Financial Markets and Economy
A definitive breakdown of the gloomy state on Wall Street (Business Insider)
While Wall Street bank revenues appeared to bounce back in the first quarter of 2017, with banks posting strong results in fixed income trading in particular, industry-wide revenues were still down on the same period from 2012 to 2015.
Vietnam's Prime Minister Says He's Confident of 6.7% Growth Goal (Bloomberg)
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said he is confident economic growth this year will meet a goal of 6.7 percent without adding to inflation, despite weak expansion last quarter.
Early China Data Shows Slowdown Biting Amid Credit Tightening (Bloomberg)
The first hints of China’s economic performance this month suggest that a slowdown in growth is taking hold, as policy makers beef up efforts to clamp down on financial risks.
Beyond Batteries: Other Ways to Capture and Store Energy (The Wall Street Journal)
Unlike oil, which can be stored in tanks, and natural gas, which can be kept in underground caverns, electricity has been a challenge to bottle.
This is the future of investing, and you probably can't afford it (Business Insider)
Big money investors have always sought an edge. Everything from star traders to fast computers to unique analysis can give a big hedge fund an advantage over competitors. The latest battleground is data.
Jobs report; ExxonMobil's big meeting; Earnings season winds down (CNN)
A strong report could bolster the case for another interest rate hike. The Federal Reserve has already said it will likely raise rates in June — a sign it's confident in the economy's health. The Fed last triggered a hike in March.
A legendary hedge fund that raised $5 billion in 24 hours expects 'all hell to break loose' (Business Insider)
A hedge fund led by an investing legend expects "all hell to break loose."
Billionaire Paul Singer's Elliott Management, which raised $5 billion in less than 24 hours earlier this month, says it has been building up its cash reserve to deploy during future market turmoil.
Asian markets shrug off latest North Korean missile test (Market Watch)
Global equity markets had a muted beginning to the week, with holidays set to slow activity world-wide, as investors shrugged off North Korea’s latest missile launch.
The economy seems frozen in time, but underneath the ice the water is warming (Market Watch)
A new pro-business president, record stock-market prices and the highest level of consumer confidence in years shows a lot has changed for the U.S. economy in 2017. But one thing hasn’t: headline growth is still pedestrian.
Why one hedge-fund titan is bracing for ‘all hell to break loose’ in the stock market (Market Watch)
Billionaire investor Paul Singer has a bleak outlook for Wall Street, and he has built a $5 billion rainy-day fund in preparation for what he describes as “all hell” to break out.
They Are Killing Small Business: The Number Of Self-Employed Americans Is Lower Than It Was In 1990 (The Economic Collapse)
After eight long, bitter years under Obama, will things go better for entrepreneurs and small businesses now that Donald Trump is in the White House? Once upon a time, America was the best place in the world for those that wanted to work for themselves.
Yuan Funding Costs Spike As China Changes FX Rules (Zero Hedge)
The effects of China's rules-change proposals around the Yuan Fix are already starting to show in the FX, money markets as one-week funding costs have exploded to the annualized equivalent of 14%.
Companies
Hedge funds are betting billions that a stock loved by millennials will plummet (Business Insider)
The company in question is Nvidia, which has enjoyed a particularly charmed existence since November 8. The graphics-chip maker's stock price has exploded 95% higher since then, the biggest gain in the S&P 500 by almost 30 percentage points.
Technology
Your Data Is Way More Exposed Than You Realize (The Wall Street Journal)
Privacy wasn’t a concern for her until it was too late.
The woman, who agreed to share her story if she weren’t to be identified, told me she left home one midnight, after four years in a relationship. She moved away and restarted her life.
Tips For Buying A Used Smartphone (DIgital Trends)
The best smartphones pack tempting features into stylish bodies, but they don’t come cheap. You can easily spend upwards of $600 on a new smartphone — the Samsung Galaxy S8 starts at $750, for instance — but you don’t have to clean out your bank account to nab a snazzy smartphone. Buying a used device is a tried-and-true method of saving cash on a purchase.
Electric Vehicles are Poised for Their ‘Model T’ Moment (Visual Capitalist)
When automobiles first debuted in the United States, they faced a classic “chicken and egg” problem. On one hand, autos were custom-made luxury items, affordable only to a niche market of affluent individuals. On the other hand, there was little incentive for most people to buy automobiles in the first place, as the system of roads in America was woefully underdeveloped.
