Financial Markets and Economy
Oil prices will nosedive if OPEC's deal falls apart (OilPrice.com)
Oil prices jumped six percent last week when news broke that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had agreed on the rough outline of a freeze deal in Algiers.
Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report (US Energy Information Administration)
Working gas in storage was 3,680 Bcf as of Friday, September 30, 2016, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 80 Bcf from the previous week.
Wall Street ends flat with eyes on payrolls (Reuters)
Major U.S. stock indexes closed little changed on Thursday, even as declining names outnumbered advancers, ahead of job market data seen as key to determine whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates before the end of the year.
China is now buying more companies than the US (South China Morning Post)
China has overtaken the US in outbound mergers and acquisitions for the first time, underscoring a global buying spree driven by the Chinese economy’s growth over three decades and Beijing’s programme to encourage companies to buy assets and technology from abroad.
Yen’s Decline Offers Some Respite for Bank of Japan (The Wall Street Journal)
HONG KONG—The yen is finally heading in the direction Japan’s policy makers desire—even though recently, they haven’t done much to help it along.
The Japanese currency has declined 3% in the past eight trading days, with one U.S. dollar buying ¥103.45 in recent trade. That is a break from trend this year, during which the yen has surged against the dollar, making it the world’s best-performing major currency.
Atlantic City Avoids Repaying New Jersey Loan But Loses Aid (Bloomberg)
Atlantic City won’t have to immediately repay New Jersey $62 million it borrowed after it broke the state’s conditions for the loan, but it won’t get the remainder that had been pledged.
Oil Glut? Here Comes Some More! (NY Times)
HOUSTON — Global oil markets are flooded with cheap crude, and concerns about climate change are growing louder. The last thing the world seems to be craving is the discovery of new large oil and natural gas fields.
The Noose Is Tightening Quickly On The Global Economy (Alt-Market.com)
The investment world has an embarrassingly short attention span. But frankly, it is a necessity. If daytraders, hedge funds and other horses in the carousel actually had to look beyond the next week of market activity or study back on market history in comparison to today, then they would not be able to retain their blind optimism, which is exactly what is necessary for them to continue functioning.
Crude Oil Inventories Continue to Plunge (Bespoke)
Crude oil inventories for the latest week were released earlier today, and for the fifth straight week showed an unexpected decline. Now, we often comment about economists’ consensus forecasts for various indicators and how they often vary widely from the actual reported number, but the recent track record of traders predicting the weekly inventory print from the DoE is a joke.
How a Peanut Seller Became One of Asia’s Biggest Billionaires (Fortune)
The man has made billions building up a conglomerate spanning real estate, gambling, and hospitality. His name is emblazoned across university buildings. He has been honored by Queen Elizabeth. And, for a time, his net worth propelled him to the title of Asia’s second richest man.
Gold Reaches Its 200 Day Moving Average (Bespoke)
As shown in the chart below, front-month gold futures are testing their 200-day moving average today. The 200-DMA is a widely-watched technical level, and earlier this year a move above that level for gold was a signal for the strong gains posted in February.
The Second Napkin's A Charm For Financial Literacy Startup Napkin Finance (Forbes)
Many people feel that graduating from Harvard Business School is the equivalent to receiving Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket. But as Charlie Bucket learned, the Golden Ticket is just the beginning.
Silver Crashes 10% Since Friday – Worst Week In 42 Months (Zero Hedge)
With the worst week (and it's not over yet) since April 2013, Silver is getting slayed since it spiked towards $20 on Friday.
Saudi Arabia's Engine of Future Growth Is Running Out of Gas (Bloomberg)
A flurry of cost-cutting measures will likely push the non-oil economy into recession, analysts say. That means that any overall growth in 2016 will be largely due to record crude output.
