Financial Markets and Economy
Paschi Falls as Buyers Said to Balk, Making State Aid Likely (Bloomberg)
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA will probably fail to lure sufficient demand for a 5 billion-euro ($5.2 billion) capital raise, said people with knowledge of the matter, making a state rescue likely.
The Long-Term Jobs Killer Is Not China. It’s Automation. (NY Times)
The first job that Sherry Johnson, 56, lost to automation was at the local newspaper in Marietta, Ga., where she fed paper into the printing machines and laid out pages. Later, she watched machines learn to do her jobs on a factory floor making breathing machines, and in inventory and filing.
Bearish Bets Backfire for Big-Name Hedge Funds (The Wall Street Journal)
Some of the biggest names in the hedge-fund industry began 2016 betting stocks would tank. It turned out to be a terrible call.
The rise and fall of China's currency (Business Insider)
The Chinese yuan has been in a controlled decline since 2014 and is now at multi-year lows against the US dollar.
Pound Options Show Pessimism With Bearish Bets at 7-Week High (Bloomberg)
Pound traders are becoming increasingly bearish on the currency, with the cost of insurance against a decline versus the dollar at the highest since November.
Meet Latest China Finance Scare, Entrusted Bonds: QuickTake Q&A (Bloomberg)
There’s another Chinese financial practice that’s prompting high-decibel warnings. So-called entrusted bond holdings are a way for financial institutions to skirt rules on using borrowed money to invest in bonds.
Record Capital Outflows Push Euro Toward Parity With Dollar (The Wall Street Journal)
More money has left eurozone financial markets this year than at any time in the bloc’s history, helping drive the euro toward parity with the dollar for the first time in 14 years.
Someone Bought a ‘Relatively Cheap Lottery Ticket’ That Will Pay Off If Oil Hits $100 (Bloomberg)
Call it a pre-Christmas lottery ticket, but someone in the oil market has been busy making a bold bet, buying contracts that will be profitable if oil surges again to $100 a barrel.
Draghi Limitations Exposed With Inflation Downside Risks in 2017 (Bloomberg)
Investors may grow increasingly skeptical of the European Central Bank meeting its inflation target, with a host of factors — some beyond the control of President Mario Draghi — exposing the limitations of policy makers’ toolkit.
Census Says U.S. Population Grew at Lowest Rate Since Great Depression This Year (The Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. population this year grew at its lowest rate since the Great Depression, and the state of New York shrank for the first time in a decade, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday.
Republican Presidents and Recessions: A Pattern Trump Would Like to Break (Bloomberg)
Here’s a frightening factoid for Donald Trump as he prepares to take office next month: Every Republican president since World War II has been in power during at least one recession.
Hackers Have Stolen Millions Of Dollars In Bitcoin — Using Only Phone Numbers (Forbes)
Just after midnight on August 11, self-professed night owl Jered Kenna was working at home in Medellin, Colombia, when he was notified the passwords had been reset on two of his email addresses.
Brides, Bureaucrats and Bargaining: Commodities in 2017 (Bloomberg)
A 10 percent gain wouldn't exactly make 2016 a leap year; the index is still only at roughly half the level where it ended 2010. Still, a positive number is a positive number. Can it be repeated in 2017?
US investor optimism jumps to 9-year high: Survey (CNBC)
Individual investor optimism jumped to a nine-year high in November, according to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Investor and Retirement Optimism Index published Tuesday.
World Markets Quieter Wednesday As Christmas Holiday Approaches (Money Morning)
European stock markets were narrowly mixed Wednesday as markets activity begins to wind down ahead of the Christmas holiday on Sunday. Asian stock markets were firmer, led by China's Shanghai stock index that posted solid gains.
Banca Monte dei Paschi Rescue Raises Complex Issues for European Authorities (The Street)
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Sienna's ongoing rescue effort has raised myriad challenges for lawmakers in both Rome and Brussels as the region's new banking sector rules face their sternest test to date.
What will the future look like? Well, you'll own less stuff (The Globe And Mail)
The World Economic Forum has been looking ahead to urban life in 2030, and it sees people owning a lot less stuff. The underlying idea is that products will become services. You don’t buy a car, you use a car-sharing service. You don’t own tools, cameras and tents – you rent them.
