Financial Markets and Economy
Oil Bull Andurand Says Rebound in Sight Despite `Choppy' Market (Bloomberg)
Oil’s jerky path to recovery has been a frustrating, money-losing affair for hedge fund trader Pierre Andurand this year, but he’s sticking to his view that the commodity is set to rebound.
'You live by the sword, you die by the sword': Trump says the stock market is still a fair indicator of his success (Business Insider)
President Donald Trump appears to be OK with people judging his success by the stock market.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Friday, Trump was asked whether it was still fair to use the stock market as a scorecard to evaluate the success of his presidency.
First Cannabis ETF Hits Market and Rises Sharply in Initial Trading (Dispensaries.com)
Canada continues to trail blaze when it comes to legal marijuana, with national legalization on the table in 2017 and even Snoop Dogg traveling north of the border to partner with an Ontario-based marijuana company.
Mexico inflation rises to nearly 8-year high in early April (Reuters)
Mexican annual inflation rose more than expected in early April to hit its fastest pace in nearly 8 years, which could bode for further interest rate hikes from the central bank.
New home buyers will pay for that new Canadian lumber tariff (CNN)
The Trump administration announced Monday plans to impose duties of up to 24% on most Canadian lumber, charging that lumber companies there are subsidized by the government. Canadian lumber makes up about 30% of the U.S. market.
Most people in the industry have been aware of the impending regulations for many years, but were able to brush it aside for a variety of reasons: the implementation date is far in the future / it’s been delayed / we are waiting for further guidance / it might get delayed again … but now it has become a reality and brokers, asset managers and vendors are hurrying to comply with the directives scheduled to go into effect in January 2018.
Nasdaq Hits 6,000 as Markets Rise on Tax Overhaul Optimism (NY Times)
Stock markets in the United States rose Tuesday morning, buoyed by optimism over far-reaching tax changes that President Trump’s administration is expected to propose in the coming days.
Here are the three big warning signs for the market from Tom Lee (Trading Nation)
Lee, founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, outlined in a recent note to clients that indeed he remains optimistic on economic growth, though he cautions that the market is sending three clear-cut signals that equities are slated to slide in the near-term.
The Dust Bowl Of Our Dreams: Trump's Plans Will Be Blown Away By The Debt Crisis (Kevin Wilson, Seeking Alpha)
The Dust Bowl severely impacted parts of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma during the 1930s. The northern Plains were also affected, but less severely. During episodes of maximum drought, at least 27 states experienced severe drought conditions.
Chicago's Trump Tower has an unusually large number of condos for sale (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago's Trump Tower has an unusually large number of condominiums for sale and for rent, and real estate agents predict that a glut of available units in the building may pressure owners to drop their prices.
Swamp Creatures Sack D.C.; and Fed Drops MOAB on Wall Street (Pento Portfolio Strategies)
Wall Street and our central bank are in for a rude awakening very soon! The idea that the US economy is on stable footing and about to experience a surge in growth is ridiculous.
Companies
Google Market Cap Hits An All Time High $600 Billion (Zero Hedge)
Even as the US "brick and mortar" retail industry is in a tailspin of historic proportions, its ad spending must be better than ever, because on Monday Google parent Alphabet closed up 2.3%, hitting a new record high, and as Bloomberg pointed out first, the company's market value crossed above $600 billion for the first time ever.
Textron Takes the Lead in Robotic Warships (The Morley Fool)
Would-be multi-mission warships built alternately by Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), and GD partner Austal (NASDAQOTH:AUTLY), the LCS was designed to be equipped with swap-out-able "mission packages."
Ford Motor Company Is About to Report an Earnings Plunge, but Don't Panic (Fool.com)
It's incredibly easy to lose the context of earnings amid a hectic season — especially this week, which is filled with numerous earnings conference calls — and simply glance at the headlines and big-number figures.
7 reasons short sellers are betting against Tesla (Los Angeles Times)
A high-end Tesla Model S can rocket from zero to 60 mph in 2.27 seconds.
But can the electric car maker itself accelerate from producing 80,000 autos a year to 500,000 in 2018? A million in 2020? Can it make money in the process?
Here's Why Barrick Gold Corp. Shares Hit the Smelter (The Motley Fool)
Shares of large gold-mining company Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) hit the smelter this afternoon and lost as much as 11% after the company reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings results after the closing bell on Monday.
Dissecting Verizon's Cash Flow: Why You Should Be Concerned (Robert Riesen, Seeking Alpha)
Verizon had a free cash flow shortage during 2016, an early indication that the dividend could be unsustainable and detrimental to Verizon's future financial health.
Workers endured long hours, low pay at Chinese factory used by Ivanka Trump’s clothing-maker (The Washington Post)
Workers at a factory in China used by the company that makes clothing for Ivanka Trump’s fashion line and other brands worked nearly 60 hours a week to earn wages of little more than $62 a week, according to a factory audit released Monday.
Technology
Facebook tests feature to combat fake news by popping your filter bubble (TNW)
Facebook is testing a new feature that presents you with alternate perspectives before you read an article – and it might be its best attempt at combating fake news yet.
