Financial Markets and Economy
How Slipping Oil Prices Are Hurting the Global Reflation Rally (Bloomberg)
In the latest blow, Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that it raised output back above 10 million barrels a day in February — reversing about a third of the cuts made the previous month — sending crude to the lowest level since late November.
Asian Stocks Ease, Cautious Ahead of Central Bank Announcements (Reuters)
Asian equities opened slightly lower, as investors stayed cautious awaiting the outcome of several central bank meetings later on Wednesday.
Oil at $40 No Problem as U.S. Drillers Snub OPEC With Hedges (Bloomberg)
American oil explorers who survived the worst of the 2014-2016 market rout are shrugging off the 14 percent slide in prices this year from a high of $55.24 to less than $48 a barrel Tuesday.
Here’s One Chart That Captures the Debate Over Quantitative Easing (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raises questions about the success of the efforts by the Federal Reserve and its peers to spark inflation in the wider economy with a chart showing what’s happened with prices in the largest developed economies since the start of 2009.
Meet the 8 hedge fund managers who made the most money in 2016 (Business Insider)
It's no secret that hedge funds have not been doing well.
2016 was an especially rough year for the once mighty kings of Wall Street.
European Stocks Gain Ahead of Fed Rate Decision (The Wall Street Journal)
Stocks followed commodity prices higher Wednesday ahead of a closely watched update from the Federal Reserve and elections in the Netherlands.
Oil Gains on U.S. Supply as IEA Says Time Needed to Drain Glut (Bloomberg)
Oil rebounded above $48 a barrel amid a reported decline in U.S. crude stockpiles as the International Energy Agency said the market needs time to drain a global inventory glut.
Fed Is Ready to Raise Rates, but Key Bank Metric Suggests Caution (The Wall Street Journal)
Hopes that a stronger economy will lead to more lending and further Federal Reserve rate increases have helped push bank stocks to postcrisis highs.
How the Fed Convinced Markets It’ll Raise Rates This Week (Bloomberg)
Investors see a Federal Reserve rate increase this week as a sure bet, a major shift from the small chance they assigned to a March hike coming out of the central bank's last meeting on Feb. 1.
China Doesn't Want a U.S. Trade War, Premier Says (The Wall Street Journal)
Premier Li Keqiang, China's No. 2 official, said the country doesn't want to enter a trade war with the U.S., and urged the world's two biggest economies to "uphold strategic interests," at his annual news conference at the end of the National People's Congress.
IEA says oil market could tilt into deficit in H1 if OPEC sticks to cuts (Reuters)
Global oil inventories rose for the first time in January as the market grappled with a swell in production last year, but if OPEC maintains its output cuts, demand should overtake supply in the first half of this year, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
‘Superstar Firms’ May Have Shrunk Workers’ Share of Income (NY Times)
For much of the last century it seemed that the slice of the total economic pie going to workers was — like the speed of light — constant.
When the Fed Raises Rates, Credit Card Holders Feel It First (NY Times)
Get ready to pay more to borrow. When it comes to economics, certainty is usually elusive, but in the case of the expected decision by the Federal Reserve to raise short-term interest rates by a quarter-point on Wednesday, the impact on consumers is clear.
China's Premier Li touts free trade, says no hard landing for economy (Reuters)
China's Premier Li Keqiang reassured investors on Wednesday that the world's second-largest economy is strong and not at risk of a hard landing, while stressing Beijing's support for globalization and free trade at a time of rising protectionism.
Japan’s Power Producers to Face China Coal Pain After Steel (Bloomberg)
Japanese utilities may pay at least 29 percent more for annual supplies this year after China’s efforts in 2016 to trim overcapacity led to a more than doubling of spot prices, according to UBS Group AG and Morgan Stanley.
The Only Way to Stop Indians Buying Gold? Take Away Their Cash (Bloomberg)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government spent 16 months trying to persuade Indians to deposit their jewelry in the bank to earn interest, in an effort to curb soaring imports of the precious metal.
Goldman Turns Cautious on Stocks as Fed Threatens to Upset Calm (Bloomberg)
The longer the seemingly unstoppable reflation rally continues, the more warning signs start to flash for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — especially in stocks.
‘Pink Slime’ Lawsuit: Food-Libel Law Explained (The Wall Street Journal)
ABC News and a maker of a processed-meat product will soon square off before a South Dakota jury in a defamation case, with billion-dollar sums potentially at stake.
For This Young Entrepreneur, The Fate Of Engagement Rings Rests In Lab-Grown Diamonds (Forbes)
Vanessa Stofenmacher is accustomed to feeling like an outsider. When she launched her Los Angeles-based startup Vrai & Oro in April 2014, she was a twenty-something soft-spoken blonde with no background in jewelry.
