Financial Markets and Economy
One Chart That Explains Why Traders Are Shorting Retail Stocks Like Crazy (Bloomberg)
December's U.S. retail sales figures have reinforced that the secular shift from in-store to online spending shows no signs of slowing down. Department stores now account for just 2.67 percent of all retail sales, compared to 10.44 percent for non-store retailers.
Why higher interest rates are a double-edged sword for banks (The Motley Fool)
Much of the current excitement surrounding bank stocks stems from investors' belief that interest rates will continue to rise, sending bank profits higher as well.
Coal Curbs in Asia Could Save 50,000 Lives Annually, Study Says (Bloomberg)
About 50,000 lives a year could be saved by 2030 if no new coal-fired power plants are built in Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, according to a study from researchers at Harvard University and Greenpeace International.
Inflation is on the way back in the rich world, and that is good news (The Economist)
IT WAS telling that Germany, a country with a phobia of rising prices, in the first week of 2017 reported a jump in inflation. Its headline rate rose from 0.8% to 1.7% in December. After two years of unusually low price pressures, inflation across the rich world is set to revive this year.
Calendar: What investors need to know for the week ahead (The Globe And Mail)
Japan machine orders, producer price index and tertiary industry index
Euro Area trade surplus.Bank of England governor Mark Carney speaks at London School of Economics.
2017 – Spectacular For Gold And Silver But Disaster For Bonds And Stocks (Gold Switzerland)
2017 has just started but some longer-term trend changes already seem to develop. It is interesting how a new year combined with a new US president act as a catalyst for what will be the start of monumental events in the world economy.
Uproar as PM Trudeau calls for end to oil sand production (DW Made For Minds)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for Canada to phase out its oil sand production. It's not a popular message with the province of Alberta, which has benefited from having huge oil reserves.
S&P 500 Weekly Update: Forget About 'Trump This' Or 'Trump That', It's About The Economy And Earnings For Now (Fear & Greed Trader, Seeking Alpha)
Anyone keeping their eyes on the equity market realizes that stocks have risen dramatically with new found expectations of an improving economy. The election fooled many, not because of the outcome, because of what they believed would happen if the unbelievable occurred, a Trump victory.
Fuel Efficiency Standards: EPA Finalizes Rules, Making It More Difficult For Trump Administration To Undo Them (International Business Times)
The United States Environmental Protection Agency announced on Friday it will finalize rules regulating fuel efficiency standards for vehicles through 2025, keeping in place a policy that was believed to be at risk of repeal under the incoming Donald Trump administration.
Be Prepared for a Violent Fed Reversal (Daily Reckoning)
The outlook for rates has taken what I call a U-turn. There’s very little doubt that the Fed is on track to raise rates. This outlook is not in response to any particular piece of economic data or the overall economic picture. In fact there are plenty of arguments why the Fed should not raise rates based on economic fundamentals.
The nagging Trump rally question on every investor's mind has been answered (CNBC)
JPMorgan chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said on Friday he is comforted by a Trump administration. He's not the only one who should feel that way.
Pimco Bets Pound Plunge Is Far From Over as Brexit Clouds Gather (Bloomberg)
After profiting last year from sterling’s steepest slump since the global financial crisis, the money manager is betting on the drop extending well into 2017 amid political uncertainties and a current-account deficit.
Razor-and-Blade Model: What Is It? What Companies Have One? (Fool.com)
Companies that have a razor-and-blade model use a pricing strategy that involves selling a durable product, or "razor," at a low profit margin (sometimes even giving it away) to help drive sales of the higher-margin proprietary consumable or disposable products, or "blades."
Everything You Want to Know about Junk Bond Default Rates (Barron's)
Moody’s Investors Service issued a report this week that is chock full of facts about default rates of corporate issuers.
The good news: Default rates are falling.
U.S. Fund-Flows Weekly Report: U.S. Funds Shed Assets For The Second Consecutive Week (Lipper Alpha Insight, Seeking Alpha)
Thomson Reuters Lipper's fund macro-groups (including both mutual funds and exchange-traded funds [ETFs]) suffered net outflows of $13.8 billion for the fund-flows week ended Wednesday, January 11.
