Financial Markets and Economy
Stocks don't need the Trump bump anymore (Business Insider)
Does the stock market even need the Trump trade anymore?
Merely posing such a question may strike some equity enthusiasts as blasphemy. After all, in the months right after the presidential election, the sectors seen as most closely tied to President Donald Trump's proposed policies — most notably financials and industrials — soared.
Stocks Rise, Dollar Slumps as Trump Woes Intensify: Markets Wrap (Bloomberg)
Financial markets ended a volatile week with a final bout of turbulence as Donald Trump’s troubles intensified Friday, raising fresh questions on his administration’s ability to enact its policy agenda.
We Know Where All the Money Is Hiding (Bloomberg)
Millions of a certain group of Americans are hoarding cash, putting the U.S. economy in a tough spot. Retirees who are usually expected to spend that hard-earned nest egg are instead cutting their spending and living frugally, according to a University of Michigan survey analyzed by software company United Income.
Here are the biggest bets made by top hedge funds in the first quarter (Business Insider)
Here they are: The darlings of hedge fund stock pickers.
S&P Global Intelligence has released its Hedge Fund Tracker, which takes a look at the holdings of the ten largest pure play hedge funds.
Here's the ECB's `Strong Logic' for Ending QE Before Rates Rise (Bloomberg)
The European Central Bank’s debate over the so-called sequencing of its exit from unconventional policy looks set to rumble gently on.
Mutual Funds Get Crushed by Brazil (Bloomberg)
Turmoil in Brazil is slamming U.S. mutual funds.
Funds with large holdings of Brazilian assets tumbled yesterday as allegations against the country’s president sparked a selloff.
China's second quarter GDP growth seen at around 6.8 percent: official think tank (Reuters)
China's economy will likely expand around 6.8 percent in the second quarter of 2017, the State Information Center said in an article published in the state-owned China Securities Journal on Saturday.
Australia Should Extend New Levy to Foreign Banks, Lawmaker Says (Bloomberg)
Australia should extend its new bank levy to foreign financial institutions in a bid to recoup more than the planned A$6.2 billion ($4.6 billion), according to cross-bench lawmaker Nick Xenophon.
Unemployment in the U.S. Is Falling, So Why Isn’t Pay Rising? (Bloomberg)
The U.S. economy is behaving mysteriously. Usually wage growth accelerates when the job market is tight: Employers have to pay more to attract and retain workers.
Economists are puzzled about why incomes aren’t rising — but workers have a good hunch (Business Insider)
Economists are often wringing their hands over why, despite a continuous eight-year economic recovery, workers’ wages remain largely stagnant, extending a trend that began some three decades ago.
Banks Want a Piece of the Payday-Loan Pie (The Wall Street Journal)
Financial firms, spurred by the Trump administration’s promises to deregulate, hope to return to offering short-term, high-interest loans after being pushed out of the sector by Obama-era rules.
Junk Bond Issuance Soars in Scandinavia Testing Pre-Crisis Highs (Bloomberg)
In Scandinavia, issuance of junk bonds is approaching a pace not seen since a record was set in 2014. The difference now is that debt sales are no longer dominated by the oil industry.
Softer dollar may be stock silver lining amid Washington drama (Reuters)
With S&P 500 companies set to notch their strongest quarterly earnings growth in about six years, a weaker U.S. dollar may help keep the profit momentum rolling and support share prices in the weeks to come.
Saudi Arabia and Russia Are at Odds on Almost Everything, Except Oil (Bloomberg)
Saudi Arabia and Russia are at odds on pretty much everything: the war in Syria, policies on Iran, ties with Washington. But when it comes to propping up global oil prices, they’ve never been more aligned.
Saudis See All ‘on Board’ to Extend Oil Cuts for Nine Month (Bloomberg)
All oil producers participating in a deal to limit output agree on extending the cuts by nine months to help trim a supply glut, according to Saudi Arabia’s energy minister.
Here are the biggest bets made by top hedge funds in the first quarter (Business Insider)
Here they are: The darlings of hedge fund stock pickers.
S&P Global Intelligence has released its Hedge Fund Tracker, which takes a look at the holdings of the ten largest pure play hedge funds.
7 key findings on the state of the middle class in Western Europe (Pew Research Center)
The fortunes of the middle classes across Western Europe are moving in different directions. Some nations are experiencing both growing incomes and expanding middle classes, while other nations are witness to stagnant or declining incomes and shrinking middle classes, a new Pew Research Center analysis of 11 Western European countries has found.
The Simplest Reason Behind Collapsing Volatility: Hedge Funds Are Barely Trading (Zero Hedge)
"Gamma", "vega", CTAs, risk-parity, vol-neutral, central bank vol-suppression, the soaring popularity of (inverse) VIX ETFs , and so on: over the past year there have been countless attempts to explain why despite the surging political uncertainty in recent years, and especially since the US election.
Companies
Woman Awarded $100,000 For Starbucks Coffee Burns (The Huffington Post)
Starbucks has been ordered to pay a Florida woman $100,000 after she suffered first- and second-degree burns from their coffee, her lawyers announced.
