Financial Markets and Economy
Alaska Oil Reserves May Have Grown 80% on Giant Discovery (Bloomberg)
Alaska’s oil reserves may have just gotten 80 percent bigger after Dallas-based Caelus Energy LLC announced the discovery of 6 billion barrels under Arctic waters.
Deutsche Bank Strategist Says the Gold Crash Is Just Getting Started (Bloomberg)
With global interest rates hovering at record lows, investors have piled into the precious metal. Meanwhile, political uncertainty from Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the looming U.S. presidential election also fanned demand, sending prices to almost $1,400 per ounce over the summer.
Big Picture: It's Higher Stocks, Higher Dollar (Forbes)
As you might recall, since I’ve written this daily note starting in January, I’ve focused on a few core themes.
First, central banks are in control. They’ve committed trillions of dollars to manufacture a recovery. They’ve fired arguably every bullet possible (“whatever it takes”). And for everyone’s sake, they can’t afford to see the recovery derail–nor will they.
Euro zone business growth at 21-month low in September (Reuters)
Euro zone business growth fell last month to its weakest since the beginning of 2015, according to surveys providing the latest evidence the bloc's economy is losing momentum.
Kuroda Fails to Convince Investors Policy Means What He Says (Bloomberg)
Haruhiko Kuroda’s contention that the smallest bond purchases in two years is not a tapering of stimulus has failed to convince some analysts and investors.
Some Big U.S. Cities See Apartment Rents Fall for First Time in Years (The Wall Street Journal)
Apartment rents declined in some of the country’s priciest cities during the third quarter, a dramatic reversal that could signal the end of a six-year boom for the U.S. rental market.
Rents in San Francisco declined 3%, while they fell about 1% in New York and edged lower in Houston and San Jose, Calif., the first drops in those markets since 2010, according to apartment tracker MPF Research.
How falling oil can sully bonds outside of the energy sector (Market Watch)
When oil prices were more than halved from July 2014 to December 2015, the payout demanded by investors on increasingly riskier energy-company bonds shot higher. No surprise there.
Chart of the Day: Golden Era of Low and Stable Growth (Pragmatic Capitalism)
One of the dominant themes in economics these days is that low growth means we are worse off. Some people call this “secular stagnation” or something similar. I’ve challenged this view and say this doesn’t account for how stable our economy has become. In other words, it doesn’t adjust for the risks we face.
BlackRock Cuts ETF Prices Anticipating Greater Passive Shift (Bloomberg)
BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds, is cutting prices across its core ETFs in anticipation of a new U.S. rule that may prompt more investors to pour into passive funds.
SEC Investigates Founder's Role in LendingClub Buyback Plan (Bloomberg)
Wall Street’s top cop is scrutinizing whether the founder of LendingClub Corp. advocated for the company to prop up its shares without telling the board about a possible conflict of interest, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Marc Andreessen on what everybody gets wrong about the US economy (Business Insider)
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen gave a long interview to Vox about artificial intelligence on Wednesday, but the most interesting part was actually about something completely different: the bifurcated US economy.
ADP: Private Employment increased 154,000 in September (Calculated Risk)
Private sector employment increased by 154,000 jobs from August to September according to the September … The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis.
What’s Up With The Deep Dive In Treasury Term Premiums? (The Capital Spectator)
The 10-year Treasury Note’s term premium (an estimate of the extra compensation that the market demands for holding longer rather than shorter maturities) has been moderately negative for most of 2016, and there’s no sign that the red ink will fade any time soon.
Companies
Jack Dorsey Is Losing Control of Twitter (Bloomberg)
A few days before Twitter’s Sept. 8 board meeting, as the company’s finance team readied a presentation, it received conflicting directions on a crucial question. Should their slides reflect Twitter’s prospects as an independent company or delve into the benefits of getting acquired?
Salesforce is enhancing its IoT data processing services (BI Intelligence)
Salesforce announced at its Dreamforce annual conference that it would be making two updates to its Thunder IoT cloud, according to PCWorld.
First, the platform will be getting an IoT Traffic Monitor, which will enable companies using Salesforce to better manage where their assets are and how they are operating.
Wal-Mart de Mexico Sales Growth Slowed in 3Q (The Wall Street Journal)
MEXICO CITY—Sales growth at Mexico’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, grew 9.1% in the third quarter from a year earlier, but marked a slowdown from the previous two quarters.
MetLife Opts for Spinoff of Life Insurance Operations (The Wall Street Journal)
MetLife Inc. is opting for a spinoff to existing shareholders as it divests a big chunk of its U.S. life-insurance business, resolving one of the key questions about its plan to shrink for regulatory and strategic reasons.
Samsung just bought a Siri competitor from the team that built Siri (Mashable Asia)
The digital assistant technology race is heating up, with Samsung announcing plans to acquire the open artificial intelligence platform Viv on Wednesday.
It's an intriguing move, not least because it means the team who created Apple's voice-powered assistant Siri is forming closer ties with the South Korean electronics giant
Politics
Did Trump Use A Mistake In The Tax Code To Avoid All Those Income Taxes? (Talking Points Memo)
It's been the question on everyone's mind ever since we set eyes on Trump's 1995 tax return: How in the world did Trump suffer business losses of $916 million and live to tell the tale?
