Financial Markets and Economy
A staggering number of Americans aren't making a living wage.
That's the takeaway from a great bit of data from Just Capital, a nonprofit set up by legendary hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones.
OPEC Threatened by Tiny Oklahoma Town With Soaring Supplies (Bloomberg)
With oil inventories at Cushing creeping near an all-time high, U.S. benchmark futures prices are struggling to advance despite the promised production cuts agreed to by OPEC, Russia and other producers. And the storage tanks are likely to stay full as refiners park crude in Oklahoma to lower their tax bills.
Greek Short-Term Debt Relief in Jeopardy as Bailout Stalls (Bloomberg)
Hopes for a quick resolution to Greece’s bailout review faded after Europe’s stability fund froze short-term debt relief measures that would have eased the nation’s payment obligations.
Flat Auto Sales Cloud U.S. Growth Outlook (The Wall Street Journal)
The auto industry has been a bright spot during much of the recent U.S. economic expansion, but the country’s car buyers are showing signs of fatigue, raising concerns over the broader outlook for consumer spending—a key engine of U.S. growth.
Flush With Cash, NBA Keeps the Peace With Labor Deal (The Wall Street Journal)
The current NBA season has something for everyone on what seems like a nightly basis. The Golden State Warriors remain captivating. The Cleveland Cavaliers still have LeBron James. Even the New York Knicks aren’t that bad.
Gulf Arabs Follow Fed's Rate Increase Even as Economy Slows (Bloomberg)
Gulf Arab central banks are following the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate increase, maintaining their commitment to the U.S. dollar peg even as lower oil prices hit economic growth.
Trump bragged of a stock 'bounce' in tech CEO meeting, but most are lagging market since election (CNBC)
President-elect Donald Trump met with technology CEOs Wednesday and took credit for a market 'bounce' since the Nov. 8 election. However, many technology companies are actually under-performing the general market.
Big Oil Gets a Huge Role in Trump's Administration (Bloomberg)
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court broke up John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in 1911, the energy industry has been at loggerheads with the federal government. Now it is the government — or may be if Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson is confirmed as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
Yellen Says Time for Job-Boosting Budget Stimulus Has Passed (Bloomberg)
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank is operating amid a “cloud of uncertainty” about budget policy under Donald Trump but one thing is clear: The labor market doesn’t need a shot of fiscal stimulus any more.
Dividend Stocks in 2017: 7 Stats Everyone Should Know (Fool.com)
If you're a dividend investor as we head into 2017, or you're considering becoming one, there are some things you ought to know that can strengthen your conviction. Dividend stocks are terrific ways to build your wealth, so be sure to give them plenty of consideration — and perhaps plenty of your investment dollars, too.
Fed raises interest rate and projects more hikes in 2017 to fight off inflation (Los Angeles Times)
A slowly improving economy and the possibility of higher inflation from President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed policies led Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday to hike interest rates for the first time in a year and signal three more small increases for 2017.
TD raises key mortgage rate for third time in a month (The Globe And Mail)
Toronto-Dominion Bank has hiked its main mortgage rate for the third time in a month, reversing earlier plans to compete with its biggest rival on price.
TD raised the rate on its five-year fixed mortgages to 2.94 per cent, a jump of 10 basis points, or 0.1 per cent.
Twelve months after raising a key benchmark rate for the first time in 10 years, the Federal Reserve finally increased the rate again on Wednesday, making consumer and business loans slightly more expensive.
Don’t Forget About Deutsche Bank (Daily Reckoning)
The bank in question is Deutsche Bank. It’s the largest bank in Germany, by far, and one of the twelve largest in the world. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Deutsche Bank not only to the global economy, but also in terms of its vast web of off-balance-sheet derivatives, guarantees, trade finance, and other financial obligations on five continents.
Bill Gates Believes That Stocks Are Expensive Now (Friedrich Research, Seeking Alpha)
Since President-Elect Trump won the most recent election, investors have been piling into stocks at what my research shows to be the top of the market. It is not just my opinion that the current trend may end badly, but this is what Bill Gates had to say about how expensive stocks are right now.
War On Cash Escalates: Australia Proposes Ban On $100 Bill; No Cash Within 10 Years? (Mish Talk)
Global financial repression has picked up steam. Australian citizens are likely the next victim.
Evercore: "More Hawkish Than Expected Fed" Leaves Markets Behind The Curve: 2Y/USD Headed Higher (Zero Hedge)
More hawkish than expectations…investors we have talked to understood that the "supertanker" that is Fed policy was likely to turn, but was more likely to wait in forecasting a faster pace of rate hikes until till the new administrations fiscal policy plans became clear.
Companies
Feds slap restrictions on Wells Fargo after finding bank unprepared for any future bankruptcy (Los Angeles Times)
Wells Fargo & Co. was sanctioned Tuesday by federal regulators who determined the bank has not done enough to ensure it could continue operating smoothly and without a taxpayer bailout after a bankruptcy.
