Financial Markets and Economy
Oil Jumps Most Since February on OPEC Deal as Treasuries Retreat (Bloomberg)
Crude oil surged as OPEC ministers forged a deal to reduce production, igniting a rally in global energy stocks. Meanwhile, Treasuries fell and the dollar extended its advance as a private report showed U.S. companies hired faster than was forecast in November.
Oil, dollar and bond yields sharply higher after OPEC deal (Reuters)
Crude prices, the dollar and bond yields were sharply elevated early on Thursday after OPEC agreed to a deal to reduce output to clear a supply glut that has crunched oil prices and stoked global deflationary pressures.
What the OPEC Production Cut Will Really Mean for Oil Prices (Fortune)
Crude oil prices–and the shares of U.S. oil and gas companies–surged over 8% Wednesday as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to cut its output by some 1.2 million barrels a day to end a global glut.
Euro-Area Inflation Accelerates Before Key ECB Decision on QE (Bloomberg)
Euro-area inflation accelerated in November, continuing its slow improvement before a crucial European Central Bank meeting next week.
OPEC in first joint oil cut with Russia since 2001, Saudis take 'big hit' (Reuters)
OPEC has agreed its first oil output cuts since 2008 after Saudi Arabia accepted "a big hit" on its production and dropped its demand on arch-rival Iran to slash output, pushing up crude prices by around 10 percent.
Leaner and meaner: U.S. shale greater threat to OPEC after oil price war (Reuters)
In a corner of the prolific Bakken shale play in North Dakota, oil companies can now pump crude at a price almost as low as that enjoyed by OPEC giants Iran and Iraq.
Wall Street Wins Again as Trump Picks Bankers, Billionaires (Bloomberg)
After Donald Trump ridiculed Wall Street on the campaign trail, the President-elect tapped former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive Steven Mnuchin to be his Treasury secretary and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross to lead the Commerce Department. Trump even met with Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn inside Trump Tower.
Trump Treasury pick vows to curtail Wall Street regulations (The Washington Post)
As Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin would have significant influence over the way the financial system, particularly Wall Street, operates. And the former Goldman Sachs banker indicated Wednesday that he would at least partially be relying on his time as a regional banker to guide his decisions.
Can the U.S. Become an Energy Superpower in 2017? (Bloomberg)
For decades, America depended on the world for energy. Today, it’s becoming a global supplier of oil and natural gas in its own right. This year, for the first time ever, the U.S. started turning gas from prolific shale formations into liquefied natural gas (LNG) and sending it overseas.
Trump Has a Family Foundation. Why Don’t You? (Bloomberg)
More than 40,000 of these tax-exempt organizations were actively making grants in the U.S. as of 2014, according to the Foundation Center. Among the more than 5,600 such foundations in New York is one headed by President-Elect Donald Trump, which acknowledged in a recent filing with the Internal Revenue Service that it had engaged in self-dealing.
RBS Falls on BOE Stress Test Failure, Plan to Shrink Further (Bloomberg)
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc slumped after it failed multiple hurdles in the Bank of England’s toughest-ever stress test, pushing Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan to further shrink the taxpayer-owned lender.
Manhattan Homeowners Are Looking for 40% Returns—In Just Five Years (Bloomberg)
Some Manhattan apartment owners trying to sell their homes have big dreams these days: They’re seeking about 40 percent more than they paid for the properties, even if they were bought within the past five years.
This is the 'damage' imports have done to America's industries (Business Insider)
There has been a lot of talk of deglobalization and potential trade wars in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election as US president.
Bank of England sees global financial risks after Trump victory (Reuters)
Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election has increased the threats to the world economy from higher interest rates and less trade, the Bank of England said on Wednesday.
Wednesday: ADP Employment, Personal Income and Outlays, Pending Home Sales, Beige Book, and More (Calculated Risk)
At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.
Household Debt Hits $12.4 Trillion As Subprime Loan Delinquencies Hit Highest In 6 Years: NY Fed (Zero Hedge)
The latest just released Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit from the New York Fed showed a small increase in overall debt in the third quarter of 2016, prompted by gains in non-housing debt, and new all time highs in student loans which hit $1.279 trillion, rising $20 billion in the quarter.11.0% of aggregate student loan debt was 90+ days delinquent or in default at the end of 2016 Q3.
Angry Mobs Lock Up Indian Bankers As Cash Chaos Soars: "We Are Fearing The Worst" (Zero Hedge)
India's demonetization campaign is not going as expected.
Overnight, banks played down expectations of a dramatic improvement in currency availability, raising the prospect of queues lengthening as salaries get paid and people look to withdraw money from their accounts the Economic Times reported.
Goldman Raises S&P Target To 2,400 On "Trump Hope" (Zero Hedge)
Having warned for nearly all of 2016 that the market is getting ahead of itself on the back of median P/E multiples that are higher than 99% of all historical reading, Goldman chief strategist David Kostin stubbornly kept his year end S&P target at 2,100 on valuation concerns.
Companies
JPMorgan Most Bullish on U.S. Stocks in 2017 Thanks to Reflationary Trump and Dovish Yellen (Bloomberg)
The pro-growth proclivities of the Trump administration and continued accommodative monetary policy will propel the S&P 500 index to fresh records in 2017, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists including Dubravko Lakos-Bujas and Marko "Gandalf" Kolanovic.
GM’s Ready to Lose $9,000 a Pop and Chase the Electric Car Boom (Bloomberg)
General Motors Co. stands to lose as much as $9,000 on every Chevrolet Bolt that leaves a showroom once the all-electric subcompact starts rolling out. Sounds crazy, but the damage makes perfect business sense under the no pain, no gain policy driving the electric-vehicle boom in the U.S.
