Quartz Weekend Brief—#America’s weak power, #India’s soft power, paternity leave, political reincarnation

Good morning, Quartz readers! Some American pundits, especially the hawkish ones, welcomed Barack Obama’s UN speech this week as a sign of a more grown-up, aggressive president—one not afraid to call ISIL “evil,” or Russia a “bully,” one who would admonish his Arab allies for letting extremism fester at home, and call all countries to pull together against big, global threats such as climate change and Ebola. “Obama understands today that the US is the world’s indispensable nation,” wrote our colleague Jeffrey Goldberg. Another way to look at the speech is as a cry for help and an admission of America’s—and in particular Obama’s—weakness. Obama touted the unprecedented, 40-country coalition the US has assembled against ISIL. But as much as that’s a sign of ISIL’s perceived threat, it’s also a measure of how desperately the US needs this not to look like a US-led war, and indicative of how many countries there are that would have done nothing on their own, despite ISIL being—for now at least—a much bigger direct threat to them than to the US. Obama’s response to Russia, meanwhile, is little more than a frustrated stamping of the foot—an admission that neither the carrot (the vaunted “reset“) nor the stick (the sanctions imposed since Russia invaded Ukraine) have any influence on Vladimir Putin and his cronies. And the president’s call to fight climate change—which somewhat embellished how much the US already has done—also was an implicit reminder that, come November and the mid-term elections, Obama’s party probably will have less room to maneuver on that score. So yes, America is still indispensable—but we shouldn’t confuse that with being powerful. Obama himself clearly doesn’t.—Gideon Lichfield Tune into Quartz India for a livestream of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi‘s 9/28 speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City starting at 11 am EST and 8:30 pm IST. We’ll take your comments on our Facebook page.  Five things on Quartz we especially liked The case for paternity leave. Giving mothers plenty of time off to raise kids is considered the enlightened thing to do. Gwynn Guilford counters with the definitive argument for why economies worried about a shrinking workforce need to get mothers back into it faster, and why most incentives to get dads to take time off aren’t sufficient. Foxconn’s reluctant democracy drive. Faced with growing worker unrest, the Taiwanese electronics giant is giving workers and their unions more power. Or so it says. Lily Kuo talks to activists and workers and finds the reality to be a little less glossy. India’s remarkable space program. While Mars missions have a notorious history of failure, India’s first-ever Mars probe reached the red planet, and on an astonishingly low budget. Saptarishi Dutta breaks the mission down by the numbers (it cost less per kilometer than a Delhi auto-rickshaw) while Devjyot Ghoshal highlights the work of the women who make up 20% of ISRO, the Indian space agency. Where Facebook and Google are really competing. You might think of one as a social network and the other as a search engine. Instead, says Leo Mirani, think of them both as identity providers, competing to control the data that define who you are in the online world—and offering a range of tradeoffs to entice you. Narendra Modi’s flawed big idea. India’s prime minister is pushing “soft power” as a way to build Brand India, pointing to the country’s long history of cultural influences, from Buddhism to Gandhi to Bikram yoga. Just one problem, explains Bobby Ghosh: None of these things came from Indian governments. Five things elsewhere that made us smarter Warnings for would-be Wall-Streeters. Michael Lewis, one-time Wall Street broker turned blockbuster author, explains on Bloomberg View how the financial industry pressures its new recruits to gradually accept the moral compromises that lead to them doing things that would have horrified their student selves. Four stories of living with HIV. Thanks to antiretroviral drugs, most people now think of HIV as just another chronic but manageable condition. Patrick Strudwick for Mosaic meets four Britons who describe a much less pleasant reality of continued stigma, associated diseases, drug reactions, and mental-health problems. Will this be the last Dalai Lama? For most global leaders, their political troubles are over once they die. But for the Dalai Lama, whether or not to reincarnate has become a serious conundrum, tied up with the politics of China’s control over Tibet, as Tim Robertson explains in the Diplomat. How to tell when a robot is writing to you. It’s easy to spot those automated letters that are made to look handwritten. But why? Clive Thompson at Medium dissects the telltale signs that distinguish human script and speculates on how more cleverly-designed machines could turn handwriting into the new Turing test. How languages grow up. In Israel’s Negev desert, a community of deaf Bedouins is developing a new sign language that, unlike every other known language, doesn’t exhibit “duality of patterning,” whereby meaningful elements (morphemes) are composed of smaller, meaningless units (phonemes). Julie Sedivy in Nautilus explains what we’re learning from this about the way languages evolve. Our best wishes for a relaxing, thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, robot-written letters, and strange, new languages to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day. You’re getting the Europe and Africa edition of the Quartz Daily Brief. To change your region, click here. We’d also love it if you shared this email with your friends. They can sign up for free here.

