Quartz Daily Brief—Merkel’s third term, NSA surveillance ruling, Boeing’s buyback, Neanderthal burials

Good morning, Quartz readers!

What to watch for today

Angela Merkel’s third term begins. Three months of haggling have yielded a coalition government focused on strengthening the EU and bringing energy prices under control. Merkel’s new cabinet includes Germany’s first female defense minister.

Muted inflation in Britain and US. Consumer prices are expected to have risen about 2.2% in the UK and to have barely increased in the US, shedding light on the US Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, which starts today.

The UK opens up to shale gas, publishing a list of areas across the country where companies could explore for shale gas drilling, as well as new regulations and an assessment of the likely impact on water supplies.

A close call for the US budget deal. The Senate votes on a deal that would put an end, for a while anyway, to the paralyzing brinkmanship. Some Democratic senators complain that the deal doesn’t extend  long-term unemployment benefits.

Zimbabwean diamonds for sale. The first auction following the lifting of EU sanctions on the Marange diamond fields, where government troops allegedly killed over 200 workers in 2009, takes place in Antwerp.

Ukraine’s president meets Putin. After spurning the EU, Viktor Yanukovych travels to Moscow to ask for a $15 billion bailout as protestors continue to crowd the streets in Kiev.

While you were sleeping

A blow to NSA phone surveillance. The collection of telephone record metadata that Edward Snowden revealed earlier this year may be unconstitutional, a US district court judge ruled.

Japan is upping its military spending by 2.6% over five years for equipment such as beach assault vehicles and early-warning planes, against a backdrop of ongoing tensions with China.

North Korea marked Kim Jong-il’s death. Thousands of officials gathered in Pyongyang for a ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of the the former leader’s passing. Those on hand included his chosen successor, Kim Jong-un, who recently executed his own uncle in a purge of top leaders.

Singapore’s exports fell. Shipments excluding oil declined by a more than expected 9.3% in November (paywall) compared to the previous month due in part to a 47% drop in pharmaceutical exports.

Boeing’s $10 billion buyback. The company will raise its dividend 50% in its largest-ever share buyback, thanks to strong sales and improved cash flow.

Glaxo will stop paying doctors for promotions. In what could be a first for a major drug company, GlaxoSmithKline will cease its practice of compensating doctors for promoting its products, chief executive Andrew Witty said.

The SEC wants more than $1.1 million from Fabrice Tourre for the former Goldman Sachs employee’s involvement in a failed 2007 mortgage deal.

Quartz obsession interlude

Christopher Mims on how far the “internet of things” will go. “The next layer of the internet of things will require combining disparate streams of data ‘mined’ from reality—everything from your location to the members of your social network. This is called sensor fusion, a task that is basic to all big data projects. Knowing where you are throughout the day won’t mean much, but add in data about who else is present and a computer algorithm can tell you how likely you are to get the flu.” Read more here.

Matters of debate

Google is the new Bell Labs. With its investment in autonomous cars and acquisition of Boston Robotics, the company is investing in groundbreaking research that will benefit humanity. (Counterpoint: No, it isn’t.)

A 7.5% GDP growth target is bad for China. It will only make it harder for the country to reform.

Germany should expect a downgrade. The fact that the Netherlands lost its AAA rating is a warning that the German position isn’t so secure.

It’s time to ease up on the college essay. Requiring students to write long papers is a waste of everyone’s time.

Why have no high-level executives been prosecuted for the financial crisis? A US judge flags an “egregious failure of the criminal justice system.”

Surprising discoveries

Water may flow freely on Mars. Seasonal dark streaks have been detected near the red planet’s equator.

Neanderthals buried their dead. New research shows that contrary to earlier assumptions, our evolutionary relatives undertook careful burials some 50,000 years ago.

The best-selling book on Amazon this year is based on a questionnaire developed by Gallup.

There’s a strange new way to get a US visa—be really good at a video game.

Ben and Jerry have only ever really argued about one thing: how big the chocolate chunks should be in their ice cream.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, long-forgotten college essays, and chocolate chunk preferences to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.

 

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Quartz Daily Brief—Alibaba’s IPO, Twitter’s price, Samsung’s profits, emails from dogs

Good morning, Quartz readers! 

What to watch for today

European Union leaders discuss immigration as a two-day EU summit comes to a close in Brussels. Hundreds of African migrants died at sea on their way to the Italian island of Lampedusa earlier this month.

