News You Can Use From Phil’s Stock World

Financial Markets and Economy

Commodities Have Been Down So Long It May Be Time To Snap Them Up (Forbes)

The post-crisis years have not been good for real assets, the catchall term for commodities, energy, real estate and other investments based on selling real things instead of clever ideas.

A trader psychologist who consulted on Showtime's 'Billions' reveals the biggest mistake traders make (Business Insider)

Denise Shull is a decision coach and performance architect who consulted on Showtime’s BILLIONS for the Wendy Rhodes character, the in-house psychotherapist for Axelrod hedge fund.

China’s bitcoin traders are finding new ways to trade after an official clampdown (Quartz)

China’s central bank has stepped up oversight of bitcoin exchanges this year, leading major trading platforms to impose halts on withdrawals and other checks to appease the regulator.

Warning signs are piling up that the bull run in stocks is nearing an end (Business Insider)

If it feels like this bull market has been going on for a long time, that's because it has.

In fact, the current market rally, which has lasted 2002 trading days, is the longest one since the rally that preceded the 1929 stock market crash.

Goldman: 'Cognitive dissonance exists in the US stock market' (Yahoo Finance)

Goldman Sachs analysts believe investors and traders in the stock market are acting irrationally.

“Cognitive dissonance exists in the US stock market,” Goldman Sachs’ David Kostin said. “S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up 10% since the election despite negative [earnings per share] revisions from sell-side analysts.”

Solar Energy Production Hit a Record High in 2016, So What's Wrong With Solar Stocks? (Fool.com)

2016 was an amazing year for the solar industry overall, even if it wasn't great for solar stocks. GTM Research recently reported that its upcoming U.S. Solar Market Insight Report done with the Solar Energy Industries Association will reveal a 95% jump in installations last year to 14.6 GW.

This company's productivity soared after replacing 90% of employees with robots (Futurism)

It’s hard to argue against automation when statistics are clearly illustrating its potential. The latest evidence comes out of a Chinese factory in Dongguan City.

India: Investors Are Betting On a Hot Economy (Fox Business)

Among the best performing areas of the emerging markets, India country-specific exchange traded funds have made a drastic surge since the start of the new year.

The poorer “China’s leftover men” are, the higher the cost of marriage (Quartz)

In China, there’s a high price to pay if a man wants a wife.

“The poorer the area is, the higher the dowry price,” said state mouthpiece People’s Daily today (Feb. 20) on a recent survey mapping the customary dowries paid by men across China.

World of Warcraft's gold rush has upended Blizzard’s economy (Polygon)

There has been an economic panic in World of Warcraft. On Feb. 6, Blizzard changed the rules, allowing players to exchange WoW Tokens for Battle.net balance. That means that gold you earn or buy in World of Warcraft can now be used in any Blizzard property.

Why Using an Economic Calendar When Day Trading is So Important (The Balance)

As a trader, the Economic Calendar is one of your best friends. You will only spend one minute or less with it a day, but that one minute–every day–is crucial if you want to become a consistently profitable day trader.

White House May Change Calculation Of US Trade Deficit, Boosting Trade War Odds (Zero Hedge)

In the latest surprising announcement to emerge from the Trump White House, the WSJ reports that the Trump administration is considering changing the way the U.S. trade deficit is calculated, a shift that would make America's trade gap appear even greater than it has been in recent years, potentially making future trade skirmishes and wars with America's export-heavy trade partners far more likely.

Companies

Amazon And Costco Say 50 Million Members (Each) Can't Be Wrong (Forbes)

Costco and its rival Walmart are "big box" retailers that offer lower prices without fancy surroundings. Warehouse clubs, in other words. Sign your name, fork over $55 for a one-year membership (double that for "business membership"), and they let you in the door.

Burger King and Tim Hortons owner nears deal to buy Popeyes – sources (Reuters)

Restaurant Brands International Inc, owner of the Burger King and Tim Hortons fast-food chains, is nearing a deal to acquire Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

China’s Global Times: Hawkish by Decree or Reflecting Readers? (NBC News)

There's no question that China's hawkish Global Times newspaper has been harsh in its assessment of America's new president.

Tesla (TSLA) is about to publish its financial results for the year 2016 – here’s what to expect (Electrek)

Tesla (TSLA) is set to release its fourth quarter 2016 and full year 2016 financial results on Wednesday, February 22 after market close. As usual, the release of the results will be followed by a conference call and Q&A with Tesla’s management at 2:30pm Pacific Time (5:30pm Eastern Time).

We dug into the drug company Martin Shkreli sold out to the feds, and man is it ugly (Business Insider)

Now, don't get me wrong — we're no fans of Martin Shkreli.

But we owe him credit for doing something right. In 2014, he complained to the feds — specifically the Federal Trade Commission — about a drug company's anticompetitive behavior.

Technology

This boat will make its own fuel on a round-the-world voyage (Wired)

Remember Solar Impulse 2, the solar-powered plane that circumnavigated the world in July 2016? This could be the ocean-going equivalent. In a bid to prove the effectiveness of hydrogen as a renewable fuel, Victorien Erussard and Jérôme Delafosse will sail around the world in a boat powered by the gas – made from the elements they encounter on the way.