No #Jobs, No Problem: #Bulls Take Control and Close the Week on a High Note

Stocks shook off the NFP blues to finish higher for both the day and week. This morning, the highly-anticipated August nonfarm payrolls report was released. 142,000 jobs were added last month, 38% below the 230,000 consensus. Additionally, the past two months’ readings were revised down by a total of 28,000. The unemployment rate was in-line with expectations, as were hourly earnings. Initially, the S&P 500 (SPX) traded lower to 1,990.10, a new low for the week, but the bulls caught their breath mid-morning, and equities traded steadily higher into the close. The negative economic data could be interpreted as favoring Fed dovishness, fitting the familiar ‘bad news is good news’ themethat has permeated the market in recent years. The S&P finished up 0.5% to 2,007.70, an impressive comeback that crushed the bears’ dream of a negative close for the week following three straight down days. We also saw intraday reversals in riskier areas of the market like biotech, retail, and small caps. Treasury yields were volatile, with the 10-year falling as low as 2.389% in the aftermath of the NFP release. However, yields marched up for the duration of the trading sessions. Even with the creep higher in rates, utilities was the strongest sector today by a long shot. The broader mood was aided by a possible ceasefire in between Ukraine’s government and pro-Russia separatists. President Obama said at a press conference that the US stands ready to institute tougher economic sanctions on Russia in cooperation with Europe. And NATO announced it would put a quick reaction force of 5,000 troops in East Poland, presumably to keep Vladimir Putin’s eyes off other former Russian territories like Lithuania and Estonia. From a broader perspective, the pressure could lead to a resolution sooner rather than later. Russia’s MICEX Index was up 1.1%, and German stocks were also positive, indicating optimism. The news calendar is pretty light for Monday, with July Consumer Credit on tap at 3:00 p.m. ET. It is unlikely to move the market. Campbell’s Soup (CPB) will report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings before the market open. Ukraine and the MIddle East remain sources of uncertainty. We’ve been in a regular pattern of alternating good and bad news, so there is no no tellling what could happen over the weekend. In the meantime, the bulls remain in control as the bears remain unable to make a serious stand, even in the face of unfavorable economic data and news.

Websim Focus sui #Mercati #Finanziari 01/09/2014 – WS

Asia. La settimana si apre bene per le Borse cinesi, malgrado i segnali di rallentamento dell’economia arrivati nel corso della notte. Hong Kong +0,4%, Shanghai + 0,8%. Tokio +0,3%, Corea del Sud piatta, India +0,7%.

La flessione a 51,1 dell’indice dei direttori degli acquisti calcolato dall’Ufficio Centrale di Statistica di Pechino per il mese di agosto fa crescere le aspettative di un intervento di stimolo da parte del governo.

Oggi Wall Street è chiusa per festività.

I future sulle borse europee anticipano un avvio in rialzo dello 0,3%. Il Pil della Germania nel secondo trimestre è cresciuto dello 0,8% anno su anno, in linea con le attese.

Ucraina. Situazione in ulteriore peggioramento. L’Europa di prepara a imporre nuove sanzioni alla Russia per il sostegno che sta fornendo ai ribelli del Donetks. Vladimir Putin ha affermato che le trattative di pace devono coinvolgere anche l’autoproclamato governo delle aree separatiste.

