Financial Markets and Economy
Hedge Fund Billionaire Paul Singer: If Trump Agenda Fails, a Recession Could Follow (Fortune)
Market watchers who thought the stock market would drop if Donald Trump were elected were burned following his win: markets rose to new highs instead.
U.S. inflation path since 2012 is worrisome, policymaker says (Reuters)
The current level of U.S. prices is noticeably lower than what it would be if the Federal Reserve had delivered on its 2-percent inflation target, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said, calling the trend "worrisome."
Why Americans Aren’t Hitting the Road This Summer (The Wall Street Journal)
This weekend marks the beginning of summer driving season, and Americans should be packing up and hitting the road.
U.S. Consumer Sentiment Signals Gains in Spending Remain Likely (Bloomberg)
U.S. consumer sentiment holding near post-election highs reflects an improved outlook on wages and indicates spending is poised to rebound, though a partisan gap persists, University of Michigan survey data showed Friday.
Incredible photos give a totally unexpected perspective into how the 1% lives (Business Insider)
It's no secret that the wealth gap between the top one-percent and the rest of the global population is continuing to grow.
A study conducted by Oxfam and released this year shows that just eight men, with a combined net worth of $426 billion, share the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world.
This top-heavy rally is built on 5 big tech stocks, but here’s why that’s not a worry (Market Watch)
Traders this morning look content to let the S&P 500 nab a weekly gain, though not everyone is happy as a three-day break draws oh-so-close.
Google For Jobs: Potential To Disrupt The $200 Billion Recruiting Industry (Forbes)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 20-24% of Americans change jobs every year (ADP global research says it's 27%), which means more than 41 million people are searching for jobs and being recruited into jobs every single year (in the US alone).
Melania Trump wore a coat that costs more than most Americans earn in a year (Business Insider)
Melania Trump wore a $51,500 Dolce & Gabbana jacket to a meeting with the spouses of some of the most powerful world leaders at the annual G-7 summit in Catania, Italy, this week.
The coat, which is no longer available to preorder online, requires a $25,750 deposit.
Unsellable? New Jersey's Most Expensive Home Dropping To $45 Million After Seven Years On The Market (Forbes)
In 2010, real estate investor Richard Kurtz invited Forbes for an exclusive tour of his Alpine, N.J. home. He had just listed the 30,000 square-foot mega-mansion for $68 million. It was the most expensive listing in the state and among the most expensive in America. Seven years later the only the price has changed.
First Quarter GDP Second Estimate 1.2 Percent: Mish Vs. Consensus (Talk Markets)
This morning, the BEA revised its estimate of first-quarter GDP to 1.2% from 0.7%. The Econoday consensus estimate was 0.8%, in a range of 0.7% to 1.0%.
Here are some common misconceptions about investing in bonds (The Black Rock Blog)
Intuitive isn’t a word that’s typically used to describe fixed income markets. It’s no surprise, then, that misconceptions about bond investing are common, according to a new BlackRock survey of 417 Americans with $50,000 or more in investable assets.
Companies
Morgan Stanley surveyed investors about Tesla and Ford, and the responses are bleak for Tesla (TSLA, F) (Business Insider)
Tesla's market value recently surpassed Ford's, and it was a big milestone for the smaller electric-car maker that contends with the traditional auto makers.
Amazon opens its first drive-through grocery store (Engadget)
Need to pick up some supplies but can't be bothered to walk across a parking lot for them? Amazon's got you covered. In Seattle on Thursday, the company opened a grocery store that doesn't require you leave your vehicle, promising customers will only have to "drive in… and drive out."
Take a look inside Amazon's first NYC brick-and-mortar store (Business Insider)
Amazon just opened its first NYC brick-and-mortar store in The Shops at Columbus Circle. We went to take a look inside.
The store is 4,000 sq ft, carrying 3,000 different titles on the shelves. All the books are presented face-out. Each book is rated 4 stars or above on Amazon.
Bitcoin rival Ripple is suddenly sitting on billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency (CNBC)
Blockchain start-up Ripple is in a precarious position for a 5-year-old company.
