Financial Markets and Economy
The Fed wants to start shrinking its $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year (Business Insider)
Most members of the Federal Open Market Committee believe it should start shrinking the Federal Reserve's $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year, according to minutes from their mid-March meeting.
Inside the Fed’s March Meeting: The Annotated Minutes (Bloomberg)
The interest rate increase to a range of 75 to 100 basis points was the central bank's second in four months. The moves followed a year-long break from tightening after liftoff in December 2015 amid a shaky global economic environment and bouts of market volatility.
Stocks Fluctuate, Dollar Rises Amid Policy Bets: Markets Wrap (Bloomberg)
Investors turned attention to Washington to gauge the prospects for sweeping policy changes a day after the Federal Reserve roiled markets with talk of shrinking its balance sheet.
Industrial activity around the world looks set to strengthen smartly in the months ahead, at least if the latest batch manufacturing purchasing managers indices (PMI) are anything to go by.
Trump Boosts Coal As China Takes The Lead On Climate Change (Associated Press)
For years, cutting carbon emissions to stave off the worst impacts of climate change was routinely near the top of the agenda at talks between the leaders of the United States and China.
Some Fed Members Are Getting Worried About Stock Valuations. Here's What The Charts Show (Bloomberg)
How high is too high? Not for the first time, Federal Reserve officials have injected themselves into the debate on stock valuations, pointing out lofty U.S. equity markets in the minutes of their March gathering.
Oil eases off one-month high on surprise U.S. crude build (Reuters)
Oil prices settled a shade firmer on Wednesday, easing from one-month highs, as support from an outage at the largest UK North Sea oilfield was offset by a surprise increase in U.S. crude inventories to a record high limited price gains.
Oil Prices Edge Up After Dent From Supplies (Reuters)
Oil prices edged up on Thursday, on track for a weekly gain of 3 percent, after recovering from losses triggered by record high U.S. crude inventories.
Why the “Trump Rally” Is Nothing But a Bunch of Fake News (Financial Sense)
Many of us in the US have been swept up by what’s come to be known as the “Trump Rally.” The guise for this massive rise in stock prices over the past few months has been the promise of business-friendly tax reform, deregulation and infrastructure spending, among other “shareholder-friendly” initiatives.
European Central Bank's Draghi Says Stimulus Still Needed (Associated Press)
European Central Bank head Mario Draghi insisted Thursday that the bank's massive stimulus efforts are still needed even though the 19-country eurozone's economy is strengthening.
FOMC Admits The Stock Market Is A Bubble, Along With Many Other Asset Classes (Zero Hedge)
The much anticipated March FOMC minutes were released today, and the minutes concluded exactly what I predicted in my last post titled "Is the Fed Trying to stop a "Market" that has gotten ahead of itself".
Companies
Tencent Passes Wells Fargo to Become 10th Biggest Company: Chart (Bloomberg)
Tencent Holdings Ltd., a Chinese Internet titan best known for its WeChat messaging service and gaming, has overtaken Wells Fargo Inc. by market value, joining the likes of Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. in the ranks of the world’s biggest publicly traded companies.
LAX Is Raking In Millions From Uber And Lyft (BuzzFeed News)
Ride-hail companies have quickly become a new windfall for LAX, which made nearly $22.8 million last year off fees from Uber and Lyft trips, compared with just $3.3 million from the taxi industry, according to data obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Nivea Pulls ‘White Is Purity’ Ad After Online Uproar (NY Times)
The skin care brand Nivea set off a controversy this week with an ad featuring the phrase “White is purity,” again finding itself accused of racial insensitivity over a campaign that seemed to be embraced by white supremacists.
Payless Files for Bankruptcy Protection, will Close Nearly 400 Stores (FoxBusiness)
The privately-held company said it will reduce its store footprint as it shutters nearly 400 underperforming locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and work to modify terms of its lease portfolios of its remaining real estate. Payless currently operates 4,400 stores in more than 30 countries.
Apple Likely To Display Short-Term Strength On Better-Than-Expected Q2 Earnings (Michael Blair, Seeking Alpha)
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is showing good momentum with its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, both of which are nicely outpacing the uptake of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus of last year.
Technology
Google AI Just Beat Human Pathologists at Detecting Cancer (The Motley Fool)
The science of deep learning, a sub-discipline of artificial intelligence (AI), is only a recent development in the grand scheme of things, but during its short existence, it has been producing some impressive technological achievements.