Analisi tecnica borse. Il mese di agosto ha confermato il quadro solido delle borse con una importante distinzione da sottolineare: le piazze europee hanno sofferto le tensioni in Ucraina e soprattutto un quadro macro debole, mentre i mercati emergenti sono tornati a correre. Il tutto si riassume con i seguenti risultati: Piazza Affari ha perso lo 0,6%, mettendo a segno il quarto mese consecutivo negativo, Francoforte ha segnato un +0,7%. Toniche Brasile (+9,8%) e India (+2,9%, oggi nuovo record storico) che restano i nostri listini preferiti tra gli emergenti. Venerdì l’S&P500 ha chiuso sul nuovo record guadagnando il 3,8% nell’arco del mese.

S&P500 (2.003, +0,33%). Prima conferma della rottura di area 2mila punti che fa scattare nuovi acquisti sulla forza. Target 2.100, stop loss 1.950.

Brasile (Bovespa 61.288). Dieci rialzi in dodici sedute. Il completamento di un modello di doppio minimo grazie al superamento di area 58mila ha fatto scattare nuovi segnali di forza che hanno un primo target a 63/64mila, ormai prossimo.

India (Sensex 26.814, +0,7%). Ha messo a segno sette mesi consecutivi positivi portandosi sul nuovo massimo storico. Da inizio anno +36%. Target 29mila. Stop loss sotto 21mila.

FtseMib (20.450). Mese piuttosto burrascoso, ma alla fine il bilancio è un modesto -0,6%. Al momento restano confermati i primi segnali di distensione visti con lo sfondamento di area 20mila. Solo sopra 20.500 si tornerebbe a puntare a un ritorno versi i top dell’anno a 22.500 punti.

Variabili macro.

Petrolio. Secondo mese di discesa (circa -2,5%) anche grazie al recupero del dollaro: oggi Brent 103,2 dollari, Wti 95,8 usd. Trend privo di direzionalità. Stiamo fuori.

Oro. Agosto si è chiuso con un modesto +0,4%. Oggi invariato a 1.288 dollari l’oncia. Quadro di fondo debole.

Forex. Euro/Dollaro (1,3124). Nuovo minimo da settembre 2013. I robusti dati macro Usa e di riflesso quelli deprimenti dell’eurozona continuano ad attirare acquisti di dollari. Agosto si è chiuso con una rivalutazione dell’1,9% che si aggiunge al +2,2% di luglio. Sfondato l’importante supporto a quota 1,33, il trend si proietta verso il successivo obiettivo tra 1,30/1,27. Confermiamo il suggerimento di acquistare dollari in ottica di diversificazione, possibilmente sfruttando i rari rimbalzi.

Bond periferici. Il “giallo” sui contenuti della telefonata tra Angela Merkel e Draghi (la Bce ha confermato che c’è stata ma non ne ha chiarito i contenuti e ci mancherebbe altro!) al momento non sta avendo contraccolpi. Il rendimento del Btp a 10 anni apre invariato al 2,43%, lo spread a 154 punti base. Crediamo che lo scenario resti favorevole ai titoli di Stato periferici. Per nuovi acquisti è preferibile attendere che qualche grosso investitore decida di realizzare gli enormi profitti accumulati: puntiamo a un target finale di spread a 100 punti base e a un rendimento tra il 2,3/2,2%.

http://www.websim.it

Quartz Weekend Brief—Burger King’s move, Yellen’s revolution, Motorola, Burning Man

