Financial Markets and Economy
$38 Billion Finnish Fund Moves Assets to U.S. as Europe Founders (Bloomberg)
One of the Nordic region’s biggest asset managers is adjusting its portfolio to reflect a lack of confidence in Europe and a growing faith in the prospects of a U.S. boom.
Dubai Stocks Rise Third Day as Key Indicator Signals More Gains (Bloomberg)
Dubai stocks were the biggest gainers across Gulf markets after oil, the region’s main source of revenue, capped its best week since 2009.
Australia Losing AAA Rating Is Inevitable, Hewson Says (Bloomberg)
It’s only a matter of time before Australia loses its AAA credit rating as the nation’s budget falls further into deficit, according to John Hewson, a former Liberal Party leader and central bank economist.
Philippines Asks for $81 Million Cyber Heist Probe Results (Bloomberg)
The Philippines asked Bangladesh for the results of its investigation into a $81 million cyber heist as it commits to help the Bangladesh central bank recover stolen reserves, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said in a statement.
Green cities: Why invest in sustainable cities? (CNN News)
(CNN) – More than two-thirds of total investment in infrastructure in the next 15 years will be made in cities. It's no wonder, as people are flocking to cities around the world. By 2050, around 66% of the global population likely will live in urban areas. In Africa alone, there will be nearly 800 million more people living in cities than today.
Hacks at Russian central bank have cost 2 billion rubles (CNN)
The Bank of Russia confirmed the cyberattacks and the extent of the losses to CNNMoney on Friday.
Hackers had tried to steal 5 billion rubles, but the central banking authority managed to stop them and redirect the funds, according to central bank security executive Artiom Sychev.
One group of traders is looking forward to a big bump in bonuses (Business Insider)
The rates business has been the standout performer on Wall Street in 2016, with revenue at $21 billion for the first nine months of the year, according to Coalition, up 24% from the same period.
Trump's tax plan could be bad news for the housing market, charitable giving, and local governments (Business Insider)
President-elect Donald Trump's pick for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, says the incoming administration is about to embark on the "largest tax change since Reagan."
Earnings Reports Could Shed Light on Home-Building Sector (The Wall Street Journal)
Shares of U.S. home builders have trailed the broader market in recent months amid growing concerns over rising land and labor costs and a housing recovery that has been slower and weaker than expected.
Stock Are Not GDP Options (Value Walk)
Now I’ve written at least one other article on this: Numerator vs Denominator. (If you have time, it is a good summary article.) The basic idea is this: in the long-run stocks benefit from growth in the economy.
The SEC Wants To Know How $3B Disappeared At Mozambique Coal Mine (Value Walk)
Valuation of resource projects is becoming a hot topic in regulatory circles. With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year investigating ExxonMobil’s practices around estimating the worth of in-ground oil reserves.
Best Business Schools 2016 (Bloomberg)
An MBA can get you access to hot internships, sprawling alumni networks, and the most desirable jobs in the market.
As a bonus, it can wipe out your savings and swell your debt.
The Trump rally in the stock market may be turning into a bubble (Market Watch)
Donald Trump has made the stock market great again with major indexes logging their best performances in months in November. But that frothiness is prompting warnings that the market is getting too bubbly, setting up investors for a disappointment in coming weeks.
Want Groceries in Venezuela? First Stop at Six ATMs (Bloomberg)
Domingris Montano did the calculations as she stood in the rain at the midpoint of a queue outside a bank in Caracas. She needed to buy groceries. A package of rice would cost 3,500 bolivars, more than half the daily withdrawal limit, and the automated teller machine might be empty by the time her turn came.
Where The November Jobs Were: Accountants, Nurses, Waiters, Government And Part-Time Workers (Zero Hedge)
Something remains very broken with the US labor market: while the unemployment rate just dropped to the lowest since August 2007, wage growth dropped as well and on a year over year basis, rose just 2.5%, far below the 3.8% it was when the unemployment rate last hit 4.7%
The 100 best restaurants in America, according to OpenTable (Business Insider)
To compile the ranking, OpenTable combed through 10 million reviews for restaurants that are available for booking on its site, which included more than 24,000 restaurants in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Only restaurants with a minimum qualifying number of reviews from the last year were considered.
