Financial Markets and Economy
Dollar Climbs to Highest Since January as Rate-Hike Wagers Build (Bloomberg)
The dollar was trading near its daily high and on track for its longest winning streak since May, underpinned by a surge in Treasury yields as markets reacted to hawkish rhetoric from Federal Reserve officials.
What to Make of These Twice-in-History S&P 500 Valuations (Bloomberg)
Something happened in the stock market this week that has only occurred twice since 1871: Robert Shiller’s favorite valuation method for the S&P 500, the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, reached 30. So, is it time to worry?
Mexican Peso Surges After Comments From Wilbur Ross (Bloomberg)
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross triggered a rally in the peso when he said the currency could recover “quite a lot” if his country can reach a sensible agreement with Mexico on the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Invest 'by the Bible': new fund backs arms firms but avoids brands promoting gays (The Telegraph)
A new "biblical" investment firm is marketing funds which promise to adhere to the "God-breathed truth" – by avoiding investments in businesses which promote homosexuality or show gay lifestyles in a positive light.
Disturbing New Facts About American Capitalism (The Wall Street Journal)
“Let your winners run” is one of the oldest adages in investing. One of the newest ideas is that the winners may be running away with everything.
JPM’s Kelly Says Markets Due for Significant Correction (Bloomberg)
David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds, and David Kirkpatrick, chief executive officer and founder of Techonomy Media, discuss possible froth in equities and if there is a market correction on the horizon.
Consumers May Have Cut Back in February. Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry (The Wall Street Journal)
Don’t panic, but the main engine of the U.S. economy might stall in February.
The Fed is embarking on a path that usually ends with a recession (Yahoo Finance)
And while the Trump administration’s early days have been filled with internal political chaos, the market’s reaction has continued to remain positive.
The collapse of retail chains is leaving America's shopping malls empty (Wolf Street)
“Our fourth quarter results reflect the impact of rapidly-changing consumer behavior, which drove very strong digital growth but unexpected softness in our stores,” lamented Target CEO Brian Cornell this morning in the earnings release.
US Services Firms Expand At Fastest Pace Since October 2015 (Associated Press)
The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group for purchasing managers, said Friday that its services index rose to 57.6 last month from 56.5 in January. Anything above 50 signals growth.
The 4th Industrial Revolution And A Jobless Future – A Good Thing? (Forbes)
It’s estimated that between 35 and 50 percent of jobs that exist today are at risk of being lost to automation. Repetitive, blue collar type jobs might be first, but even professionals — including paralegals, diagnosticians, and customer service representatives — will be at risk.
There's No Separating Wealth and Power in Russia (Bloomberg)
There's nothing sensational about high-level corruption in Russia these days, and it's unlikely that Alexei Navalny's investigation into the luxurious lifestyle of Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev will improve the anti-corruption activist's chances of being elected Russian president in 2018.
7 Enlightening Lessons From Berkshire Hathaway’s 2016 Annual Report (Value Walk)
On February 25, 2017, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) published their 2016 Annual Report. This comes shortly after their February 14th filing of their Form 13F with the Securities Exchange Commission.
How America Gave Up on Change (Harvard Business Review)
In his last book, economist Tyler Cowen wrote about how machine intelligence could change the world. In his new book, The Complacent Class, he writes about the forces that prevent change from happening.
New Oil Price Predictions for 2017 Show Crude Soaring 15% (Money Morning)
Our oil price predictions for 2017 call for WTI crude oil prices to climb to $62 a barrel and Brent crude to rise up to $65 a barrel by April 2017.
Draghi’s Dilemma: Eurozone Inflation Hits 2% with Italy on Bond Life Support (MishTalk)
Eurozone headline inflation hit two percent today, and that has the inflation hawks in Germany screaming.
Yet, ECB president Mario Draghi has promised to maintain QE asset purchases, and Italy has no other real buyer for its bonds.
Why Is the Cost of Living so Unaffordable? (Of Two Minds)
The mainstream narrative is "the problem is low wages." Actually, the problem is the soaring cost of living. If essentials such as healthcare, housing, higher education and government services were as cheap as they once were, a wage of $10 or $12 an hour would be more than enough to maintain a decent everyday life.
Stockman: Trump's in a Giant Debt Trap (Daily Reckoning)
David Stockman joined up with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business to discuss the threat of the debt ceiling and what it means for the Trump administration. During the conversation Stockman raised issue with the looming debt ceiling crisis that comes into effect on March 15 and has yet to be fully addressed and prepared for by the administration.
