Financial Markets and Economy
Dollar Rises Despite Disappointing U.S. Jobs Report (The Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. dollar rose Friday, supported by investor demand for assets seen as safe despite a disappointing U.S. hiring report.
We just got more proof the retail apocalypse is only getting worse (Business Insider)
The headline payroll number from the US jobs report released Friday was disappointing, with only 98,000 jobs added to the economy, well short of the 180,000 expected by economists.
America’s Retailers Are Closing Stores Faster Than Ever (Bloomberg)
The battered American retail industry took a few more lumps this week, with stores at both ends of the price spectrum preparing to close their doors.
Treasury yields tumble after the jobs report whiffs (Business Insider)
US Treasury yields are tumbling after the jobs report came in well below expectations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the US economy added 98,000 jobs in March, missing the 180,000 that was expected by the Bloomberg consensus.
Canada's jobs report crushes expectations (Business Insider)
The Labor Force Survey, Canada's jobs report, for the month of March beat expectations for the eight straight month.
Payroll Growth in U.S. Closes In on Best 1Q Since 2012: Chart (Bloomberg)
For all the soft economic data that have soared this year, the government’s employment figures are hard evidence that American companies are confident about demand and the economy’s prospects.
Nobody Is Saying Anything About How U.S. Earnings Season Will Go (Bloomberg)
Investors seeking hints on first-quarter earnings season are getting little help from companies.
In the past month, only 83 have published profit guidance of any variety, the least at this time of the year since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 1999.
Japan's labour market is tight. So why aren’t wages rising? (The Economist)
Trimly dressed deliverymen, polite and punctual, are ubiquitous in Japan. So it was shocking to see one of them kicking his parcels and hurling his trolley outside a block of Tokyo flats after apparently finding no one at home.
Rand, Bonds Fall as South Africa Junk Rating Triggers Index Exit (Bloomberg)
South Africa’s rand and dollar bonds fell after Fitch Ratings Ltd. became the second company to cut the country’s credit assessment to junk, triggering sales by some investors tracking investment-grade debt indexes.
Economists Say Trump Seems To Misunderstand Significance Of Trade Deficit (NPR)
The Trump administration has launched an investigation into the cause of trade deficits with U.S. trading partners. But most economists, say Trump appears to misunderstand what a trade deficit means.
Why the U.S. Fears a Chinese Bid for Westinghouse Electric (NY Times)
The Trump administration is worried that Chinese investors might try to buy Westinghouse Electric, the troubled American nuclear power company that the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba has offered for sale.
What the unemployment rate does – and doesn’t – say about the economy (Pew Research Center)
Every month, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a flood of data about employment and unemployment in the U.S. And every month, the lion’s share of the attention goes to one figure – the unemployment rate, which was a seasonally adjusted 4.8% in January.
FACTBOX: Asia Q2 oil products outlook and factors to watch (S&P Global Platts)
The Asian oil products market is heading into the second quarter of 2017, amid expectations of a recovery in gasoline consumption, while demand for LPG and jet/kerosene could remain sluggish.
Morgan: Even If Oil Remains <$51 Energy Stocks Will Outperform (Value Walk)
Morgan Stanley’s European Equity Strategy team has published a new research note today on the energy sector, which displays the bank’s bullish outlook for energy stocks regardless of a low oil price.
Why The Fed’s Recent Stock Market Warning Is More Ominous Than Ever Before (The Felder Report)
The Fed minutes were released yesterday and there’s one sentence everyone is talking about: “Some participants viewed equity prices as quite high relative to standard valuation measures.” By “quite high” I imagine they are referring to the fact that even by their own measures the broad stock market is now more expensive than it was at the height of the dotcom mania.
How Much Do You Need to Retire? (Ritholtz)
Good discussion in IBD today about how much savings people need to have for retirement. IBD suggests the “old way of doing this” failed to take into account income and lifestyle; the newer better way looks more closely at other factors (consider me biased, since my firm gets paid to do this).
Where The March Jobs Were: Plunging Retail Workers Offset By Doormen Hiring Surge (Zero Hedge)
March was a month of giving back: after a very strong, if downward revised start to the year, with both January and February payrolls revised lower by a total of 38,000 jobs, March saw the worst job gains since May 2016, with only 98,000 jobs added.
Companies
Gillette is increasingly feeling the threat from startups like Harry's and the now Unilever-owned Dollar Shave Club, which are eating away at its dominance in the global men's-razor business.
Not a Dot-Com Bubble, Not 2007, but a Nasty Mix of Both (The Wall Street Journal)
When the market value of loss-making Tesla Inc. passed that of Ford Motor Co. this week, it was a perfect illustration of investors’ love affair with disruptive technologies.
Technology
How IoT is powering transportation beyond the connected car (Venture Beat)
The transportation industry is experiencing a digital revolution. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are showing up in everything from our cars to our homes to our cities. IoT is affecting the entire transportation industry — everything from cars, to boats, to even the way we insure these vehicles.