Good morning, Quartz readers! There are four Burger King restaurants in Grand Cayman. When you buy a Whopper there for a Cayman Island dollar, the company pockets all of it tax-free (after paying for the cows). Back in the United States, where Burger King was founded 60 years ago on the premise that beef could be rapidly cooked, the government expects some 35% of the profits. And if Burger King tried to bring home that money from the Caribbean, the US would take a third of that, too. No wonder American corporations are keeping trillions of dollars in profits overseas, taking advantage of a glaring exception in US tax law. And no wonder Burger King decided this week to pack up its flame broilers and headquarter them somewhere else—in Ontario, Canada, home to another fast food chain, Tim Hortons, with which it intends to merge. The combined company won’t entirely avoid US taxes this way, but it will certainly pay less for its expansion outside North America. Tax inversions were once a trick played by pharmaceutical companies. Now they are common enough to apply to burgers and doughnuts, too. They even come with the blessing of Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is providing $3 billion in financing for the deal. Politicians may call these deals unpatriotic, but no one has the temerity to stop them. Clearly, the US needs to write some logic into its tax code. American companies avoid levies largely through loopholes of the country’s own making. Shares of Burger King and Tim Hortons both shot up after news of the merger leaked, which is how investors make clear that they want to see more of this. The US can just watch its corporations stash profits overseas and walk away entirely, or it can devise some rules and incentives to fix the problem. —Zachary M. Seward Five things on Quartz we especially liked An embargo hit list for Vladimir Putin. Russia needs the West more than the West needs Russia, but if Putin wants to inflict some financial pain on the rest of the world, Jason Karaian and David Yanofsky found some targets. Janet Yellen, revolutionary. The Federal Reserve chair has very quietly convinced Wall Street to welcome wage growth, rather than see it as an inflationary red flag. Matt Phillips explained the significance of that shift. The race to build the first mass-market electric car. Tesla and General Motors are both working on purely electric vehicles that travel 200 miles on a single charge but only cost about $35,000. Steve LeVine looked into which company might prevail. (John McDuling, meanwhile, took a Tesla Model S for a spin and came away even more impressed than he expected.) How US cities wring money out of the poor. Ferguson, Missouri, isn’t alone in abusing its underclass. Gwynn Guilford examined how fines for minor offenses have become a growing portion of municipal revenue. Job requirements are fiction. And you should ignore them. Max Nisen pointed out that job postings are aspirational but too often read literally. Five things elsewhere that made us smarter The Louisiana coastline is eroding. Climate change and oil drilling are sending much of that land into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening homes, seafood, and the American energy supply. ProPublica and The Lens conducted a stunning visual investigation. Strangers in their own land. Eastern Ukranians fleeing to the west are being welcomed in Lviv, but the hospitality only extends so far. Annabelle Chapman visited the city for Foreign Policy and found troubling ethnic tension. How Motorola ruined its culture. And nearly ruined the company in the process. Before Google swooped in (and dumped the company just as fast), Motorola fell victim to infighting, described in detail by Ted Fishman in Chicago magazine. Inside a billionaire’s playa party pad at Burning Man. Recode’s Nellie Bowles got invited into Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman’s giant, inflatable, spider-like structure in the desert of Nevada. Sifting through the wreckage of an Austrian bank collapse. Enormous losses, criminal convictions, vanishing yachts carrying North Korean currency: Gabriele Steinhauser turned up stunning details (paywall) in the Wall Street Journal. Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, tax inversions, and Burning Man photos to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day. You’re getting the Europe and Africa edition of the Quartz Daily Brief. To change your region, click here. We’d also love it if you shared this email with your friends. They can sign up for free here.

