Financial Markets and Economy
Wall Street posts sharp gains, fueled by strong consumer data (Reuters)
U.S. stocks ended sharply higher on Tuesday, with financial and energy shares surging as data showed U.S. consumer confidence soaring to a more than 16-year high.
If Stocks Wobble, Will Bonds Be There To Absorb the Blow? (The Wall Street Journal)
If stocks are hitting a sticky patch, are bonds bound to shine? That was certainly the case in the first half of last year, when sharp falls in equity markets helped push bond prices sky-high. But the backdrop is different this time around.
Despite Trump Move on Climate Change, Utilities’ Shift From Coal Is Set to Continue (The Wall Street Journal)
The Trump administration’s move to roll back President Barack Obama’s signature climate-change policy may extend the life of some aging coal-fired power plants, but companies and energy experts say it is unlikely to reverse the U.S. utility industry’s shift to natural gas, solar and wind as leading sources of electricity.
BlackRock, the world's largest investor, just shook up its business, slashing fees on some funds and saying it will increasingly turn to computing power to drive investing decisions.
America's Housing Inventory Problem, Explained in Four Charts (Bloomberg)
The paucity of houses on the market remains a nagging hurdle for those Americans interested in trading up or looking to take their first step into homeownership.
The data geeks are taking over Wall Street (Business Insider)
There have historically been two dominant tribes on Wall Street.
There's the sell side, the investment banks, which, as their name suggests, mostly sell stuff. There's also the buy side, the fund managers, which mostly buy stuff.
U.S. Says Gambler Made Clorox Trades After Calls With Icahn (Bloomberg)
Phil Mickelson may be out as a witness at gambler Billy Walters’s insider-trading trial, but prosecutors are now shifting focus to a star of the finance world.
Manhattan Landlords Are Offering Massive Giveaways to Their Retail Clients (Bloomberg)
Manhattan landlords, who have seen retail occupancy plummet after boosting rents to record levels, are trying to avoid big price cuts. Instead, they’re writing checks for things like interior redesigns and moving expenses to keep storefronts from going empty.
A Hedge Fund's GM Plan Gives Hedge Funds a Bad Name (Bloomberg)
If your answer is "to manufacture and sell automobiles" then you obviously haven't been listening to David Einhorn, whose hedge fund, Greenlight Capital Inc., owns 13.2 million shares (0.88 percent) of the company's stock, according to Bloomberg.
The so-called “Trump trade,” which reflects the expectation for inflation, has been losing steam in the market.
And now former global macro fund manager Raoul Pal sees a big contrarian opportunity. Going against the crowd, Pal is recommending that investors buy bonds. Specifically, he recommends U.S. 10-year Treasury notes (^TNX).
Wall Street’s Bull Market Forecast Is Total Bull (Fortune)
In the world of investing, no phenomenon is more remarkable than the tendency of Wall Street's brilliant, richly bonused prognosticators to make totally wrongheaded forecasts for stocks.
Companies
SoftBank Considers $6 Billion Investment in China Ride-Hailing Firm Didi (The Wall Street Journal)
SoftBank Group Corp. has approached China’s Didi Chuxing Technology Co. about investing roughly $6 billion to help the ride-hailing firm expand in self-driving car technologies, two people familiar with the matter said.
Ford ups investment in Michigan plants by $350M (The Detroit News)
Ford Motor Co. will invest $1.2 billion in three Michigan factories to prepare for production of the all-new Ford Ranger and Bronco, and to support the company’s expansion into mobility.
Greenlight Capital's General Motors Presentation: Unlocking Value at GM (Market Folly)
David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital has put out a slide deck on its large position in General Motors (GM). The presentation is entitled: "Unlocking Value at GM: Two Classes of Common Shares."
China's HNA in talks to buy controlling stake in Forbes – sources (Reuters)
Acquisitive Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the owner of the publisher of Forbes magazine, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Technology
Mercedes steps up its electric car production plans (Engadget)
When Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler unveiled plans to have at least six electric cars on the market within a decade, it was clearly being conservative. The automaker has announced that it's accelerating those plans, with over 10 EVs on the road by 2022 — 3 years ahead of the target it set half a year ago.
The Galaxy S8 vs. the competition: Both beauty and beast (Engadget)
Samsung's had a rough year, but it's hoping that its new flagship phones can turn things around. In fact, the company's wants you to see the Galaxy S8 as a new type of handset: bigger and bolder in shape, with personal assistant Bixby and a desktop mode to sweeten the pot.
Facebook will launch group chatbots at F8 (Tech Crunch)
Facebook will reveal at its F8 conference a new class of group bots that work inside Messenger group chats. These group bots can keep users informed about real-time news such as a sports game’s progress, e-commerce deliveries and more, according to three sources familiar with the development of the feature.
How an AI system can learn to think creatively (Venture Beat)
Will an AI system ever create art that can equal a work created by a human? Researchers and artists are already making attempts to find out by translating creativity into algorithms. To answer whether these attempts are likely to generate artwork — music, poetry, fiction, visual art — that can pass for human-created work starts with understanding how human creativity functions.
