Financial Markets and Economy
Courting of EU on trade grows as U.S. withdraws: EU trade chief (Reuters)
The European Union's partners have thrown more energy into trade talks with the bloc since Donald Trump's election, the EU's trade chief said on Tuesday, warning that those backing trade barriers were "doomed to fail".
China’s Efforts to Stem Capital Outflows Are Starting to Pay Off (Bloomberg)
China’s campaign to stop cash flooding out of the country is showing some success.
Trump Nominee's Stock Trades Flunk the Smell Test (Bloomberg)
Twenty-two years ago, when I joined the staff of Fortune, one of the first things I had to do was liquidate most of my portfolio. The magazine allowed its journalists to own stocks, but not in companies they might write about.
Trump and the bulls look to rip a hole in oil prices (Market Watch)
The waiting game over just what economic and other plans POTUS has up his sleeve has been slowing this stock market to a painful crawl.
A $90 Billion Debt Wave Shows Cracks in U.S. Property Boom (Bloomberg)
A $90 billion wave of maturing commercial mortgages, leftover debt from the 2007 lending boom, is laying bare the weak links in the U.S. real estate market.
Mall Owners Rush to Get Out of the Mall Business (The Wall Street Journal)
Mall landlords are increasingly walking away from struggling properties, leaving creditors in the lurch and posing a threat to the values of nearby real estate.
Oil prices rise as OPEC output cuts drain stocks (Reuters)
Oil prices climbed higher on Tuesday ahead of weekly U.S. inventory data on evidence the global market is tightening as lower production by OPEC and other exporters drains stocks.
Nigeria Sees Oil Hitting Mid-$60s in Coming Months as OPEC Bites (Bloomberg)
Crude oil prices, hovering around $55 a barrel since early December, will climb by about $10 in the coming months as OPEC-led measures to curb a glut take hold, Nigeria’s oil minister said.
No One Has Any Patience for a European Profit Warning These Days (Bloomberg)
After years of sluggish earnings growth, European investors had reason to believe that 2017 was going to be different: a weaker euro paired with the prospect of pro-growth U.S. policies nudged profit estimates higher, boosting equities.
3 Biotech Stocks to Buy and Hold Stress-Free (Fool.com)
Although the industry tracking iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETFis littered with volatile stocks that led it 18.8% lower last year, it does contain a handful of companies suitable even for nervous investors.
China Floods Financial System With Cash Ahead of Lunar New Year (The Wall Street Journal)
China has injected a torrent of money into its financial system in recent days, using a mix of short-term tools aimed at pre-empting a seasonal cash crunch without signaling a shift toward an easier monetary policy.
It would be a disaster if automakers do what Trump wants (Business Insider)
President Donald Trump met with the CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles on Tuesday.
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NAFTA and other trade deals have not gutted American manufacturing — period (Vox)
Politically speaking, there was no debate on United States international trade agreements in 2016: All politicians seeking to win a national election, or even to create a party-spanning political coalition, agree that our trade agreements are bad things.
Here are the countries with the biggest debt slaves (Wolf Street)
Americans have been on a borrowing binge. To buy their favorite cars and trucks, they’ve loaded up on $1.14 trillion in auto loans. Young and not so young Americans are mortgaging their future with student loans that now amount to $1.28 trillion.
Here is the letter the world's largest investor, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, just sent to CEOs everywhere (Business Insider)
Larry Fink, the chief executive at BlackRock, which with $5.1 trillion is the world's biggest investor, just sent his annual letter to chief executives at S&P 500 companies and large European corporations.
These 85 stocks are now on a ‘buy’ list as Donald Trump takes office (Market Watch)
Donald Trump’s critics like to claim he doesn’t stand for anything. But that’s just because they haven’t looked hard enough.
Asteroid Mining: The Next Grand Venture Of Tiny Luxembourg (Forbes)
What's a small, landlocked country like Luxembourg doing in outer space?
Wall Street Journal Spills the Beans on SpaceX's Big Loss (Fool.com)
Last month, the story that SpaceX is no longer profitable and cash-flow positiveOpens a New Window. broke. Last week, The Wall Street Journal cracked this story the rest of the way open — and spilled the beans on how much money Elon Musk's pioneering space venture is losing.
Companies
Verizon earnings, subscriber additions fall short of estimates (Reuters)
Verizon Communications Inc's (VZ.N) quarterly profit missed estimates and the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier added fewer subscribers than anticipated in the fourth quarter as it struggles to fend off rivals in a maturing wireless market.
FedEx CEO Says Cutting Off Trade Will Hurt American Pocketbooks (Fox Business)
FedEx founder and CEO, Fred Smith, who was pro-TPP, says scrapping the trade-deal was a big mistake.
At Wells Fargo, Bank Branches Were Tipped Off to Inspections (The Wall Street Journal)
As Wells Fargo & Co.’s sales-tactics scandal unfolded, investors, regulators and politicians asked how improper practices could have persisted for so long. One possible reason: Bank branches were given a heads up before Wells Fargo’s internal monitors landed for inspections.
Moment Of Truth Nears For Blackstone’s Housing Bet (Value Walk)
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, Blackstone has steadily shelled out billions to acquire and fix up foreclosed homes across the US.