Multiple Jobholders Hit New All Time High As Part-Time Jobs Soar (Zero Hedge)
While today's headline jobs number was essentially Goldilocks, with the payrolls print missing the expected print of 180K by just 2,000 jobs, it was accompanied by a plunge in the unemployment rate to 9 year lows as a result of a jump in the number of people leaving the labor force, and rising to a new all time high of over 95 million.
Americans Not In The Labor Force Soar To Record 95.1 Million: Jump By 446,000 In One Month (Zero Hedge)
After it had managed to post a modest increase in the early part of the year, hitting the highest level in one year in March at 63%, the disenchantment with working has returned, and the labor force participation rate had flatlined for the next few month, ultimately dropping in November to 62.7%, just shy of its 35 year low of 62.4% hit last October.
Companies
Delta Air Lines lowers profit forecast due to new pilot contract (Reuters)
Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N) said on Friday it would take a $475 million hit in the fourth quarter from a new contract that hikes pilots' pay retroactively to the beginning of 2016.
Walmart agrees to $7.5 million settlement in discrimination suit (CNN Money)
The class-action suit, which was announced Friday, claimed that Walmart denied spousal health insurance benefits to same-sex employees between 2011 and 2013. Jacqueline Cote filed the complaint in July 2015 on behalf of other Walmart employees whose same-sex spouses were also denied health insurance.
Toyota Invests $3 Million In Kenyan Tech Firm (Forbes)
Toyota Tsusho has reportedly acquired a 9.5% stake in Seven Seas Technology, a Kenyan information technology firm, for $3 million, in a deal that values the company at a little over $30 million.
Wells Fargo Offers to Meet with Standing Rock Sioux Before Year-End (Reuters)
Wells Fargo & Co said it would “be pleased” to meet with tribal elders from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe before year-end to discuss the U.S. bank’s investment in the Dakota Access Pipeline, the company told the tribe in a letter dated Thursday.
Technology
Apple shows ambition to get into self-driving car race (Reuters)
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is wading in to the debate over regulation of self-driving cars, declaring it is excited about the potential for automated transportation and calling on U.S. regulators not to restrict testing of such vehicles.
Trump team reassures AT&T over Time Warner merger review (Ars Technica)
AT&T is reportedly feeling confident about its ability to buy Time Warner after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump's transition team—even though Trump himself vowed to block the merger during his campaign.
Is Tesla a Zero? (Audio Boom)
Rangeley Capital's Portfolio Managers, Chris DeMuth and Andrew Walker, discuss Tesla (TSLA) and the future of driving cars in the wake of the Solarcity (SCTY) deal close. Then, they turn their attention to Cuba (CUBA).
Tech Sector Falls Behind (Bespoke)
While Technology was a market leader for much of the Summer and into the Fall, in the post-election world the sector has done a complete 180 and fallen off a cliff. The chart below shows the relative strength of the Technology sector versus the S&P 500 over the last year.
Will Drones Rescue Apple Maps And Other Small Business Tech News This Week (Forbes)
Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 – PayPal introduces a new app specifically targeted at small businesses.
A devious new spam trick is targeting iPhone and MacBook users — here's how to stop it (Business Insider)
Spammers have managed to find a loophole in Apple's iCloud services by targeting people's inboxes with calendar invites. Here's how to prevent your calendar from annoying spam.
Apple drops hints about its work on a self-driving car (The Wall Street Journal)
Apple Inc. took its biggest step toward acknowledging it is working on autonomous vehicles, writing a letter to U.S. regulators offering feedback on proposed guidelines for the emerging technology.
3 ways AI will alter the enterprise (Venture Beat)
As consumers, we’re familiar with — if not yet wholly invested in — the term “artificial intelligence,” whether it’s by way of self-driving cars or voice-enabled search like Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.
Panasonic's OLED-fighting LCD is meant for professionals (Engadget)
Panasonic's salad days in the consumer TV space are in its past, but today the company announced a new IPS display technology that might help it win back some of the professional market.
Amplify lets you play synchronized songs across every phone in the room (Tech Crunch)
Say you’re at a party, and someone wants to get a silent disco going. Everyone opens their phone, someone yells “play,” and hopefully everyone gets it started at the same time.
Customers Took A Stand Against Windows 10's Aggresive Upgrades – And Won (Digital Trends)
Jesse Worley threatened to sue Microsoft. He’s not the first to take on the Redmond company, but his move to take legal action had a purpose. He wanted Microsoft to acknowledge that aggressively pushing the Windows 10 update was a problem.
