MARKET SNAPSHOT
Good News Or Bad News First?
- In an unpredictable day for U.S. markets, stocks finished with the vaunted “double-triple”—both the Dow and Nasdaq closed up triple digits, while the S&P 500 was up a solid 35 points.
- The end of September also meant the close of 2015’s third quarter…and some pretty devastating news. Despite today’s rally, U.S. stocks had their worst quarter since 2011—aka the year “Call Me Maybe” was released. Oil ended a remarkably volatile quarter a mere 14 cents down, while gold suffered its worst quarterly close in a year, falling 5 percent.
- European stocks finished Wednesday in prime fashion, with all four major European indices (the FTSE 100, DAX, CAC 40 and the IBEX 35—no, we’re not just making letters up) closing up triple digits.
- Glencore, the commodity giant, closed 14 percent higher, following its huge 17 percent surge on Tuesday. The move occurred as the company released a statement showing it was financially solvent. But don’t forget that Glencore is still down 38 percent this month as investors have grappled with tumbling commodities prices and Glencore’s still very-much-present massive debt burden.
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U.S. MACRO
Happy New (Fiscal) Year
With mere hours to spare, yesterday Congress passed a temporary spending bill to kick off the new fiscal year—oh, and also prevented a government shutdown. Republicans and Democrats have been having quite the spat over the whole Planned Parenthood controversy, but don’t worry, Congress came to a consensus in the nick of time (with a surprise assist from John Boehner resignation). The government will continue operating with its $1.017 trillion per year, and this new budget is due to expire on December 11, allowing for some time to discuss larger issues, such as the state of the federal debt ceiling.
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CORPORATE PRIMER
Apple and Microsoft Make Up
Apple and Microsoft are finally calling a truce—the war on intellectual property between the two tech giants has finally ended. After years of over 20 intense patent-infringement lawsuits over technology such as mobile devices and WiFi, the two rivals have dropped all pending lawsuits. This marks a turning point in what was an aggressive patent war throughout the entire tech industry, and many analysts suspect the rate of litigation to slow down going forward.
Meet the Not-So-New Twitter CEO
Twitter has finally decided to name interim CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey to full-time CEO. After suffering through months of slowing growth, a collapsing share price and no clear leadership direction, it was time for a change (or in this case, a promotion). Many investors were worried that a new CEO would meddle with Twitter’s image, but a familiar face might be exactly what the struggling service needs to get change brewing.
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TODAY IN TECH
A Lot on Uber’s Mind
Another day, another Uber controversy. Rio de Janeiro has officially banned car-sharing services in its city, citing the classic argument that these services are not subject to the same regulations as taxis. Uber is facing similar ban discussions in three other Brazilian cities, and it gets worse—formerly Uber-friendly London has proposed much tighter rules for car-sharing services, such as English language requirements and mandatory wait times. Fresh off winning a delay of a trial for its two top executives in France, Uber momentarily had its hands free—only to have them full again with the current regulatory problems from Amsterdam to São Paulo. Changing the world is a lot of work.
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OTHER STORIES
- Wal-Mart to cut jobs at headquarters
- U.S. launches insider-trading probe into Federal Reserve
- Meet the group going after hedge funds
- Tesla’s Model X is finally here
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ECONOMIC CALENDAR
- Monday: Personal Income and Spending
- Tuesday: Consumer Confidence, Home Price Index
- Wednesday: Private Payrolls
- Thursday: ISM Manufacturing Index, Weekly Jobless Claims, September Auto Sales, Micron earnings
- Friday: August Jobs Report
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DENMARK’S BABY-MAKING PROBLEM AND SOLUTION
Denmark has a baby-making problem…and it’s pulling out all the stops to fix this worrying trend. Here’s what’s going on:
- While many countries in the world are facing overpopulation problems, Denmark has the opposite issue: the country’s birth rate is in freefall, going from 1.9 children per woman in 2010 to just 1.7 now (that may not seem like a big difference, but it is).
- Furthermore, the average age of women at childbirth in Denmark has been climbing since the mid-‘70s, from 27 all the way up to 31 years old.
- This has worrying implications not only for Denmark, but also the entire European Union: while today there are four working-age people for every retiree, by 2016 there will be only two, and that will quickly place a major burden on public spending.
- So what’s Denmark doing about this unsexy problem? The only way it knows how: racy advertisements. Following in the footsteps of last year’s viral sensation “Do It For Denmark,” a Danish travel agency has followed up this week with “Do It For Denmark 2.” Words don’t do it justice, so cozy up with your significant other (or don’t, if you’re Danish) and enjoy the show.
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INTERVIEW QUESTION OF THE DAY
Phil asks his friend Stan when his birthday is. Stan replies that he was 32 the day before yesterday and next year he’ll be 35. When is his birthday and how is this possible? (Answer)
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BUSINESS TERM OF THE DAY
Cost Accounting — Cost accounting is a type of accounting process that aims to capture a company’s costs of production by assessing the input costs of each step of production, as well as fixed costs such as depreciation of capital equipment.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Earlier this week, Edward Snowden, that guy leaked documents from the NSA two years ago, made a Twitter account. He only follows one other account: the NSA. How fitting. |
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