Quartz Daily Brief—China oil, Pakistan agreement, JPMorgan hacked, Lego novels

Good morning, Quartz readers! What to watch for today A close look at Chinese hydrocarbons. CNOOC and PetroChina report half-year earnings. Analysts will be watching for any hints that CNOOC, the country’s biggest offshore oil and gas explorer, has to drop about the politically volatile South China Sea. The future of Dollar General’s dollars. While sales are expected to rise, investors may be more interested in what the US discount chain plans to do next, after Family Dollar rejected its takeover bid in favor of smaller rival Dollar Tree. Carry on Erdogan. After 11 years as Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be sworn in as president—theoretically it is a more ceremonial role, but with the obliging Ahmet Davutoglu as prime minister, he should be able to stay in control of the country. In other words, we can expect more of this. A Pakistan agreement nears. Pakistan’s military and prime minister Nawaz Sharif might be close to making a deal (paywall) following nearly two weeks of protests in Islamabad calling for his resignation. The deal would see Sharif hand over control of security policies and foreign policy (paywall) to the military. Opposition leader Imran Khan insists he’s not leaving until Sharif steps down. While you were sleeping Did Russia hack US banks? The FBI is investigating a hacking attack in mid-August that lifted data from JPMorgan and at least four other banks, Bloomberg reports. The sophistication of the attack suggests the hand of a government, but cyber-criminals have not been ruled out. Alibaba’s earnings fed IPO excitement. The Chinese e-commerce firm reported a 46% jump in year-on-year revenue to $2.54 billion. In the quarter that ended June 30, Alibaba’s profit nearly tripled. These are strong numbers ahead of Alibaba’s highly-anticipated US IPO, which could exceed $200 billion. A third front emerged in Ukraine. Ukraine said that activity by Russian forces in a southeastern border town amounted to an invasion (paywall). This stealth counter-offensive has quickly erased hopes for the road map to peace that presidents’ Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Putin discussed late Tuesday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also wants an explanation. More horrors from the Islamic State. Pictures found on social media show the militants executing Syrian soldiers captured at Tabqa air base, which IS took at the weekend. The US has been gathering a coalition to fight IS, but it won’t act without allies. A bipartisan group of US lawmakers want a vote on whether military action should go ahead. The UN said both IS and Syria are committing war crimes. Tough times for Qantas. The national Australian air carrier posted a record loss of US$2.65 billion (paywall), after a worse-than-expected writedown. Oil majors beat a retreat from Nigeria. A consortium of Shell, Eni and Total is selling $5 billion worth of oil assets to domestic buyers, among them one of the most frequently “bunkered” oil pipelines in the world. (It’s the practice of punching holes in the pipeline and stealing the oil that leaks.) Quartz obsession interlude Matt Phillips on Argentina’s bizarrely strong stock market. “Yes, economically, the country is a mess. With dwindling foreign reserves and threadbare credit that prevents it from borrowing, Argentina has turned to devaluation to finance itself. The result is a nasty case of stagflation. GDP growth is just barely puttering forward. Private estimates of inflation hover around 40%, according to the Eurasia group. And yet, Argentina’s equity market—as measured by the Mercado de Valores de Buenos Aires, or Merval, has surged 77% this year through yesterday’s close.” Read more here. Matters of debate The US shouldn’t team up with Bashar al-Assad against the Islamic State. Western support for a Shia dictator would make matters far worse. The Putin era may be over sooner than you think. The Russian president has bitten off more than he can chew in Ukraine. The idiocy of the $49,000 apple pie exemplifies why crowd funding will fail. The more money raised, the dumber the crowd gets. The Ukraine crisis validates Russia’s bad rap in Hollywood. In good times, the US film industry never “adapted to Moscow’s friendlier face.” Social science has an existential problem. Telephone surveys are becoming less accurate, because people don’t answer the telephone anymore. A good psychic can be worth visiting. When they’re not trying too hard to predict the future, they can give good advice. Surprising discoveries Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a little girl. Her creators think it very important that you know this. If Britain were a US state, it would be the second-poorest. In GDP per capita terms, only Mississippi is poorer. An 11-year-old translated a 1,000-page American epic. He rendered scenes from the novel Infinite Jest in Lego. A panda may have faked its pregnancy for preferential treatment. Other pandas in Chinese zoos have been known to do this to get more buns and bamboo. It’s good if kids are slow learners. Finding learning hard means better learning. Proof that London property prices are nuts. An “uninhabitable” 900-square-foot apartment is on the market for £595,000 (nearly $1 million), and someone’s already offered more. Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, novels rendered in Lego, and affordable real estate options to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day. You’re getting the Europe and Africa edition of the Quartz Daily Brief. To change your region, click here. We’d also love it if you shared this email with your friends. They can sign up for free here.

