.S. banks, new data on Friday showed.
Uber’s hurting your 401k: You can’t buy valuable company’s shares, and that’s not good for the stock market (Associated Press, Salon)
NEW YORK (AP) — More companies don’t want you, or any other investor, to buy their stock.
Instead of listing their shares on a stock exchange, businesses are going private or never going public in the first place.
Marriott Is Using Its Muscle to Fight Off Expedia and Priceline (Bloomberg)
The bidding war for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. made global headlines as Marriott International Inc. fended off China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co. to become the world’s biggest hotel operator. Now Marriott has to figure out how to use its new edge in another long-simmering battle.
Politics
Donald Trump’s Real Message on Race (NY Times)
The more Donald Trump presses his supposed effort to appeal to black voters, the more bizarre it gets.
Just this week, the Republican nominee for president said the answer to inner-city violence was to revive New York’s stop-and-frisk program, abandoned after federal courts ruled that the results were racist
Erdogan Doesn’t Care at All If Turkey Gets Downgraded to Junk (Bloomberg)
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he is not worried if his country is rated below investment grade as credit rating firms are making wrong decisions because of their political bias.
Trump’s slimy, shameless approach to philanthropy (The Washington Post)
WHERE DID Donald Trump get the harebrained idea that he will get Mexico to pay for a new border wall? Or his boast that he will make Arab states pay for refugee safe zones in Syria? Perhaps from the success he has had sleazily diverting money other people had donated to charity into paying off his business obligations.
Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near-Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump’s Meme Machine (The Daily Beast)
A Silicon Valley titan is putting money behind an unofficial Donald Trump group dedicated to “shitposting” and circulating internet memes maligning Hillary Clinton.
Heinz Ketchup proves that Donald Trump is out of his mind (Think Progress)
Food poisoning will make America great again!
Or, at least, that’s what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to be banking on with a new proposal released on Thursday.
Cruz: I'm voting for Trump (Politico)
Ted Cruz on Friday said he would vote for Donald Trump for president and that he would encourage others to do the same, reversing months of opposition to his bitter primary rival.
Election Day is sooner than you think: the rise of early voting, explained (Vox)
The roughly 55,000 residents of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin — the first to cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump this year, starting September 19 — will be joined by voters in Minnesota, Wyoming, Vermont, and South Dakota by September 23, as early voting periods start across the country.
Trump campaign quarrels over money woes (Politico)
Frustration is growing within Donald Trump’s campaign over the Republican nominee’s yawning money gap with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton — just as the presidential race heads into its final fall stretch.
Technology
Venturi's 'bullet car' smashes electric land-speed record (CNN News)
(CNN)Blink and you'll miss it — the Venturi Buckeye Bullet 3 has beaten the world record for an electric vehicle, at a cool average speed of 341.4 mph, according to the French automobile company.
Uber 'Ghost Drivers' in China Are Scamming and Scaring Customers (Fortune)
Some Uber drivers in China are using zombie-like profile pictures to scare customers into cancelling their rides, thus collecting a small cancellation fee from frightened customers, according Sixth Tone, a online publication that reports on contemporary China.
The FBI recommends you cover your laptop's webcam, for good reason (Engadget)
FBI director James Comey recently recommended that we all cover our webcams with tape for security reasons. Comey believes that doing so is a simple step for people to "take responsibility for their own safety and security."
Guillaume Lample and Devendra Singh Chaplot, two researchers at Carnegie Mellon, recently announced that they had created an artificial intelligence in “Doom” deathmatch capable of killing human players in deathmatch scenarios — a situation of the very sort Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics was intended to prevent.
This Drone Can Fly Without Any Batteries Thanks To Wireless Charging Technology (Digital Trends)
To get drones to fly longer and farther, manufacturers have been building ever bigger batteries. But at least one researcher is working on a drone that requires no battery at all.
New Two-Lensed Camera Shows What It's Like to Ride on the Back of Whale (Gizmodo)
Researchers from Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station have developed a two-lensed camera that sticks to the backs of filter-feeding whales with suction cups. The new device has been used to capture unprecedented footage of whales in action, and it’s offering new insights into the feeding and swimming behaviors of these aquatic beasts.
Health and Biotech
‘Five Second Rule’ for Food on Floor Is Untrue, Study Finds (NY Times)
You may think your floors are so clean you can eat off them, but a new study debunking the so-called five-second rule would suggest otherwise.
What If We're in a Depression But Don't Know It? (Of Two Minds)
Just for the sake of argument, let's ask: what if we're in a Depression but don't know it? How could we possibly be in a Depression and not know it, you ask? Well, there are several ways we could be in a Depression and not know it.
Life on the Home Planet
Earth's atmosphere is slowly leaking oxygen, and scientists aren't sure why (Science Alert)
Don't panic, but researchers have discovered that oxygen is (very) slowly draining out of Earth's atmosphere, and right now, they're not sure why.
‘Botched’ Repair to China’s Great Wall Provokes Outrage (NY Times)
BEIJING — The Great Wall of China. A stirring symbol of national pride whose overlapping sections span thousands of miles. A crumbling, melancholy monument to China’s imperial grandeur, so imposing that it inspired the stubborn myth that it is visible from the moon.
Paramount Takes $115 Million Write-Down for Movie That Isn’t Released Yet (The Wall Street Journal)
“Monster Trucks” won’t hit theaters for four months, but it appears to have already driven Paramount Pictures off course.
SpaceX May Have Solved The Cause Of It's Rocket Explosion (Popular Science)
After a difficult investigation, SpaceX has a lead on the cause of the September 1 explosion of the Falcon 9 rocket.
In 136 Years, Women Will Be Paid as Much as Men. Maybe (Bloomberg)
Women of New York, rejoice. You have the smallest gender pay gap of all 50 states, earning 89 cents for every dollar your male peers make.
America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28 (Bloomberg)
Every study ranking nations by health or living standards invariably offers Scandinavian social democracies a chance to show their quiet dominance. A new analysis published this week—perhaps the most comprehensive ever—is no different.
