Financial Markets and Economy
Stocks, dollar turn negative after Fed minutes (Reuters)
U.S. stocks turned negative and the dollar slipped on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve showed planned changes in its bond investment policy, reversing a rally spurred by a strong jobs report earlier in the day.
The Danger of a Sell-off in U.S. Stocks Grows (Bloomberg)
Recent history suggests American automobile sales indicate subsequent moves in U.S. equities. Declines in 2011 and 2012 were followed by a retreat in the S&P 500 index, and gains in the fall of 2015 came before a market rally.
Uncovering the Secret History of Wall Street’s Largest Oil Trade (Bloomberg)
The men huddled in the same first-floor conference room as always, only this time they’d decided to make their annual oil bet bigger and bolder than ever before. Fewer than a dozen representatives from three Mexican government ministries and Petróleos Mexicanos, the state energy company, were about to make a wildly contrarian play.
Oil gains ahead of U.S. data, dollar slips (Reuters)
Oil prices rose to a near one-month high on Tuesday on expectations of lower U.S. crude inventories, while the dollar eased as investors remained cautious ahead of meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
It's a Big Week for One of the Most Important Debates in Markets (Bloomberg)
The world will have a better idea by the end of this week, but probably no definitive answer, on whether the U.S. economy’s boom in “soft” data is being reflected in the “hard” stuff.
China’s Currency Takes a Twist Ahead of Trump-Xi Meeting (The Wall Street Journal)
As China’s leader prepares to head to the U.S. this week, there’s a new twist in the persistent argument that China is keeping its currency artificially low against the dollar. The yuan has recently been rising.
Peak Auto? These Charts Point to Industry, U.S. Economy Concerns (Bloomberg)
America’s auto industry was running full throttle at the end of 2016, with sales at the fastest pace in more than 11 years. Now the Check Engine light is on.
Global Shipping Fleet Braces for Chaos of $60 Billion Fuel Shock (Bloomberg)
Little more than 2 1/2 years from now, the global fleet of merchant ships will have to reduce drastically how much sulfur their engines belch into the atmosphere.
Trump declares end to 'war on coal,' but utilities aren't listening (Reuters)
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to sweep away Obama-era climate change regulations, he said it would end America's "war on coal", usher in a new era of energy production and put miners back to work.
EU, Greece seek bailout deal by Friday (Reuters)
Greece and its international lenders remained at odds in talks to release fresh bailout loans to Athens on Wednesday as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said a deal was needed this week and accused creditors of 'playing games' and causing delays.
ETFs Are the New Bond Kings (Bloomberg)
The fund’s floundering investment-grade bond portfolio was occupying his undivided attention, its strategy clearly broken. No matter what he tried, the securities couldn’t deliver sufficient yield or liquidity.
Deutsche Bank Loses Senior Executives After Bonuses Slashed (Bloomberg)
Deutsche Bank AG, which slashed bonuses for a second straight year, saw several senior employees leave after paying out deferred compensation for previous years.
Manhattan Home Resales Rebound as Sellers Cut Asking Prices (Bloomberg)
Manhattan home resales climbed for the first time in a year and a half as sellers agreed to lower prices in order to seal deals before inventory and interest rates rise further.
Thousands of Greek pensioners protest against cuts as more austerity looms (Reuters)
Thousands of elderly Greeks protested peacefully on Tuesday against more pension cuts, as cash-strapped Greece remained locked in talks with lenders on further austerity and unpopular labor reforms.
Greek Pensions Hot Potato Puts Tsipras in Bailout Tight Spot (Bloomberg)
The 82-year-old is one of about 2.7 million pensioners likely to face a cut in monthly payments for the 12th time since the debt crisis in 2010, as part of the measures required for the disbursement of the next tranche of emergency loans.
South Africa Cut to Junk for the First Time Since 2000 (Bloomberg)
South Africa lost its investment-grade credit rating from S&P Global Ratings for the first time in 17 years in response to a cabinet purge by President Jacob Zuma that’s sparked increasing calls for him to resign. The rand weakened.
Ultralow rate driving Japan's public pension fund out of JGBs (Nikkei Asian Review)
The Bank of Japan's zero interest rate policy is forcing Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund to take on more risk via an increased portfolio allocation to stocks, as near-zero yields have made Japanese government bonds nonviable as core holdings.