End of Year Winners and Losers (Bespoke)
While December is typically a strong month for equities, most of the month’s gains have historically come prior to Christmas, while the last week of the year tends to be trendless with a slight positive bias. With just seven trading days left in the year, we wanted to highlight which stocks in the S&P 500 have historically seen the best and worst returns from the close on 12/21 through the end of December over the last ten years.
“Normal” Equity Valuations, Rising Interest & Mortgage Rates – Deception (Value Walk)
At the December 14, 2016 FOMC press conference, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen re-sponded to a reporter’s question about equity valuations and the possibility that equities are in a bubble by stating the following: “I believe it’s fair to say that they (valuations) remain within normal ranges”.
Existing Home Sales Surge To Feb 2007 Highs Despite Soaring Mortgage Rates (Zero Hedge)
Despite soaring mortgage rates, tumbling affordability, and crashing mortgage applications, existing home sales soared to fresh cycle highs. At 5.61mm SAAR, this is the highest existing home sale print since Feb 2007 (+0.7% MoM vs -1.8% exp).
Will Tax Cuts and More Federal Borrowing/Spending Fix What's Broken? (Of Two Minds)
Not to rain on the new administration's parade, but one question needs to be asked of any new administration: will tax cuts and more federal borrowing/ spending fix what's broken in the U.S./global economy?
JPM Trading Desk Reiterates The "Enormous Risk For The Tape" Which The Market Keeps Ignoring (Zero Hedge)
Having cautioned virtually every day over the past week (see here and here) what it believes is the biggest threat facing the market, this morning JPM's trading desk commentary echoed and escalated the warning which the markets keep ignoring, to wit.
Junk Bonds diverging like 2000 and 2007, does it matter? (Kimble Charting Solutions)
In 1999, I had been in the financial planning business for the prior 19-years and something odd seemed to be taking place, which really had my attention back then. What did I notice? Junk Bonds were diverging against the broad market over the prior year.
European Banking Bloodbath Spreads To Spain After Italy Fires €20 Billion "Bazooka" At €360 Billion Problem (Zero Hedge)
Total chaos reigns in European banking stocks this morning as Monte Paschi shares crash, soar, and plunge amid on-again, off-again bail-in, bail-out headlines (and stocks and bonds hit record lows).
Hydraulic fracturing accounts for about half of current U.S. crude oil production (US Energy Information Administration)
Even though hydraulic fracturing has been in use for more than six decades, it has only recently been used to produce a significant portion of crude oil in the United States. This technique, often used in combination with horizontal drilling, has allowed the United States to increase its oil production faster than at any time in its history.
Companies
Why Yogurt Is Giving General Mills A Sour Taste In Its Mouth (Forbes)
General Mills GIS +1.03% has a case of yogurt-induced indigestion. The company reported lower than expected second quarter earnings results Tuesday — in part because of continued declines from its line of Yoplait yogurts.
Technology
Nokia sues Apple for infringing patents, industry back on war footing (Reuters)
Nokia Corp (NOKIA.HE) said on Wednesday it had filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc (AAPL.O) for violating 32 technology patents, striking back at the iPhone maker's legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.
Google and Huawei are investigating Nexus 6P premature shutdown issue (Venture Beat)
Some Nexus 6P owners around the world are reporting their phone has started prematurely shutting down. The device powers off all by itself long before the battery is depleted, or at least before Android indicates it is depleted. We contacted Google and confirmed that the company, as well as Huawei, the phone’s manufacturer, are investigating the issue.
Honda is in talks to use Alphabet's self-driving car tech (Engadget)
Mere days after Google spun out its self-driving car division as Waymo, the newly spawned Alphabet company is already in the midst of cutting big deals. Honda has revealed that it's entering talks with Waymo on integrating autonomous hardware with its vehicles.
Fitbit's Charge 2 helps keep your heart in the zone (Engadget)
We like Fitbit's Charge 2 fitness tracker, but there's no question that it has room for improvement — in particular, it could do with better guidance when you're in the middle of some activities. Thankfully, you're getting just that.
This Year, Get a Robot to Write Your Thank-You Notes (Bloomberg)
Maybe you are the type who is forever intending to mail thank-you cards. Maybe you even compose them in your head and yet, when time came to actually do it, you didn’t have any stamps, or the post office was closed, or you were stuck at the airport without your stationery.
