Financial Markets and Economy
RBC's chief US market strategist sees a 'continued upside' to stocks through 2017 (Business Insider)
Jonathan Golub, the chief US market strategist at RBC Capital Markets, believes that stocks will continue to be on the rise through 2017.
The New Kings of the S&P 500: Semiconductor Stocks (The Wall Street Journal)
Move over FANG. There are new kings of the S&P 500 this year. Semiconductor stocks have been all the rage in 2016, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index jumping more than 41%.
Southern California home prices keep rising, and sales jump (Los Angeles Times)
Southern California home prices and sales rose in November compared with a year earlier, according to a report released Tuesday.
Real-Estate Industry Braces for Tax Upheaval (The Wall Street Journal)
The real-estate industry has long known it would face a fight in 2017 about how federal tax law applies to commercial and residential property.
Why Low Rates Failed to Boost Business Investment (Bloomberg)
If you applied for a mortgage in the past few years, you probably noticed that the record-low rates during much of that period were only available to a lucky few. Lending standards tightened a lot after the subprime fiasco.
Deutsche Bank 2017 Capital Requirements Lowered in ECB Review (Bloomberg)
Deutsche Bank AG will have to clear a lower capital hurdle next year, joining other European lenders who are benefiting from a change in how the European Central Bank sets the requirements.
Japan Back in Deflation Doesn't Mean All Prices Fall (Bloomberg)
Shinzo Abe and Haruhiko Kuroda promised to drag Japan out of decades of deflation in 2013. That hasn't happened yet, with core inflation dropping in November for a ninth month.
China Beige Book Shows Broad Improvement Across All Industries (Bloomberg)
The world’s No. 2 economy showed improvement in the fourth quarter with gains across all industries, according to the China Beige Book.
The Penny Cost More to Make Than It’s Worth, Again (The Wall Street Journal)
The cost to produce the 1-cent coin rose to 1.5 cents in the 2016 fiscal year, Mint spokesman Tom Jurkowsky said. That’s the first time costs have been up since 2011, but still just the latest in a string of losses for the most abundant but least valuable coin in circulation.
Last-minute spending surge lifts U.S. holiday shopping season (Reuters)
A jump in consumer spending in the final stretch of December significantly offset a slow start to the U.S. holiday shopping season, and is likely to help many retailers beat sales forecasts, industry research groups said on Tuesday.
The Mystery of Japan’s Stagnant Wages (The Wall Street Journal)
Despite a slew of monetary and fiscal maneuvers to boost growth, Japanese policy makers are still caught in a bind: The labor market is tight but pay isn’t growing.
Italy's Monte dei Paschi bailout is getting more expensive (Reuters)
The Italian government is likely to put in about 6.5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) to rescue the country's third-biggest lender, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, more than initially expected, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday.
Stock-market inflows may have a lot further to run, according to this chart (Market Watch)
Investors have been snapping up stocks since the presidential election, pushing major indexes to all-time highs and the Dow toward the arguably psychologically important milestone of 20,000. But a longer look back at fund flows shows that investors might still have plenty of room for further buying, say analysts at Jefferies.
Miners Unearth a Profit Bonanza With Rally Set to Last Into 2017 (Bloomberg)
Miners had been digging in one of Australia’s oldest collieries for almost a century until operations wound down a year ago, the victim of plunging global commodity prices. Now owner Glencore Plc is resuming output at the Queensland site, the latest sign of a profit bonanza bringing the world’s top metals and energy producers back from the brink.
Donald Trump Thinks He’s the Reason You’re Spending So Much Money (Fortune)
On Monday, the President-elect tweeted that the "world was gloomy before [he] won," and that, since the election, "the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars."
China’s ‘Godfather of Real Estate’ Pitches Reverse Mortgages to Skeptical Elders (NY Times)
BEIJING — He is known in China as the “godfather of real estate,” helping lay the groundwork for private homeownership in China, a move that enriched millions and laid the foundations for a vibrant and thriving Chinese middle class.
Holiday Sales May Have Jumped 4.9% in Biggest Gain Since 2005 (Bloomberg)
Holiday shoppers abandoned their early reluctance and boosted spending as the season wore on, pushing U.S. sales to the biggest increase in more than a decade, according to research firm Customer Growth Partners.
Housing Gains Highlight Economic Divide (The Wall Street Journal)
The volatile housing market of the past 15 years is widening the divide between pricey urban and coastal areas and more affordable inland regions, creating large swaths of winners and losers based largely on geography.
Minimum wage is going up in these 21 states in 2017 (The Motley Fool)
Minimum wage laws have been a major political issue recently. Proponents of higher wages argue that they're necessary to provide for basic living expenses, and many have called for increases to as much as $15 per hour.
Overcrowded Trade List Shows Amazon Still Among Hottest Holdings (Value Walk)
The overcrowded trade list, compiled by UBS and packaged in a December 27 report, is interesting from several perspectives. It points to potential dichotomous institutional investor thoughts as a new presidential administration is about to take charge in the US.