Boeing and JetBlue just invested in a tiny electric-jet startup that could revolutionize air travel (Business Insider)
On Wednesday, the hybrid electric-aircraft startup Zunum Aero announced that it had received an investment from Boeing and JetBlue.
Mossberg: Sonos solves TV audio problems for a stiff price (The Verge)
Last year, I bought a new, high-end LG OLED 4K TV and wrote about the experience. I talked about the brilliant picture, the tiny bezels, the ultra-thin display, and the overly complex UI. But, over the ensuing months, another feature of the TV has become more and more noticeable, and annoying: the audio.
Self-healing phone screen can fix itself in 24 hours (The Telegraph)
The days of scratched and cracked smartphone screens could soon be numbered after researchers created a "stretchy" screen that can repair itself.
Duo is an AI-powered, 27-inch multitouch smart mirror that will definitely, totally exist some day (BGR)
AI assistants aren’t going away any time soon, but their implementation is constantly shifting and evolving. Alexa is invading every gadget in our homes, Siri might soon do the same, and Google Assistant will probably be uploaded to our brains before too long.
YouTube TV is exactly what live TV streaming should look like in 2017 (Mashable)
You already go to YouTube to watch funny cat videos, the latest music videos, and movie trailers, so why wouldn't you go there to watch live TV?
First driverless shuttle tests begin in London (The Telegraph)
Around 100 people will travel in a prototype shuttle on a two-mile route near London's O2 Arena over the next three weeks.
Can AI Ever Be as Curious as Humans? (Harvard Business Review)
Curiosity has been hailed as one of the most critical competencies for the modern workplace. It’s been shown to boost people’s employability. Countries with higher curiosity enjoy more economic and political freedom, as well as higher GDPs.
Politics
Pence's Obamacare diplomacy fails to yield a deal (Politico)
The White House’s latest last-ditch effort to save the GOP’s Obamacare replacement bill hit a brick wall Tuesday night, as conservative and moderate Republicans met and realized they had two very different understandings of the changes sought by top Trump officials.
Immigration Arrests At Mexican Border Continue To Plummet (Associated Press)
Arrests of people caught trying to sneak into the United States across the Mexican border plummeted in March to the lowest monthly figure in more than 17 years, the head of the Department of Homeland Security reported.
Sen. Jeff Merkley Stages All-Night Protest On Senate Floor Against Gorsuch Nomination (The Huffington Post)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) began an all-night protest on the Senate floor late Tuesday, promising to speak “as long as I’m able” in protest of the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump's Claim That The 2009 Stimulus Built Nothing (NPR)
Speaking to CEOs on Tuesday, President Trump touted his plans for deregulation and infrastructure-building. In the process, he made a striking claim: that the Obama administration passed an infrastructure bill that built nothing and gave money to social programs.
Trump Presses China On NKorea; Another Bluff Could Hurt Him (Associated Press)
Warning the U.S. could act alone, President Donald Trump has vowed to deliver an ultimatum to Chinese leader Xi Jinping to rein in North Korea when the two men come face-to-face for the first time this week.
Democrats Bristle At Trump Infrastructure Plans (Associated Press)
Democrats had hoped the one big policy area they could find common ground with President Donald Trump on was infrastructure, but they don't like what they're hearing from administration officials about the transportation portion of the plan that's still in the works.
Beijing is gearing up for a major diplomatic offensive in May as it welcomes Vladimir Putin among 20 international leaders for a summit on building a "new Silk Road" to bring China closer to the world. This is the One Belt, One Road project – the centerpiece of Chinese international engagement.
The gun industry is finding out that a friendlier political climate is bad for the bottom line (The Trace)
The gun industry is finding out that a friendlier political climate is bad for the bottom line. America's largest firearms manufacturers, which had ramped up production in anticipation of a Hillary Clinton presidency, are suffering from a glut of supply.
Life on the Home Planet
Unusually Large Swarm Of Icebergs Drift Into Shipping Lanes (Associated Press)
More than 400 icebergs have drifted into the North Atlantic shipping lanes over the past week in an unusually large swarm for this early in the season, forcing vessels to slow to a crawl or take detours of hundreds of miles.
The world has a new best restaurant, with New York's Eleven Madison Park deposing Italy's Osteria Francescana after just one year at the top.