'Biggest Ad Fraud Ever': Hackers Make $5M A Day By Faking 300M Video Views (Forbes)
A group of Russian criminals are making between $3 million and $5 million every day in a brazen attack on the advertising market, security firm White Ops claimed today. It's the biggest digital ad fraud ever uncovered and perpetrated by faking clicks on video ads, the company said.
This guy combined an iPhone and an HTC Vive to make a virtual camera (sort of like the ones used for Avatar and Inside Out) (Tech Crunch)
When a movie is more CG than it is real — think movies like Avatar or any of Pixar’s stuff, where all or nearly all of the environment is rendered — a new challenge appears: the camera.
Politics
Scott Walker directly appeals to Trump to let him drug test people who need food stamps (Think Progress)
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who campaigned for President-elect Donald Trump during his presidential run, has sent his ally a public letter asking him to pave the way for drug testing food stamps recipients before Trump has even assumed office.
GOP Congressman Urges Self-Rationing Of Health Care After Obamacare Repeal (The Huffington Post)
Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) says there’s “definitely” going to be changes in health care delivery after Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act, and people are going to need to take more responsibility for the cost of their treatment.
Trump's budget director pick: “Do we really need government-funded research at all” (Vox)
President-elect Donald Trump recently picked Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina to head the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Like many of Trump’s other Cabinet nominees, Mulvaney seems to have a disturbingly low opinion of science.
Democrats Had a Knife, and the G.O.P. Had a Gun (NY Times)
President Obama and Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina don’t agree on many policy questions. But they have found themselves facing a similar political situation this year. And their very different reactions capture the deep — and alarming — differences between our two political parties right now.
Trump doesn’t miss a beat as Twitter’s Media Critic in Chief (Columbia Journalism)
Donald Trump operates his Twitter feed as a virtual Statler and Waldorf, casting judgment on the media and individual journalists like a Muppet in the rafters. Trumpian tweets often appear soon after a negative story has run about him or his business, especially in the case of cable news, hinting at the president-elect’s viewing habits (lots of CNN).
16 striking findings from 2016 (Pew Research Center)
Every year, we publish a collection of facts about the important events, issues and trends we documented in our wide-ranging research over the past 12 months.
14th meeting of the Electoral College for the District of Columbia (The Huffington Post)
The election may not have turned out as we would have liked, but we in DC should be proud of our effort. We not only had much of our people travelled the country to support our candidate, but we showed our support with one of the highest percentage ever giving to a candidate in a General Election for President, since having the right to vote in presidential elections (23rd Amendment, 1961).
Trump under pressure to pick a Hispanic for his Cabinet (Politico)
Newt Gingrich, a top adviser to Donald Trump, says the president-elect's Cabinet choices have heartened his supporters, and he believes they are likely to sail to confirmation. But he has a caveat.
Health and Biotech
Lacing Dog Treats With Cannabis Is Big Business (Bloomberg)
Even for a puppy, Kat Donatello's black lab, Austin, was hyperactive. After experimenting with natural supplements on her older dog, Brady, Donatello slipped the puppy a special biscuit. "It just kind of took the edge off of him," she recalled.
Life on the Home Planet
Beijing’s Air Pollution is Frightening. This Video Shows Just How Bad It Gets (TIME)
Winters in Beijing are grim. It’s not just the subzero temperatures and shortened days that feel so oppressive; the year-end chill means even more coal is burned for heating, blanketing the Chinese capital in thick smog.
Scientists have discovered a colourful wonderland beneath the Antarctic ice (Science Alert)
Australian scientists attached a camera to a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) deployed under the sea ice at O’Brien Bay, near Casey research station in East Antarctica.
The Most Surprising Places Where It (Sometimes) Snows (Popular Science)
Did you know you could go skiing in Hawaii? Catch a sprinkling of snow across the Sahara? Here are some recent wacky weather events to get you in the holiday spirit—even if it won't be a white Christmas in your neck of the woods.
North Pole Temperatures May Soar to 50 Degrees Above Normal (Scientific American)
For the second year in a row, the Arctic is facing a late December heat wave (at least by Arctic winter standards). Temperatures are forecast to soar about 50°F above normal, which would bring them near the freezing point at the North Pole.