Indian Economy Collapses As 'Demonetization' Crushes Small Business (Zero Hedge)
The Sales Managers Index (SMI) is one of the earliest monthly indicators of Indian economic activity. February's data shows the catastrophic after-effects of the December demonetization policy which was intended to crack down on corruption and 'black money'.
Companies
Tesla stock keeps getting hammered (Business Insider)
After an epic rally that saw Tesla shares rise 50% in two months, shares of the carmaker have come back down to earth.
Over the past seven days, the stock has declined by 10%.
Amazon And The $150 Million Typo (NPR The Two Way)
Amazon says a typo caused its cloud-computing service to fail earlier this week.
Man Claiming to Have Created Bitcoin Now Working With a Gambling Tycoon (Reuters)
The man who last year made global headlines by claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin, is working with a fugitive online gambling entrepreneur to file scores of patents relating to the digital currency and its underlying technology, blockchain.
Bitcoin is now worth more than an ounce of gold, still chasing cocaine (TNW)
Bitcoin has reached an impressive milestone as earlier this week the popular cryptocurrency became more valuable than gold for the first time ever.
Mercedes Recalls 1M Vehicles Worldwide Due To Fire Risk (Associated Press)
Mercedes is recalling about 1 million cars and SUVs worldwide because a starter part can overheat and cause fires.
Hudson’s Bay’s bid for Macy’s stumbles: report (Reuters)
Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Co, owner of the Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue retail chains, has yet to line up equity financing for a bid for Macy’s Inc, over a month after approaching its U.S. peer, people familiar with the matter said.
Winners And Losers In Sale Of Former Trump Taj Mahal Casino (Associated Press)
The winners included a union whose members were willing to lose their own jobs to stand up to Taj owner and billionaire investor Carl Icahn. And, a Native American tribe that had been toying with the idea of expanding its gambling operations to New Jersey will finally get to the Jersey shore.
Caterpillar shares rise as import practices scrutinized (Reuters)
Caterpillar Inc's (CAT.N) shares gained on Friday, the day after U.S. law enforcement officials raided three of the company's Illinois facilities, as the Trump administration promised stricter scrutiny of multinationals' import and export practices.
Oh Snap! Silicon Valley School Makes $24M Off Of Investment (Associated Press)
St. Francis High School in Mountain View parlayed a $15,000 investment in the company that developed the Snapchat app into a windfall of at least $24 million, capitalizing on a unique venture capital fund set up by the school's investment-savvy parents.
AT&T: Thank You Very Much, Moody's (David Alton Clark, Seeking Alpha)
Moody's has lowered its outlook on AT&T (NYSE: T) and the entire telecom sector to negative from stable, citing the fierce unlimited prices wars. Moody's is forecasting cash flows overall could fall as much as 2% this year and be flat in 2018.
How a Money-Losing Snap Could Be Worth So Much (NY Times)
By now, even most of us over 35 — old age, by Snapchat standards — are aware of the photo sharing and messaging app sweeping teenage and millennial America.
Technology
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Spotify now has 50 million paid subscribers (The Verge)
Spotify continues to cement its place as the leader in music streaming, and today the company announced that it just hit another milestone of 50 million paid subscribers.
How Microsoft’s HoloLens Creates a ‘Virtual Museum’ at New York Armory Show (Fortune)
The Armory Show in New York returns for its 23rd year to present collections of some of the most important artworks from the last two centuries.
GM will now let you ‘share’ a car for a whole month, parking and insurance included (The Verge)
Maven, the car-sharing company spun-off from General Motors last year, is launching a new monthly service for its users in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Previously, Maven only offered hourly or daily pricing options for its car-sharing fleet.
Hard drives of the future could be made of DNA (Engadget)
Our data-driven society is churning out more information than traditional storage technology can handle, so scientists are looking for a solution in Nature's hard drive: DNA.
Subtle and insidious, technology is designed to addict us (The Washington Post)
Thirty years ago, we accepted secondhand smoke, sugary sodas for kids and tanning salons as simple facts of life. What will we think is crazy 30 years from now? That we lived without enough sleep? Treated animals so badly?
This house was 3D-printed in just 24 hours (Mashable)
As we start to 3D-print everything — including houses, of all things — it's pretty impressive that a company built one in just 24 hours.
Politics
Theresa May: Scotland's government 'obsessed' with independence (CNN)
Prime Minister Theresa May accused Scotland's governing party of being obsessed with independence, as she stressed the importance of Scotland remaining part of the United Kingdom after Brexit.
There's an open rebellion in the Republican party over the future of Obamacare (Associated Press)
Whatever GOP unity was produced by Donald Trump's victory in November has all but disappeared, and Republican leaders are confronting open rebellion in their ranks as they try to finalize health care legislation.
