Financial Markets and Economy
US wage growth shows Trump will inherit solid labour market (The Guardian)
The US economy added more than 2m jobs in 2016 and finished the year with a pick-up in wages, suggesting Donald Trump will inherit a solid labour market from outgoing president Barack Obama.
Week Ahead On Wall Street: Banks Kick Off Earnings Season, Trump Holds Press Conference (Forbes)
Earnings season kicks off this week when big banks like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo share their quarterly results. Wall Street has gotten a significant boost from the Trump rally and bank stocks ended the year 28% higher.
Bitcoin plunged again (Business Insider)
Bitcoin was still falling against the dollar on Saturday after losing more than a fifth of its value in trade Thursday.
Bitcoin was down more than 7% to $832 at 9:21 a.m. GMT (4:21 a.m. ET), according to Markets Insider. That's down from over $1,100 earlier in the week. It has since recovered to $877.
Warren Buffett famously said that if you’ve been in a poker game for half an hour and "you don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.’”
Dow Hits 19,999.63 (Business Insider)
We're back on Dow 20,000 watch.
Stocks are rallying on Friday after the December jobs report showed that wage growth rose at the fastest pace since 2009.
A Citigroup debt strategist created a scary-looking clock, and it looks like time is running out (Business Insider)
"How long till the Teflon wears off?"
That's the big question for Matt King, a credit strategist at Citigroup who has a big note out on the bond market.
4 Reasons The Trump Rally Has No Legs (Forbes)
US equity markets are already factoring in Trump’s promised reforms, while bond markets are pricing in higher inflation.
There’s just one thing: Trump hasn’t done anything yet.
This chart will tell you how much you need to save every month to become a millionaire in 25 years (Business Insider)
With the help of compound interest, steady saving, and a bit of patience, you too could join the millionaire club.
This company will help with a down payment, but it wants a stake in your new home (Los Angeles Times)
When Ricardo and Catherine Soto were looking to buy a home in Chula Vista, they knew that even after selling their old house in El Cajon they would be able to afford a down payment of only about 10%.
The 'car recession' is sinking America's largest automakers (Business Insider)
The media hoopla has been deafening. In December, “new vehicles sales” – defined as the number of new cars, trucks, and SUVs that dealers sold to their customers, including fleets – rose 3.1%. That was stronger than “expected.”
U.S. Holiday Retail Sales Show Mixed Resultsm (David Aurelio, Lipper Alpha Insight, Seeking Alpha)
The Thomson Reuters Same Store Sales Index registered a 2.4% gain for December, beating its 1.3% final SSS estimate. However, it wasn't all good news. The bulk of retailers missed their estimates, although Gap Inc. posted a positive surprise in December.
Four Ways To Earn Extra Money While Keeping (Or Preparing To Quit) Your Day Job (Fast Company)
Imagine lying on a beach, sunlight hitting your face and sand between your toes. You grab your phone and check your bank balance to find that it’s increased $500 since sunrise. This may seem like a fantasy, but for some savvy entrepreneurs, it’s the reality of their passive income streams.
This Won't End Well (Zero Hedge)
Russell 2000 speculative positioning has never…ever… been more long.
VIX futures positioning is near its shortest ever.
Companies
As Amazon's 'Alexa' Shines At CES, Jeff Bezos Gets $1.3 Billion Richer In A Day (Forbes)
The new year has just begun, and Jeff Bezos’ net worth is already up almost $4 billion.
Coming off a difficult three-month stretch in which Amazon lost more than 10% of its value, the company’s stock is once again surging.
Why AT&T thinks the FCC won't have the power to stop its $85 billion Time Warner purchase (Business Insider)
President-elect Donald Trump might still be against the $85 billion merger of AT&T and Time Warner, but AT&T thinks the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be powerless to stop it.
Technology
Norway will become the first country in the world to switch off FM radio (The Washington Post)
FM radio broadcasting was invented in the United States in 1933. After a slow start, it became wildly popular all around the world, largely because the frequency modulation technology used offered better sound quality than the existing amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions.
WikiLeaks threatens to build a database of verified Twitter users (Mashable Asia)
Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, will perhaps be remembered as the day WikiLeaks stopped even pretending to be an organization dedicated to governmental transparency.
