Financial Markets and Economy
Record Number of Fund Managers Say U.S. Equities Are Overvalued (Bloomberg)
Fund managers now say stocks are the most overvalued they have been in nearly 20 years, according to a survey done last week by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
For China’s Central Bank, an Increasingly Difficult Balancing Act (The Wall Street Journal)
China’s central bank faces an increasingly tough balancing act, trying to contain asset bubbles and steady the yuan without triggering a cash crunch and stifling economic growth.
Sales of Previously Owned U.S. Homes Fell 3.7% in February (Bloomberg)
Housing demand is being restrained by a limited inventory of homes for sale that’s pushed property values higher. The jump in home prices from a year earlier far exceeded the gain in wage growth during the month.
A Brazilian meat scandal damages the country’s two global producers (The Economist)
Even amid Brazil’s pungent stew of recent big corporate scandals, the latest is particularly stomach-turning. On Friday March 17th, in time for a traditional weekend churrasco, or barbecue, the federal police accused some of the country’s biggest meat producers of bribing health inspectors to turn a blind eye to grubby practices.
Stocks Steady After Selloff as Tech Shares Rally (The Wall Street Journal)
Gains in technology shares buoyed the S&P 500 Wednesday as U.S. stocks stabilized following their worst day of the year.
Investors sent the S&P 500’s technology sector to its biggest daily climb in three weeks, while tech companies accounted for the top four gainers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Choppy day on Wall Street; all eyes on Trump and healthcare (Reuters)
Wall Street ended mixed after a choppy session on Wednesday as investors focused on President Donald Trump's struggle to push through a healthcare bill and snapped up stocks after a steep drop the day before.
London's Black Cabs Go Green as Geely Opens Coventry Factory (Bloomberg)
An all-electric version of London’s iconic black cab is set to go on sale at the end of this year after its Chinese manufacturer opened a solar-powered factory near Coventry, England.
Iron Ore Takes a Battering as Bear Market Engulfs China Futures (Bloomberg)
Iron ore is getting battered. After rounds of warnings that this year’s rally may be overdone, the raw material is in retreat as doubts gather about the strength of demand in China as steel sells off and record port stockpiles put a spotlight on rising supplies.
Pillar of Trump Rally Fractures as Banks Sink Most Since Brexit (Bloomberg)
The S&P 500 Index capped its first decline of 1 percent since October amid a rout in financial shares that have been the biggest beneficiary of Donald Trump’s election. Banks plunged more 2.9 percent — the most since the Brexit vote in June — trimming a rally that had reached 22 percent through Monday and was double the S&P 500’s gain since the vote.
Why the Trump Economic Boom Will Never Come (Foreign Policy)
Judging from Wall Street’s recent record-breaking streak, America chose the right candidate. Since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average has set all-time highs 11 times.
Colorado city commits to 100% renewable after natural gas drives up electricity costs (Think Progress)
Working-class homeowners in Pueblo, Colorado have struggled to keep up with their sky-high electric bills. Locals said rampant shutoffs have plunged entire city blocks into darkness and sent power-starved families to motels and homeless shelters.
Saudi Arabia may insist on Iran oil output cuts to continue OPEC deal: sources (S&P Global Platts)
Geopolitical rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran may be headed for another OPEC showdown, as the producer group enters negotiations over extending oil production cuts in force since January.
An OPEC Deal Extension Isn’t As Simple As It Sounds (Value Walk)
It’s been six months now that oil prices have been reacting to OPEC, first to the possibility of an agreement, and then to the production cut deal itself, forged by OPEC to rebalance the market.
Saudi Arabia Downgraded By Fitch To A+ On Soaring Fiscal Deficit, Deteriorating Balance Sheet (Zero Hedge)
With Saudi Arabia scrambling to respond to surging US shale production in what many analysts warn is a lose-lose decision, as either Saudi Arabia will lose market share under the current status quo, or government revenue will tumble should the Vienna 2016 production cut deal be cancelled, moments ago Fitch poured some fuel on the fire, when it downgraded the Saudi Kingdom from AA- to A+, as a result of the country's soaring deficit, declining reserves, and a deteriorating balance sheet.
Companies
One Billion Yahoo Accounts Still for Sale, Despite Hacking Indictments (NY Times)
For sale: one billion Yahoo accounts, $200,000 or best offer. The passwords don’t work, but the dates of birth, telephone numbers and security questions could still be useful to an adept cyberthief.
EU to formally veto Deutsche Boerse LSE merger shortly: sources (Reuters)
The European Commission will shortly veto a proposed merger between Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L), four sources close to the matter said on Wednesday, scuppering plans to create Europe's biggest exchange.
Elliott Threatens to Force Akzo Nobel to Engage With PPG (The Wall Street Journal)
American-style activism is storming the Old World.
Elliott Management Corp., one of the biggest activist investors in the U.S., has emerged as a key player in a $24 billion, trans-Atlantic standoff between two of the world’s oldest industrial companies.
Uber Pledges to Fix the Company’s ‘Cult of the Individual’ (Bloomberg)
Uber Technologies Inc. plans to outline diversity goals and publish the results of a sexual harassment investigation over the coming weeks, part of a commitment to fix its corporate culture.
Technology
Hackers Demand Apple Pay Up Or Millions Of iCloud Accounts Will Be Wiped (Digital Trends)
A group of hackers is allegedly trying to extort Apple by holding Apple customers’ data for ransom and threatening to remotely wipe iCloud accounts connected to both iPhones and iPads if those ransoms are not paid.
Google is still trying to fix Android's big security problem (Mashable)
Google's biggest Android problem remains a huge issue but it's slowly improving.