Talks in Tunisia. Negotiations to end a worsening conflict between the Islamist Ennahda party, which was elected to power after the Arab Spring revolt, and the secular opposition will take place today, having been delayed after protestors took to the streets of Tunis earlier this week.

Further signs of a British recovery. Analysts anticipate gross domestic product grew 0.8% in the third quarter. Those expectations yesterday boosted the pound sterling, which had already hit a three-week high in the previous session.

Czechs choose a new government. The left is expected to win a general election after a spying and bribery scandal brought down the center-right government earlier this summer. Support for the coalition government was also hampered by the country’s 18-month-long recession.

Corporate earnings on tap. Earnings are due today from UPS, Kia Motors, Weyerhauser and Petrobras.

While you were sleeping

Alibaba’s IPO about-face. The Chinese internet giant signaled it would delay its public offering and re-consider listing in Hong Kong after spurning the exchange a few weeks ago.

China rejected Bo Xilai’s appeal. A court upheld the former senior Communist Party official’s life sentence for bribery, corruption, and abuse of power.

South Korea’s economy expanded by a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in the three months to September compared to the previous quarter, exceeding expectations and indicating the country’s recovery continues.

Samsung posted record profits. The South Korean tech giant’s memory chip business boosted its quarterly operating profit by 26%, in line with estimates, though smartphone sales growth slowed.

Microsoft beat forecasts. The company’s net income for its first fiscal quarter rose 17% to $5.2 billion thanks to brisk sales of its Office and server software for businesses. Devices and consumer revenue, however, grew at a slower pace.

Twitter priced its public offering. Twitter set a preliminary price range of $17 to $20 per share for its IPO, which could raise as much as $1.4 billion for the seven-year-old company. That implies a valuation of around $11 billion, lower than expected. Twitter is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange in the first week of November.

The NSA’s eavesdropping knows no bounds. The US National Security Agency monitored phone conversations of 35 world leaders, the Guardian reported. On Wednesday Germany’s Angela Merkel called Barack Obama to complain about the NSA tapping her phone.

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Quartz obsession interlude

Christopher Mims on how marketers invented the “manfluencer™”—a man who does most of the household shopping and cooking. ”Already, marketers are rolling out packaged goods designed to appeal to the newly-empowered manfluencer. These include everything from frozen yogurt for men, which comes in black packaging and was immediately christened “brogurt”, to cold-brew coffee (also black). As is the case with a great deal of marketing, many of those who are being persuaded don’t realize what’s happening.” Read more here.

Matters of debate

The US should re-pivot to Europe.  Handyüberwachung—the German word for tapping cell phones—has damaged relations with the continent’s most powerful leader, and that’s bad news for America.

The age of bullshit investments is back. Five years after the Lehman Brothers crash, bizarre investments are on the rise, from virtual currencies to NFL players.

Google broke its promise on banner ads. Then-exec Marissa Mayer said in 2005 there ”will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages… ever,” but the pledge didn’t outlive her tenure at the search giant.

Cleaning up Beijing’s air will devastate western China. Converting coal to synthetic natural gas will use vast amounts of water from the already desiccated western provinces.

Surprising discoveries

China’s new lunar rover resembles NASA’s moon rover. One scientist who was involved in the design of the probe, which is set to launch in December, says it lacks originality.

Coked-up racing pigeons. Samples taken from six Belgian racing pigeons showed the birds had cocaine and pain killers in their systems.

Get emails from your dog… Now you can keep tabs on your furry friends with this dog collar attachment that emails you about where your pooch is and what it’s doing.

…And tweets from your bra. A Greek ad agency created the social media undergarment to raise breast cancer awareness.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it was wearing a high-visibility jacket made especially for poultry pedestrians.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, bizarre investment opportunities and debauched racing pigeons to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates during the day.

 

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Quartz Daily Brief—Earnings galore, Merkel’s dance, Obama’s web glitches, Japanese celibacy

Good morning, Quartz readers!

What to watch for today

Merkel’s dance continues. Germany’s opposition Social Democrats set out their conditions of joining a coalition government under chancellor Angela Merkel. Their wish list—likely subject to weeks of negotiations—includes a statutory minimum wage and dual citizenship for immigrants.

The UK will greenlight a new nuclear power plant. After more than a year of talks, the government will allow plans to build the country’s first new nuclear plant in a generation to move forward.