The business is still in its very early days but suddenly has billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency on its balance sheet.
UPS fined $247M over illegal cigarette shipments (Reuters)
A federal judge ordered United Parcel Service to pay nearly $247 million in damages and penalties for "illegally shipping" large volumes of untaxed cigarettes in New York state and City, a court filing showed on Thursday.
Technology
Don’t call BMW’s futuristic new concept motorbike a scooter (Tech Crunch)
This looks like a scooter, but it’s actually the BMW Motorrad Concept Link, the latest in BMW’s series of exhaustingly named Motorrad concept vehicles, which imagine a not-so distant future in which we all travel around in angular, sci-fi style.
Android exploit adds secret, thieving layers to your phone (Engadget)
Researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Georgia Tech have discovered a fresh class of Android attacks, called Cloak and Dagger, that can operate secretly on a phone, allowing hackers to log keystrokes, install software and otherwise control a device without alerting its owner.
Elon Musk's tunnel company just revealed new pictures of its futuristic cars that could travel at high speeds under cities (Business Insider)
The electric vehicles were briefly first shown in a video Musk shared in April during a Ted Talk presentation, but in the new images, you can clearly see that these are passenger vehicles that can fit multiple people standing or sitting. The vehicle also appears to be made of a glass enclosure and shaped like a minibus.
Get all you need to become a certified cybersecurity expert for only $69 (The Next Web)
There are few IT skills more valued than the ability to protect a computer network from hackers and cyber thieves. Start down that lucrative career path today with the Cybersecurity Certification Mega Bundle, which can be yours for just $69 – over 90 percent off, from TNW Deals.
Smartphone Addiction Tightens Its Global Grip (Zero Hedge)
The term 'smartphone addiction' is by now pretty well-established (you can take a test here to see if you might be a sufferer). As our infographic shows, across the world, this addiction seems to be tightening its grip. Of the countries surveyed, smartphone owners in Brazil spend by far the most amount of time online.
Politics
How Trump’s budget would gut the economy: Massive cuts to Medicaid and food stamps will have devastating ripple effectsDespite his populist rhetoric on the campaign trail, Donald Trump revealed with his proposal for the federal budget that he’s actually just a hyper-conservative Republican that wants to starve the poor so the rich can build mansions for their dogs.
The suspicious circumstances of Kushner’s secret meeting with a Kremlin-connected banker (Think Progress)
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that “[i]nvestigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.”
Jimmy Kimmel finds out if schoolchildren can read a Trump speech better than the president (Salon)
When President Donald Trump reads from a script, conservatives and lazy journalists often say that he looks presidential. Jimmy Kimmel, on the other hand, thinks that the president sounds like a fourth grader giving a book report.
Donald’s bogus journey: President Trump’s behavior at NATO summit makes a bad trip even worse (Salon)
If anyone had any lingering doubts about the head-spinning rapidity with which President Donald Trump’s administration has reoriented American foreign policy away from its 70 years of postwar leadership of NATO, the images and stories beamed out from the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on Thursday should have laid them to rest.
Sen. Al Franken: 'Here's the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz' (Business INsider)
Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota pokes fun at Ted Cruz, his fellow senator, in his new autobiography, "Al Franken, Giant of the Senate."
What Does Trump's Budget Mean for the Environment? (The Atlantic)
In early March, President Trump proposed a budget that would have scaled back the federal government’s stewardship of the environment beyond recognition.
Ted Cruz Failed to Show 2012 Loans From Goldman Sachs, FEC Says (Bloomberg)
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz improperly accounted for loans he received from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. during his 2012 campaign, saying the funds were his own personal contributions to the Senate race, the Federal Election Commission said Thursday.
Connecticut lawmakers target successful energy efficiency program in effort to plug budget hole (Think Progress)
Wesson Energy started life in the oil business 90 years ago. But a decade ago, the Waterbury, Connecticut company started selling products — like smart thermostats and wall insulation — that would cut demand for heating fuel.
