Financial Markets and Economy
S&P 500 Retreats as Post-Election Rally Shows Signs of Fatigue (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks slipped, with post-election rallies in banks and industrial shares losing momentum as investors continued to assess the potential impact of President-elect Donald Trump’s policy plans.
Trouble Brewing in Commercial Real Estate (The Wall Street Journal)
Defaults are rising in a key corner of the commercial real-estate debt market just as borrowing costs are set to jump, raising the likelihood of a slowdown of the $11 trillion U.S. commercial property sector in 2017.
Philippines Posts Strongest Economic Growth in Asia at 7.1% (Bloomberg)
The Philippine economy grew at its fastest pace in three years last quarter, underscoring the nation’s resilience to global risks as investment surged and consumers spent more. Stocks gained.
President Trump's Policies Will Likely Slow Economic Growth Over The Next Two Years (Forbes)
Donald Trump will be able to start on some of his campaign promises through executive orders, while others will require Congressional approval. A number of American industries will be strongly impacted in the next two years.
OPEC Reopens Talks on Oil Cuts Without Iran, Iraq Ministers (Bloomberg)
OPEC and Russia will meet in Doha on Thursday for another round of talks without ministers from Iran and Iraq, the two countries that pose the biggest obstacle to a deal to cut production.
LNG Capital CIO sees Italy referendum loss, debt sell-off (Reuters)
The founder and chief investment officer of credit hedge fund LNG Capital said the Italian government will likely lose a December referendum on reforming the structure of the government, triggering a sell-off in Italian government debt.
GOLDMAN: Trump is bad news for the world economy (Business Insider)
President-elect Donald Trump ran on a platform of "America-first" economic policy, and according to the economics team at Goldman Sachs, that's just what he is going to deliver — to the detriment of the global economy.
The 24 best US stocks you can buy right now, according to Bank of America (Business Insider)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch published its latest US 1 list on Tuesday.
"The US 1 list is intended to represent a collection of our best investment ideas that are drawn from the universe of "Buy" rated US-listed stocks (including ADRs), covered by BofA Merrill Lynch fundamental equity research analysts," said the list's contributors in the note.
Saudis, China Dump Treasuries; Foreign Central Banks Liquidate A Record $375 Billion In US Paper (Zero Hedge)
One month ago, when we last looked at the Fed's update of Treasuries held in custody, we noted something troubling: the number had dropped sharply, declining by over $22 billion in one week, one of the the biggest weekly declines since January 2015, pushing the total amount of custodial paper to $2.805 trillion, the lowest since 2012.
SEC’s White ‘deeply concerned’ about bond market illiquidity (Risk.net)
The outgoing head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is "deeply concerned" about liquidity in corporate bonds – but insists there is insufficient evidence to blame post-crisis regulation for the deterioration in trading conditions.
Last stand for coal: The industry’s days may be numbered, even as they try to invest more (Grist.org, Salon)
Squeezing into a wobbly four-seater propeller plane is the only way to reach the tiny tribe of Tyonek, tucked deep in the roadless Alaskan wilderness. Gliding above the long mudflats and the serpentine curves of streams, I spot the fat white backs of beluga whales surfacing at the mouth of a river and an island covered by sunning sea lions.
These Professors Make More Than a Thousand Bucks an Hour Peddling Mega-Mergers (ProPublica)
The economists are leveraging their academic prestige with secret reports justifying corporate concentration. Their predictions are often wrong and consumers pay the price.
Rickards: World's Wealth At Risk? (Daily Reckoning)
Jim Rickards joined Bloomberg Markets to discuss the financial crisis that he believes is coming soon and what is in store for the world’s wealth, the Trump administration and more. The best selling author and chief global strategist notes that the financial climate is ripe for a economic trouble and that we are reaching a pivotal point.
December Fed Rate-Hike Odds Near 100% (Despite Dismal Economic Growth Expectations) (Zero Hedge)
“The market is expecting an interest-rate hike in December, and there is no fundamental reason for the Fed” to disappoint according to DZ Bank's Birgit Figge, and judging by the spike in futures-market-implied rate-hike odds post-Trump, it's a done deal.
