Financial Markets and Economy
Bond markets all over the world are under pressure (Business Insider)
Bond markets all over the world have come under significant selling pressure in recent weeks.
The election of Donald Trump has brought the so-called bond viglantes out of the woodwork amid speculation that Trump's policies for trade and fiscal spending will bring inflation back to the US.
Nobody Agrees When Oil Market Will Re-Balance After OPEC Deal (Bloomberg)
That’s the range of views you’ll hear if you ask the International Energy Agency, OPEC, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. government when the production cuts announced last week will end the global oil glut.
Investor optimism, global economic reality may clash in 2017 (Reuters)
Investors sound optimistic about a breakout for the world economy next year, but for all the talk of huge tax cuts from the incoming U.S. presidency of Donald Trump, the economic outlook looks similar to 2016: uneven and unspectacular.
Inside the BOJ, rate hikes are back on the radar. Really (Reuters)
Interest rate hikes are back on the radar at the Bank of Japan, for the first time in a decade, as the U.S. Federal Reserve's tightening cycle pushes global bond yields higher, heralding a new era for central banks retreating from post-crisis stimulus.
These Charts Show New Winners of China's Transition to Wealth (Bloomberg)
With the world's second-largest economy recording a year-on-year growth rate of 6.7 percent for three quarters in a row in 2016, the country's nouveaux riches are spending more money on movies, tourism and entertainment.
Boeing Says China Plane Orders Support 150,000 U.S. Jobs a Year (Bloomberg)
Deliveries to China by Boeing Co., the largest U.S. exporter, support approximately 150,000 American jobs every year, Vice Chairman Ray Conner said.
Bitcoin’s Rally Crushed Every Other Currency in 2016. Here’s Why (Bloomberg)
Bitcoin, that nebulous digital currency that trades in cyberspace and is “mined” by code-cracking computers, emerged as a better bet this year than every major foreign-exchange trade, stock index and commodity contract.
Scandinavia's Disappearing Cash Act (Bloomberg)
Following in the footsteps of Sweden and Norway, Denmark has decided to outsource the production of its coins to Finland. The Danish central bank has already stopped printing banknotes. They've become so unfashionable that there's no rush to find a subcontractor for those.
China Plans Prudent, Neutral Monetary Policy for Next Year (Bloomberg)
China’s top policy makers said they plan prudent and neutral monetary policy and proactive fiscal policy next year as they seek to sustain a steady expansion with room for reforms.
Bonds are flashing a warning sign for stocks (Business Insider)
US stock markets have had a strong 2016 and a particularly good six weeks since the US election. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have posted gains of about 5% since election night, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has tacked on 8% and is approaching the 20,000 mark.
How Global Oil Flows Might Look After OPEC’s Supply Shock (Bloomberg)
OPEC’s quest to end a global crude glut already snapped a two-year slump in oil prices. Now attention is turning to how the group’s surprise decision to cut output will transform international trade flows of the world’s most important commodity.
Donald Trump Could Double The Wealth Of Private Equity Billionaires And Change Wall Street Forever (Forbes)
Donald Trump has vowed to kill one of Wall Street’s favorite tax loopholes. A closer look reveals his efforts could produce even more upside for private equity’s richest power players.
Stock Markets Advance In Face Of Fed Rate Hike Expectations (Associated Press)
Stock market investors appear undeterred by the prospect of more interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve next year as indexes continued to edge higher on Friday.
This Stock Rally Is More Hope Than Substance (The Wall Street Journal)
Janet Yellen may not have an armored horse, but her effect on the bull market looks very like the ineffective stab of a picador.
Chinese Stocks Cap Their Biggest Weekly Decline in Eight Months (Bloomberg)
Chinese stocks capped their steepest weekly retreat since April as surging money market rates reduced investor demand for the nation’s assets.
Rates Surging 5 Weeks Post-Election; Will Home Sales Weaken? (Associated Press)
Mortgage rates are still surging five weeks after Donald Trump's election victory. Will higher rates weaken prospective buyers' confidence next year and dampen home sales?
Measures of Economic Optimism Are Shooting Up All Over the Place After Trump's Win (Bloomberg)
Following the election, a number of indexes that track confidence have jumped, with respondents citing the potential for deregulation and tax cuts once President-elect Donald Trump takes office as the cause of their increased confidence.
China Halts Trading in Key Bond Futures as Panicky Investors Sell Securities (The Wall Street Journal)
SHANGHAI—Chinese bond yields soared and authorities halted trading in some futures contracts for the first time on Thursday, as a global bond-market selloff worsened a day after the Federal Reserve signaled a quicker pace of interest-rate increases next year.