Samsung May Sell Refurbished Versions Of Ill-Fated Note 7 Devices In South Korea (Digital Trends)
Samsung’s not one to let recalled phones go to waste — even fire-prone ones. On Monday, the South Korea smartphone maker announced that it was considering selling refurbished versions of the Galaxy Note 7 in select markets.
See The Cyborg System That Lets Humans Control Turtles With Their Minds (Digital Trends)
Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) are developing a technology that enables humans to control turtles with their minds. The human-turtle interface combines features from brain-computer interfaces and computer-brain interfaces, which send signals from brains to computers and computers to brains respectively.
Indianapolis cellular networks rank best in U.S. (IndyStar)
Among the 125 most populated cities in the U.S., Indianapolis ranked highest in overall cellular network performance. This is a move up from Indy's second place finish last year. The 32nd most populous Indy metro area also finished third in speed and data performance. Cities were ranked in six categories – overall performance, network reliability, network speed, data performance, cell performance and text performance.
Politics
Trump Sweeps Away Climate Rules Vowing `New Energy Revolution' (Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump moved aggressively to undo his predecessor’s carbon-cutting commitments, promising "a new energy revolution" that would unleash America’s abundant fossil-fuel resources.
Canada's set to legalize marijuana nationwide on July 1, 2018 (Business Insider)
Marijuana will be legal for all Canadians over the age of 18 by July 1, 2018, CBC News reports, marking Canada's 151st birthday in style.
As Democratic attorneys general target Trump, Republican AGs target them (Reuters)
For years the national political organizations of both Democratic and Republican state attorneys general observed an agreement not to target the other party's incumbent office-holders in elections.
Congress Gears Up for Fight Over Spending After Failure of Health-Care Bill (The Wall Street Journal)
President Donald Trump and GOP leaders enter their next big battle facing stubborn opposition in both parties that increases Republicans’ worries that they will need more Democratic support than previously expected to avert a government shutdown by the end of April.
Senate GOP Leaders Push for Health-Care Effort After House Plan Implodes (Bloomberg)
Senate Republican leaders are pushing for a bipartisan health-care effort after the implosion of the House GOP’s Obamacare repeal legislation, but Democrats remain wary.
More Democrats oppose Trump's U.S. Supreme Court pick (Reuters)
Democratic opposition to President Donald Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee grew on Monday while the White House demanded a "fair, up-or-down vote" in the Senate on confirming Neil Gorsuch to the lifetime post.
Trump to sign order sweeping away Obama-era climate policies (Reuters)
U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to undo a slew of Obama-era climate change regulations, a move meant to bolster domestic energy production but which environmentalists have vowed to challenge in court.
Paul Ryan Rejects Call for Devin Nunes to Step Aside From Probe (The Wall Street Journal)
House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday rejected calls by the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee for the panel’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, to recuse himself from investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Senate Intelligence Committee won't rule out collusion between Trump's team and Russia (Business Insider)
Contradicting what the White House press secretary said on Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said he couldn't rule out collusion between President Donald Trump's associates and Russians seeking to affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Rich Venezuelans Are Seeking Haven in Madrid (Bloomberg)
For Venezuelan exiles with money, Madrid has become a home away from home. They are increasingly turning to the Spanish capital as a place to invest as their home country falls further into economic chaos and the political mood turns more sour in U.S. havens such as Miami.
With Help from France’s Elite, Le Pen Tries to Steer Far-Right Party Into Mainstream (The Wall Street Journal)
For more than a year, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, representing the once-ostracized National Front, met with influential bankers, corporate executives and government officials to get advice on the radical changes vowed by her campaign.
House Republicans, still reeling from an embarrassing failure to bring their healthcare bill to a floor vote last week, are considering another attempt to pass the legislation.
Health and Biotech
Can Legal Marijuana Solve Opioid Crisis? Medical Pot States See Decrease In Pain Killer Abuse (Newsweek)
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently said he was “astonished” by claims that legal marijuana could solve the opioid crisis devastating the nation. However, a new study firmly linked legalized weed to decreased opioid abuse and overdoses.
Life on the Home Planet
China calls for explanation after Paris police fatally shoot Chinese man (Reuters)
French police said on Tuesday they opened an inquiry after a Chinese man was shot dead by police at his Paris home, triggering rioting in the French capital by members of the Chinese community and a sharp reaction from Beijing.
China able to deploy warplanes on artificial islands any time: U.S. think tank (Reuters)
China appears to have largely completed major construction of military infrastructure on artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea and can now deploy combat planes and other military hardware there at any time, a U.S. think tank said on Monday.
Police erect new security barriers around Queen's Windsor castle after London attack (Reuters)
Police erected new barriers around Queen Elizabeth's Windsor Castle home on Tuesday to boost protection a week after a man killed four people in an attack around parliament in central London.