Australia's Crown Resorts leaves Las Vegas, sells down Macau (Reuters)
Australia's No. 1 casino company Crown Resorts Ltd (CWN.AX) is planning a near-total exit from the world's two biggest gaming hubs, Las Vegas and Macau, as a gambling crackdown in China hits profits and throws its expansion plans into disarray.
Technology
Yahoo Says 1 Billion User Accounts Were Hacked (NY Times)
SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo, already reeling from its September disclosure that 500 million user accounts had been hacked in 2014, disclosed Wednesday that a different attack in 2013 compromised more than 1 billion accounts.
Intel's Next-Generation Server Processors Will Be Built on 10-Nanometer Tech (Fool.com)
In 2015, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) told investors that its 2016 personal computer processor lineup would not be built in its next-generation 10-nanometer chip manufacturing technology, as had been widely expected.
California’s new energy-efficiency rules for computers may save consumers $373 million a year (Reuters)
California regulators on Wednesday adopted the nation’s first mandatory energy efficiency rules for computers and monitors – devices that account for 3 percent of home electric bills and 7 percent of commercial power costs in the state.
World Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That's Cheaper Than Wind (Bloomberg)
There’s a transformation happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.
Politics
North Carolina G.O.P. Moves to Curb Power of New Democratic Governor (NY Times)
RALEIGH, N.C. — Republicans in the North Carolina legislature on Wednesday took the highly unusual step of moving to strip power from the incoming Democratic governor after a bitter election that extended years of fierce ideological battles in the state.
We Interviewed Health Care Leaders About Their Industry, and They’re Worried (Harvard Business Review)
However the Trump administration and the Republican U.S. Congress replace or revamp the Affordable Care Act, it is unlikely to halt America’s ongoing move from the rightfully maligned fee-for-service payment system to one that pays for “value” — the quality of outcomes relative to the price.
Like Donald Trump, Rex Tillerson has financial conflicts — over $177M in Exxon stock that can’t be sold (Dallas News)
The timing for a career change couldn’t be much better for Rex Tillerson and Exxon Mobil, given that the Exxon chairman and CEO was already set to retire. But other issues, including his $345 million stake in Exxon stock, won’t be resolved so neatly.
Not one D.C. high school marching band wants to play Donald Trump’s inauguration (Salon)
Marching bands rank among the few things lamer than Kid Rock. Still, you’re more likely to find the latter than the former at Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Federal government orders Donald Trump to give up his D.C. hotel before moving into White House (Salon)
In 2013, the General Services Administration leased Washington D.C.’s historic Post Office Pavilion to the Trump Organization for $180 million. The Trump International Hotel was soon used as the backdrop for a number of events during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
This is how ridiculous the Trump tech meeting was (Business Insider)
A room full of some of the top tech leaders in the US: Apple, Facebook, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Amazon, Tesla, and so forth. It's a breath of fresh air to see that Marc Benioff, who has become a beacon for protecting the rights of our most vulnerable citizens, is not in attendance.
Our foreign correspondent reports from Trumplandia: You won’t believe what happened when they held an election in America!Tumult and confusion continues to surround the recent presidential election in the United States, the most populous nation in North America and the world’s largest military power. The winning candidate — a businessman and television celebrity named Donald Trump — received far fewer votes than his opponent, a former senator and secretary of state (as Americans call their foreign minister) named Hillary Clinton.
California Governor Brown Challenges Trump on Climate Change (The Wall Street Journal)
SAN FRANCISCO—California Gov. Jerry Brown vowed the state will fight any retreat from policies to combat climate change, telling a scientific gathering here that the nation’s most populous state will preserve efforts to curb emissions widely believed a cause of global warming.
Health and Biotech
Why the FDA Wants More Control over Some Lab Tests (Scientific American)
Every year in the U.S., doctor's offices and hospitals order billions of laboratory tests to measure everything from cholesterol levels in the blood to the presence of a gene thought to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Repeated anesthesia exposure could hurt young brains, FDA warns (Stat News)
Regulators in the US will require new warnings be added to the labels of certain anesthetic and sedation drugs, the Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday, indicating that use of the drugs could possibly harm young children’s brains.
Life on the Home Planet
Satellites Show Chinese Weapons in South China Sea (The Wall Street Journal)
China has installed weapons on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in disputed water of the South China Sea, according to a U.S. think tank’s analysis of satellite imagery.
China installs weapons systems on artificial islands: U.S. think tank (Reuters)
China appears to have installed weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea, a U.S. think tank reported, citing new satellite imagery.
Syrian official: 951 people left eastern Aleppo in first convoy (Reuters)
A Syrian official source said 951 people left eastern Aleppo on Thursday in the first convoy to depart from the rebel enclave under an agreement by which insurgents are surrendering the area to the government.