Obama will addresses website glitches. In remarks from the Rose Garden, the president is expected to outline steps to fix technical issues hampering signups at its health insurance portal. Had it been a commercial startup, here’s how HealthCare.gov would have looked.

Big data’s return. The newly reopened US government begins to clear a backlog of economic data this week. It’s also peak week for the release of third-quarter earnings; amid sluggish sales so far, all eyes will be on companies’ revenue growth. McDonald’s, Netflix, Manpower, Halliburton and Texas Instruments are among those reporting today.

Best Frenemies Forever. Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh travels to Russia and China for one of his last major foreign visits before elections. In a meeting with Vladmir Putin today, Singh is expected to ask about arms purchases. Meanwhile, diplomats are hoping to finalize an agreement between India and China over longstanding border tensions.

Political sidestep. The US state of New Jersey begins performing same-sex marriages. New Jersey governor Chris Christie says he disagrees with the policy but will not stand in its way—a stumbling block as the prominent Republican seeks reelection, and possibly even higher office.

While you were sleeping

Mexico condemned US snooping.  Documents leaked by Edward Snowden claim the US accessed former Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s email; Mexico called the practice  “unacceptable” and “illegitimate.”

Japanese exports slowed. September data showed exports increased 11.5% from a year earlier, which was less than expected. A weaker Yen may not be be enough to make up for decreased emerging market demand.

Malaysia’s PM was weakened, but won. In important party elections, Najib Razak remained in control of his United Malays National Organization party, but his allies were pushed hard by conservatives.

AT&T’s tower deal. The company is leasing or selling rights to 9,700 of its wireless towers to Crown Castle for $4.85 billion to generate cash for a stock buy-back to revamp its cellular setup and fund acquisitions.

JPMorgan’s civil suit. The bank is set to pay the US government a record $13 billion to settle a civil probe into its mortgage-bonds business, but a criminal inquiry remains unresolved.

Is BofA next? The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, wants Bank of America to pay more than $6 billion for alleged securities law violations, the Financial Times reports.

Alan Greenspan’s blame game. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the former US Federal Reserve chairman said easy money under his tenure “had absolutely nothing to do with the housing bubble. That’s ridiculous.”

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Quartz obsession interlude

Todd Woody on how you shouldn’t write Big Solar off yet. “There are currently 36,794 MW worth of projects under development in the US. SNL expects a building boom over the next two years with more than half of that solar coming online to qualify for a 30% federal tax credit that is set to fall to 10% by the end of 2016.” Read more here.  

Matters of debate

Don’t forget India’s good men. Stories of male violence are much in the news, but the vast majority of men in India are “committed, concerned, cautious,” and family-focused.

Stop calling the Tea Party stupid. It will only embolden them. “Most of the Obama crowd has more in common with bike-sharing Europeans than small-town Americans.”

Lean in is a lazy movement. Susan Faludi asks: What is the movement really confronting?

The little engine that couldn’t. A train derailment in Canada over the weekend shows that oil transport has hardly kept up with the times.

Surprising discoveries

A “mobile” wallet to deter shopaholics. A Japanese company’s “living wallet” has wheels and propels itself away from owners’ grasping hands.

Madagascar’s Black Death warning. The island faces a bubonic plague explosion if the disease gets into rat-infested prisons.

The dead sea. An Australian yachtsman sailed from Melbourne to Osaka and was struck by the absence of fish, birds, and life.

Japan’s celibacy syndrome. Another reason for the country’s population bust: young people have stopped having sex.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, fleeing wallets, and oil transport infrastructure innovations to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates during the day.

 

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Quartz Daily Brief—Merkel’s coalition talks, Asia’s typhoon trifecta, shutdown bubble, opulent puffer fish

Good morning, Quartz readers!

What to watch for today

Merkel’s coalition talks. German Chancellor Angela Merkel discusses forming a coalition government with the country’s Social Democrats, who want a nationwide hourly minimum wage of 8.50 euros ($11.51).

Washington deal-makers scramble. The US government has three days until it risks running out of cash, and US lawmakers are scrambling to come up with a deal to extend the country’s borrowing limit. IMF head Christine Lagarde and the heads of three of the world’s most powerful banks warned that the fate of the global economy hangs in the balance.

Mother nature beats up Asia. Typhoon Wipha is headed to the Philippines, then Japan. Typhoon Nari is expected to hit Vietnam after battering the Philippines. Here are radar images of Wipha, Nari and Cyclone Phailin, which landed in India Saturday.