When OPEC Finally Blinks (Econ Matters)
Last week I was in beautiful Toronto, where I presented the keynote address and participated in a panel discussion at the annual Mines and Money conference. It was the first time the highly respected gathering of precious metals analysts and investors came to the Americas, and they couldn’t have chosen a better city than my hometown.
How Fortune 500 Companies Avoided Paying Taxes on $2.5 Trillion (Fortune)
Judging by the financial statements of Fortune 500 companies, it appears they’d rather do business just about anywhere but America. And it’s not because they don’t like selling Americans goods and services, but rather because they think tax rates in the U.S. are just too high.
The Smart Person’s Guide to Paying Taxes (Bloomberg)
Three years after he resigned from the White House, Richard Nixon offered this advice: “Make sure you pay your taxes.” He had refused to make his tax returns public during his two successful presidential runs.
Food inflation excluding rice and wheat picking up (Saxo Bank, TradingFloor.com)
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) has released its Food Price Index for September posting a 2.9% rise on August and was 10% above the corresponding months last year.
Companies
The Huge Impact Goldman Sachs' Billions Are Having on Clean Energy (Fortune)
Financial giant Goldman Sachs, which plans to invest a massive $150 billion into clean energy projects and technology over the next decade, is already having a major impact on solar and wind companies, green job numbers, and the environment.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Is Officially Richer Than Warren Buffett (Money)
Jeff Bezos is now the second richest person in America, according to the Forbes 400 list released Tuesday.
The Amazon CEO’s move to No.2 pushes Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett to third—the first time the billionaire has lost his No.2 spot in 15 years.
Wal-Mart Forecast Disappoints as McMillon Overhaul Continues (Bloomberg)
While the world’s largest retailer has made improvements that spurred better-than-expected growth this year, the company is pulling back on new openings and instead spending more to spruce up its current stores and build out its e-commerce capabilities.
How Samsung Sees a Profit Jump Despite the Note 7 Recall (Reuters)
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics SSNLF 3.23% expects third-quarter profit grew 5.6%, beating estimates, as a pickup in chip and display earnings likely offset the impact of a global smartphone recall that has roiled the tech giant.
Honeywell Lowers Upper End of 2016 Profit Forecast (Reuters)
Aero parts supplier Honeywell International lowered the upper end of its 2016 sales and profit forecast range, partly due to lower shipments in its aerospace business.
Politics
9 Times Donald Trump Complained About Taxes (NY Times)
The revelation on Saturday that Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, could have avoided paying taxes on nearly a billion dollars in income over two decades drew criticism and commentary from around the country.
Mike Pence Disavows One of Donald Trump’s Most Incendiary Proposals (Fortune)
“That’s not Donald Trump’s position now”
Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence on Thursday disavowed the Republican presidential hopeful’s earlier proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country.
Your Mobile Phone Is Killing the Polling Industry (Bloomberg)
Donald Trump likes to pepper speeches with references to whatever poll puts him ahead of Hillary Clinton, be it nationally or in a battleground state. But any political junkie mainlining cable news in the most divisive U.S. presidential campaign in modern history has got to be wondering why, increasingly, one can find a poll result to fit any outcome.
Clinton campaign chief to Florida: Extend voter registration because of storm (Politico)
Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook on Thursday called on Florida election officials to extend the voter registration deadline because of the encroaching Hurricane Matthew.
Donald Trump’s Debate Practice Is A Joke (The Huffington Post)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday held a rare town hall event in New Hampshire that looked a lot like a trial run for Sunday’s second presidential debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Your Surgeon Is Probably a Republican, Your Psychiatrist Probably a Democrat (NY Times)
We know that Americans are increasingly sorting themselves by political affiliation into friendships, even into neighborhoods. Something similar seems to be happening with doctors and their various specialties.
Technology
These inventors of 'the worlds smallest machines' just won the Nobel Prize in chemistry (Mic, Business Insider)
Good things come in small packages; prestigious things come in microscopic ones.
On Wednesday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that three European chemists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for creating the "world's smallest machines."