Hundreds of Companies Raise Their Hands to Build Trump’s Border Wall (Bloomberg)
Congress hasn’t figured out how to pay for it yet, but more than 375 companies have told the Trump administration they’re interested in working on the controversial border-wall project.
Trump's EPA proposal cuts funding for climate change, pollution programs (Engadget)
Ever since the election, we've been wondering what the new presidential administration has in store for environmental programs, and the proposed new EPA budget may provide answers.
How much did Russian hacking affect congressional races? And how deeply was the GOP involved? (Salon)
If there’s one thing you can say about the Donald Trump presidency so far, it isn’t boring. From horror stories at the border to Trump’s semi-triumphant teleprompter speech and Attorney General Jeff Sessions being personally connected to the growing Russia scandal, this week has been a doozy.
Removing unauthorised immigrants is difficult and expensive (The Economist)
Tears stream down Arturo’s cheeks and onto his red jumpsuit as he imagines being deported to Mexico. Deep grooves line his face, a map of the hardships he has experienced since coming to America illegally three decades ago, aged 14.
Senator Treasury To Examine Trump Foreign Associates (Associated Press)
A senior Senate Democrat is asking the Treasury Department to evaluate whether President Donald Trump and his family's business associates and possible investors from Russia and other countries have violated U.S. laws against financing terrorism, money laundering and other illicit activities.
Trump and Russian foreign minister use exact same phrase to denounce widening scandal (Raw Story)
President Donald Trump and the Russian foreign minister used the same phrase to push back against the widening scandal engulfing the White House.
The White House proposes eye-watering budget cuts (The Economist)
During his campaign for the White House, Donald Trump touted a “penny plan” for government spending. This meant cutting the part of the budget that funds day-to-day operations—ie, excluding Social Security, health care, debt interest or defence—by 1% a year.
Who’s going to pay for those “gleaming” new US airports Trump wants? Maybe you (Quartz)
In an address to Congress this week, president Donald Trump renewed his vow to spend a lot of money to improve the US’s dilapidated transportation network.
Trump Defends Sessions Over Russia Controversy, Lashes Out at Democrats (NBC News)
President Donald Trump lashed out at Democrats he said "have lost their grip on reality" Thursday in a statement defending Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the controversy surrounding his past conversations with Russia's envoy to the United States.
Covering Trump Conference on Journalism, Politics and Fake News (Columbia Journalism Review)
After six weeks of his presidency, the media covering Trump’s administration is beginning to get a feel for the challenges that lie ahead.
The White House is proposing to slash a quarter of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's budget, targeting climate-change programs and those designed to prevent air and water pollution like lead contamination, a source with direct knowledge of the proposal said on Thursday.
'There is a climate of intimidation': Trump aides' bid to plug leaks is fueling government paranoia (Reuters)
President Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin used his first senior staff meeting last month to tell his new aides he would not tolerate leaks to the news media, sources familiar with the matter said.
Homeland Security report likens anti-Trump protests to ‘domestic terrorist violence’ (Raw Story)
A new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence wing has likened certain types of political protests to “domestic terrorism,” and specifically outlined anger at President Donald Trump’s election as a driving force.
Hundreds of people chant 'Coward!' as Paul Ryan visits Rhode Island (Associated Press)
Around 200 people chanted "Coward!" and booed as Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan attended an event in the heavily Democratic state.
Life on the Home Planet
15 ways graphene could change everything (Holy Kaw)
If you haven’t heard about recent amazing discoveries involving graphene, you’re missing out on some seriously exciting science.
The Most Desirable Passports On Earth Don’t Include America’s (Bloomberg)
Nomad aims to help wealthy adventurers reduce their tax burden by relocating abroad, obtain residence permits, and invest in other countries as a way to “grow their wealth faster.” It also advises people to obtain a second passport whenever possible.
Banksy's Art In West Bank Hotel With World's 'Worst View' (Associated Press)
A Palestinian guesthouse packed with artwork of the elusive British graffiti artist Banksy unveiled itself Friday in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, with a sneak peek of what the owner sarcastically called the "hotel with the worst view in the world."
Is Consciousness an Illusion? (The New York Review Of Books)
For fifty years the philosopher Daniel Dennett has been engaged in a grand project of disenchantment of the human world, using science to free us from what he deems illusions—illusions that are difficult to dislodge because they are so natural.
China’s Response to Reports of Torture: ‘Fake News’ (NY Times)
President Trump’s harangues against the American news media appear to have inspired a new genre of commentary in China’s state media, whose propagandists spiced up social media posts and news articles with Trumpian flourishes this week.