4 billion years of technology in one infographic (Visual Capitalist)

Thinking about time and human progress is pretty mind-bending.

The Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago, and single-celled organisms have existed for about 4 billion of them. Yet, modern humans have only been around 50,000 to 200,000 years, depending on how you define “modern”.

World’s first rideable hoverbike looks cool as hell but will probably kill you (The Verge)

Hoversurf, a Russian company that builds drones, posted a video last week showing off its latest prototype: the Scorpion-3, a single-seat, electric-powered hoverbike that looks cool as hell but probably won’t be ready for the X Games anytime soon.

Politics

Trump just made a fantastic choice for his new national security adviser (Business Insider)

President Donald Trump just named Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his next national security adviser.

The 54-year-old Army officer is the epitome of the warrior-scholar, and he's as well known for his heroics in battle as he is for his intellectual pursuits.

Trump has 3,643 websites that range from TrumpEmpire.com to TrumpFraud.org (CNN)

Donald Trump has a vast online portfolio of domain names — digital addresses that foreshadowed his political career, business projects and accusations of unethical behavior.

Bill Gates Says There’s Something Worse Than Nuclear War and We’re Not Ready for It (Fortune)

The international community may prioritize the issue of nuclear war, but world leaders are overlooking another, greater threat: A genetically engineered virus.

During Florida Rally, Trump Appears Make Up Terror-Related Incident in Sweden (NBC News)

President Donald Trump, after a chaotic month of governing that included the botched roll out of his travel ban and being forced to fire his national security adviser, held a rally Saturday in which little was changed from the campaign trail.

Donald Trump's Demands on NATO Defense Spending Are Driving a Wedge Into Europe (Munich)

The European Union may not feel much like a family these days, but its leaders do tend to bicker like one over questions of money and pride, especially when they have a grumpy uncle named Donald Trump calling in debts on defense spending from across the Atlantic.

Internet memes mock Donald Trump by making him look small – literally (BBC News)

Now, some internet users have gone one step further and doctored images to make his whole body look minuscule.

At 6ft 2in (187cm), Mr Trump is taller than many world leaders and edges ahead of his predecessor, Barack Obama (6ft 1in – 185cm).

ABC reporter delivers pointed declaration to Trump: We will 'pursue the truth' even if we must endure your 'wrath' (SF Gate)

ABC White House reporter Jonathan Karl closed a show on Sunday with a declaration: Reporters will keep doing their jobs despite President Donald Trump's declaration that news outlets were "the enemy of the American people."

New Political Turmoil In Italy After Renzi Quits As Ruling Party Leader, Triggering Re-election Battle (Zero Hedge)

Two months after an unexpected, landslide loss in the December 4 constitutional referendum which cost him his job as Italy's prime minister, on Sunday Matteo Renzi quit as leader of Italy’s ruling party, in the process triggering a re-election fight against minority dissidents that threatens the stability of the center-left government, Bloomberg reports.

A suspicious pattern is emerging for how the White House handles its most controversial plans (Business Insider)

The White House quickly denied an explosive Associated Press report published Friday morning that said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was seeking to mobilize 100,000 National Guard troops to round up and deport immigrants living in the US illegally.

'The intervention was a surefire winner': Trump's presidency has created the 'unbelievable turmoil' Putin wanted all along (Business Insider)

The slow drip of revelations about communication between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump has created the kind of "unbelievable turmoil" in Washington that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been known to revel in.

Life on the Home Planet

Mark Zuckerberg’s theory of human history (Vox)

Mark Zuckerberg’s 6,000-word manifesto on the future of Facebook begins with a capsule narration of human achievement. “History is the story of how we've learned to come together in ever greater numbers,” Zuckerberg writes, “from tribes to cities to nations.

At least 5 people feared dead as plane crashes into major Melbourne retail centre (Business Insider Australia)

Witnesses say they say the plane come in fast and low before a fireball rose into the sky. Eyewitness Matthew Coulburn told ABC radio an “enormous” 200m fireball rose into the sky after the plane “nose-dived” and “took a very sharp turn into the building.

Factory Outlet (Monbiot)

In the future, if you want a job, you must be as unlike a machine as possible: creative, critical and socially skilled. So why are children being taught to behave like machines?

Fearing Trump, asylum seekers travel across U.S.-Canada border, regardless of risks (The Globe And Mail)

At a bus station far from the improvised U.S.-Canada border checkpoint on Roxham Road, with its television and surveillance cameras, motion detectors, searchlight glare and 24-hour RCMP presence, a Haitian national stumbles off a Greyhound and introduces himself as Laugan.

New Wave of Bomb Threats Target US Jewish Centers (NBC News)

On Monday alone, 11 separate Jewish community centers received phoned-in bomb threats; since early January, 54 centers have reported similar calls.

NASA Scientists Have Proposed a New Definition of Planets, and Pluto Could Soon Be Back (Science Alert)

NASA scientists have published a manifesto that proposes a new definition of a planet, and if it holds, it will instantly add more than 100 new planets to our Solar System, including Pluto and our very own Moon.

Life Recovered Faster Than We Thought From Earth's Worst Mass Extinction (Science Alert)