Financial Markets and Economy
Oil sold out of tanker storage in Asia as market slowly tightens (Reuters)
Traders are selling oil held in tankers anchored off Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in a sign that the production cut led by OPEC is starting to have the desired effect of drawing down bloated inventories.
Saudi Arabia's Oil Wealth Is About to Get a Reality Check (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia has said oil giant Saudi Aramco is worth more than $2 trillion, enough to consume Apple Inc. twice, and still have room for Google parent Alphabet Inc.
The kingdom may have to settle for less. A lot less.
End of Bacon Boom Sends Pork Prices Tumbling the Most in Three Years (Bloomberg)
The bacon boom seems to be ending.
Wholesale prices for pork bellies, the cut used for making bacon, plunged 14 percent on Wednesday, the biggest slump since August.
Dream of Offshore U.S. Wind Power May Be Just Too Ugly for Trump (Bloomberg)
Offshore wind companies have spent years struggling to convince skeptics that the future of U.S. energy should include giant windmills at sea. Their job just got a lot harder with the election of Donald J. Trump.
Landlords Are Taking Over the U.S. Housing Market (Bloomberg)
As rising home prices, slow new home construction, and demographic shifts push homeownership rates to 50-year lows, the U.S. is increasingly a country of renters—and landlords.
Where Are the Toilets? Order Glut Stretches Giant Jet Makers to Limit (The Wall Street Journal)
The aviation industry is bulging with orders for new planes. If only it can get them made.
There were so many almost-finished jetliners, missing their engines, piled up at an Airbus SE factory in Germany last May that executives joked they were in the glider business.
Stocks ease, dollar poised for weekly loss as Trump rally pauses (Reuters)
Commodity-related sectors led European shares lower for a third straight session on Friday while the dollar was poised for a weekly losses as the "Trumpflation trade" lost momentum.
Mnuchin's Ultra-Long Bond Chatter Sends Treasuries Curve Steeper (Bloomberg)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his idea of issuing 50- or 100-year Treasuries are making waves again in the world’s biggest bond market.
Stock investors, keep ‘buying the rumor’ until the news is out (Market Watch)
Since just before the U.S. presidential election, investors and traders have bought the rumor of the new administration cutting taxes, boosting infrastructure spending and reducing regulation.
Trump calls Chinese 'grand champions' of currency manipulation (Reuters)
President Donald Trump declared China the "grand champions" of currency manipulation on Thursday, just hours after his new Treasury secretary pledged a more methodical approach to analyzing Beijing's foreign exchange practices.
Gold Gets a Shot in the Arm from Inflation and China (US Global Investors)
Inflation just got another jolt, rising as much as 2.5 percent year-over-year in January, the highest such rate since March 2012. Led by higher gasoline, rent and health care costs, consumer prices have now advanced for the sixth straight month.
How Families Can Invest Together With an LLC (The Balance)
One of the best uses of a limited liability company is as a vehicle for families to pool their money together to invest alongside one another. The benefits of a family pooling their money through a limited liability company to invest in everything from stocks, bonds, and real estate to mutual funds and start-up businesses come mostly from the power of an LLC operating agreement.
A new fund by the Winklevoss twins could push bitcoin to historic highs (Quartz)
In what is becoming a familiar refrain, bitcoin is surging towards a record price. It’s trading at around $1,145 today, based on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, which puts it $20 off its all-time high of $1,165, achieved on Nov. 30, 2014.
The $74 Trillion Global Economy In One Chart (Zero Hedge)
The latest GDP numbers from the World Bank were released earlier this month, and today’s visualization from HowMuch.net breaks them down to show the relative share of the global economy for each country.
Doctor Copper's Getting Clubbed (Zero Hedge)
When Copper was soaring (2 weeks ago) it 'proved' that China's debt binge had worked and that Trumpian reflation was going to secure global economic growth going forward.
'Exceptional Stability' – Stock Market Volatilty Plunges To 21-Year Low (Zero Hedge)
How much longer can this hope-filled balloon be held under water?
'Exceptional Stability'
2017 Growth Prospects Have Bulls Running: What Could Go Wrong? (See It Market)
The market has been full of Big Surprises in the last year. From the worst start of any year in 2016 to the best start of any year in 2017, money was made betting on the outliers.
Gold Jumps Most In 2017 As 'Mnuchin Moment' Sparks Dollar Dump; Dow Tops 20,800 (Zero Hedge)
The Dow topped 20,800 shrugging off any fears from Mnuchin…thanks to a VIX slam.
Companies
Coke Says it Supports WHO's Sugar Guidelines (Associated Press)
Coke says it supports the World Health Organization's guidelines for limiting added sugar, as the company works on repairing its image in public health circles and reshaping its business.
The $65 European Airfare Is Coming to the U.S. (Bloomberg)
Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner has acquitted itself nicely in opening smaller destinations to nonstop international service. Think London-Austin, Tokyo-San Jose, Calif., and even Shanghai-Tijuana.
Tesla Is Burning Through Cash (Bloomberg)
Elon Musk is burning through cash and may need to raise more soon to produce the mass-market electric sedan Tesla Inc. is banking on to reach the mainstream consumer.
Fewer Niceties, Similar Price: Airlines Turn to ‘Basic Economy’ Fares (NY Times)
Over the last week, United Airlines and American Airlines joined Delta Air Lines in starting or announcing plans for a “basic economy” fare option geared toward bargain travelers.
