Financial Markets and Economy
Trillion-Dollar Payout May Mean Peak Largesse for U.S. Investors (Bloomberg)
A total $600 billion in share repurchases and $400 billion in dividends will be doled out by S&P 500 Index members by the end of the year, the biggest combined payout in history, according to strategists at Barclays Plc. Gravy like that is getting tougher to sustain as corporate profits suffer a six-quarter slump and cash levels begin to dwindle.
Deutsche Bank Could Be The “Lehman Moment” Of 2016 (Value Walk)
There is a ticking time bomb in the heart of Europe. Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Europe, needs to be recapitalized. But neither the German government nor the European Central Bank (ECB) wants to fund it. This is leading to an unsafe and unstable situation. It could even trigger another global financial crisis.
Fed's Williams wants rate hike this year as wages rise (Reuters)
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams on Friday redoubled his call for raising rates soon, telling reporters after a speech here that "this year would be good" for a rate rise that he had wanted to take effect last month.
This Is Why Warren Buffett Is a Billionaire (Quora)
One of the smartest maneuvers I've seen in business comes in the form of two somewhat simultaneous decisions made by Warren Buffett.
Bond-Trader Countdown to December ECB Kicks Off With Supply Glut (Bloomberg)
As the countdown to the European Central Bank’s December policy meeting begins, bond traders betting on an extension of the institution’s asset-purchase program get a chance to load up on more euro-zone government debt next week.
Martin Lewis rants about need for financial education (BBC)
Personal finance expert Martin Lewis told 5 live Daily’s Adrian Chiles that financial education “is crucially important for educating our young people on how to live in this modern, competitive economy”.
European Taxpayers Now On The Hook For Junk Debt As ECB Bond-Buying Debacle Builds (Zero Hedge)
And added that "It is unclear what happens to those IG bonds that the ECB has purchased if and when they get downgraded to junk."
Companies
BAT’s Bid for Reynolds May Spur Final Wave of Big Tobacco M&A (Bloomberg)
British American Tobacco Plc’s plan to buy Reynolds American Inc. could herald a final wave of industry consolidation as rivals will need to link up to compete with the world’s largest listed tobacco company.
Lloyds succumbs to pension fund turmoil as it slides into deficit (The Telegraph)
Lloyds Banking Group will become the latest FTSE 100 giant to be sucked into Britain’s pensions turmoil this week, when the lender reveals its huge scheme has slumped into a deficit.
We checked the prices and it turns out Costco is much cheaper than Amazon Prime (Business Insider)
We compared prices between Costco and Amazon Prime to find out which retailer offers the best deals.
R.R. Donnelley: The Spin-Off Is No Cure To Business Stagnation (Anton Tyumin, Seeking Alpha)
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (NASDAQ:RRD) is a Delaware-based company providing business-to-customer communication solutions consisting of publishing and retail, variable print and strategic services.
Barron's to lay off employees next week, editor reveals in accidental email (Politico)
Barron's is planning to announce lay-offs next week, editor Ed Finn wrote in an email that he accidentally sent to the entire Wall Street Journal newsroom on Friday.
ArQule Is Undervalued Going Into Catalyst Events (Clinically Sound Investor, Seeking Alpha)
ArQule (NASDAQ:ARQL) is a small biopharmaceutical company (market cap: $100.97 million) engaged in the research and development of targeted therapeutics to treat cancers and certain rare diseases. Their pipeline consists of five clinical drug candidates (Figure 1), all of which are in biomarker-defined patient populations.
Technology
AT&T reaches deal to buy Time Warner for more than $80 billion (Business Insider)
AT&T has reached a deal to buy Time Warner for between $105 and $110 per share, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.
That puts the deal's value at more than $80 billion.
Tesla is on the verge of completely changing the way it does business (Business Insider)
Ever since Tesla entered the Elon Musk era, around 2008, the electric automaker has practiced a counterintuitive strategy:overpromise and under deliver.
How Google embarrassed Apple (Business Insider)
This week didn't look good for Apple.
Google's new Pixel phone launched to positive reviews, largely because of the phone's new digital helper called Google Assistant.
Apple Approached Time Warner About Possible Merger Before AT&T Talks (The Wall Street Journal)
Apple Inc. approached Time Warner Inc. about pursuing a combination a few months ago, and though the discussions didn’t progress beyond a preliminary stage, Apple is now monitoring the media giant’s talks with AT&T Inc., people familiar with the matter said Friday.
Airbnb sues New York City (Tech Crunch)
Airbnb sued the city of New York, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Mayor Bill de Blasio today over legislation that would make it illegal to advertise accommodations that can’t legally be rented out for less than 30 days. The bill was passed in June and signed into law by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier today.
Why Amazon Prime Memberships Are Causing Concern on Wall Street (Fortune)
The strength of Amazon.com’s nearly 75% rally since February may depend on how many more brown cardboard boxes end up on the doorsteps of U.S. consumers this fall.
Ericsson Posts First Net Loss in Four Years as Demand Wanes (Bloomberg)
Ericsson AB reported its first loss in almost four years, wrapping up a disastrous third quarter that cratered the stock last week when the Swedish maker of wireless equipment reported preliminary figures.