Philip Morris looks beyond cigarettes with alternative products (Reuters)
Philip Morris International (PM.N), the world's largest international tobacco company, said it could eventually stub out cigarette sales as it launched an alternative product in Britain on Wednesday.
You've Been Missing Out on Starbucks Refills for Years (Fortune)
Cold brew drinkers everywhere cursed all the money they’ve spent on seconds after Starbucks Melody, an unofficial Starbucks news website, shared news surrounding the policy.
Technology
Amazon launches Amazon AI to bring its machine learning smarts to developers (Tech Crunch)
Amazon today announced the launch of its new Amazon AI platform at its re:Invent developer event in Las Vegas. This new service brings many of the machine learning smarts Amazon has developed in-house over the years to devs outside the company.
Sony, Facebook, Google, and Samsung dominate VR, with over 50% market share (Venture Beat)
Those of us who are old enough to have seen the rise of virtual reality in the ‘90s and then the fall and then another rise in mid 2000 and then another fall, know that the present hype about virtual reality may not be sustainable.
Splunk Customers Demonstrate Success on the AWS Cloud (Business WIre)
Splunk Inc. (SPLK), the leading software platform for real-time Operational Intelligence, today announced that customers across virtually every industry and geography are benefitting from the agility of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and visibility that Splunk® solutions provide to get the most from their cloud deployments.
iPhone 7 tops holiday wishlist (CNet)
The phone was criticized for its lack of changes from the iPhone 6S, but was still popular at launch. And some models sold out almost immediately. The popularity of the device continues, and as the survey suggests, it could see a boost in sales during the holidays.
Netflix's offline viewing mode was inevitable (Engadget)
The ability to finally download Netflix videos came as a surprise this morning. After all, it's the same company that just a few years ago said that offline support was "never going to happen."
Politics
U.S. to Forgive at Least $108 Billion in Student Debt in Coming Years (The Wall Street Journal)
WASHINGTON—The federal government is on track to forgive at least $108 billion in student debt in coming years, as more and more borrowers seek help in paying down their loans, leading to lower revenues for the nation’s program to finance higher education.
The Day After: Obama on His Legacy, Trump's Win and the Path Forward (Rolling Stone)
My final interview with President Obama in the White House had been scheduled for the day after the presidential election. I had hoped to look back on what he had achieved over eight years and the issues that mattered the most to him and to the readers of Rolling Stone, hear his advice for Hillary and about the road ahead.
Trump says he will back away from business to focus on White House (Reuters)
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to step back from running his global business empire to avoid conflicts of interest but gave few immediate details as concern over his dual role mounts ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Italy: The Next Stop on Populism’s Global March (The Wall Street Journal)
The founder of Italy’s populist 5 Star Movement showed off his growing confidence in a video posted ahead of Sunday’s pivotal national referendum.
Senator Bernie Sanders Wishes He Could've Run Against Trump – CONAN on TBS (Team Coco)
Bernie travelled all over the country and saw that millions of Americans are in pain.
Romney, potential U.S. secretary of state, hails Trump after dinner (Reuters)
Republican Mitt Romney made an impassioned statement in support of President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to try to erase doubts about him among Trump's supporters and remain in contention for U.S. secretary of state.
FBI may have also been investigating Trump (Vice News)
Just 11 days before the U.S. presidential election, FBI Director James Comey wrote a letter to Congress letting them know that the agency had found additional emails that “appear to be pertinent” to its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
CIA's Brennan says tearing up Iran deal would be 'folly' (Reuters)
Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan has said it would be the "height of folly" for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to tear up Washington's deal with Tehran because it would make it more likely that Iran and others would acquire nuclear weapons.
Health and Biotech
Parkinson's disease may start in the gut and travel to the brain (New Scientist)
If the idea is correct, it opens the door to new ways of treating the disease before symptoms occur. “That would be game-changing,” says David Burn at Newcastle University, UK. “There are lots of different mechanisms that could potentially stop the spread.”
“Three-Parent Baby” Procedure Faces New Hurdle (Scientific American)
A promising technique to prevent mothers from passing on devastating mitochondrial diseases was thrown a biological curve ball this week: A paper published Wednesday in Nature shows that such diseases can come back to sicken a child, even when 99 percent of the mother’s own mitochondria are eliminated.
The FDA just approved the largest clinical trial on ecstasy to date (Science Alert)
After veteran Tony Macie came back from Iraq in 2007, he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Macie went to the Veterans Health Administration (VA) 'on and off' and tried the standard therapy.
Life on the Home Planet
The real struggle over fake news (Vice News)
A new study from Stanford University suggests that much like adults, students have a hard time spotting fake news and identifying “real” news articles.
Death toll rises to seven in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains fires (Reuters)
The death toll from wildfires blazing in and around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee rose to seven on Wednesday even as drenching rains helped firefighters suppress flames that have left whole neighborhoods in ruins.
Worls Aids Day: HIV Infections In Adolescents Could Double By 20130, Says Unicef (Newsweek)
The number of new HIV infections among adolescents around the world is set to rise sharply unless more is done to fight the epidemic, according to a new report from Unicef.
U.S. veterans to form human shield at Dakota pipeline protest (Reuters)
More than 2,000 U.S. military veterans plan to form a human shield to protect protesters of a pipeline project near a Native American reservation in North Dakota, organizers said, just ahead of a federal deadline for activists to leave the camp they have been occupying.
Ohio State attacker may have been inspired by overseas militants, FBI says (Reuters)
A Somali immigrant who injured 11 people in a car and knife attack at Ohio State University may have been inspired by Islamic State and the late al Qaeda-linked cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, an FBI official said on Wednesday.