Subaru Considers Electric Versions of Its Cars in R&D Push (Bloomberg)
Subaru Corp. is considering electric versions of its existing models for the carmaker’s first foray into the technology, as it joins peers around the world in pouring cash into battery-powered vehicles amid tightening emissions rules.
Sony's latest E Ink tablet comes to the US in June (Engadget)
Did you see Sony's second-generation Digital Paper and realize you found your dream e-reader? If so, you'll get to do something about it very soon. Sony has announced that its latest 13.3-inch E Ink tablet (the DPT-RP1) will reach the US sometime in June, when it will sell for the previously announced $700.
Zepp phone apps use AI to study your basketball shots (Engadget)
You may know Zepp for sports tracking sensors you can slap on your baseball bat or soccer ball, but its latest tracking involves little more than your phone and a good view of the action.
Politics
The Democrats Need a New Message (Rolling Stone)
The story of Greg Gianforte, a fiend who just wiped out a Democrat in a congressional race about ten minutes after being charged with assaulting a reporter, is déjà vu all over again.
Paul Ryan Keeps It All In The Family (The New Yorker)
The old-school Mafiosi are fading into the past, pale imitations of their pharaonic forefathers. As the late Murray Kempton, the greatest of all New York columnists, once wrote, “Where are the scungilli of yesteryear?”
The Trump administration is skirting the biggest question about Kushner-Russia ties (Business Insider)
On Friday, The Washington Post broke a bombshell report that President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner proposed setting up a back-channel of communication between Trump and Moscow using Russian facilities.
It's Time to Get Rid of Donald Trump (Spiegel Online)
Donald Trump is not fit to be president of the United States. He does not possess the requisite intellect and does not understand the significance of the office he holds nor the tasks associated with it.
Macron Says Trump Handshake Was 'Moment of Truth' (Associated Press)
French President Emmanuel Macron says his now famous white-knuckle handshake showdown with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump was "a moment of truth" — designed to show that he's no pushover.
Life on the Home Planet
Rising Seas May Wipe Out These Jersey Towns, but They're Still Rated AAA (Bloomberg)
Few parts of the U.S. are as exposed to the threats from climate change as Ocean County, New Jersey. It was here in Seaside Heights that Hurricane Sandy flooded an oceanfront amusement park, leaving an inundated roller coaster as an iconic image of rising sea levels. Scientists say more floods and stronger hurricanes are likely as the planet warms.
Humans Accidentally Created a Protective Bubble Around Earth (The Atlantic)
A pair of NASA space probes have detected an artificial bubble around Earth that forms when radio communications from the ground interact with high-energy radiation particles in space, the agency announced this week.
Scientists say the pace of sea level rise has nearly tripled since 1990 (The Washington Post)
An iceberg is pictured in the western Antarctic peninsula in March 2016. (Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images)
A new scientific analysis finds that the Earth’s oceans are rising nearly three times as rapidly as they were throughout most of the 20th century, one of the strongest indications yet that a much feared trend of not just sea level rise, but its acceleration, is now underway.
If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapsed… (Discover)
As the atmosphere warms, heat is transferred to the oceans, which causes water expansion and rising sea levels. Today, Earth’s oceans are warmer than they have been in 100,000 years, according to research published in Science in January.
Alaska Volcano Erupts Again; Aviation Alert Raised to Red (Associated Press)
An Alaska volcano that has been active for nearly six months has erupted again.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory says Bogoslof (BOH-gohs-lawf) Volcano in the Aleutian Islands erupted at 2:16 p.m. Sunday and sent a cloud of ash at least 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) high. The eruption lasted 55 minutes.
Manchester Attack Puts Concert Industry Further on the Defensive (Bloomberg)
The suicide bombing of the Manchester Arena last week is forcing operators of large public venues to reassess their security measures and contemplate higher spending as they try to keep visitors safe without taking all the fun out of going to a concert or big event.
Suspect in fatal train stabbing identified as ‘rabid racist’ and felon (New York Post)
The man accused of stabbing and killing two passengers aboard a train in Portland, Ore. — after they tried to stop him from shouting anti-Muslim threats at two teen girls — was identified by police Saturday as a rabid racist and felon.
Philippine Military Finds Bodies of 16 Civilians Amid Fight to Drive Out IS-Linked Militants (Associated Press)
Philippine forces found corpses in the streets of a besieged southern city on Sunday, including at least eight civilians who appeared to have been executed, as soldiers battled a weakened but still forceful group of militants linked to the Islamic State group.
Coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef worse than expected, surveys show (The Guardian)
Coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef last year was even worse than expected, while the full impact of the most recent event is yet to be determined.