How Will the Trump Presidency Affect Uranium Producer Cameco Corp.? (Fool.com)
Now that Donald Trump is the president of the United States, investors might be wondering how the outlook for uranium miner Cameco Corp (NYSE: CCJ) has changed.
Under Armour: The Amazing, Declining ROIC (Barron's)
Under Armour (UAA) is scheduled to report earnings on Jan 31, something that we’ve taken note of both here at Stocks to Watch Today, and over at Barron’s NEXT. But as important as those earnings will be, Cowen’s John Kernan and team are more worried about its return on invested capital than whether can beat forecasts.
Last month, Barron’s Reshma Kapadia argued that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) “deserves more respect from Wall Street.” There’s no way that will happen if Johnson & Johnson keeps offering guidance like it did this morning.
Technology
Want more evidence that rich people prefer Apple? Check out the following study from LendingTree.
After analyzing two million loan requests and the devices they were submitted on, the startup found that Mac users have the highest credit score on average, followed by iPad users, Windows users, iPhone users, and Android users.
Robotic Fabricator Could Change the Way Buildings Are Constructed (MIT Technology Review)
A construction robot has to be powerful enough to handle heavy material, small enough to enter standard buildings, and flexible enough to navigate the terrain.
Politics
'Did he lie?': Democratic senator grills Trump health pick about whether he is developing Obamacare replacement (Business Insider)
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump may have lied about developing a replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act during a contentious line of questioning with the prospective secretary of health and human services.
Environmental activists are incensed after President Donald Trump signed a number of executive actions Tuesday aimed at advancing construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, subject to "renegotiation" by the administration.
The Countries Most And Least Optimistic About Trump's Presidency [Infographic] (Forbes)
The majority of countries worldwide have low expectations of Donald Trump's impending presidency, according to a new poll. Ipsos MORI asked 18,000 people in 24 countries whether Trump will make a good president, finding a high level of pessimism across the world.
We broke the Panama Papers story. Here's how to investigate Donald Trump (The Guardian)
Donald Trump is now president. This challenges many of us, not least members of the press. Countless reporters are still shaken and stunned by how he singled out a CNN reporter, one of the most respected news outlets in the world, to attack and humiliate him during his first press conference since winning the elections.
Don’t Like Net Neutrality? Then You’re Going to Love Trump’s FCC Chief (Fortune)
For fans of net neutrality—that is, the principle that network providers shouldn't discriminate between different kinds of content when delivering services to consumers—a nightmare scenario was that Donald Trump would name a Federal Communications Commission chairman who would gut the protection for neutrality.
What The Actual Fact? – The Trump Administration "Alternative Facts" (The Daily Show)
After presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway defends the use of "alternative facts," Desi Lydic finds a new way to check claims made by the Trump administration.
Senate Democrats Propose $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan (Associated Press)
Senate Democrats on Tuesday offered a plan to spend $1 trillion on transportation and other infrastructure projects over 10 years, challenging President Donald Trump to join them on an issue where they hope to find common ground.
Paul Ryan Invites Donald Trump To Address Congress (The Huffington Post)
It won’t technically be a State of the Union, but it will have the same effect.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announced on Tuesday that he was inviting President Donald Trump to address a joint session of Congress on Feb. 28.
Trump To Inherit $559B Deficit, Stable Economy (Associated Press)
President Donald Trump has inherited a stable economy but a government that faces a worsening debt and deficit picture, congressional analysts said Tuesday.
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What President Trump doesn’t understand about job creation (and destruction) (Vox)
Donald Trump is poised to put “dealmaking” at the center of the presidential economic policy making tool kit. Even before taking office, the president-elect has claimed to save thousands of jobs by cajoling companies into keeping jobs in the United States.
Trump's Gift to China (Bloomberg)
The Chinese New Year holiday, approaching this weekend, is traditionally a time of gift-giving and celebration in the Middle Kingdom. This year, no one is likely to be celebrating more than China’s President Xi Jinping.
Americans are surprisingly supportive of government regulations Trump wants to dismantle (The Washington Post)
On his first Monday in the White House, President Trump vowed to eliminate at least 75 percent of government regulations, cut taxes “massively” and impose a border tax on companies that move production out of the country.
Life on the Home Planet
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China will make it rain over an area 1.7 times the size of France (Mashable Asia)
The massive Asian country will spend 1.15 million yuan ($168 million) to modify weather in its parched northwestern provinces, in one of the country's biggest such programmes, the South China Morning Post reports.
Beijing hits back after US says it will 'defend' interests in South China Sea (The Telegraph)
Beijing has gone on the offensive over challenges made by Donald Trump’s administration to its claims in the South China Sea, asserting its “indisputable sovereignty” in the region and warning the US to “act cautiously”.
Which languages do most people want to learn? (World Economic Forum)
A new map gives us an easy way to visualize how languages grew as cultural, economic and religious influences spread around the world.
A 100,000-Year Tomb for Finland’s Nuclear Waste (The Wall Street Journal)
In billion-year-old bedrock, 100 stories below ground, the Finns have found what the whole world is looking for: A place to bury their most dangerous nuclear waste.