GE executive says Americans are 'more stressed out than ever' (Business Insider)
American consumers' stress levels are at an all-time high, according to surveys by GE Appliances.
"The average consumer is more stressed out than ever," Rick Hasselbeck, the CEO of GE Appliances, told Business Insider. "Their well being is not where it should be physically, emotionally, socially, and financially. … People are struggling."
Inside Facebook's plan to eat another $350 billion IT market (Business Insider)
On an ordinary work day in mid-2016, a handful of Facebook engineers were sitting on the couches in a corner of the company's Menlo Park, California, headquarters when one of them tossed out a wacky idea.
Texas lawmakers clear way for Uber, Lyft return to major cities (Reuters)
Texas governor Greg Abbott will sign in the next few days a bill that would shield ride-hailing firms Uber and Lyft from bruising battles over fingerprint background checks that led them to leave some of the state's most important markets.
Bitcoin Soars Above $2000 For First Time Ever (Zero Hedge)
Bitcoin is now up over 100% in 2017, amid global political uncertainty and increased interest in Asia, suddenly spiking above $2000 this afternoon for the first time ever.
Technology
Scientists One Step Closer To 3-D-Printed Ovaries To Treat Infertility (NPR)
Scientists have used a 3-D printer to create a mouse ovary capable of producing healthy offspring. And researchers hope to create replacement human ovaries the same way someday.
Here's everything Apple is rumoured to be launching in 2017 (Business Insider)
The Californian technology giant almost never speaks about upcoming products before they're officially announced. Journalists who ask about rumours and reports might get told "no comment" — if they're lucky enough to get a response at all.
I drove the $300,000 McLaren supercar designed to beat Ferrari — and it was incredible (Business Insider)
Forget about the Ford GT or the Lamborghini Aventador. When it comes to supercars and rivalries, it's all about McLaren versus Ferrari. On Formula One's racetracks, the two have been duking it out for half a century. In fact, Ferrari and McLaren are, by far, the two winningest teams in the history of the sport.
Tesla retroactively extends free unlimited Supercharging to all current vehicles (Electrek)
Tesla had previously announced the change of the program to a paid model after 400 kWh per year, which was supposed to take place starting January 1st. It later extended the deadline for two weeks before making the change and it is now retroactively extending the deadline to today.
VR Headsets Get Stuck on Shelves (The Wall Street Journal)
Virtual reality was supposed to be the next big thing, but headsets haven’t exactly been flying off the shelves. The question is, why?
There were $1.48 billion in VR hardware sales in 2016, according to SuperData Research.
Politics
Russia meeting revelation could trigger obstruction investigation (Politico)
The new special counsel investigation into possible collusion between associates of President Donald Trump and Russia is just getting started — and it could take years to resolve.
Trump calls his first day in Saudi Arabia 'tremendous' (Business Insider)
President Donald Trump described his first day in Saudi Arabia as "tremendous" hailing the "hundreds of billions of dollars" Saudi leaders pledged to invest in the US.
More than 2 million people have registered to vote since the snap general election was called (Evening Standard)
More than two million people have applied to register to vote since the snap election was announced.
Figures from the Electoral Commission show that 2,014,787 applications have been made digitally while 83,322 people have resorted to pen and paper since April 18.
Tory lead slashed as poll finds Labour would go backwards under Yvette Cooper or Chuka Umunna (Business Insider)
Replacing Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader would not improve Labour's chances in the general election, according to a new poll which shows Labour's support surging in the final weeks of the campaign.
Current White House official is target in Russia probe, and Trump told Lavrov that Comey was a ‘nut job’: reports (Market Watch)
A pair of published reports Friday afternoon stated that an investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a person of interest and that President Trump told the Russian foreign minister that fired Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey was a “nut job.”
Tillerson: Turkish violence 'simply unacceptable' (Politico)
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday denounced a violent clash in Washington last week involving Turkish security personnel and protesters, as the administration faced political pressure to respond.
Trump's FBI comments to Russians were aimed at cooperation: McMaster (Reuters)
U.S. President Donald Trump raised the firing of his FBI director in a meeting with Russia's foreign minister to explain why he had been unable to find areas of cooperation with Moscow, the White House national security adviser said on Sunday.
Democracy Is Not Your Plaything (The Wall Street Journal)
This will be unpleasantly earnest, but having witnessed the atmospherics the past 10 days it’s what I think needs saying:
Everyone, get serious.
Life on the Home Planet
Pope names five new cardinals, all from outside Italy and the Vatican (Reuters)
Pope Francis is to elevate five Roman Catholic prelates from outside Italy and the Vatican to the rank of cardinal, the elite group of churchmen who are his closest advisers and can enter a conclave to choose his successor.
South Korea requires all males to serve in the military — here's what it's like (Business Insider)
South Korea requires all of its male citizens to serve in the military for two years. Here's what that experience is like.
Fifty years after Six Day War, Jerusalem retains much of its old look (Reuters)
Israel will soon mark the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, a conflict in which it captured the Old City of Jerusalem and more than two dozen Palestinian villages around it from Jordan, laying the foundations of a long-simmering dispute.