Dundie Awards: Industrial Production YOY Fell For 14th Straight Month (Longest Streak In Non-Recession Period) (Confounded Interest)
And a Dundie Award goes to … Washington DC for the notable achievement of 14 straight months of industrial production decline YoY. The longest string of contraction without a recession in 96 years.
Companies
Across China, Walmart Faces Labor Unrest as Authorities Stand Aside (NY Times)
SHENZHEN, China — In a one-man war room in his apartment, a laid-off Walmart employee named Wang Shishu was tapping out a message on his phone to a group of workers and plotting his next move.
DryShips Inc. (DRYS) Halted On Information Request After Skyrocketing 2,000 Percent (Value Walk)
Those who were shorting DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) are taking a hit today because this was one stock in which short interest was very high but its price skyrocketed suddenly. The shorts got killed because of a massive squeeze that sent DryShips shares soaring 2,000% in a matter of days.
Analysts Warn That Tiffany's Could Get Hurt by Being Next Door to Trump (Bloomberg)
While Tiffany Trump's stock may be rising in light of her father's victory in the president election, her namesake might suffer from its close association with the real estate mogul and his home.
Technology
Donald Trump vs. AT&T: A Signal Test of How Business Will Fare in New Washington (The Wall Street Journal)
AT&T Inc. Chief Executive Randall Stephenson made an $85 billion wager last month that would turn the giant telephone company into one of the world’s biggest media companies by swallowing Time Warner Inc.
Google CEO to meet with EU antitrust chief on Friday (Reuters)
The chief executive of Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google and the European Union's antitrust chief will meet on Friday, following the U.S. technology group's formal rejection this month of a spate of charges, including blocking rivals in online search advertising.
Russia starts blocking LinkedIn website after court ruling (Reuters)
Russia's communications regulator ordered public access to LinkedIn's website to be blocked on Thursday to comply with a court ruling that found the social networking firm guilty of violating a data storage law.
Samsung's Exploding Phones to Lower Best Buy Holiday Sales by $200 Million (Fortune)
But investors are still happy
Best Buy BBY 7.89% said on Thursday that the recall of Samsung’s flammable Galaxy Note 7 phones would take a big bite out of its holiday season sales.
Jaguar Land Rover says half of its new cars will have electric option by 2020 (Reuters)
Half of all new Jaguar Land Rover vehicles will be available in an electric version by the end of the decade, Britain's biggest carmaker said on Wednesday, after showcasing its first electric car this week.
The automaker, owned by India's Tata Motors (TAMO.NS), unveiled the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE Concept SUV at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
The iPhone 8 Is Coming and It’s Going to Be Big (Fortune)
Loyal Apple AAPL -1.02% fans have had mixed feelings about the company’s 2016 offerings. The iPhone 7 had a few improvements, but lost its headphone jack and kept the same increasingly dated exterior design that debuted in 2014 with the iPhone 6.
Eero's WiFi hubs get faster, smarter and now support Alexa (Engadget)
Earlier this year, Eero launched a home WiFi solution that it claimed would solve all our wireless woes. The idea behind Eero's system is simple; instead of relying on one router to connect your whole house, it uses multiple hubs. Each Eero hub combines the functions of a wireless router, a range extender and a repeater, and you can easily connect them to one another with a companion app.
Politics
Warren, Others Ask Finance Industry to Denounce Bannon (Bloomberg)
Four Democrats send letter to financial services trade groups demanding they condemn appointment of Stephen Bannon, according to statement.
Trump Says Transition’s Going ‘Smoothly,’ Disputing Disarray Reports (NY Times)
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that his transition was not in disarray, assailing news media reports about firings and infighting and insisting in an early-morning Twitter burst that everything was going “so smoothly.”