Market holidays. US bond markets close for Columbus Day. Egypt and a few other exchanges in the Middle East close for the beginning of the Eid religious holiday. The Tokyo Stock Exchange closes for the country’s national day celebrating sports and health, Hong Kong for a holiday celebrating ancestor worship and India for Dussehra, celebrating the annihilation of evil.

While you were sleeping

Netflix is discussing cable deals. The online video service is in talks with cable-TV companies like Comcast and Suddenlink Communications to offer Netflix via their set-top boxes, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

Life got pricier in China. September consumer prices rose more than expected, increasing 3.1% from a year earlier and advancing from 2.6% in August; policymakers want to ensure a rebound without too much inflation.

Singapore’s economy shrank less than expected. The city-state’s gross domestic product for the third quarter fell 1% compared to the second quarter, thanks to a strong services sector and manufacturing gains.

Argentina’s president left the hospital. Five days after brain surgery to remove a blood clot, 60-year-old Cristina Fernandez returned to her official residence. She faces 30 days of rest; it’s unclear when she’ll resume work.

The US stayed wedded to Afghanistan. Officials from the US and Afghanistan agreed on a preliminary deal that would leave some US troops in Afghanistan after 2014, the deadline for America’s withdrawal, but only if Afghanistan agrees that US soldiers not be subjected to Afghan law.

Iran refused to give up the goods. Iran rejected Western demands that the country ship sensitive nuclear material out of the country. Negotiations between the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and Iran over Iran’s nuclear program are set to start in Geneva on Tuesday.

The euro zone left the hot seat. Top German finance officials said the euro zone, no longer in a recession, is posing less of a risk to the global economy.

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Quartz obsession interlude

Todd Woody on how the second-biggest clean technology investor is an oil giant. ”The second-most active corporate deal-maker isn’t a ‘don’t be evil’ Silicon Valley tech giant. Rather it’s a company from the Dr. No sector—oil multinational ConocoPhillips, according to a new report from research and advisory firm Cleantech Group. Between the third quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2013, ConocoPhillips invested in 18 deals, putting cash into startups such as Cool Planet, biofuels developer, and Skyonic, which has invented a technology to capture carbon dioxide from industrial emissions.” Read more here.

Matters of debate

Forget about your passion and goals. Fail your way to success, says “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams.

The G20 is losing focus. Leaders of the G20 once focused on hammering out deals on fiscal stimulus; now their agenda is confused and amorphous, ranging from climate change to food security.

Yellen isn’t the issue. The US Federal Reserve has bigger problems to confront than who’s running it; There’s waning confidence that its policy tools can fix the economy.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner is in trouble. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which just won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, is bogged down by budget and staff cuts that are jeopardizing one of the most successful nonproliferation agreements.

The US political system is the country’s latest bubble. If market participants believe that the US’s once capable system is now dysfunctional and unpredictable, a pivotal event like a default could move markets dramatically.

Surprising discoveries

The story of quinoa’s rise. Bolivian farmers, an in-demand grain, and the triumph of delivery.

If you cried in space, the tears would pool in your eyes like a blob. So says this astronaut’s fact-check of the sci-fi film Gravity.

Ninjas are au courant in Japanese fast food. Burger King is burger-ifying a national icon, the ninja, by using blackened buns and a long strip of bacon.

One giant brass puffer fish takes on China’s Communist Party. The city of Yangzhong, in China’s Jiangsu Province, built a 295-foot-long brass-encased sculpture of a puffer fish to lure visitors to a gardening expo, bucking the government’s austerity drive.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, burger innovations and puffer fish sightings to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates during the day.

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Quartz Daily Brief—Merkel meets the Greens, Obama meets Republicans, Fox shareholders revolt, genetic back pain

Good morning, Quartz readers!

What to watch for today

Merkel’s coalition talks. The German chancellor’s Conservatives are holding talks with the Greens to form a coalition government—despite the party’s criticism yesterday of Merkel’s refugee policy.

Shutdown Day 10: talks continue as debt ceiling looms. President Obama will have a no doubt tense meet-up with Republican legislators after he promised to enter serious budget negotiations as soon as they re-open government and lift the debt ceiling. In the meantime, there’s a random guy mowing the lawn at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Bank of England’s interest rate decision is expected to result in continued low rates. A surge in optimism had some worried that new Governor Mark Carney would be forced to lift rates ahead of schedule, but patchy manufacturing and trade data suggest he’s right to be cautious.