Europe Proposes Confiscating Gold In Crackdown On “Terrorist Financing” (Zero Hedge)
Hot on the heels of China gold import restrictions, and India’s demonetization and gold confiscations, The European Commission proposed tightening controls on cash and precious metals transfers from outside the EU under the guise of shutting down one route for funding of militant attacks on the continent, following the Berlin Christmas attack.
2017 Investment Forecasts: Possibly Good, No Longer Great (Associated Press)
They've already been great for years, as both stocks and bonds have delivered fat returns since the worst of the financial crisis passed in 2009. But after such a strong and long gallop upward, markets have many reasons to slow down, analysts and fund managers say.
Ridiculous Year-End Predictions (Slope Of Hope)
Sigh. Well, they’ve started in force, especially in the world of financial media. The pundits are trotting out all the “surprises” and “shocks” that are going to take place in 2017.
Chinese traders charged with insider trading on hacked information (USA Today)
Chinese traders hacked into the computer systems of U.S. law firms that handle mergers, then used the data for insider trading that generated more than $4 million in illegal profits, federal prosecutors and regulators charged Tuesday.
The Biggest Loser: Mallinckrodt Drops 2.7% (Barron's)
Mallinckrodt (MNK) tumbled to the bottom of the S&P 500 today as weakness that began last month even before its fourth-quarter earnings continued into year end.
Cliffs Natural Resources' Stock Price Exploded In 2016 – Any Rocket Fuel Left? (Shareholders Unite, Seeking Alpha)
Cliffs Natural Resources was trading at $9.24 on Dec. 1, 2016, which represents a 70% rise in the last one month alone. The stock has risen an impressive 52.0% since Donald Trump won the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. That brings the YTD (year-to-date) rise to a whopping 474.0%.
Early In Japan's Runaway Inflation: A Building Market Risk (Elazar Advisors, LLC, Seeking Alpha)
On December 22nd we reported that the dollar's (NYSEARCA:UUP) November jump alone would seriously add to Japan's inflation report. We've been writing a lot about this subject but on December 21st we wrote that we thought central banks would briefly declare inflation-target victory then quickly fall behind the curve.
2017 Annual Forecast (Financial Sense)
The convulsions to come in 2017 are the political manifestations of much deeper forces in play. In much of the developed world, the trend of aging demographics and declining productivity is layered with technological innovation and the labor displacement that comes with it.
The Fed Admits The Good Old Days Are Never Coming Back (Mauldin Economics)
The dots that the FOMC members contribute to the plot indicate their expectations for the federal funds rate.
Bitcoin Surges 20% In A Week As Chinese Volumes Hit Record High (Zero Hedge)
The last 5 days have seen Bitcoin prices (in dollars) soar over 18% and over 20% in Yuan as volumes on Chinese exchanges continues to build, seemingly anticipating notable Yuan devaluation (confirmed by various derivative bets being placed on the Chinese currency) and/or further capital controls looming as yet another hot money Chinese bubble explodes in commodity-land.
Companies
Toshiba Plunges by Limit as U.S. Nuclear a Nightmare for Costs (Bloomberg)
Toshiba Corp. plunged by the daily limit in Tokyo as the once heralded U.S. nuclear renaissance is turning into a nightmare for the Japanese company.
Nike: 3 Reasons Credit Suisse Still Rates It Outperform (Barron's)
Nike (NKE) released earnings last week that sparked disagreements whether the athletic-shoe company had turned a corner or still faced continued competitive pressures from the likes of Under Armour (UA) and Adidas.
UBS: Here Are the Most Crowded Stocks in the World Right Now (Bloomberg)
Analysts at UBS Group AG have examined the equity holdings of actively managed funds worldwide to work out, by reference to FactSet institutional-ownership data, which stocks are the most over- and under-owned relative to their benchmark weightings.
Technology
Amazon's hockey-puck-sized smart speaker was its top seller this holiday (Business Insider)
The holiday shopping rush is nearing an end, and to nobody's surprise, it appears to have been a lucrative time for Amazon. More specifically, the e-commerce giant says four of its own devices were the best-selling products on its site over that time.
Hold Your Applause for Tesla’s Solar Panel Deal (Barron's)
Tesla Motors announced on Tuesday that it had finalized a deal with Panasonic to make solar panels at a factory in Buffalo. Wall Street cheered the news, with shares rising 2.7% in afternoon trading, to $219.
Korean Air has given flight attendants the green light to use tasers on unruly passengers (Business Insider)
Korean Air flight attendants will now have freer access to on-board Tasers.
On Tuesday, the Seoul-based airline "loosened" the usage policy for tasers located on board its aircraft, CNN reported.
Tesla Autopilot’s new radar technology predicts an accident caught on dashcam a second later (Electrek)
Just a few weeks ago, we published a report about how Tesla’s new radar technology for the Autopilot is already proving useful in some potentially dangerous situations. We now have a new piece of evidence that is so spectacularly clear that it’s worth updating that report.
