Financial Markets and Economy
Egypt Free Floats Pound, Raises Lending Rates to Spur Economy (Bloomberg)
Egypt took the dramatic step of allowing its currency to trade freely as it announced measures to stabilize an economy crippled by a dollar shortage that has raised concern about social unrest.
Deutsche Bank set to be among hardest hit by new capital rules – sources (Reuters)
Germany's Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) is among roughly a dozen large European lenders that face higher capital requirements when new banking rules come into force in the coming years, several sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
High-Speed Traders Woo More Asia Recruits Than ‘Gloomy’ Banks (Bloomberg)
For students like Sun Jiaxuan at the National University of Singapore, the future of finance is all about high-frequency trading firms, not the Wall Street banks that graduates once aspired to. Recruiters from DRW Holdings LLC, a Chicago firm that’s expanding in Asia, found that out last month when they visited the school.
China Slowdown Deepens Looming Pension Crisis (The Wall Street Journal)
SHENYANG, China—Here in the northeast rust belt, ailing industries are increasingly less able to pay into plans for retiring workers, as a slowing economy hastens a pension crisis.
“It used to be the system took care of you,” said Zhao Zhonghao, a railway engineer in Shenyang who began his career shoveling coal.
Brexit ruling tops Trump as tensions ease (Reuters)
The pound jumped on Thursday after a UK court ruled that parliament must approve a government decision to trigger Brexit, lifting European stocks and bond yields and easing tension in markets rattled by U.S election nerves.
Kentucky Plans to Pull At Least $800 Million From Hedge Funds (The Wall Street Journal)
Kentucky plans to pull more than half of its investments in hedge funds in the coming three years, a significant retreat for a state that had embraced Wall Street money managers following the last financial crisis.
Deutsche Bank Making ‘Good Progress’ on DOJ Deal, Sewing Says (Bloomberg)
Deutsche Bank AG has made “good progress” in talks with the U.S. Justice Department to settle an investigation into its subprime-era mortgage securities business, according to management board member Christian Sewing.
Mexican Peso Rebounds After Polls Show Clinton Lead Over Trump (Bloomberg)
Mexico’s peso rebounded after polls showed Hillary Clinton holding a lead over Donald Trump, five days before the U.S. presidential election.
Aging Pipelines Raise Concerns (The Wall Street Journal)
More than 60% of U.S. fuel pipelines were built before 1970, according to federal figures. Recent disruptions on Colonial Pipeline Co.’s fuel artery running up the East Coast show why some energy observers worry that this is a problem.
Gold Bugs Don’t All Fear the Fed (The Wall Street Journal)
A Federal Reserve rate rise in December may not be all bad news for gold, an investment that has been boosted by the expectation of continued low rates.
The Postwar Boom Isn’t Coming Back Anytime Soon (Bloomberg)
In 1973, when Barbra Streisand starred with Robert Redford in The Way We Were, she sang longingly about “misty watercolor memories.” In retrospect, 1973 itself was a year to remember. It was the end of a golden era—a period of rapid growth in productivity and living standards that had no predecessor and hasn’t been repeated.
Companies
Wells Fargo’s Stars Thrived While 5,000 Workers Got Fired (Bloomberg)
After Wells Fargo & Co. executive John Sotoodeh handed off more than a hundred branches in Southern California to a colleague in 2009, problems surfaced quickly.
His successor, Kim Young, addressing rumors that some employees were opening bogus accounts, called an introductory meeting with staff and warned she wouldn’t tolerate misconduct.
AIG Falls as Goldman Laments History of Earnings Disappointments (Bloomberg)
American International Group Inc.’s assurances of underwriting progress are drawing increased skepticism from Wall Street analysts after another disappointing quarter.
John Mackey Will Be Sole CEO of Whole Foods Market (The Wall Street Journal)
Whole Foods Market Inc. is eliminating its dual-CEO leadership structure, likely putting further pressure on co-founder John Mackey who will become the sole leader of the struggling grocery chain.
Technology
Volkswagen Has Until December to Propose Driver Resolution Plan (The Wall Street Journal)
Volkswagen AG has until the end of November to propose a plan to deal with 80,000 larger and luxury diesel-powered vehicles affected by its emissions crisis, a federal judge said Thursday.
Facebook Projects Greater Costs, Slowdown in Ad Sales Growth (Bloomberg)
Facebook Inc. reported a quarter that blew past expectations. But its shares fell after executives suggested they won’t be able to repeat the performance.
The stock dropped as much as 7.1 percent Thursday in premarket trading after two sobering comments on its conference call the night before.
U.S. Sues AT&T’s DirecTV for Alleged Collusion During Dodgers TV Talks (The Wall Street Journal)
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit Wednesday against AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV, alleging that it engaged in unlawful information-sharing with rival pay-TV operators when they all resisted carrying a pricey Los Angeles-area sports channel owned by the Dodgers baseball team.
Motorola is thirsty for new Moto Mods (Engadget)
Motorola's dream of a slick, modular smartphone is struggling to take off. The base handset is perfectly capable, but the ecosystem of Moto Mods is still pretty sparse. After its launch accessories, we've seen a Hasselblad attachment and little else.