Greek unemployment should improve. Last month’s data showed the first drop in unemployment since the crisis there began, and analysts hope for more of the same today, just as formerly confidential IMF documents have re-ignited debate over how the country’s debt should be reduced.

While you were sleeping

Australia’s unemployment declined. The September jobless rate unexpectedly dropped from 5.8% to 5.6%, showing the economy could be strengthening thanks to interest rate cuts.

Dreamliner toilet trouble. A Japan Airlines Boeing 787 flight from Moscow to Tokyo was forced to turn around after an unspecified lavatory malfunction. Separately, a Norwegian budget carrier is taking its second Boeing Dreamliner out of operation after repeated hydraulic and electrical faults grounded its first one.

Brazil raised interest rates. Acting to stem high inflation, the central bank hiked its benchmark lending rate by half a point to 9.5%—its fifth consecutive increase as it inches toward double digits. South Korea held steady, as expected, keeping the base interest rate unchanged at 2.5%.

Janet Yellen was officially nominated to lead the US Federal Reserve. The current vice-chair is expected to focus on employment while navigating the withdrawal of monetary stimulus that made her colleagues so nervous last month.

Banks ditched US debt. Wall Street banks and mutual funds are selling Treasurys that mature around the time the US is expected to hit the debt ceiling, which could either be a nice investment opportunity or a sign of imminent disaster.

Fox shareholders urged to ditch Murdoch. The watchdogs at Institutional Shareholder Services urged investors to vote chairman Rupert Murdoch and his sons off the board of 21st Century Fox, citing a problematic “poison pill” in the new company’s governance structure.

HP reassures investors. The troubled PC company’s stock price increased nearly 10% after CEO Meg Whitman predicted earnings would stabilize in 2014 and expand in 2015, as she turns HP away from consumers and toward corporate clients.

Microsoft’s board wants a new CEO this year. Steve Ballmer said in August he would leave within twelve months, but directors are reportedly feeling a bit more urgency.

Quartz obsession interlude

Matt Phillips on why Janet Yellen will be the most powerful woman in US history. ”A misplaced word from a Fed chairman could have huge ramifications for the economy as a whole and the 300 million Americans within it. Similar slips coming from the speaker of the house, secretary of state or a supreme court justice barely register outside the beltway.” Read more here.

Matters of debate

Cutting US aid to Egypt is a mistake, emboldening extremists just when they’re on the defensive.

The danger of a US-China flare-up is higher than ever. The worrying imbalance of power could make conflict more likely.

Europe turns its back on refugees, like the 350 asylum-seekers who died when their vessel sank off the Italian coast last week.

Banksy’s latest work is terrible. The populist street artist is spoofing Syrian rebels’ propaganda videos, but a Lebanese satirist says the message is shallow.

A US default would be really ugly. A scary scenario from economist Tyler Cowen.

Surprising discoveries

Back pain is genetic. A mutated gene is linked to lumbar disc degeneration.

An Oregon brewery is selling a $2,000 bottle of beer. The barleywine from Portland’s Hair of the Dog brewery is aged for 19 years.

Explaining the “healthy obese.” About a third of obese adults have normal cholesterol, healthy blood pressure, and no apparent signs of impending diabetes.

Movie studios are brainwashing five-year olds. It’s all about reading, writing and responsible content acquisition instead of internet privacy.

Chinese land prices are so high, even cemeteries are going public. Introducing the RIP IPO.

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The Pattern Continues

Again, stocks dipped into the red on Wednesday. And again, that move was rejected by the end of the day. This continues to tell me that there is an upward bias to stocks as people want to buy on every dip. But it also tells me that there needs to be a little more of a catalyst to get us to on our way. The most likely candidate continues to be a resolution to the Greek bailout.

That took a little turn for the worse which was the cause for stocks dipping into the red. That does not mean a deal won’t go through. It’s just that the process is anything but smooth and straight forward. The Greeks keep asking for more concessions. Then they get concessions which then need to be approved by their coalition government. And each time one of the parties asks for more concessions for the deal to go through. Rinse and repeat.

I sense they are just haggling over final details like one does at a car dealership. Gladly neither party is leaving the table. So I bet a deal still gets done. And when it does, expect stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic to continue to push higher.

Best,

Steve Reitmeister
Executive VP, Zacks Investment Research