Whistleblower Vindicated: Massive Trading Firm Knight Capital Charged With Abusing “Naked Shorts” (The Intercept)
Back In September, I wrote a seven-part series at The Intercept chronicling how former Wall Street trader Chris DiIorio, determined to figure out how he lost a small fortune on a penny stock, came to the conclusion that gigantic market-making firm Knight Capital, now known as KCG, repeatedly violated federal regulations meant to prevent abuse in what are known as “naked short sales.”
This Just Became the World's Cheapest Form of Electricity Out of Nowhere (Fortune)
According to Bloomberg’s analysis, the cost of solar power in China, India, Brazil and 55 other emerging market economies has dropped to about one third of its price in 2010. This means solar now pips wind as the cheapest form of renewable energy—but is also outperforming coal and gas.
Core CPI At/Above Fed’s 2% Target For 13th Straight Month (Shelter Inflation At 3.5% YoY) (Confounded Interest)
The inflation figures are out for November and they show core inflation has been at or above The Fed’s 2% target for 13 straight months.
China Devalues Yuan To Weakest Fix Since May 2008 (Zero Hedge)
Following last night's bond bloodbath, The Fed fallout continues in China as The PBOC has devalued the official Yuan fix the most since Brexit to its weakest level since May 2008, breaking above 6.95/USD.
The Bizarre Reason Why The World's Worst Currency Just Soared By 60% (Zero Hedge)
While we often highlight the collapse of Venezuela's currency, the Bolivar, which just two weeks ago hit an all time low of 4,609 Bolivars to the dollar in the black market losing 60% of its value in one month, as socialism hits its terminal phase, we should also note that what goes down, must sometimes come up and in a surprising twist, over the past few days, the Bolivar has been the best (if only temporarily) performing currency in the world.
Technology
Gartner's Top 10 Tech Trends You Can't Afford To Ignore in 2017 (SAP Voice)
Steadfast robots replace hotel desk clerks and retail workers, autonomous cars and drones transport robots that deliver packages more efficiently, shopping sprees take place in virtual reality – these are just a few of the innovations Gartner, Inc. predicted during a webcast entitled, “The Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017.”
Learning To Trust Artificial Intelligence Systems In The Age Of Smart Machines (IBM Voice)
The term “artificial intelligence” historically refers to systems that attempt to mimic or replicate human thought. This is not an accurate description of the actual science of artificial intelligence, and it implies a false choice between artificial and natural intelligences.
Here’s Where the Self-Driving Car Stands Right Now (Bloomberg)
The race to get humans to give up the wheel is picking up speed. Self-driving cars have rapidly moved from science fiction to actual fact and will start hitting the road within five years.
AT&T and Verizon defend their zero-rating policies to the FCC (Engadget)
AT&T and Verizon have pointed words for the FCC. In early December, FCC chief of wireless telecommunication Jon Wilkins sent separate letters to AT&T and Verizon warning that their zero-rating deals appeared to violate net neutrality rules.
If only Huawei’s handsome, high-tech Honor Magic phone was coming to the US (Tech Crunch)
Lucky China, always getting the good stuff. First pandas, and now the Huawei Honor Magic. This curvy beauty is packed with interesting tech, from a dual-camera system on the back to an eye-tracking sensor from Tobii on the front — and a whole lot of custom software in between.
Tesla starts fining people who abuse Supercharger stations (Venture Beat)
Carmaker Tesla today said it will start making people pay money when they don’t pick up their Tesla vehicles from Supercharger charging stations after the vehicles have been fully charged.
Politics
'California Will Launch Its Own Damn Satellites,' Governor Brown Tells Trump (NBC News)
California Gov. Jerry Brown has launched a blistering attack on President-elect Donald Trump's stance on climate change, telling a gathering of scientists that he will do everything in his power to protect laboratories and advanced research.
Obamacare Repeal Seen as Tax Cut for Top 1%, Raise for Others (Bloomberg)
Repealing Obamacare would amount to a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and a modest tax hike for some of the lowest earners, a new study found.
Earlier this week, when my beleaguered manservant Roger delivered me my curated news packet as he does every morning with my toast and Darjeeling, he included this amusing item: Newspapers Struggle To Find Pro-Trump Columnists.
Financial Times has named Donald Trump its person of the year. Like Time magazine before it, FT pointed to the fact that Trump’s election was legitimately a milestone in the U.S.
How faithless electors could flip the vote (The Economist)
“FIFTEEN years ago, I swore an oath to defend my country and Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. On December 19th, I will do it again.” Thus ended an op-ed in the New York Times at the beginning of December by Christopher Suprun, a Republican paramedic from Texas, who is one of the 538 members of the electoral college that will do its work on December 19th.