Ray Dalio is the founder of Bridgewater, the world's largest hedge fund. A week ago, his team reached out to me to propose an interview. Mr. Dalio, they said, wanted to discuss the problem of "fake news" and "distorted news," which he believes is exemplified in a recent WSJ article about his company (and which he wrote about in a post on LinkedIn this week).
U.S. Financials Into Q4: Pre-Liftoff Wobbles? (FIG Ideas, Seeking Alpha)
As results loom, and analysts turn to the detail, the Trump sensitivities that have been projected over the course of the next two years will give way to the actuality of the fourth quarter.
97 Consecutive Weeks of Initial Claims Below 300,000! (But 91 Consecutive MONTHS of Wage Growth Below 3%!) (Confounded Insterest)
In the week ending January 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 247,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 2,000 from 235,000 to 237,000.
GDPNow Vs. Nowcast Update (MishTalk)
Both the Atlanta Fed and New York Fed updated their GDP model forecasts today.
There was little change in either.
New York Real Estate Prices Plunge In 4Q As Listing Days and Discounts Soar (Zero Hedge)
After reviewing the Elliman Report on the New York City Real Estate market at the end of 3Q 2016, we concluded that sellers had simply refused to accept the fact that the Manhattan real estate bubble had burst and rather than dropping prices had decided to simply let their apartments sit on the market unsold while hoping for a miracle.
Companies
VW Taps Its Hippie Heritage With an Electric Microbus (Bloomberg)
Volkswagen AG unveiled a battery-powered version of its iconic hippie-era Microbus as the carmaker overhauls its U.S. lineup to move beyond its emissions-cheating scandal.
Panera Says Its Food Menu Is Now 100% ‘Clean Eating’ (Fortune)
A little over two-and-a-half years ago, Panera Bread made a promise to diners. The restaurant chain said that by the end of 2016, it would commit to only using "clean" ingredients.
Technology
IBM's Watson will soon answer your 311 calls (Crain's New York)
The city’s 311 service has an easy time providing callers with alternate-side parking information, which may be why it does so to every single one.
7 Impressive Numbers for Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (Fool.com)
Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) CEO Gary Guthart had a good story to tell at this year's J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The robotic surgical system company's stock is up more than 20% over the last 12 months.
Europe is prepping for a world where robots need rights (Mashable Asia)
With every new innovation in the artificial intelligence space, it becomes even more tempting to imagine a near future filled with humanoid robots ready and willing to accomplish any task. After all, that's what we've been promised by sci-fi movies and books for years.
Exclusive Peek at SpaceX Data Shows Loss in 2015, Heavy Expectations for Nascent Internet Service (The Wall Street Journal)
One hundred and thirty nine seconds is all it took for an unmanned rocket to explode after blastoff and turn Elon Musk’s booming Space Exploration Technologies Corp. into a geyser of red ink.
'Pokémon GO' Banned In China (Forbes)
Pokémon GO won't make its way to China thanks to the Chinese government's penchant for censorship.
The augmented-reality location-based mobile game is a hit the world over, but Chinese gamers will have to make do with knock-offs like City Elves Go.
How Designers Engineer Luck Into Video Games (Nautilus)
On Sept. 16, 2007, a Japanese YouTuber who goes by the handle “Computing Aesthetic” uploaded a forty-eight-second-long video with the deafening title, “ULTRA MEGA SUPER LUCKY SHOT.”
Pulling Clean Water From Thin Air (Bloomberg)
Hector Pino was making a good living as an engineer in Santiago when his life took an unexpected turn. A rare medical condition made it difficult for his young daughter to process the minerals in Chile’s drinking water.
Politics
Trump Meets With Physicist Who Says ‘Benefits’ Of Climate Change ‘Outweigh Any Harm’ (The Huffington Post)
Continuing to surround himself with like-minded climate deniers and skeptics, President-elect Donald Trump met Friday with none other than William Happer, the Princeton physics professor who believes global warming is “good for mankind.”