Vimeo is working on a subscription streaming service (Engadget)
Vimeo plans to start a new Netflix-type streaming service and develop its own content, but its won't spend Netflix dollars. Rather, the site (owned by Barry Diller's IAC) will help its creator community develop original content and supplement it with licensed programming.
These Are Our 7 Must-Have Travel Gadgets (TIME)
Whether the busy holiday travel season is upon you, an important business trip is looming, or you’re about to embark on a relaxing vacation, one thing is true: You—and your stuff—are going places.
Terrifying New Invention Wants To Help Cops Rope You Like A Steer (Jalopnik)
Car chases with cops are dangerous, and they almost never end well. The quicker they can be ended, the better. Cops have some exciting and risky techniques like the PIT maneuver to help them stop fleeing cars, and now there’s this MacGyverish-looking invention designed to let cops actually snag a fleeing car. This thing looks like it’ll make for some exciting live television.
Politics
Trump, Clinton blast each other on character; Clinton rises in poll (Reuters)
Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump attacked one another's character as they pushed their closing arguments six days before the U.S. presidential election, while the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton's lead over Trump rising back to the margin she held last week.
UK court says parliament must have Brexit say, dealing blow to government (Reuters)
England's High Court ruled on Thursday that the British government requires parliamentary approval to trigger the process of exiting the European Union, upsetting Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plans.
Wall Street and Kochs Fuel Most Expensive U.S. Senate Race Ever (Bloomberg)
The most expensive U.S. Senate race in history is unfolding in Pennsylvania, where Wall Street, unions and billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch are flooding the state with money.
Donald Trump’s Income Isn’t Always What He Says It Is, Records Suggest (NY Times)
On the financial disclosure forms that Donald J. Trump has pointed to as proof of his tremendous success, no venture looks more gold-plated than his golf resort in Doral, Fla., where he reported revenues of $50 million in 2014. That figure accounted for the biggest share of what he described as his income for the year.
Clinton, Trump target North Carolina as Clinton holds slight lead (Reuters)
Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump head to North Carolina on Thursday in a final effort to shore up support in the swing state as two polls showed Clinton maintaining a narrow lead nationally just days ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.
I Know Firsthand How Obama Differs From Trump On Consent (The Establishment, The Huffington Post)
It was October of 2007, and I was helping to staff an event at Iowa Memorial Union featuring a speech by Barack Obama, then the young Senator of Illinois who had, a few years earlier, risen to national prominence with his rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Health and Biotech
Food scientists are trying to engineer milk chocolate to be as healthy as dark chocolate (Quartz)
People are always eager for good news about chocolate. That made us sitting ducks two years ago, when Harvard science journalist John Bohannon fooled the world by publishing a “study” that showed chocolate could help you lose weight.
Ebola’s West African Rampage Was Likely Bolstered by a Mutation (Scientific American)
What made the recent Ebola outbreak in west Africa so virulent? The virus that seeped across borders and killed more than 11,000 people in the region had at least one genetic mutation that better equipped it to breach human cells, new research suggests.
Classic quantum experiment could conceal theory of everything (New Scientist)
AN ICONIC physics experiment may be hiding more than we ever realised about the nature of reality. The classic “double-slit” experiment reveals the strange duality of the quantum world, but it may behave more strangely than we thought – and could challenge one of the most closely held assumptions of quantum mechanics.
A new Alzheimer's drug just hit a major milestone in a human clinical trial (Science Alert)
A new drug that targets toxic amyloid proteins in the brain – one of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease – has produced such promising results in a small clinical trial, it’s now being assessed in two larger trials involving 3,500 patients.
Life on the Home Planet
With Iraqi troops at Mosul's gate, Baghdadi promises victory (Reuters)
With Iraqi troops battling inside Islamic State's Iraqi bastion of Mosul, the militants' leader told his followers to fight to the death in what he said was a war against Shi'ite Islam, Western "crusaders" and the Sunni "apostate" countries Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Ghost soldiers: the Russians secretly dying for the Kremlin in Syria (Reuters)
The start of this year proved deadly for one unit of about 100 Russian fighters supporting President Bashar al-Assad's troops in northern Syria.
On Feb. 3, 38-year-old Maxim Kolganov was killed in a firefight with rebels near Aleppo when a bullet pierced his body armor and heart.
We must listen to the Dakota Access pipeline protesters, not punish them (The Guardian)
Last week, I was privileged to spend two days at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. Thousands of Native Americans have been camping along the Missouri river for months in an effort to defend clean water and sacred land from the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
Rebels step up Aleppo offensive with three car bombs (Reuters)
Syrian insurgents stepped up a week-long offensive on government-held areas in the city of Aleppo on Thursday, detonating three car bombs and firing shells which killed at least a dozen civilians, state media and a monitor said.
Our units of measurement are finally about to get an upgrade (Science Alert)
By the end of 2018, a kilogram will no longer exist as we know it, with our standard units of measurement finally scheduled to get a much-needed upgrade for the first time in more than 50 years.
Cubs Win 1st Series Title Since 1908, Beat Indians in Game 7 (Bloomberg)
Cleveland (AP) — Kris Bryant started to smile even before he fielded the ball. And with his throw to first for the final out, the agonizing wait 'til next year was over at last.