Tribalism run amok: Now Donald Trump voters are worried he might take their Obamacare away (Salon)
Sarah Kliff had a fascinating story in Vox on Tuesday about Donald Trump voters in Kentucky who are very concerned to learn that the president-elect plans to follow through on his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare.
North Carolina’s Partisan Rift Widens in Fight Over Governor’s Powers (NY Times)
There have been four years of civil disobedience, reputation-bruising boycotts over bathroom access, and legal battles over voting laws and gerrymanders. The election for governor, fraught with Republican challenges, took a month to settle.
Obama Says U.S. Will Retaliate for Russia’s Election Meddling (NY Times)
WASHINGTON — President Obama said on Thursday that the United States would retaliate for Russia’s efforts to influence the presidential election, asserting that “we need to take action,” and “we will.”
Robert Reich: Donald Trump’s 7 techniques to control the media (Robert Reich's Blog)
Democracy depends on a free and independent press, which is why all tyrants try to squelch it. They use seven techniques that, worryingly, President-elect Donald Trump already employs.
Obama to hold press conference at White House on Friday (Reuters)
U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a press conference at the White House on Friday at 2:15 p.m. ET (1915 GMT) before leaving for his annual family vacation in Hawaii, the White House said on Thursday.
Italy’s new prime minister wins confidence vote staving off political turmoil (EuroNews)
Italy’s caretaker prime minister Paolo Gentiloni has won the backing of the Senate in a confidence vote allowing his government to take office, turning the political turmoil down from boil to simmer.
Obamacare repeal means a $197,000 tax cut for the 0.1 percent (Vox)
These tax figures are important for understanding why Republicans are so committed to Obamacare repeal. It’s not just about delivering on a campaign promise to get rid of President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment. It’s also about providing a significant tax cut to the top 1 percent of earners.
‘Brexit’ Talks Could Stretch 10 Years, British Official Warns (NY Times)
LONDON — Struck off the guest list for dinner at a European Union summit, Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May, faced a second embarrassment on Thursday, over warnings that trade talks on quitting the bloc could last a decade, and even then might fail.
Fake news is a convenient scapegoat, but the big 2016 problem was the real news (Vox)
Speaking in early December at a ceremony to honor Harry Reid’s retirement from the US Senate, Hillary Clinton took aim at a target that would have been totally unfamiliar to audiences as recently as the summer of 2016: fake news.
Seth Meyers skewers Trump’s “drain the swamp” hypocrisy (Holy Kaw)
Like every politician ever, Trump made a lot of campaign promises. How’s he doing on them? Well, if you watch this Seth Meyers skit, you’ll have to say, “Not well.”
Health and Biotech
Pregnant Women Warned to Avoid Brownsville, Tex., Because of Zika (NY Times)
Federal health officials warned pregnant women on Wednesday to avoid visiting Brownsville, Tex., because of the threat of infection with the Zika virus.
Antibiotic resistance will hit a terrible tipping point in 2017 (New Scientist)
A major menace looms over us. In 2017, many more people could begin dying from common bacterial infections. As resistance to antibiotics booms, diseases from gonorrhoea to urinary tract infections are becoming untreatable – a situation that looks set to get worse as the world reaches a new tipping point next year.
Life on the Home Planet
'We can't kill our way out of this': Experts say a military response is not enough to defeat ISIS (AFP)
If the Islamic State group is to be defeated and prevented from reappearing under some new guise, the root causes behind its birth and growth must be addressed, American experts say.
There's Water Ice All Over Dwarf Planet Ceres (Forbes)
New findings from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show that there’s water all over the dwarf planet Ceres – in the air, frozen below the crust and trapped as ice in permanently shadowed craters.
This is what an asteroid impact in the ocean could mean for you (Science Alert)
When we think about the prospect of an asteroid impact on Earth, it's easy to imagine the cataclysmic death and destruction that would result if a space rock smashed into a large city or urban area.
Another nuclear fusion record just got broken in South Korea (Science Alert)
Scientists working to make nuclear fusion a viable reality have smashed another record, after the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor in South Korea maintained 'high performance' plasma in a stable state for 70 seconds this week– the longest ever recorded for this type of reaction.
Strange Giant Diamonds Give Hints To The Inner Earth's Composition (Popular Science)
The largest diamonds ever mined on earth aren’t just set apart by their large size and luster, but by a unique origin story as well. They were born of metal, growing from patches of liquid iron and gas deep inside the Earth.