Intel Corp. Quietly Delays 3DXPoint Memory Modules (Fool.com)
For quite a while, chip giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) has been talking up a next-generation non-volatile memory technology known as 3DXPoint. The technology is billed as an entirely new class of memory — faster and more durable than traditional NAND flash memory while much cheaper than DRAM.
The massive cyberattack that hit the US hints at a new kind of cyberwarfare (The Fiscal Times)
Nobody seems to know just yet where the massive cyberattack that made major websites like Twitter and Spotify unavailable Friday morning originated.
Galaxy Note 7 Recall Dismays South Korea, the ‘Republic of Samsung’ (NY Times)
SEOUL, South Korea — A former South Korean teacher, Kim Jeong-min was at Narita Airport in Japan this month when he watched a television news report that Samsung Electronics’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone was banned on airplanes because it was prone to catching fire.
Siri and Pixel's Google Assistant Compete Side-by-Side in New Video (Mac Rumors)
Google's Pixel phones are the first official devices with Google Assistant, its machine learning AI and assistant, built directly into it. The company wants Google Assistant to be "your own personal Google," performing basic tasks for a user, carrying on conversations, and performing search queries. YouTuber Marques Brownlee decided to test the new Google Assistant by putting it into a head-to-head competition with the latest version of Siri, running on an iPhone 7 Plus.
This brilliant 13-year-old figured out how to make clean energy using a device that costs $5 (Business Insider)
On Tuesday, Mendu, a 13-year-old from Ohio, won the grand prize in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for her work in creating a cost-effective "solar leaves" design to create energy. In addition to winning the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist," she gets $25,000 for her achievement.
This beautiful coffee table has raised over $1.7 million on Kickstarter (Business Insider)
Sisyphus is a kinetic art coffee table that uses a marble that automatically rolls to draw intricate designs on a layer of sand. The artist behind this ingenious table is Bruce Shapiro and has raised over $1.7 million on Kickstarter for the tables.
'Dirty Cow' Linux vulnerability found after nine years (The Guardian)
The operating system that lies at the core of most servers on the internet and most smartphones has a critical vulnerability which has existed, unnoticed, for nine years.
Apple's October 27th event is reportedly all about laptops (Engadget)
We hope you weren't expecting a new iMac or Mac Pro at Apple's "Hello Again" event… you might be disappointed. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (who has a mostly good track record for Apple rumors) now expects that the October 27th media gathering will focus solely on MacBooks.
Toyota's hydrogen buses can work as emergency generators (Engadget)
Toyota will start selling fuel cell (FC) buses in 2017, with the aim of selling up to 100 in the Tokyo area ahead of the 2020 Olympic games. The company is using a beefed up version of the fuel system it developed for the Toyota Murai, with 10 high pressure tanks holding 600 liters of highly compressed H2. That gives it 235 kWh or power, about three times that of a Tesla Model S, meaning it "can be used as a power source in the event of disasters," the company said in a press release.
Politics
US elections: Russian request to monitor vote gets a 'nyet' (CNN Politics)
Washington (CNN) – Three states have said "nyet" to a Russian request to send its diplomats to monitor polling stations on Election Day, according to letters from state officials provided to CNN.
Trump Threatens to Sue Accusers, Lays Out Plan for First 100 Days in Policy Speech (NBC News)
GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Near the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg, Donald Trump laid out his strategy Saturday for the battle ahead. But what was billed as a "roadmap" to a Trump administration was a further escalation of the GOP nominee's scathing rhetoric against his foes in a presidential election that he has likened to a war.
The Calculus in Six Crucial Senate Races (NY Times)
Senator Richard Burr, a Republican, was thought to be a safe bet for re-election against Deborah Ross, his Democratic challenger, who is a former state representative and head of the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. But North Carolina has been roiled by a fight over bathroom rights for transgender people that has affected almost every campaign. The national Republican Party has swooped in to try to save Mr. Burr’s bid.
Life on the Home Planet
Surviving The Falls Of ISIS (National Geographic)
The Kurdish soldiers stood on a berm, next to a gunner’s dugout, in a corner of their position. It was one of several forward positions on a front line that ran along the crest of a mountainside and faced west onto the Tigris River Valley. The sun had set on a late summer day—the driest season in Iraq, when land and sky seem to merge. Still, through the thickening dark the soldiers could make out, on the river’s near bank, the lights of the city of Mosul.
Cuba refuses US help after Hurricane Matthew ravages the east (The Telegraph)
Cuba has turned down offers from the United States of assistance to rebuild their country in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, in a sign that the relationship between the Cold War foes remains frustratingly frosty.
American vigilante hacker sends Russia a warning (CNN Money)
An American vigilante hacker — who calls himself "The Jester" — has defaced the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in retaliation for attacks on American targets.
Colombia airline avoids Venezuela after warplane approaches flight (Reuters, The Guardian)
Colombia’s Avianca airline was avoiding Venezuelan airspace after a flight from Spain was approached by at least one warplane on Friday, creating a diplomatic incident, according to flight data, an airline source and authorities.