Politics
During an appearance on “The Diane Rehm Show” on Wednesday, Donald Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes tried to defend the president-elect’s entirely baseless claim that he would have won the popular vote had it not been for “millions of people who voted il0legally.”
Italian Referendum to Determine Matteo Renzi’s Fate (The Wall Street Journal)
ROME—When Italians vote on a much-awaited popular referendum on Sunday, they will also be deciding the fate of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government—and expressing the country’s appetite for change.
Trump’s Potential Conflicts Have a Precedent: Berlusconi’s Italy (NY Times)
Donald Trump has said a wealthy real estate developer like him has never been elected president, so there’s no precedent for handling the many potential conflicts of interest that come with his dual roles.
The Orwellian nightmare for policy wonks is coming (The Washington Post)
I’m not going to sugarcoat this: For policy experts, the next four years of the Trump administration will be a waking nightmare. This is for two reasons. The first is that Trump’s team has few if any policy wonks. The second is that this puts the average policy wonk in a no-win situation.
Donald Trump’s lawyers file objection to Michigan recount: “Jill Stein’s 1 percent temper tantrum cannot go unchecked”President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t want there to be a recount in Michigan — and his campaign is throwing a classic Trumper tantrum to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Why The US Government Should NOT Refinance the National Debt with Longer Bonds (Pragmatic Capitalism)
With a change in the US Treasury Secretary soon taking place I get to play fantasy world and imagine how I would handle the transition if I were nominated.¹ One of the common ideas these days is that we should be “refinancing” government debt and “locking in” low rates.
Valls’s Mission to Save French Socialists From Election Collapse (Bloomberg)
Manuel Valls’s brief for the next few months may prove to be more of a salvage job than a realistic bid for the French presidency.
The next FBI headquarters, a $2 billion project, could be built by a Trump associate (The Washington Post)
Two billionaire New York City developers bidding to build a new headquarters for the FBI — maybe the largest government development since the CIA moved to Langley in Northern Virginia in 1961 — have deep ties with President-elect Donald Trump, whose victory injects new intrigue into the jockeying for the more than $2 billion project.
Trump didn't save as many Carrier jobs as he claimed (CNN Money)
President-elect Donald Trump said Carrier is "keeping 1,100 people" in jobs that won't be shifted to Mexico from a factory in Indianapolis.
Putin says Trump clever, will understand new responsibilities (Reuters)
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is a clever man and will quickly understand his new responsibilities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with NTV TV.
South Korea’s Opposition Files Motion to Impeach Leader Park (Bloomberg)
South Korea’s three opposition parties filed a motion Saturday to impeach President Park Geun-hye, rejecting her offer earlier in the week to resign in the wake of an influence-peddling scandal.
Health and Biotech
Gut Microbes May Play A Role In Parkinson's Disease (Popular Science)
Many people with Parkinson’s disease also experience digestive symptoms (like constipation) for some time before their diagnosis. But until recently, research on the degenerative disease and how to treat it has focused on understanding how Parkinson’s works in the brain.
Smart patch monitors blood, releases blood thinners to prevent clots (Drug Delivery)
Researchers from the North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a patch designed to monitor a patient’s blood and release blood-thinning drugs to prevent dangerous blood clots, or thrombosis. The team’s work was published in Advanced Materials.
Life on the Home Planet
Confessions of an Instagram Influencer (Bloomberg)
I’ve always been well-liked. At least, I think that’s the case. I have friends, a spouse, a job, a college degree. I exercise. I get haircuts regularly.
A man has shot dead a local councillor and two journalists with a rifle in a random attack outside a restaurant in the Finnish town of Imatra, according to Reuters.
Scientists just discovered there are 'bees' in the oceans (Science Alert)
For the first time, researchers have found evidence that underwater ecosystems have pollinators that perform the same task as bees on land.
Rebels tell U.S. they won't leave Aleppo; army sees operation over in weeks (Reuters)
Rebels in Aleppo have told the United States they will not leave their besieged enclave in the city after Moscow called for talks with Washington over their withdrawal, signaling they will fight on even as their top commander was wounded.
Europe’s green energy policy is a disaster for the environment (New Scientist)
The EU gets 65 per cent of its renewable energy from biofuels – mainly wood – but it is failing to ensure this bioenergy comes from sustainable sources, and results in less emissions than burning fossil fuels. Its policies in some cases are leading to deforestation, biodiversity loss and putting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than burning coal.