Burton Malkiel's Random Walk (Bloomberg)
This week on a special rebroadcast edition of our Masters in Business podcast, we speak with Burton Malkiel, economics professor at Princeton University and a leading advocate of index investing. Malkiel is best known for the book, "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," with more than 1.5 million copies sold.
Companies
EU clears ChemChina's $43 billion takeover of Syngenta with conditions (Reuters)
ChemChina [CNNCC.UL] won conditional EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for its $43 billion bid for Swiss pesticides and seeds group Syngenta (SYNN.S), a deal that could help China boost its domestic agricultural output.
Google Says Former Driverless-Car Executive Developed Rival Before Exit (The Wall Street Journal)
Google Inc. accused its former driverless-car executive Anthony Levandowski of quietly developing a competing company for more than three years before he left the internet giant and eventually sold the business to Uber Technologies Inc., according to legal documents released Monday.
GM Once Again Owns Corporate Aircraft (The Wall Street Jorunal)
General Motors Co. is back in the business of owning corporate aircraft.
The Detroit auto giant on Monday outlined in a proxy filing costs related to Chief Executive Mary Barra’s personal travel, including use of “Company-owned aircraft.” It hasn't been widely known that GM owned planes for executive use since it sold jets in connection to being bailed out by the government in 2008 and 2009.
Krispy Kreme-owner JAB to buy bakery chain Panera Bread (Reuters)
JAB Holdings, the owner of Caribou Coffee and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, said on Wednesday it would buy bakery chain Panera Bread Co (PNRA.O) for $7.2 billion, as it expands its coffee and breakfast empire through the biggest-ever U.S. restaurant deal.
Technology
Apple Pay Promised to Make Plastic Obsolete. Then Came Wary Shoppers, Confused Clerks (The Wall Street Journal)
Nancy Schrum watched curiously as a colleague from her law firm waved an iPhone above a credit-card reader to buy a Subway sandwich with Apple Pay earlier this year.
Apple aims for more control, less cost as it accelerates in chip design (Reuters)
Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) decision to stop licensing graphics chips from Imagination Technologies Group Plc (IMG.L) is the clearest example yet of the iPhone maker's determination to take greater control of the core technologies in its products – both to guard its hefty margins and to position it for future innovations, especially in so-called augmented reality.
H-1B Visa Overhaul Could Actually Benefit Big Tech Companies (Bloomberg)
The new way foreign worker visas are doled out in the U.S. is poised to benefit some of the biggest technology companies, like Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Facebook Inc., while punishing outsourcing firms that developed a disproportionate dependence on the program.
Politics
Bannon Taken Off Trump National Security Council in Shake-Up (Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump reorganized his National Security Council on Wednesday, removing chief strategist Stephen Bannon from a key committee and restoring the roles of top intelligence and defense officials, according to a person familiar with the decision and a notice published in the Federal Register.
The Long, Lucrative Right-wing Grift Is Blowing Up in the World's Face (Fusion)
If you want to understand intra-GOP warfare, the decision-making process of our president, the implosion of the Republican healthcare plan, and the rest of the politics of the Trump era, you don’t need to know about Russian espionage tactics, the state of the white working class, or even the beliefs of the “alt-right.”
Jim O'Neill: Trump is playing a 'dangerous' game with China (Yahoo Finance)
When it comes to trade policy, the most challenging force for President Trump to confront is the rise of emerging economies. This is according Jim O’Neill, the economist who in 2001 coined “BRIC” — the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China—to highlight the rise of these regions in the global economy.
Donald Trump Still Doesn’t Understand the Unemployment Rate (The Fiscal Times)
Back when he was still on the campaign trail, President Trump consistently displayed what seemed like a radical disregard for the facts about unemployment in the United States.
Massachusetts challenges immigration detention in state court (Reuters)
The state of Massachusetts on Tuesday asked its top court to find that state authorities lack the authority to detain illegal immigrants who come in contact with the legal system to buy time for federal authorities to take them into custody.
Battle Over Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court Confirmation to Hit Senate Floor (The Wall Street Journal)
The Senate is barreling toward a bitter showdown over the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, as Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he has enough votes to change the Senate rules and eliminate the filibuster on Supreme Court nominations.
U.S. business seeks action, not trade war, in Xi-Trump summit (Reuters)
Although worried about the prospect of a trade war, American businesses operating in China nonetheless want President Donald Trump to wring some concessions on market access from China's leader Xi Jingping when the two meet this week.