General Electric Introduces Raven Drone For Oil Companies (Popular Science)
Drones can do many things people can’t. They can fly, which is neat, and they can carry chemical sensors, identifying airborne particles with far greater fidelity than human noses.
Amazon's rumored Echo streaming music service may be coming soon (Engadget)
Amazon has offered a very basic streaming music service for a few years now, but it looks like the company is nearly ready to significantly revamp its offerings.
Watch an Uber self-driving car give two Pittsburgh Steelers a ride (Tech Crunch)
Uber’s self-driving cars are operating on Pittsburgh streets, so it’s only natural they’d pick up some professional athletes along the way. Defensive ends Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt likely max out the passenger capacity of the back of that Uber-tech equipped Ford Fusion that picks them up, but they do manage to get in and take the trip.
Samsung earnings not stung by Galaxy Note 7 — yet (CNet)
The Korean electronics giant said Thursday that it expects its operating profit during the period to come in at 7.7 trillion won ($6.9 billion), a modest increase of about 5 percent compared with the same period last year. The guidance is in line with the 7.4 trillion won expected by a Thomson Reuters StarMine SmartEstimate of analysts' forecasts.
Health and Biotech
Scientists just developed the world's smallest transistor (Science Alert)
Scientists have succeeded in creating the world's smallest transistor, producing a switch with a working 1-nanometre gate. If you want to know how incredibly tiny that is, a human hair is around 80,000 to 100,000 nanometres wide.
Scientists have figured out how the brain makes new memories while keeping old ones (Science Alert)
On particularly busy days, you might feel like your brain is pushing out old information to make room for the new stuff, but it's actually got an incredible system to help it add more and more to its data banks each day – without sacrificing what's already there.
How The Zika Virus Could Make It's Way North (Newsweek)
Laboratory tests show that a cold-tolerant mosquito known as Culex quinquefasciatuscan be infected with Zika virus in the laboratory. If confirmed in the field, it would be a troubling development, suggesting the virus would be more difficult to control, and might be able to spread far north of Florida and the Caribbean.
Life on the Home Planet
Two million urged to evacuate as hurricane Matthew approaches US (New Scientist)
Nearly two million people along the US East Coast have been urged to evacuate their homes as hurricane Matthew marches towards Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas packing power the US has not seen in more than a decade.
Hurricane Matthew barrels toward Southeast U.S. as officials ready for potentially strongest storm in a decade (The Washington Post)
Hurricane Matthew roared into the Bahamas early Thursday as it continued its march toward the Southeastern United States, where authorities in states readying for the storm’s devastating combination of winds and rain declared emergencies and urged about 2 million people to evacuate.
Southwestern U.S. Faces ‘Mega-Drought’ by End of Century (TIME)
The U.S. Southwest could face destructive mega-droughts unless dramatic action is taken to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, according to new research.
Pew survey: Republicans are rejecting reality on climate change (The Guardian)
Climate scientists have 95% confidence that humans are the main cause of global warming over the past six decades. Their best estimate attributes 100% of global warming since 1950 to human activities. 90 to 100% of climate scientists and their research agree on this. Human-caused global warming is as settled as science gets.
The UN Syria envoy just offered to personally escort rebels out of Aleppo to save the city (Vox)
In a startlingly dramatic appeal to both sides in Syria’s brutal civil war, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria offered to personally escort up to 1,000 al-Qaeda-linked fighters out of Aleppo to prevent Russian and Syrian forces from razing the city to the ground.
First farm to grow veg in a desert using only sun and seawater (New Scientist)
Sunshine and seawater. That’s all a new, futuristic-looking greenhouse needs to produce 17,000 tonnes of tomatoes per year in the South Australian desert.
It’s the first agricultural system of its kind in the world and uses no soil, pesticides, fossil fuels or groundwater. As the demand for fresh water and energy continues to rise, this might be the face of farming in the future.