At least that's the takeaway from Google's Android Security Year in Review, the latest update on the company's ongoing plan to get phone makers to adopt security updates more quickly.
As E-Sports Grows, Videogame Companies Battle Cheaters (The Wall Street Journal)
Videogame companies pushing online competitions are grappling with the digital equivalent of performance-enhancing drugs.
Apple hopes cheap, not powerful, will turn around iPad sales (Engadget)
Apple has been trying to reverse declining iPad sales for several years now, without much success. For the past year and a half, that strategy could be summed up in one word: more. More power, more screen real estate, more accessories.
PS4 update is causing WiFi problems for some players (Engadget)
Sony's big PS4 version 4.50 update landed two weeks ago and despite the boost in framerates, some owners are not happy their consoles have been effectively cut off from the internet.
Politics
Republicans lied about healthcare for years, and they're about to get the punishment they deserve (Business Insider)
It's hard to decide which would be the more politically damaging outcome for Republican politicians: passing the American Health Care Act, and therefore owning the premium increases and coverage losses it would cause; or not passing the bill, and therefore failing to do anything that can be framed as "repealing Obamacare."
Trump Lays Plans to Reverse Obama’s Climate Change Legacy (NY Times)
President Trump is poised in the coming days to announce his plans to dismantle the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy, while also gutting several smaller but significant policies aimed at curbing global warming.
Why People Continue to Believe Objectively False Things (NY Times)
Today, President Trump is sticking with his own facts — his claim that the Obama administration wiretapped him during the election — in the face of testimony to the contrary by the F.B.I. director, James Comey.
Trump's Vegas Partner Says Business Is Not Dividing Profits From Foreign Governments As Promised (Forbes)
Two months ago Donald Trump’s lawyer Sheri Dillon stood in Trump Tower and announced that the president would donate all profits from foreign governments at his hotels to the U.S. Treasury—part of an effort to resolve concerns that the he would be in violation of a little-known clause in the U.S. Constitution the day he took office.
How Republicans quietly sabotaged Obamacare long before Trump came into office (Alternet)
Donald Trump suggested that the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) was a clever ruse by our first Black president and his Democratic friends to have a successful health-care system in place for his own presidency, but one that was set up to fail in the first year of the next president’s term.
Trump the Destroyer (Rolling Stone)
Morning, February 24th, National Harbor, Maryland, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Chin up, eyes asquint, Donald Trump floats to the lectern on a sea of applause and adulation.
Roger Stone, the ‘Trickster’ on Trump’s Side, Is Under F.B.I. Scrutiny (NY Times)
In President Trump’s oft-changing world order, Roger J. Stone Jr., the onetime political consultant and full-time provocateur, has been one of the few constants — a loyalist and self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” who nurtured the dream of a presidential run by the developer-turned-television-star for 30 years.
Trump, Koch brothers at odds over 'Trumpcare' vote (Reuters)
Republicans considering whether or not to back U.S. President Donald Trump's healthcare reforms in a crucial House of Representatives vote this week face a painful choice.
Democrats Seize on Disability Ruling to Bolster Their Case Against Gorsuch (The Wall Street Journal)
Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court took an unexpected turn Wednesday when the high court unanimously rejected an appeals court ruling that was based on the nominee’s views.
Republicans Want to Repeal Medicaid, Too (Bloomberg)
Obamacare, President Donald Trump is fond of saying, is a "complete and total disaster" and must be replaced. Yet one of the most significant features of his party's proposed replacement has little to do with Obamacare.
Ryan’s Leadership Is Tested by GOP’s Civil War on Health Bill (The Wall Street Journal)
House Speaker Paul Ryan is under so much public pressure these days that Rep. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.) sat down to write him a note.
Trump’s Environmental Spending Cuts Could Cost Republican Districts Billions (Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump's cuts to environmental programs may face resistance from members of his own party due to an Obama administration practice that spread billions of dollars in contracts to Republican as well as Democratic congressional districts.
Before Trump job, Manafort worked to aid Putin (Associated Press)
Before signing up with Donald Trump, former campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with a plan to "greatly benefit the Putin Government," The Associated Press has learned. The White House attempted to brush the report aside Wednesday, but it quickly raised fresh alarms in Congress about Russian links to Trump associates.
Eurogroup chairman Dijsselbloem refuses to quit over 'xenophobic' remarks (Reuters)
Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem rejected calls for his resignation led by Portugal's prime minister on Wednesday, but said he regretted comments suggesting southern European countries had squandered their money on "booze and women."
The Fight for 15 just scored its first victory of the year (Think Progress)
Fifteen dollars is nearly double the federal minimum wage, the lowest amount an American employer can pay his employees each hour. But as that wage floor has stagnated amid years of inaction in Congress, cities and states have pushed their own minimum wages higher.
Life on the Home Planet
North Korea missile test fails, U.S. and South say, as tensions simmer (Reuters)
A North Korean missile appeared to have exploded just after it was launched on Wednesday, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said after detecting the latest in a series of weapons tests by the nuclear-armed state that have alarmed the region.
America’s 100 Richest Places (Bloomberg)
Cities and towns with ties to Wall Street and the Silicon Valley, and a smattering of communities in between, boasted the highest U.S. household incomes in 2015, according to a Bloomberg analysis of census data.
How much does science knowledge influence people’s views on climate change and energy issues? (Pew Research Center)
Many in the scientific community believe that if the American public were more informed about the science behind climate change and energy issues, people would hold views that aligned more closely with those of scientific experts.
Four dead, at least 20 injured in UK parliament 'terrorist' attack (Reuters)
Four people were killed and at least 20 injured in London on Wednesday after a car plowed into pedestrians and an attacker stabbed a policeman close to the British parliament in what police called a "marauding terrorist attack".
