Financial Markets and Economy
Dollar Hits 12-Week Low on Trump, Nikkei to Slide: Markets Wrap (Bloomberg)
Asian stocks fell for a second day, led by declines in Japan and Hong Kong, after the dollar capped its worst month since March as the Trump administration reiterated its preference for a weaker currency.
ETFs could see $1 trillion in inflows over the coming year (Market Watch)
Exchange-traded funds have long been one of the hottest items on Wall Street, with investors pouring billions of dollars into them in recent years, favoring them over mutual funds in what is amounting to a massive industry upheaval. What’s more, the shift may only be gaining steam.
This Is Who Will Pay for Shutting Down North Sea Oil Rigs (Bloomberg)
Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $3.8 billion sale of North Sea oil and gas fields creates a model for further transactions in a region where the question of who pays to remove decades-old offshore platforms has been an obstacle for other deals.
U.S. Consumer Confidence Eases From More Than 15-Year High (Bloomberg)
Consumer confidence retreated in January from a more than 15-year high as Americans tempered their economic expectations and waited for President Donald Trump and lawmakers to deliver on promises to boost employment and jump-start growth, data from the New York-based Conference Board showed Tuesday.
4 signs a stock-market selloff in February may be brewing (Market Watch)
U.S. stocks on Monday descended significantly for the first time in the Donald Trump postelection era that delivered a multimonth shot in the arm to equity investors.
Stock Investors Are Finally Starting to Buy Hedges Again (Bloomberg)
With the U.S. equity market waking from its slumber, investors are finally taking the hint to hedge their post-election gains.
Treasuries Rise as Trump Comments Spark Losses in Dollar, Stocks (Bloomberg)
Treasuries rose Tuesday, pushing yields to a one-week low, as President Trump’s allegation that other countries engage in currency devaluation drove down the dollar and weighed on stocks.
Yellen Urged to Halt Talks on Global Bank Rules for Trump Review (Bloomberg)
A key lawmaker wants U.S. banking regulators to halt talks over international agreements until President Donald Trump has a chance to review their work and replace top negotiators.
Dow Jones to Cut Jobs Amid Overseas Reorganization (The Wall Street Journal)
Faced with steep declines in advertising revenue, Dow Jones & Co. is reorganizing some of its operations across Europe and Asia to further reduce costs, moves that will result in the layoffs of dozens of news staffers at The Wall Street Journal, according to people familiar with the matter.
10 best, 10 worst U.S. stocks in January (Market Watch)
The Trump rally might be fading, with the S&P 500 Index down for the fourth straight day Tuesday, but the benchmark index SPX, -0.09% has returned 7.1% from the close on Nov. 8 (Election Day) through Jan. 30. Through Monday’s close, the index has returned 2% in January.
Trump’s Mexican Standoff May Send U.S. Gas to $2 If Exports End (Bloomberg)
Natural gas prices in the U.S. may tumble about 40 percent if President Donald Trump’s diplomatic showdown with Mexico becomes an all-out trade war.
China Factory Gauge Signals Stabilization Carried into New Year (Bloomberg)
China’s official factory gauge started the new year on a robust note, giving policy makers a buffer to transition to neutral policy settings as they prepare for potential trade tensions with a Donald Trump-led White House.
3 things to watch for at the Bank of England’s ‘Super Thursday’ (Market Watch)
Growth is stronger than expected, inflation looks likely to overshoot and unemployment is at an 11-year low.
N.Z. Jobless Rate Unexpectedly Rises as Workforce Swells (Bloomberg)
New Zealand’s jobless rate unexpectedly rose from an eight-year low in the final quarter of 2016 as more people sought work than could find jobs. The currency fell half a U.S. cent.
Case-Shiller: National House Price Index increased 5.6% year-over-year in November (Calculated Risk)
S&P/Case-Shiller released the monthly Home Price Indices for November ("November" is a 3 month average of September, October and November prices).
75 Days in a Row Without a 1% Drop (Crossing Wall Street)
For a while, it looked like today could be the first 1% drop for the S&P 500 since October 11. We’ve now gone 75 days in a row without a 1% loss, which is the longest such streak in a decade.
EY (formerly Ernst & Young) CEO Mark Weinberger emailed employees Monday about President Donald Trump's immigration ban, saying it would affect the company's "ability to work as a globally connected organization," and offered help to any employees affected.
Companies
Toshiba to Exit Nuclear Construction Business (The Wall Street Journal)
Toshiba Corp. plans to stop building nuclear power plants after incurring billions of dollars in losses trying to complete long-delayed projects in the U.S., a move that could have widespread ramifications for the future of the nuclear-power industry.
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Walmart is going after Amazon Prime with free two-day shipping and no membership fee (Recode)
The world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer is eliminating the membership fee on its own two-day shipping program, and simultaneously lowering its free shipping order minimum from $50 to $35. More than two million items will be available for the new, free express delivery service.
Aetna Profit Slides, but Beats Forecasts (The Wall Street Journal)
Health insurer Aetna Inc. fielded questions from Wall Street about its growth plans as it reported earnings that beat analysts’ expectations a week after a federal judge blocked its proposed merger with Humana Inc., citing antitrust concerns.
