Financial Markets and Economy
European Equity Gains Lose Momentum as 2016 Draws to a Close (Bloomberg)
European stocks faltered, with all industry groups in the red, as investors proved unwilling to sustain a rally that’s lifted equities and pushed the FTSE 100 Index to an all-time high this week.
China Stock Investors Have Had Enough of 2016 as Turnover Wanes (Bloomberg)
Investors in Chinese stocks, which are among the world’s biggest losers in 2016, have had just about all they can stomach.
The Golden Era of Hedge Funds Draws to a Close With Clients in Revolt (Bloomberg)
Drinks flowed as hedge fund titan Robert Mercer, dressed as Mandrake the Magician, partied with Donald Trump, dressed as, well, Donald Trump.
TD Leads Canadian Stock Sales as Energy Deals Fuel Record Year (Bloomberg)
Toronto-Dominion Bank took top spot for managing Canadian stock sales in 2016 as large energy deals led by pipeline operator TransCanada Corp. helped set a record for equity financings.
Brexit, Trump and 25 spoons of sugar: our top business stories of 2016 (The Guardian)
The fallout from the Brexit vote dominated our business coverage in 2016, led by Graeme Wearden and his daily live blog.
Here are the least affordable places to buy a home in the U.S. (Market Watch)
New York County and San Francisco County predictably top the list, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau comparing median home values against median household income. The median home price in New York County was 11.6 times the median income ($849,000 versus $73,000) and 9.8 times in San Francisco Count ($800,000 versus $81,000)
Dollar Drops to Two-Week Low Versus Yen as Treasury Yields Fall (Bloomberg)
The greenback weakened against all its major peers Thursday, with leveraged funds shorting the dollar against the yen as the currency pair continued a pull back from a 10-month high.
What History Has to Say About the Economy Trump Will Inherit (Bloomberg)
Research suggests factors beyond the control of any U.S. president, not their actual policies, set the course of the economy. Yet with voters, President-Elect Donald Trump will secure much of the praise or blame when it comes to the impact of his agenda over the next four years.
Inside the 37-Year Standoff Over Iran’s Frozen U.S. Dollars (The Wall Street Journal)
When the shah of Iran fell in 1979, the U.S. froze at least $400 million of Iranian money sitting in a Pentagon trust fund. The Islamic Republic of Iran never stopped trying to get it back.
Convenience Stores Boom as Korea's Households Change (Bloomberg)
The number of convenience stores has jumped by more than half over the past five years, to 32,000 this year, according to the Korea Association of Convenience Store Industry.
European stocks break 3-day winning run, deepen losses for 2016 (Market Watch)
Europe’s benchmark stock index deepened its loss for the year on Thursday, breaking a three-day winning streak as it tracked losses in Asia and the U.S.
China Would Outlast U.S. in Trade War, Billion-Dollar Fund Says (Bloomberg)
China would outlast the U.S. in a trade war, which is a “distinct possibility” next year after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a commentator wrote in the $1 billion Pine River China Fund’s investor letter.
London House-Price Growth Lags Behind U.K. First Time Since 2008 (Bloomberg)
London’s housing market underperformed the rest of the U.K. for the first time in eight years as buyers increasingly found themselves stretched by affordability, according to Nationwide Building Society.
U.S. appeals court rejects SEC's use of administrative law judges (Reuters)
A divided federal appeals court has ruled that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative judges are not constitutionally appointed, raising the prospect that the U.S. Supreme Court may need to address the issue.
China Turns to $503 Billion Rail Expansion to Boost Growth (Bloomberg)
China plans to spend 3.5 trillion yuan ($503 billion) to expand its railway system by 2020 as it turns to investments in infrastructure to bolster growth and improve connectivity across the country.
No Expiration Date on S&P 500 Bull Run Hurtling Into Ninth Year (Bloomberg)
Valuation, history shows, is an awful tool for market timing. Equity cycles persist, and selling just because price-earnings ratios are high has repeatedly proven a mistake.
Singapore Defaults Seen as Bellwether for 2017 Asia Distress (Bloomberg)
Despite a modest rebound in resource prices, restructuring specialists including KPMG and Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee see more Asia-Pacific commodities and shipping companies being pushed into delinquency.
Companies
Snap’s IPO Roadshow Message: We’re the Next Facebook, Not the Next Twitter (The Wall Street Journal)
When Snap Inc. goes on the road next year to market its initial public offering, it will be touting more than its popular virtual-messaging service.
Sprint in spotlight; Toshiba tanks again; Russia braces for U.S. sanctions (CNN Money)
Sprint in the spotlight: Sprint (S) stock may see higher-than-normal trading volume on Thursday after President-elect Donald Trump praised the company for creating new American jobs.
Toshiba’s Looming Writedown Wipes Out Gain From 2016 Share Rally (Bloomberg)
Toshiba Corp.’s impending multibillion-dollar writedown has triggered one of the worst-ever share declines for a major Japanese company, with ratings downgrades and investor pessimism erasing almost all of its 87 percent rally this year.
Investors wipe $6.6 billion off Toshiba's market value (CNN Money)
Rattled investors have wiped $6.6 billion off the company's market value after it warned of huge losses tied to its 2015 acquisition of a U.S. nuclear construction business.
Technology
Volvo's high-end cars will come with Skype built in (Engadget)
Many people depend on Skype to chat with family, colleagues and clients throughout their working day. To help them stay connected while they're outside the office, Volvo has announced plans to integrate Skype for Business into its high-end 90 Series cars.
Cord-Cutters Dropping Cable Force Networks to Make Hard Choices (Bloomberg)
One of the best-positioned media giants, Bewkes’s Time Warner Inc. had it all: news and sports to attract live audiences, a foothold in new online TV services, and HBO, a profit machine and critical darling.