Stop obsessing over ‘secrets’ about Trump and Russia. What we already know is bad enough. (The Washington Post)
We now have not one but two “secret” dossiers on the Russian campaign to support Donald Trump. One of them is an unverified and probably unverifiable 35-page collection of rumors and gossip put together by a former British spy.
Former labor secretary Robert Reich was rendered speechless when Jeffrey Lord, a Trump surrogate, argued that President-elect Donald Trump should be allowed to get away with any unethical conflicts of interest because he won the presidential election.
Trump, Lockheed Martin CEO to meet on Friday: transition official (Reuters)
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will meet with Lockheed Martin Corp Chief Executive officer Marillyn Hewson on Friday, a Trump transition officials said.
Figures On Government Spending And Debt (Associated Press)
Figures on government spending and debt in millions of dollars. The government's fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
The president-elect’s perilous trade policy (The Economist)
IT MUST seem to Donald Trump that reversing globalisation is easy-peasy. With a couple of weeks still to go before he is even inaugurated, contrite firms are queuing up to invest in America.
Scientists In Last-Minute Scramble To Save Environmental Data Before Trump Takes Over (The Huffington Post)
Scientists across the nation are in a frantic push to save as much environmental data as possible before a feared government information purge orchestrated by climate-change denier Donald Trump.
How Mexico should handle Trump (The Economist)
AMERICA’S allies and trading partners await Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House on January 20th with trepidation. None is more anxious than Mexico.
12 images that capture the new reality show at Trump Tower (Columbia Journalism Review)
“CONTROLLING THE ZONE” is a familiar term in aviation as well as sports. It refers to managing a protective space and governing that space to one’s advantage.
Your complete Republican-to-English guide to understanding the GOP’s health care rhetoric (Think Progress)
Republicans thought they could come to power and quickly deal Obamacare a mortal wound. Instead, they are in for a long, hard fight with an uncertain outcome.
Democrats Confront F.B.I. Chief at Closed-Door Intelligence Briefing (NY Times)
America’s intelligence chiefs sat down with members of Congress behind closed doors on Friday for what they thought would be a straightforward briefing on Russian cyberattacks. What ensued instead was a confrontation Democrats have long sought with James B. Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Donald Trump’s Medical Delusions (NY Times)
Volkswagen AG unveiled a battery-powered version of its iconic hippie-era Microbus as the carmaker overhauls its U.S. lineup to move beyond its emissions-cheating scandal.
In China, State Media Blast Tillerson's Comments On South China Sea Islands (NPR The Two Way)
After President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state made strong statements about China's actions in the South China Sea, Chinese officials have responded with muted, measured statements — while state-run media have warned of the potential for conflict and retaliation.
Health and Biotech
Schizophrenia could be linked to type 2 diabetes, study finds (Science Alert)
People with schizophrenia tend to die up to 30 years earlier than the general population. Many of these untimely deaths are due to physical disorders, including heart attacks and stroke, for which diabetes is a major risk factor.
Life on the Home Planet
Major ice storm bears down on central U.S. (Reuters)
The brunt of an ice storm was expected to roll through the Great Plains and Midwest this weekend after claiming the life of a motorist, causing scattered power outages and wreaking havoc on travel plans for airline passengers and motorists.
Mysterious-looking light pillars have appeared in the night sky above Canada (Science Alert)
Images of incredible beams of light that appear to burst into space in Ontario, Canada, have gone viral this week, with people comparing them to something out of Star Trek or Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
China's New Aircraft Carrier Hints At The Future Of It's Navy (Popular Science)
Last month China reported that its aircraft carrier Liaoning was ready to start operational service. The country's navy provided proof on Christmas Day, sending out its first carrier battle group (CVBG) through the Miyako Straits, around Taiwan, and into the South China Sea, launching and recovering aircraft along the way.
Nightmares May Signal Increased Risk of Suicide (Scientific American)
Suicide rates have been rising alarmingly in the U.S. and have reached a 30-year peak of 13 per 100,000 people, according to a 2016 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