Adobe shows how AI can work wonders on your selfie game (Engadget)
Adobe has been focused on making its mobile apps powerful photo-editing tools for quite some time. At its annual MAX design conference last fall, the company debuted Sensei: a collection of AI and deep learning tools that can analyze an image before applying some pretty hefty edits.
Politics
Media fawns over President Trump’s strike on Syria (Think Progress)
As with his address to Congress, President Donald Trump’s military strikeagainst Syria has prompted several in the media to praise him for suddenly becoming “presidential.”
California lawmakers approve fuel tax hike for $52 billion road plan (Reuters)
California lawmakers on Thursday approved legislation to increase gasoline taxes and other transportation-related fees for the first time in decades, to fund an ambitious $52 billion plan to repair the state's sagging infrastructure.
More than half of states are trying to force Trump to release his tax returns (Think Progress)
Lawmakers in 26 states have introduced legislation to compel presidential candidates to release their federal tax returns, highlighting Americans’ frustrations with President Trump’s refusal to make his filings public.
The US South — not just Mexico — stands in the way of Trump's Rust Belt jobs revival (Reuters)
In the years since the 2008 financial crisis, this southern U.S. port city has attracted a new Airbus factory, seen its steel industry retool, and gained thousands of jobs building the Navy's new combat vessel.
France’s presidential election is tearing its left apart (The Economist)
BACK in 2002, the French Socialists suffered such a stinging defeat at a presidential election that it gave birth to a new noun. Un 21 avril, referring to the date that their candidate, Lionel Jospin, was evicted in the first round, became a term used for any shock political elimination.
A moment of great danger: Trump meets Chinese president while on the brink of war in Syria (Salon)
Listening to Trump ramble incoherently two days in a row about the situation in Syria and then launch airstrikes during a state dinner with the Chinese president is about as surreal a moment as we’ve had during his extremely surreal presidency.
Noam Chomsky: Why Donald Trump is pushing the doomsday clock to the brink of midnight (Salon)
The following is an transcript of a recent public interview at the University of Arizona with linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky by Dr. David N. Gibbs.
Robert Reich: There are at least four grounds to impeach Trump (Robert Reich's Blog)
By my count, there are now four grounds to impeach President Donald Trump. The fifth appears to be on its way.
Donald Trump, who’s totally not Vladimir Putin’s puppet, warned Russia before airstrikes on Syria (Salon)
It turns out that President Donald Trump gave a heads up to the Russian government before launching his missile strike against Syria on Thursday night.
The Russia Probes: How Will They Know and When Will They Know It? (Bloomberg)
Inside a secure room at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., about 11 miles from Capitol Hill, there are several thick binders filled with thousands of pages of highly classified documents.
Advertisers virtually abandon O’Reilly in bizarre, truncated show (Think Progress)
On Thursday night, virtually all national advertisers abandoned The O’Reilly Factor, the nation’s top-rated cable news show. The program included just seven advertisements and was, without warning or explanation, cut 15 minutes short.
The White House wants to lead on tax reform — it just needs a tax reform plan first (Vox)
When Paul Ryan’s push to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed earlier this spring, the Trump administration’s initial reaction was that it would simply move on to tax reform.
There was a grim logic behind the attack. (NY Times)
The diplomatic situation had been looking bright for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. With the help of Russia, he had consolidated his power, the rebels were on their heels and the United States had just declared that ousting him was not a priority.
Alex Jones says he’s not violent after threatening to assault Democratic congressman (Salon)
After Alex Jones threatened Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in an expletive-laden tirade on his radio program earlier last week, the Infowars founder defended himself from criticism — and potential criminal charges —by comparing himself to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Public Opinion Runs Against Syrian Airstrikes (Pew Research Center)
President Obama faces an uphill battle in making the case for U.S. military action in Syria. By a 48% to 29% margin, more Americans oppose than support conducting military airstrikes against Syria in response to reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons.
First Draft releases guide to savvy reporting on fake news (Columbia Journalism Review)
IF THERE’S ONE—and only one—thing we can say definitively about fake news, it’s that it inspired some great reporting, of a kind that has never before been prominent in the public sphere.
Life on the Home Planet
Countries Hit By U.S. Tomahawk Cruise Missiles Since Desert Storm (Forbes)
The U.S. military has carried out a cruise missile strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a suspected chemical weapon attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun.
How To Live Longer: Move To Sardinia, Or Drink Wine, Laugh And Be Grateful (Forbes)
As my flight touched down at Newark, the aggravation set in immediately, all restorative benefits derived from visiting a sunny Mediterranean isle wiped out like a pile of poker chips lost on a bad hand. During the long wait for baggage around the grim, dirty carousel, I missed the first train into the city.
Rich Americans live up to 15 years longer than poor peers, studies find (The Guardian)
Increasing inequality means wealthy Americans can now expect to live up to 15 years longer than their poor counterparts, reports in the British medical journal the Lancet have found.