Trump Administration Considers Far-Reaching Steps for ‘Extreme Vetting’ (The Wall Street Journal)
Visitors to the U.S. could be forced to provide cellphone contacts and social-media passwords and answer questions about their ideology, according to Trump administration officials, measures that could intrude into the lives of millions of foreigners.
Trump Team Takes Steps to Keep Chinese From Westinghouse (Bloomberg)
The Trump administration is so alarmed that Chinese investors may try to purchase Westinghouse Electric Co.’s nuclear business that U.S. officials are trying to find an American or allied buyer for the company instead, two people familiar with the matter said.
Homeland Security announces steps against H1B visa fraud (Reuters)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced steps on Monday to prevent the fraudulent use of H1B visas, used by employers to bring in specialized foreign workers temporarily, which appeared to fall short of President Donald Trump's campaign promises to overhaul the program.
Le Pen Ambushed in French Debate as Macron Attacks on Euro (Bloomberg)
Marine Le Pen was labeled soft on her euro exit plans during a television debate performance that failed to win over viewers.
Senate Is Running Out of Compromises to Avoid ‘Nuclear Option’ in Gorsuch Vote (The Wall Street Journal)
A bipartisan group of 14 senators in 2005 ended a bruising fight over federal judgeships with a compromise agreement that stopped GOP leaders from changing the chamber’s rules for confirming Supreme Court nominees.
EU lawmakers adopt Brexit resolution, reject pro-Gibraltar hint (Reuters)
European Union lawmakers adopted a resolution on Wednesday setting their red lines for the two-year divorce talks with Britain and rejected attempts by British MEPs to recognize Gibraltar's pro-EU stance in the Brexit referendum.
South Africa's ANC rejects calls for Zuma to quit (Reuters)
South Africa's African National Congress "closed ranks" around President Jacob Zuma after two key allies of the ruling party called for his resignation following a cabinet reshuffle that cost the country one of its investment-grade credit ratings.
House Republican tax chief to huddle with Democrats (Reuters)
The Texas Republican spearheading tax reform efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives will meet with Democrats to discuss policy ideas, as Republicans try to secure a victory for President Donald Trump after his healthcare bill's failure.
Trump signs repeal of U.S. broadband privacy rules (Reuters)
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules, the White House said, a victory for internet service providers and a blow to privacy advocates.
Ferguson mayor re-elected in his first election after shooting (Reuters)
Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III was re-elected on Tuesday in his first election bid since a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teen in his Missouri city that became a paradigm of racial profiling and police use of deadly force.
LA Times: Series of Four (and more later) on Trump:
1. Our Dishonest President (LA Times)
It was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a “catastrophe.”
Donald Trump did not invent the lie and is not even its master. Lies have oozed out of the White House for more than two centuries and out of politicians’ mouths — out of all people’s mouths — likely as long as there has been human speech.
3. Trump’s Authoritarian Vision
Standing before the cheering throngs at the Republican National Convention last summer, Donald Trump bemoaned how special interests had rigged the country’s politics and its economy, leaving Americans victimized by unfair trade deals, incompetent bureaucrats and spineless leaders.
In Donald Trump’s America, the mere act of reporting news unflattering to the president is held up as evidence of bias. Journalists are slandered as “enemies of the people."
Health and Biotech
Cheap stroke drug boosts pancreatic cancer survival in mice (New Scientist)
Pancreatic cancer has the worst survival rate of any major cancer. The standard chemotherapy combination of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) only keeps patients alive for an average of nine months.
Life on the Home Planet
Russia bomb suspect rented apartment in St. Petersburg month before attack (Reuters)
The main suspect in a suicide bombing on the St Petersburg metro that killed 14 people had rented an apartment in the city a month before the blast, neighbors and a building maintenance worker told Reuters on Wednesday.
Earth-sized telescope set to snap first picture of a black hole (New Scientist)
GET ready to peer into the unknown. This week, we will have our first chance to take a picture of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. The image could teach us how black holes work and even how the largest and smallest forces governing the universe fit together.
Chinese wary about U.S. missile system because capabilities unknown: experts (Reuters)
China is steadfastly opposed to the deployment of advanced U.S. anti-missile radars in South Korea because it does not know whether the defenses, intended for North Korean missiles, are capable of tracking and countering Beijing's own nuclear program, experts say.