Samsung's 'creative' CES ideas: Bluetooth toy tags and skin care (Engadget)
Last year, Samsung brought a boatload of projects from its Creative Lab to CES. C-Lab projects it considered for business opportunities included a motion controller, a smart belt and a smart band for watches.
Why connecting all the world's robots will drive 2017's top technology trends (The Conversation)
If you want to make predictions for the future, you need to find the trajectory of events in the past.
So to work out what shape digital technology will likely take next year, we should look back to the major developments of 2016.
A typical online shopper in India is a man aged 25-34 years buying electronics through his mobile phoneAccording to two of India’s burgeoning domestic e-retail platforms, Flipkart and Snapdeal, more than 80% of online shoppers made purchases through their smartphones, accessing the portals via mobile sites or apps.
11 technologies to watch in 2017 (Mashable Asia)
Much like The Force, technology surrounds us, penetrates us and binds together our galaxy, which is why it’s so hard to identify which technologies might have the most significant impact in the coming year.
Advertising’s Moral Struggle: Is Online Reach Worth the Hurt? (NY Times)
Advertising on the internet has never been easier. Data and automation increasingly allow companies large and small to reach millions of people every month, and to tailor ads to specific groups based on their browsing habits or demographics.
Police seek Amazon Echo data in murder case (updated) (Engadget)
Amazon's Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant to help find answers by listening for your voice commands. However, police in Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help with a murder case.
Rent The Runway, the 'Netflix for dresses,' just raised another $60 million and claimed profitability for the first time (Business Insider)
The "Netflix for dresses" startup, Rent The Runway, has proven it can make a profit — an achievement rewarded with a $60 million investment from Fidelity meant to accelerate its growth, the company told Recode's Jason Del Rey.
Clean Tech Rises Again, Retooling Nature for Industrial Use (NY Times)
A decade ago, a group of biologists, venture capitalists and computer whizzes gathered under the name “clean tech.” They hoped to overturn polluting industries with microorganisms cheerily excreting industrial chemicals through the miracle of reprogramming nature’s genetic code.
Politics
Senators Reassure Wary Baltic Nations That U.S. Won’t Abandon NATO (NY Times)
LONDON — Three American senators arrived in Tallinn, Estonia on Tuesday to reassure the Baltic nations that the United States remained committed to their defense and to the NATO alliance.
U.S. appeals court revives Clinton email suit (Reuters)
In a new legal development on the controversy over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails, an appeals court on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling and said two U.S. government agencies should have done more to recover the emails.
Spokesman: Donald Trump's team wants to hear protesters' concerns (CNN)
Washington – Donald Trump's team plans to hear out the women demonstrators who are heading to Washington to bring attention to their issues, one of the President-elect's spokesmen said Tuesday.
Trump may not like the $400 billion-dollar F-35 program, but good luck shutting it down (The Fiscal Times)
When the legendary five-star general Henry “Hap” Arnold founded the Air Force as an independent service following World War II, he built a strong constituency among members of Congress and the skilled workers in their districts. It came to be known as “geographic peanut-buttering.”
Donald Trump is demanding the names of federal employees working to curb violent extremism (Think Progress)
Officials from Donald Trump’s transition team submitted requests to at least two cabinet departments demanding they hand over the names of any government employees who are working on programs that seek to combat the rise of violent extremism, according to a report from Reuters.
Donald Trump’s wrecking crew: A cabinet of zealots who yearn to destroy their own agencies (Salon)
In one sense, it’s nothing new. At least since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, Republican presidents have appointed people to head government agencies whose mission or even existence they opposed.
A weakened Europe isn’t prepared for what 2017 may bring (The Washington Post)
Europe has been so weakened by the tumultuous events of 2016 that it is left unprepared to deal with the three big foreign policy challenges of 2017.
Health and Biotech
Inside DEA Ban on Marijuana Extracts (Rolling Stone)
Chris and Trish Thomas' Good Body Products table was a hotspot at the Cotton Mill Holiday Craft Fair in Brattleboro, Vermont, early this December – they managed to sell out of products both days of fair, hawking all-natural salves, body butters and scents to shoppers eager for stocking stuffers and office party gifts.
Life on the Home Planet
Trump Tower Evacuated Over Stray Bag (The Wall Street Journal)
The lobby of Trump Tower in New York City was briefly evacuated on Tuesday so police could investigate reports of a suspicious package. Authorities later gave an "all clear."
6 new mysterious radio signals have been detected coming from the same region outside our galaxy (Science Alert)
Back in March, scientists detected 10 powerful bursts of radio signals coming from the same location in space. And now researchers have just picked up six more of the signals seemingly emanating from the same region, far beyond our Milky Way.
Want me to write for free? I’ve got two one-syllable words for you (Columbia Journalism Review).
An ostensibly professional journalist this spring told me he was on the prowl for freelance editors for his new investigative website. Intrigued, I eventually broached the question of payment.