The stock market is looking a lot like 1929 (NY Post)
This is the most dangerous and overvalued stock market on record — worse than 2007, worse than 2000, even worse than 1929.
Or so warns Wall Street soothsayer John Hussman in his scariest jeremiad
A potentially new and rising concern: inflation inequality in the United States (Washington Center for Equitable Growth)
The rich are different from you and me. They have different consumption baskets.
At least that is the tentative conclusion that some scholars are making in their recent research on the differences in consumption and prices across the U.S. income distribution.
How Much Europe Can Europe Tolerate? (Project Syndicate)
This month the European Union will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding treaty, the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. There certainly is much to celebrate.
High Yield Bond ETF Breaks Below Key Technical Level (Zero Hedge)
We warned overnight of the canary in the coalmine that high-yield credit markets were becoming and today that stress is getting worse.
Saudi King Arrives In Japan: 10 Aircraft, 500 Limos, 500 Tons Of Luggage, 12,000 Hotel Rooms, 2 Golden Escalators (Zero Hedge)
When Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia visited Georgetown in September 2015, the Four Seasons hotel did some serious redecorating.
Populism and Global Engagement: Europe, North America and Emerging Economies (Pew Research Center)
On December 8, 2016 at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington Katie Simmons, the associate director of research at the Pew Research Center, and Bruce Stokes, the director of global economic attitudes, presented Pew Research Center findings on the growing support for populist movements that has been a prominent feature of recent politics in Europe and the United States.
Companies
Justice Department to announce indictments in massive Yahoo hack: source (Reuters)
U.S. Justice Department officials are expected to announce indictments on Wednesday against suspects in at least one of a series of hacking attacks on Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O), according to a source briefed on the matter.
Yahoo’s New Male CEO Will Get Twice Marissa Mayer’s Salary (NBC News)
The company named board member Thomas McInerney, 52, as the head of its new spinoff company, Altaba. McInerney, former CFO at IAC media company – which owns brands such as Tinder, OKCupid, and the Princeton Review – is to get a $2 million base pay, the company announced in an SEC filing Monday.
Domino's Atoned For It's Crimes Against Pizza And Built A $9 Billion Empire (Bloomberg)
You may not be surprised to learn that pizza production at Domino’s hasn’t changed much in the 57 years since the company was founded. It’s still essentially hands on the dough and in the cheese.
Corporate Japan Is on Foreign Buying Spree. Toshiba Shows Pitfalls. (DealBook)
Toshiba of Japan had big dreams for global expansion when it bought the American nuclear company Westinghouse 11 years ago. To make them come true, it seemed willing to pay almost any price.
Technology
Apple found guilty of iPhone price-fixing in Russia (CNet)
The country's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said Apple's local subsidiary told 16 retailers in Russia to fix the prices of iPhone 5 and 6 models, according to a report by the Financial Times (subscription required).
Tech Roundup: The Race to Be Under the Hood of Driverless Cars (NY Times)
Much of the attention around self-driving vehicles has focused on the race between the biggest players — such as Google and Uber — to dominate the emerging market.
Technology Quarterley Here, There And Everywhere (The Economist)
PATRICK GILL, a director of the new Quantum Metrology Institute at Britain’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in south-west London and an expert in atomic clocks, points to a large table full of lenses and mirrors, vacuum chambers and electronics. “And there’s a smaller one over there,” he says.
Quantum leaps (The Economist)
A bathing cap that can watch individual neurons, allowing others to monitor the wearer’s mind. A sensor that can spot hidden nuclear submarines. A computer that can discover new drugs, revolutionise securities trading and design new materials.
Politics
Trump paid $38 million in income taxes in 2005, the White House says (The Washington Post)
President Trump paid $38 million in federal taxes in 2005 on income of $153 million and reported a $105 million write-down in business losses, according to a copy of his tax return first revealed Tuesday night on MSNBC.
Trump rejects push to oust NSC aide (Politico)
President Donald Trump has overruled a decision by his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, to sideline a key intelligence operative who fell out of favor with some at the Central Intelligence Agency, two sources told POLITICO.
Saudi Prince Sees Trump as 'True Friend' to Muslims (Full Text) (Bloomberg)
The meeting between Prince Mohammad bin Salman and President Trump was a huge success, marking a historic turning point in bilateral relation of the two countries.
It's judgment day for Trump's new immigration ban (AFP)
President Donald Trump faces a day of legal reckoning Wednesday on the fate of his revised travel ban, with three federal courts from Maryland to Hawaii to mull the measure on the eve of its implementation.
No Magic in How G.O.P. Plan Lowers Premiums: It Penalizes Older People (NY Times)
There are a lot of unpleasant numbers for Republicans in the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of their health care bill.