Morning Market Commentary 31-Jul-2014

 

Morning News Headlines ▪ ▪ Merkel And Putin Discussed Secret Deal Could End Ukraine Crisis ▪ ▪ EU Names 8 Russians, Three Firms Subject To Asset Freeze ▪ ▪ Argentina Declared In Default By S&P As Talks Fail ▪ ▪ BoE’s Broadbent: ‘Edge Is Coming Off’ UK Housing ▪ ▪ UK House Prices Slow To 15-Month Low In July ▪ ▪ UK Consumer Confidence Falls For 1st Time In 6 Months – GFK ▪ ▪ French Producer Prices Rise Unexpectedly In June ▪ ▪ French Consumer Spending (YoY) Jun: 1.80% (est 0.40%; rev prev -0.70%) ▪ ▪ German Retail Sales: Stores Boost Turnover In June ▪ ▪ German June Labour Market Nearly Unchanged On May ▪ ▪ Moody’s: Outlook Changed To Negative For Swiss Banking System ▪ ▪ SNB H1 Profit Rises On Gold, Foreign Currency ▪ ▪ IMF: China Should Set Less Ambitious 2015 Growth Target ▪ ▪ Shell Quarterly Adjusted Earnings Rise 33% ▪ ▪ Siemens Outruns Q2 Bets As Restructuring Finally Bears Fruit ▪ ▪ Lloyds Bank Shrugs Off Libor Fines With Profit Increase ▪ ▪ Banco Santander Profit Rises On UK, Spain Recovery ▪ ▪ BG Group Operating Profit Up 11% On Higher LNG Volumes ▪ ▪ Samsung Electronics Downbeat On Q3 Prospects As Profits Slide ▪ ▪ HTC Forecasts Q3 Revenue Missing Analysts’Estimates ▪ ▪ AstraZeneca Smashes Forecasts In Q2 After Seeing Off Pfizer ▪ ▪ Centrica First-Half Profits Fall 35% ▪ ▪ BAE First Half Profit Falls 7% ▪ ▪ Sanofi Lifts 2014 Guidance After Q2 Earnings Beat Expectations ▪ ▪ Carrefour Profit Tops Estimates As European Sales Strengthen ▪ ▪ Euronext: BES Shares Have Been Suspended Until 10:00 BST ▪ ▪ BES Seeks Capital As Key Staff Suspended After Massive Losses ▪ ▪ Balfour Beatty Ends Merger Talks With Carillion ▪ ▪ Lufthansa Profit Below Expectations As Ticket Prices Fall Leaders and Laggers Commentary Land For Gas: Merkel And Putin Discussed Secret Deal Could End Ukraine Crisis Germany and Russia have been working on a secret plan to broker a peaceful solution to end international tensions over the Ukraine. The Independent can reveal that the peace plan, being worked on by both Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, hinges on two main ambitions: stabilising the borders of Ukraine and providing the financially troubled country with a strong economic boost, particularly a new energy agreement ensuring security of gas supplies. More controversially, if Ms Merkel’s deal were to be acceptable to the Russians, the international community would need to recognise Crimea’s independence and its annexation by Russia, a move that some members of the United Nations might find difficult to stomach. (Independent – Continue Reading) Argentina Braces For Market Reaction To Second Default In 12 Years Argentina defaulted for the second time in 12 years after hopes for a midnight deal with holdout creditors were dashed, setting up stock and bond prices for declines on Thursday and raising chances a recession could worsen this year. After a long legal battle with hedge funds that rejected Argentina’s debt restructuring following its 2002 default, Latin America’s third-biggest economy failed to strike a deal in time to meet a midnight deadline for a coupon payment on exchange bonds. Even a short default will raise companies’ borrowing costs, pile more pressure on the peso, drain dwindling foreign reserves and fuel one of the world’s highest inflation rates. (Reuters – Continue Reading) Growth Rebound Stokes Fed Debate Federal Reserve officials delivered a modestly more upbeat assessment of the economy Wednesday amid a second-quarter growth rebound and deepening debate inside the central bank about when to start raising interest rates. U.S. gross domestic product, a broad measure of the nation’s output of goods and services, advanced at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.0% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, a significant rebound from a wintry 2.1% contraction during the first three months of the year. Overall, the economy appears to be neither as weak as was recorded in the first quarter nor as strong as the latest numbers suggest in the second. Compared with a year ago, economic output was up 2.4% last quarter, in line with the modest pace of growth that has characterized much of this recovery. The economy only grew at about a 1% pace for the first half of 2014. (WSJ – Continue Reading) Gross Says Time To Say ‘Good Evening’ To Asset Gains Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross said investors should say “good evening” to the prospect of future capital gains in asset markets as interest rates are set to rise while the economy grows at a slow pace. “The global economy is left to depend on economic growth for