These Boring Wifi Routers Are Actually Some Of The Best Tech To Come Out Of CES (Popular Science)
In October 2016, an attack on Dyn DNS shut down the internet. It soon became clear that the attack was possible because of an overwhelming number of new, unsecured, internet-connected devices—the Internet of Things (IoT).
This year's CES in Las Vegas has seen a number of OLED televisions being launched. None, however, are as thin at this offering from LG.
Baby’s First Virtual Assistant (Bloomberg)
On Jan. 3, right before the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, toymaker Mattel’s Nabi division unveiled what it’s calling the world’s first smart baby monitor. “Her” name is Aristotle.
How Mobile Games Aim to Keep You Coming Back (The Wall Street Journal)
When making “Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes,” Electronic Arts Inc. knew it wasn’t enough to have a mobile videogame that featured some of the most popular movie characters of all time. To succeed, it had to get players to open the app every day.
Porous, 3D Graphene: MIT Scientists Make ‘One Of The Strongest, Lightest Materials Known’ (International Business Times)
In its atom-thin 2D form, graphene is one of the strongest materials known to man, but scientists have struggled to translate that strength of the thin carbon sheets into useful three dimensional materials. Until now, that is.
Samsung's smartwatch lineup now works with your iPhone (Engadget)
Did you sigh wistfully at Samsung's Gear S3, knowing you couldn't use it because you have an iPhone? Relax. Samsung has launched new Gear S and Gear Fit apps that bring iOS compatibility to all of its current wrist-worn devices, including the Gear S3 (both Classic and Frontier), the Gear S2 and the Gear Fit 2.
Politics
14 highlights of the U.S. report on Russian election hacking (Reuters)
A declassified report by U.S. intelligence agencies said Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to help Donald Trump’s electoral chances by discrediting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Paul Ryan Reveals Why Republicans Have A Big Obamacare Repeal Problem (The Huffington Post)
A case in point was something that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Wednesday, during a press conference on Capitol Hill. The subject was Obamacare, which Republicans consider one of history’s great disasters, and their effort to repeal it quickly now that Donald Trump is about to become president.
Conway to CNN's Cuomo: Trump is not sheltering Russia 'and don’t you say that again' (Politico)
Kellyanne Conway, the incoming counselor to President-elect Donald Trump, took exception Friday morning to the assertion of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo that her boss is “sheltering Russia” by refusing to concede that the Kremlin was behind election-year cyberattacks against U.S. political targets.
Paul Ryan pledges GOP’s first legislative action will defund Planned Parenthood (Think Progress)
With majorities in Congress and the impending inauguration of Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers are wasting no time pursuing policy.
Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House (The Washington Post)
The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.
The long history of the U.S. interfering with elections elsewhere (The Washington Post)
One of the more alarming narratives of the 2016 U.S. election campaign is that of the Kremlin's apparent meddling. Last week, the United States formally accused the Russian government of stealing and disclosing emails from the Democratic National Committee and the individual accounts of prominent Washington insiders.
Life on the Home Planet
8 terrifying ways the world could actually end (Business Insider)
The outcome of a presidential election might inspire unbridled hope — or make you feel like the world is ending.
Unveiling the secrets of Mozart’s “Magic Flute” (Holy Kaw)
No, we’re not talking about the latest Netflix series, but one of the most influential operas ever written, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”
‘New York 2140’ Is a Sci-Fi Vision of the World Reshaped by Climate Change (Singularity Hub)
Most of us, however, will be quite sobered by Kim Stanley Robinson’s upcoming novel, New York 2140, a near-future projection of a world reshaped by climate change. Sea level has risen by 50 feet, flooding the Big Apple and countless coastal cities around the planet. Thousands of species have gone extinct.
Iraqis Close In On Tigris River, Force ISIS To Retreat In Mosul (Reuters)
Iraqi special forces closed in on the Tigris river that runs through central Mosul on Saturday, advancing in parallel with other troops and forcing the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) to retreat in its last major stronghold in the country.
Samantha Bee and Jane Pauley Are Breaking the News (NY Times)
“Jane Pauley! You’re all in leather,” said Samantha Bee, as Ms. Pauley walked into the private dining room at Asiate restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York. And she was: in a sleek, black leather suit.