Exclusive: NSA Chief Admits Donald Trump Colluded With Russia (Observer)
President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey continues to reverberate in the KremlinGate scandal, which threatens to consume the Trump administration.
McConnell May Have Been Right: It May Be Too Hard to Replace Obamacare (NY Times)
Shortly after President Trump took office, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, met privately with his colleagues to discuss the Republican agenda. Repealing the Affordable Care Act was at the top, he said. But replacing it would be really hard.
GOP strategist admits he colluded with Russian hackers to hurt Hillary Clinton, Democrats (Salon)
The U.S. intelligence community has long since concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election, and it was reported shortly after the 2016 presidential election that a GOP superPAC linked to Paul Ryan used illegally hacked material to attack Democratic House candidates.
Virginia federal appeals court bans Trump’s second Muslim travel ban (Salon)
Yet another federal court ruled against President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from six majority-Muslim nations. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the so-called Muslim travel ban executive order “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.” The court refused to lift a nationwide injunction blocking the ban.
Researchers say they’ve uncovered a disinformation campaign with apparent Russian link (The Washington Post)
Researchers have discovered an extensive international hacking campaign that steals documents from its targets, carefully modifies them and repackages them as disinformation aimed at undermining civil society and democratic institutions, according to a study released Thursday.
GOP turns gloomy over Obamacare repeal (Politico)
A feeling of pessimism is settling over Senate Republicans as they head into a weeklong Memorial Day recess with deeply uncertain prospects for their push to repeal Obamacare.
G-7 Leaders Agree to Disagree as Trump Cuts Goals Down to Size (Bloomberg)
Group of Seven chiefs are preparing to sign off on a substantially pared-down statement at the close of their meeting, an indication of persisting divisions on climate change and trade between Donald Trump and the six other leaders.
Life on the Home Planet
Egypt launches raids in Libya after attack on Coptic Christians kills 26 (The Guardian)
Egypt has carried out airstrikes in Libya after at least 26 people, including children, were killed and 25 wounded in a gun attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians south of Cairo, the latest in a series of terrorist incidents targeting the religious minority.
Juno mission first results: Jupiter isn't like what researchers expected (CNN)
Beneath its heavy cloud cover, Jupiter has been able to keep its secrets from astronomers. Now, first results from NASA's Juno mission are challenging researchers' beliefs about the gas giant.
NASA Will Reach Unique Metal Asteroid Worth $10,000 Quadrillion Four Years Early (Forbes)
NASA has fast-tracked the Psyche mission to visit a one-of-a-kind asteroid worth $10,000 quadrillion.
Unlike most asteroids that are either icy or rocky, 16 Psyche is composed almost entirely of metallic iron and nickel, similar to the core of the Earth. If anyone could mine that asteroid, the resulting riches would collapse the paltry Earth economy of around $74 trillion.
Manchester attack: 'Immense progress' made by police (BBC News)
Police have made "significant arrests and finds" in their inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing, according to the UK's top counter-terrorism officer.
Will a New Show Save Disney World's Least Popular Park? (The Motley Fool)
Tomorrow is going to be a big day for Disney's (NYSE:DIS) domestic theme parks. It will be opening major attractions on both coasts. Galaxy — Mission BREAKOUT! will open at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, the first time that it opens a Marvel-themed ride in the U.S. market.
Netflix still gets booed at Cannes (The Economist)
The rise of Netflix has been greeted frostily by some of the old guard at the Cannes film festival, where the American streaming giant’s disregard for releasing films in cinemas wins it few friends. It looked a bit more at home on May 21st, as the lights went up at the Louis Lumière theatre.
Doughnuts Are on a Global Rampage, and They Must Be Stopped (Bloomberg)
Not long ago, we were your biggest champions. We cheered when you evolved into the scrumptious, flakey cronut, and when you multiplied up and down the West Coast through the Blue Star chain, which brought slick, beautiful rings from Portland, Ore., to Los Angeles.
The 25 Best Cities for Flipping a House (Money)
Lucas Machado makes his living flipping houses in South Florida. But that real estate market has gotten so flipping hot that he now feels like he's in a different line of work.