Another report claims iPhone 8 may not go on sale to customers until late October at the earliest (9To5Mac)
Whilst we still aren’t entirely sure what the iPhone 8 will look like, there have been a flurry of rumors in the last month that the device will not be launching to Apple’s normal annual schedule.
Samsung obliterates Twitter troll’s dick pic joke with one savage emoji (TNW)
Samsung sure has some genuinely witty social media editors handling its Twitter account.
As part of its Galaxy S8 promo efforts, the company took to Twitter to ask its followers to share the very first photos they’ve snapped with their new handset.
Uber’s Flying Car Chief On Noise Pollution And The Future Of Sky Taxis (Fast Company)
Flying cars still seem like one of those futuristic technologies that only exists for now in the realm of science fiction and old episodes of The Jetsons. But Uber is taking the technology seriously and this week it takes another step forward with a summit meeting that lays out its vision.
AT&T Sheds More Lucrative Woreless Customers in 1Q (Associated Press)
AT&T Inc. on Tuesday said it lost more of its most lucrative wireless customers during the first three months of the year as the country's biggest mobile carriers try to lure customers from each other with offers of unlimited data plans.
The Race To Build An AI Chip For Everything Just Got Real (Wired)
The year was 1992, and LeCun was a researcher at Bell Labs, the iconic R&D lab outside New York City. He and several other researchers designed this chip to run deep neural networks—complex mathematical systems that can learn tasks on their own by analyzing vast amounts of data—but ANNA never reached the mass market.
Hackers flood Isis social media accounts with gay porn (The Telegraph)
Online commenters have praised an anonymous hacker's efforts to disrupt the Islamic State militant group's social media accounts by filling them with gay porn.
Lyrebird Can Listen and Copy Any Voice in One Minute (PC Mag)
Of the many classic movies released that put technology to good use, one stand out example is Sneakers and the "My voice is my password, verify me" entry control system.
Politics
Trump boasts of highest TV ratings since ‘the World Trade Center came down’ (The Washington Post)
Donald Trump has long been television ratings gold, and, even as president, he has kept his eye squarely on the small screen as a gauge of his popularity, a barometer for his governing agenda and his ability to dominate the airwaves, as The Washington Post's Ashley Parker and Robert Costa reported Monday.
Why Trump is starting a trade war with Canada (Politico)
President Donald Trump’s administration fired its first shot in a potential trade war, but it’s not Beijing or Mexico City in the cross hairs. The target: our friendly neighbor to the north, Canada.
'Trump whisperer' Kellyanne Conway just bought an $8 million DC mansion (Business Insider)
An anonymous real estate source told the magazine that Trump's former campaign manager was the likely buyer of a house listed for $8 million by the late Moeen Qureshi, former interim Prime Minister of Pakistan and a former vice president of the World Bank.
Canadian Leader Responds To Lumber Tariffs Imposed (Associated Press)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Tuesday that Canada and the U.S. could suffer a "thickening" border as the Trump administration imposes new tariffs on softwood lumber and trade tensions between the two countries escalate.
Trump to propose large increase in deductions Americans can claim on their taxes (The Washington Post)
President Trump on Wednesday plans to call for a significant increase in the standard deduction people can claim on their tax returns, potentially putting thousands of dollars each year into the pockets of tens of millions of Americans, according to two people briefed on the plan.
It’s too late for Trump to stop this financial rule (The Washington Post)
Rules and regulations exist to let us know what behaviors we should expect from the people we do business with. Sometimes, good sense or social convention overtake these rules — and they don't matter so much. Just about everyone wears seat-belts these days (we all know how much they improve our odds of survival in an accident); the ranks of underage smokers have plummeted (it's no longer cool).
Mining group to support pulling out of Paris after meeting with Pruitt (Politico)
A coal mining industry group's board of directors voted on Tuesday to press President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement — just one day after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt met with the group's leadership to discuss the accord, two sources told POLITICO.
Trump's already making his mark on climate (Politico)
President Donald Trump's aggressive rollback of the Obama administration's climate policies is already changing the trajectory of the world's efforts on global warming, with some analysts estimating it will mean billions more tons of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere during the next decade and a half.
Life on the Home Planet
Russia says U.S. missile strike on Syria was a threat to its forces (Reuters)
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu complained on Wednesday that a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base earlier this month had posed a threat to Russian troops and was forcing Moscow to take extra measures to protect them.
Why Barcelona Is Actively Trying to Push Away Tourists (TIME)
Barcelona is making it clear that tourists are no longer as welcome as they once were.
Two days after it banned all new hotels from the city center, Barcelona introduced a new plan, meant to curb tourism by 2020.
The Geopolitics of Nuclear Weapons (Mauldin Economics)
President Trump has reversed his stance on a number of foreign policy issues, including NATO, Russia, and China. This leaves citizens in the United States and worldwide more unsure than ever of what to expect from the coming months and years.
China Is Set to Build This Smog-Eating 'Forest City' Filled With Tree-Covered Skyscrapers (Science Alert)
The Air Quality Index, which uses a scale from 0 to 500 (with higher numbers indicating worse pollution), rates Nanjing's air quality as 132 – a level considered unhealthy for the public, especially those with respiratory disease.