Giant Japanese Conglomerate Flash-Crashes 20% At Open (Zero Hedge)
Tosoh Corporation, the giant Japanese petrochemical conglomerate, collapsed over 20% to below JPY800 shortly after the Japanese open, on volume eleven times average as traders scrambled to find out the catalyst.
Technology
Google Self-Driving Car Unit Accuses Uber of Using Stolen Technology (NY Times)
Waymo, the self-driving car business spun out of Google’s parent company, claimed in a federal lawsuit on Thursday that Uber was using intellectual property stolen by one of Google’s former project leaders.
iPhone 8 Wireless Charging Feature Reportedly Being Developed By 5 Different Groups Inside Apple (International Business Times)
Apple is believed to be adding wireless charging to the iPhone 8 this year. However, there have been conflicting reports on how exactly the tech giant is planning on implementing this feature.
Virtual-Reality Goggles Come With a Hitch: Real Reality (The Wall Street Journal)
Philip Witten’s first trip to the virtual world came at a high price.<p>The 21-year-old found himself fighting for his avatar’s life, immersed in a game on a friend’s virtual-reality device, in which he had to throw punches at oncoming attackers.
Politics
Will Trump and Bannon drag us into another big ground war? It could happen sooner than we think (Salon)
On Wednesday NBC News released a poll reporting that 66 percent of Americans surveyed were worried that the United States will become involved in another war.
Gabby Giffords slammed a Republican lawmaker for evoking her as his excuse to skip town halls (.Mic)
The former Arizona congresswoman who survived being shot in the head at a 2011 "Congress on your Corner" event said lawmakers should "have some courage" and face constituents at town hall meetings.
Republican congressman says he won’t hold town hall because people could die (Think Progress)
In a letter to his constituents, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) announced he won’t be holding an in-person town hall anytime soon because “there are groups from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology, some even being paid, who are preying on public town halls to wreak havoc and threaten public safety.”
Trump may get most federal judicial appointments since 1950s (Alternet)
Right now, the only force in American government that’s stopping Donald Trump’s excesses is the federal judiciary, as seen in decisions by a half-dozen different benches concluding his travel ban from Muslim countries was unconstitutional.
A Russian newspaper editor explains how Putin made Trump his puppet (Vox)
Mikhail Fishman is the editor-in-chief of the Moscow Times, an English-language weekly newspaper published in Moscow. The paper is critical of Vladimir Putin; indeed, it was targeted twice in 2015 by Russian hackers and has been attacked repeatedly by pro-Kremlin pundits.
Bannon Admits Trump's Cabinet Nominees Were Selected To Destroy Their Agencies. (Daily Kos)
At CPAC today Stephen Bannon, the Chief Advisor and intellectual heft behind the Twittering infant that sits in the Oval Office, provided a little glimpse of the future he has planned for all of us.
“Donald Trump makes Mexicans not important”: Sen. Tom Cotton faces angry constituents at town hall meetingOn Wednesday night, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, joined the growing list of Republican legislators who have faced hostility from their constituents when returning for town hall meetings.
Mnuchin's Zeal for Fannie-Freddie Overhaul Tested by Ruling (Bloomberg)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s seriousness about overhauling the nation’s $10 trillion mortgage market will soon be tested.
Stephen Colbert explains Alex Jones, President Trump’s “CAPS LOCK” adviser (Salon)
President Donald Trump has declared the media to be an enemy of the American people. So on Wednesday night’s “Late Night with Stephen Colbert,” host Stephen Colbert took a look at one of the president’s more eccentric information sources: Infowars’ Alex Jones.
Indian techies don’t need the US—their talent is welcome elsewhere (Quartz)
Amid growing anxiety over the Trump administration’s possible revamp of the H-1B program, other countries around the world are putting the minds of Indian engineers at ease.
Democracy in America: How Is It Doing? (The Upshot)
Democracy in the United States is strong, but showing some cracks. That is the conclusion of a new survey of 1,571 political scientists.
Donald Trump's Handlers Planted Friendly News Stories to Try and Prevent His Twitter Meltdowns (GQ)
Against all odds, the unhinged, angry, dubiously-punctuated tweets of Donald Trump have become deeply embedded in the fabric of American political discourse, but according to a legitimately batshit new report from Politico, this grim dystopian reality cannot be blamed on his aides' lack of effort.
Kansas GOP revolts, nearly overturns Gov. Sam Brownback’s billion-dollar failed experiment (Salon)
The wave of moderate Republicans who swept last year’s GOP primaries in Kansas should have been Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s first clue that a revolt was brewing in his own party.
Trump allies in Arizona want to treat protest organizers like actual mobsters (Think Progress)
Under a GOP-backed measure just passed in the state’s Senate, anyone involved in planning a street protest at which someone commits a property crime can be charged under the state’s racketeering statute.
Boehner: Full Repeal And Replace Of Obamacare "Is Not Going To Happen" (Zero Hedge)
Back on January 12th, 8 days before Trump even officially moved into the White House, the prospects of a quick repeal and replacement of Obamacare were looking really good when the Senate voted 51-48 to instruct key committees to start drafting legislation to do away with Obama's crowning "achievement".
Life on the Home Planet
Pope Francis: better to be an atheist than a hypocritical Catholic (The Guardian)
Pope Francis has delivered another criticism of some members of his own church, suggesting it was better to be an atheist than one of many Catholics who he said lead a hypocritical double life.
It might feel good, but February’s intense heat is a very bad sign (Think Progress)
Meteorologists expect to see dozens of heat records broken this week, as an extended stretch of uncommonly warm weather continues across much of the United States.