Fantasize about driving this Mercedes around a racetrack in Portugal (Market Watch)
Unveiled last summer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Mercedes-AMG GT-R is the brand’s track-day special sports car, set to go up against the likes of the F-Type SVR, Audi R8 and Porsche 911 Turbo at your nearest private motor sports country club.
Not Everyone Wants to Shop on Amazon (The Wall Street Journal)
As a 26-year-old assistant brand manager living in Brooklyn, Chris Outwater leads a comfortable life.
New York Times surpasses 100 million views on Facebook Live (Reuters)
Presidential politics and celebrity interviews helped The New York Times Co surpass 100 million views for its Facebook Live videos, the company said on Wednesday.
Amazon patent reveals its drone-deploying flying warehouse plan (Engadget)
Amazon's drone-delivery plans apparently don't stop with using flying contraptions to ferry people's purchases to their homes. Based on a patent it filed with the USPTO, the e-commerce giant dreams of launching big floating warehouses near crowded areas and happenings like sporting events.
Samsung at CES: Ignore that burning Galaxy Note 7 over there (CNet)
Samsung has been laying low this holiday season.
Politics
Trump tax reforms could depend on little-known 'scoring' panel (Reuters)
President-elect Donald Trump's goal of overhauling the U.S. tax code in 2017 will depend partly on the work of an obscure congressional committee tasked with estimating how much future economic growth will result from tax cuts.
Syrian government and rebels have signed ceasefire agreement, says Putin (The Guardian)
The Assad government and armed Syrian opposition have signed a ceasefire agreement and agreed to begin a new round of negotiations to find a political solution to the country’s civil war, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has said.
Trump Takes Credit for Sprint Plan to Add 5,000 Jobs in U.S. (NY Times)
President-elect Donald J. Trump took credit on Wednesday for a decision by Sprint to add 5,000 jobs in the United States as he tried to deliver on his promise to force corporate America to focus on job creation at home rather than abroad.
Republicans Have Long Wanted to Punish the U.N., but Trump Might Actually Do It (Politico)
Donald Trump likes attacking soft targets, and the United Nations is about as soft as they come. Over the past two months, U.N. officials have been bracing for an entirely inevitable clash with the next U.S. administration.
U.S. set to announce response to Russian election hacking: sources (Reuters)
The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday a series of retaliatory measures against Russia for hacking into U.S. political institutions and individuals and leaking information in an effort to help President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates, two U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
GOP Readies Swift Obamacare Repeal With No Replacement in Place (Bloomberg)
The first major act of the unified Republican government in 2017 will be a vote in Congress to begin tearing down Obamacare.
China warns U.S. against allowing stopover for Taiwan's Tsai (Bloomberg)
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pass through the United States when she visits Latin America next month, the Taiwan Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, angering China which urged the United States to block any such stopover.
Fake News Is Not the Real Media Threat We’re Facing (The Nation)
From all the recent hand-wringing about “fake news,” you would think that the hand-wringers had never stood in a supermarket checkout line, surrounded by 72-point headlines about alien abductions and miracle cures.
Duterte says once threw man from helicopter, would do it again (Reuters)
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened corrupt government officials with the prospect of being thrown out of a helicopter mid-air, warning he has done it himself before and had no qualms about doing it again.
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A new brain study sheds light on why it can be so hard to change someone's political beliefs (Vox)
Albert Einstein was one of the most important physicists of all time. His scientific predictions have withstood 100 years of scientific challenges. His thinking fundamentally changed the way we understand the universe.
Kerry Rebukes Israel, Calling Settlements a Threat to Peace (NY Times)
Secretary of State John Kerry accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Wednesday of thwarting peace in the Middle East, speaking with a clarity and harshness almost never heard from American diplomats when discussing one of their closest and strongest allies.
Our Government Made A Big Mistake In Failing To Support Israel At The U.N. (The Huffington Post)
When the United States abstained on United Nations Security Council
Resolution 2334 on Israeli settlements, it was more than just a foreign policy error. It sold out a friend. It shows Israel and our allies that the United States can’t be trusted.
Health and Biotech
Alzheimer's Falls More Heavily on Women than on Men (Scientific American)
For more than 25 years, Mary Read was a successful nurse in Lititz, Pennsylvania. But in 2010, at the age of 50, she started having trouble with her memory and thinking, making it difficult for her to complete routine tasks and follow instructions at work.
Life on the Home Planet
2016: Worst. Year. Ever? (NY Times)
LONDON — Some of you may have noticed that it has not been a great year. Disasters of disease and disruption; disasters violently compounded by our inability to temper our wishes and tolerate our differences; and, finally, death upon death of treasured talismans of better times.
What To Do In The Event Of A Nuclear War (Cartoon Of The Day, Forbes)
For the first time since the Cold War, Americans are contemplating the threat of nuclear war. This, like so much fear these days, results from Donald Trump's intemperate tweets. Cartoon by Ted Rall.
Freezing fog and ice cause more travel disruption across UK (The Guardian)
Freezing fog and plummeting temperatures have brought fresh travel disruption to the UK.
The AA warned motorists that roads could become lethal due to poor visibility and the onset of ice.
The Fortune Teller of Mosul Falls Silent, Wary of Islamic State (The Wall Street Journal)
HASSAN SHAMI, Iraq—Sanaa Jawadia says she can look into the future, but she doesn’t dare tell anyone what she sees.
Iraqi forces launch second phase of Mosul offensive against Islamic State (Reuters)
Iraqi security forces on Thursday began the second phase of their offensive against Islamic State militants in Mosul, pushing from three directions into eastern districts where the battle has been deadlocked for nearly a month.