further advances and it is growth that is now and has recently been historically deficient,” the manager of the world’s biggest bond fund wrote in a commentary on Newport Beach, California-based Pimco’s website. “As yields have bottomed and are now expected by the markets to gradually rise, it’s down to growth, and growth is a question mark.” Investors should “own bonds and an average proportion of stocks too,” Gross wrote, adding that high quality Treasury and corporate bonds are fairly priced, although they are not cheap. (Bloomberg – Continue Reading) Global QE Ends As China Opens Second Front In Bond Tapering The spigot of global reserve stimulus is slowing to a trickle. The world’s central banks have cut their purchases of foreign bonds by two-thirds since late last year. China has cut by three-quarters. These purchases have been a powerful form of global quantitative easing over the past 15 years, driven by the commodity bloc and the rising powers of Asia. They have fed demand for US Treasuries, Bunds and Gilts, as well as French, Dutch, Japanese, Canadian and Australian bonds and parastatal debt, displacing the better part of $12 trillion into everything else in a universal search for yield. Any reversal would threaten to squeeze money back out again. (Telegraph – Continue Reading) Gold ETPs Halt Outflows As Buyers Return Amid Price Slump Gold investors who pulled money out of U.S. exchange-traded products through the first half of 2014 rushed back in July, just as prices resumed a decline that Barclays Plc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say will get worse. ETPs backed by precious metals took in $536.81 million this month as of July 29, a 1 percent gain for funds that saw a net outflow of $319 million in six months through June, data compiled by Bloomberg show. This month’s 2 percent drop in futures left prices down 7 percent from a 2014 peak in March. The appeal of gold as a haven increased since Russia backed a rebellion in Ukraine and as violence escalated in the Middle East and North Africa. While the metal has outperformed equities and bonds so far this year — gains that Citigroup Inc. says will hold — analysts in a Bloomberg survey predict prices will drop in the fourth quarter as economic growth spurs a shift to U.S. equities already at all-time highs. (Businessweek – Continue Reading) Files and Links HEADLINES ▪ ▪ EU Names 8 Russians, Three Firms Subject To Asset Freeze ▪ ▪ Argentina Declared In Default By S&P As Talks Fail ▪ ▪ BoE’s Broadbent: ‘Edge Is Coming Off’ UK Housing ▪ ▪ Italy Spending Review Chief Cottarelli Plans To Quit: CorrieredellaSera ▪ ▪ UK Nationwide House PX (MoM) Jul: 0.10% (est 0.50%; prev 1.00%) ▪ ▪ UK GFK Consumer Confidence (Jul): -2 (est 2; prev 1) ▪ ▪ French PPI (YoY) Jun: 0.50% (est -0.10%; rev prev 0.10%) ▪ ▪ French Consumer Spending (YoY) Jun: 1.80% (est 0.40%; rev prev -0.70%) ▪ ▪ German Retail Sales (YoY) Jun: 0.40% (Est 1.30%; Prev 1.90%) ▪ ▪ German June Labour Market Nearly Unchanged On May ▪ ▪ Moody’s: Outlook Changed To Negative For Swiss Banking System ▪ ▪ SNB H1 Profit Rises On Gold, Foreign Currency ▪ ▪ IMF: China Should Set Less Ambitious 2015 Growth Target, Refrain From Stimulus ▪ ▪ Shell Quarterly Adjusted Earnings Rise 33% ▪ ▪ Siemens Outruns Q2 Bets As Restructuring Finally Bears Fruit ▪ ▪ Lloyds Bank Shrugs Off Libor Fines With Profit Increase ▪ ▪ Banco Santander Profit Rises On UK, Spain Recovery ▪ ▪ BG Group Operating Profit Up 11% On Higher LNG Volumes ▪ ▪ Samsung Electronics Downbeat On Q3 Prospects As Profits Slide ▪ ▪ HTC Forecasts Q3 Revenue Missing Analysts’ Estimates ▪ ▪ AstraZeneca Smashes Forecasts In Q2 After Seeing Off Pfizer ▪ ▪ Centrica First-Half Profits Fall 35% ▪ ▪ BAE First Half Profit Falls 7% ▪ ▪ Sanofi Lifts 2014 Guidance After Q2 Earnings Beat Expectations ▪ ▪ Carrefour Profit Tops Estimates As European Sales Strengthen ▪ ▪ BES Seeks Capital As Key Staff Suspended After Massive Losses ▪ ▪ Balfour Beatty Ends Merger Talks With Carillion ▪ ▪ Lufthansa Profit Below Expectations As Ticket Prices Fall ▪ ▪ Boeing To Make Longest 787-10 Dreamliner Exclusively In South Carolina MARKET DATA ▪ ▪ Dollar Shines, US Yields Surge On Upbeat US Data ▪ ▪ GBP/USD Slid To 1.6910 Area On Disappointing Nationwide Data ▪ ▪ EUR/USD Is Now On The Other Side Of 1.34 ▪ ▪ Europe Starts Mostly Higher On Earnings, Jobless Data Awaited ▪ ▪ Asian Equities Mixed, Samsung Down On Earnings ▪ ▪ China PBOC Cuts 14-Day Repo Rate During Thurs Mkt Ops ▪ ▪ Gold Heads For Longest Drop In 2 Months As US Economy Improves ▪ ▪ Copper Futures Fall 0.62% On Global Cues; Low Demand ▪ ▪ WTI Remains Subdued Amid Bearish Mood Over US Oil Supplies