Worker Safety Rules Are Among Those Under Fire in Trump Era (NY Times)
Even as the Labor Department awaits confirmation of a new secretary, officials say enforcement actions are moving forward against companies accused of violating workplace safety rules. There is just one issue: The public isn’t likely to know much about them.
Newt Gingrich slams “corrupt,” “dishonest” Congressional Budget Office (Salon)
Two of President Donald Trump’s most prominent surrogates — Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — are making the rounds to defend the Obamacare repeal bill and discredit the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s assessment that it would throw 24 million people off of their insurance coverage.
SCOTUS makes it rain: Most of the big money behind the 2016 election directly resulted from Supreme Court decisionsCongressional hearings for President Donald Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court are less than a week away, and voters want to know what confirming Judge Neil Gorsuch could mean for their voices in America’s democracy.
Trump to Nominate Goldman Banker to No. 2 Post at Treasury (The Wall Street Journal)
The White House announced nominations for six top posts at the Treasury Department on Tuesday, including a senior Goldman Sachs Group Inc. private banker as the agency’s No. 2 official.
Rule by Thieves: One Week in the Life of the American Kleptocracy (The Rutherford Institute)
The American kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) continues to suck the American people down a rabbit hole into a parallel universe in which the Constitution is meaningless, the government is all-powerful, and the citizenry is powerless to defend itself against government agents who steal, spy, lie, plunder, kill, abuse and generally inflict mayhem and sow madness on everyone and everything in their sphere.
Trump Spokesman Is ‘Very Confident’ Wiretapping Evidence Will Emerge (NY Times)
In the latest verbal acrobatics over President Trump’s allegation that President Barack Obama spied on him during the 2016 campaign, the White House spokesman said on Tuesday that he was confident Mr. Trump’s claim would eventually be found to be true.
Obama White House photographer pokes fun at Conway on Instagram (The Hill)
Pete Souza, former President Obama's White House photographer, poked fun at Kellyanne Conway Monday after the White House counselor suggested that "microwaves that turn into cameras" could have been used to spy on Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
GOP needs to oppose King's re-election, not just King's words (The Des Moines Register)
If Steve King was your average, garden-variety bigot and was standing on a street corner while spouting his nonsense to passersby, he’d be easy to ignore. Everyone could dismiss his rants as undeserving of their attention and get on with their day.
Defense Secretary James Mattis just learned the White House doesn’t have his back when it comes to choosing staffersLast month, President Donald Trump put the kibash on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s plan to appoint Elliott Abrams as his second-in-command. Now he is leaving another key foreign policy post unfilled, and this time because he refuses to defend his own cabinet officer against intransigent right-wing senators.
Frightbart: A virtual stew of menace, a pit of monsters, an unending onslaught of apocalyptic horsemen (Billmoyers.com)
The home page of Breitbart.com, the quasi-official voice of Steve Bannon’s White House, is a virtual stew of menace, a pit of monsters, an unending onslaught of apocalyptic horsemen rearing up at full gallop, coming straight at you, drawing closer. . . . But what the Breitbart reader is not being warned against is poisoned water, eviction, a melting glacier, a rising sea, a pauper’s grave, a burning cross, a bank swindle or a loss of medical care.
Life on the Home Planet
Somali pirates demand ransom after commandeering oil tanker (DW Made For Minds)
Armed men seized an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia's northern coast, the EU's anti-piracy mission NAVFOR said late Tuesday.
Tempted To Move Out Of The U.S.? New Zealand Wants To Help You Escape (Forbes)
Right after the presidential election, visits from U.S. citizens to the Immigration New Zealand website soared. Think 56,300 visits in 24 hours versus the usual average of 2,300.
Can I fly with my legal weed? The skies are surprisingly friendly for marijuana users (Alternet)
Marijuana is legal now in eight states and medical marijuana is legal in 28. That’s a lot of places where at least some people can possess the demon weed. But what if you’re in one of those places and you want to fly elsewhere? If pot is legal, can I take it on the plane?
'Beware of Jews' sign reported to police as MPs call it 'despicable' and 'unacceptable' (The Telegraph)
The sign, which appears to depict the silhouette of an orthodox Jewish man wearing a traditional Fedora hat, was found just 200 yards from a nearby synagogue in Stamford Hill, north London, on Tuesday.
Broadcasters Hit New Lows as Clock Winds Down on 2016-17 Season (Advertisting Age)
The destabilization of the live TV model continues to gnaw away at the primetime broadcast ratings like a school of piranha stripping the flesh off the bones of a luckless cow.
Disney Pulls 'Beauty' From Malaysia Rather Than Cut 'Gay Moment' (Bloomberg)
Walt Disney Co. indefinitely pulled “Beauty and the Beast” from theaters in Malaysia rather than remove scenes involving a gay character to placate local authorities.