Disney Agrees to Pay $100 Million to End No-Poaching Lawsuit (Bloomberg)
Walt Disney Co. agreed to pay $100 million to resolve claims it colluded with other animation studios to not hire one another’s workers in California, where allegations of no-poaching pacts have plagued technology companies for years.
Under Armour's dominance ‘has come to an end' (Business Insider)
The company's shares were crashing by as much as 20% on Tuesday after earnings showed global weakness — especially in North America. Profits also eroded, a sign that more shoppers were unwilling to pay full price for Under Armour.
Technology
Google opens the code for Chrome on iOS (Tech Crunch)
Google's Chrome browser has been open source from the get-go (through the Chromium project), but not on iOS. Apple demands that browsers use WebKit instead of their own rendering engines, so Google couldn't just use its typical code base and call it a day.
Facebook is building its own TV app to work with set-top boxes like the Apple TV, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Samsung just sent out invites for the unveiling of an unknown device — and it doesn't look like the Galaxy S8 (Business Insider)
Samsung on Tuesday sent out press invitations for an event that will take place on February 26 during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
This Technology Could Replace the Keyboard and Mouse (TIME)
For the early part of my technology career, keyboards were the only user interface available. Even with early machines like the Apple II and the first IBM PCs, it was keyboards-only.
Actualizing the Internet of Things all starts with wireless (Tech Crunch)
While it seems “smart” everything is in full swing, the full realization of the Internet of Things is in essence still on standby mode. Homes are smarter than ever and virtual reality, augmented reality, personal drones and a dizzying array of wearables and medical devices flood the market, but there is still potential for more.
Device Reads Brain Activity To Heko Locked-In People Communicate (Popular Science)
People with a rare condition called complete locked-in syndrome may finally have a link to the outside world. By reading the brain activity of completely paralyzed people in a new way, researchers could tell whether the test subjects were thinking 'yes' or 'no' in response to a question.
Sorry, Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 owners won't get the next Android update (CNet)
As Google Android takes a step forward, it leaves a few old friends behind. Once flagship Nexus devices, the Nexus 6 phone and Nexus 9 tablet won't be getting the next Android update.
My Robot Made Me Buy It! (Big Think)
2017 might (finally) be the year of the robot, if we go by the public attention that robotics and AI have been receiving lately from the media, consumers, and retailers. The biggest newsmaker at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show was Amazon’s AI personal assistant, Alexa – and these robotic helpers are rapidly appearing on kitchen counters, nightstands and desks in homes across the country.
Politics
Challenges to Trump's immigration orders spread to more U.S. states (Reuters)
Legal challenges to President Donald Trump's first moves on immigration spread on Tuesday, with three states suing over his executive order banning travel into the United States by citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries.
Repealing Obamacare Would Cost More Than 1.1 Million American Jobs (Fortune)
Donald Trump's promise to be the "greatest jobs president God ever produced" could brush up against his antipathy to the Affordable Care Act, according to a new analysis.
Here’s How Senate Democrats Plan To Vote On Trump Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch (The Huffington Post)
President Donald Trump has nominated Neil Gorsuch, a federal appeals judge in Denver, to the Supreme Court seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
State Department Protest Of Donald Trump’s Immigration Ban Hits Nearly 900 Names (The Huffinton Post)
A formal protest of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries will greet his new secretary of state his first day on the job ? from some 900 of his own employees.
U.S. House Republicans finalize list of rules to kill in Wednesday vote (Reuters)
Republicans pressed ahead in their deregulatory push on Tuesday, with the U.S. House of Representatives Rules Committee officially adding a regulation on methane and one intended to root out pay discrimination to the list of rules the whole chamber will vote to kill on Wednesday.
Senate Democrats go party of no against Trump (Politico)
Goaded by demonstrations across the nation — and the groundswell of progressive anger over President Donald Trump’s nominees and executive orders — Democrats blockaded three Cabinet picks on Tuesday, preventing them from advancing out of committee.
A barb at Germany puts Trump administration on collision course with EU (Reuters)
For seven years, the United States has fought to keep the euro zone intact, urging European officials toward action and supporting international bailout programs to keep the 17-nation currency union from cracking apart.
Life on the Home Planet
Quebec City mosque shooting a wake-up call for Canada, B.C. lawyer says (The Globe And Mail)
A lawyer who helped launch an Islamophobia hotline says Canadians need to have a more open discussion about racism, and the killing of six people at a Quebec City mosque was a reminder anti-Muslim sentiments do exist in this country.
Researchers just found evidence of an ancient 'lost continent' under Mauritius (Science Alert)
Newly discovered crystals expelled from volcanic eruptions on the island of Mauritius are billions of years older than the island itself, and are thought to be the remnants of an ancient microcontinent known as Mauritia.
This beautiful 'jewel ice' is so rare, it only washes up in Japan (Science Alert)
Washing up on beaches around the mouth of the Tokachi River in Japan, a beautiful natural phenomenon sees crystal-clear ice blocks scattered like gem stones over the sand – and there's no other ice quite like it anywhere else in the world.