Trump and Clinton return to center stage after lackluster VP debate (The Guardian)
The vice-presidential debate left few traces on Wednesday as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton returned to center stage.
The televised contest between Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Indiana Governor Mike Pence was quickly forgotten on Wednesday as Trump and Clinton aimed fire on each other.
In historic move, The Atlantic endorses Hillary Clinton (CNN Money)
Driven by its staunch opposition to Donald Trump, The Atlantic has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President of the United States, marking just the third time in the magazine's 160-year history that it has made a presidential endorsement.
Survey: Hillary Clinton has a 4-to-1 lead over Donald Trump among one key voting bloc (Business Insider)
Hillary Clinton dominates among Asian-American voters — holding a 4-to-1 lead among registered voters over Donald Trump, according to the 2016 National Asian American Survey.
Donald Trump was a top economist, according to Google (CNet)
Donald Trump is a lot of things. He's a businessman, a hotel mogul, a reality television personality and the Republican candidate for president of the United States. And earlier today, according to Google, he was also a top economist.
Donald Trump is forcing some congressional Republicans into survival mode (Business Insider)
Donald Trump's slip in the polls this past week has Republicans reportedly worried that their choice at the top of the ticket could drag down Congressional races they need to win in order to maintain control of the House and Senate.
Technology
Are Uber's Self-Driving Cars Driving Like Asshats Around Pittsburgh? (Jalopnik)
Pittsburgh is Uber’s self-driving-car testbed, hosting the company’s “Advanced Technology Center” and dozens of its self-driving “pilot program” Ford Fusions. Now, according to website Quartz, there are reports of these self-driving cars causing all sorts of ruckus in the PGH.
Just The Good Stuff From Yesterday's Google Event (Digg)
A month after Apple announced the iPhone 7 and the death of the headphone jack at their latest event, Google announced their new Pixel phones (with a headphone jack and a killer camera) and new VR headset, and gave us a lot more details on Google Assistant and Google Home.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 replacement phone reportedly catches fire on plane (CNN Money)
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission said it is investigating the incident, which occurred on a Baltimore-bound flight before it departed from the Louisville International Airport Wednesday morning.
Google’s new VR headset is ‘squishy and very comfortable’ — here’s what it’s like (Business Insider)
Affordable virtual reality headsets are beginning to hit the market, and Google just went for its slice of the pie with the announcement of the new Daydream VR headset. While most headsets are powered by expensive computers, the Daydream only requires the use of a compatible smartphone.
Dell refreshes the XPS 13 Developer Edition laptops with Kaby Lake processors (Digital Trends)
Senior Principal Engineer at Dell Barton George wrote in a recent blog the company unveiled a new version of its XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop in the United States and Europe. As a refresher, this laptop is the result of George’s Project Sputnik initiative to provide an Ubuntu-based solution to developers.
Google's phone is new, so why does it seem so old? (CNet)
As the dean of marketing at Trump University — Donald Trump — has shown, if you're going to deliver something new, you have to behave as if it's something new.
Health and Biotech
Children with fatal muscle disease walk after drug breakthrough (New Scientist)
Francesco Muntoni, at University College London, is talking about videos of children given an experimental drug for treating spinal muscular atrophy. This genetic disorder involves the deterioration of nerves connecting the brain and spinal cord to the body’s muscles.
Doctors in Texas successfully transplanted a uterus from a living donor for the first time (Science Alert)
A Texas hospital has pulled off four uterus transplants using living donors. This is the first time procedures using living donors has been performed in the US, Time reports.
Male fertility treatment seems to pass infertility on to sons (New Scientist)
A small study of men who were conceived in the 1990s using a now common fertility treatment suggests that they are themselves less fertile.
Life on the Home Planet
Hurricane Matthew shuts down Kennedy Space Center (CNN Money)
There were no rockets on launch pads at the Cape Canaveral complex, even before the storm started moving towards Florida, said NASA spokesman George Diller. And the launch pads themselves were designed to take winds at greater than 100 knots, or 115 miles per hour, so they should be able to withstand the storm.
Obama confirms our worst fear about Hurricane Matthew: ‘It is going to be building strength on its way to Florida’ (Business Insider)
Hurricane Matthew is turning into a storm that we will not be forgetting anytime soon. It pummeled Haiti and eastern Cuba on Tuesday and is now headed for the Bahamas and Florida.
Thermobaric Bombs And Other Nightmare Weapons Of The Syrian Civil War (Popular Science)
All war is horrific, but some aspects of war are more horrific than others. The death toll of Syria’s civil war was estimated last winter at 470,000, each a singular tragedy. Yet it’s often particular weapons, used on particular targets, that cause international condemnation.
Blue Origin's Suborbital Rocket Passes Milestone Safety Test (Scientific American)
Blue Origin just took another big step toward flying people to space.
The private spaceflight company, which is run by billionaire Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, conducted a critical "in-flight escape test" of its crew-carrying New Shepard system today (Oct. 5)—and everything appears to have worked just as expected.
Prepaid card users will finally be protected from fraud and crazy fees (Tech Crunch)
If you’ve been out of touch with the FinTech market recently you may have missed how popular prepaid cards have become. This is especially true when it comes to “open-loop” cards, which are prepaid cards powered by a processor like Visa or MasterCard that can be used anywhere a credit or debit card is accepted.