Jeb Hensarling Says GOP Wants to End Rules on Retirement Advice and Payday Loans (The Wall Street Journal)
WASHINGTON—Congressional Republicans hope to scrap two contentious rules meant to rein in conflicted investment advice and payday lenders once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
8 governments under EU budget hammer — Another Oettigate (Politico)
If you enjoy reading Brussels Playbook, please share it with your colleagues and friends.
MIRACULOUS RE-APPEARANCE OF TERRORIST’S PHONE: Seven months before he attacked Paris, police seized the mobile phone of suicide bomber Brahim Abdeslam.
Three common arguments for preserving the Electoral College – and why they’re wrong (The Conversation, Salon)
In November 2000, newly elected New York Senator Hillary Clinton promised that when she took office in 2001, she would introduce a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College, the 18th-century, state-by-state, winner-take-all system for selecting the president.
Hillary Clinton’s Popular-Vote Victory Is Unprecedented—and Still Growing (The Nation)
H illary Clinton now leads the national popular vote for president by roughly one million votes, and her victory margin is expanding rapidly. That margin could easily double before the end of an arduous process of counting ballots, reviewing results, and reconciling numbers for an official total.
Americans' Satisfaction With U.S. Makes a U-Turn (Gallup)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. plunged 10 percentage points in the aftermath of the presidential election — retreating from a decade high of 37% in the run-up to last Tuesday's vote.
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Most people are wildly underestimating what Trump’s win will mean for the environment (Vox)
Unified Republican control of the federal government over the next two years augurs a sea change in US environmental policy like nothing since the late 1960s and ’70s, when America’s landmark environmental laws were first passed.
Voters’ perceptions of crime continue to conflict with reality (Pew Research Center)
Despite double-digit percentage decreases in U.S. violent and property crime rates since 2008, most voters say crime has gotten worse during that span, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The disconnect is nothing new, though: Americans’ perceptions of crime are often at odds with the data.
Talk about impeaching South Korea’s president is growing louder (The Economist)
THE numbers make for grim reading: for the past fortnight Park Geun-hye has been South Korea’s most unloved president ever. Her approval rating stands at 5%; among the young it is nil. As many as 1m people rallied for hours in Seoul, the capital, on November 12th to demand her resignation—the biggest demonstration since 1987, when mass protests against the military regime of the day led to the country’s first democratic elections.
Trump’s Election May Strain The Euro To The Breaking Point (Value Walk)
Many would not have discounted the notion that financial markets would take kindly to the announcement that Donald J. Trump won the election. But when the news broke on 9 November that he will indeed be the 45th president of the United States of America, prices on international stock exchanges climbed, the US dollar exchange rate soared, and interest rates went up.
Health and Biotech
Scientists have identified an antibody that neutralises 98% of HIV strains (Scientific Alert)
Scientists have discovered an antibody produced by an HIV-positive patient that neutralises 98 percent of all HIV strains tested – including most of the strains that are resistant to other antibodies of the same class.
Life on the Home Planet
Mathematicians are close to figuring out how to make the perfect cup of black coffee (Quartz)
A simple cup of black filter coffee—that ubiquitous fuel of labor forces across the globe—is composed of more than 1,800 chemical components. And now scientists think they can rein in those components to create the perfect cup.
Car bomb in Syrian town near Turkey border kills at least 13: monitor, rebels (Reuters)
At least 13 people were killed and dozens were injured by a car bomb on Thursday which targeted a building used by a rebel group in the northern Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Pluto's Icy Heart May Hide an Ocean (Scientific American)
Astronomers have just found the best evidence yet of an entire ocean in an exceedingly unlikely place—the dwarf planet Pluto, in the dark hinterlands of the solar system. There, nitrogen and other “volatile” gases freeze solid in the cryogenic conditions, and water turns to rock-hard ice.
A Place Where People Happily Pay $600 for Afternoon Tea (Bloomberg)
Take the elevator to the second floor of the glitzy, year-old Baccarat hotel in Midtown Manhattan, and the doors will open in the Grand Salon, a bright and dazzling parlor with giant windows that overlook the Museum of Modern Art and Baccarat crystal dangling from every nook and cranny.