 

Morning Market Commentary 30-Jul-2014

 

Morning News Headlines ▪ ▪ EU Joins US In Escalating Pressure On Russian Economy ▪ ▪ Spanish Economy Expands At Fastest Rate Since 2007 In Q2 ▪ ▪ Swedish Q2 GDP Misses Forecasts, Up 0.20% ▪ ▪ Bundesbank’s Weidmann Welcomes Inflation-Busting German Wage Gains ▪ ▪ Argentine Debt Talks To Resume As Default Deadline Looms ▪ ▪ Japan June Output Falls At Fastest Pace Since March 2011 Quake ▪ ▪ Barclays Profits Down 7% As Investment Bank Income Sags ▪ ▪ Bayer Q2 Underlying Profit Edges Higher On New Drug Sales ▪ ▪ Airbus Group H1 Core Profit Up, Studies Dassault Stake Sale ▪ ▪ Schneider Keeps 2014 Goals After Forex Hits H1 Sales ▪ ▪ BBVA Net Profit Falls Sharply ▪ ▪ Holcim H1 Profit Declines; Backs Growth Forecast For FY14 ▪ ▪ Antofagasta Posts Higher Quarterly Copper Output ▪ ▪ Twitter Tops Quarterly Estimates for Sales, User Growth ▪ ▪ AstraZeneca Announces Almirall Deal Worth Up To $2.1 Bln Leaders and Laggers Commentary Fed Seen Trimming Bond Buys, Could Offer Vague Rate Clues Federal Reserve on Wednesday looks certain to press forward with its plan to wind down its bond-buying stimulus, and could offer some vague clues on how much nearer it might be to finally raising interest rates. (Reuters – Continue Reading) Russia Sanctions Spread Pain From Putin To Halliburton U.S. and European Union sanctions against Russia’s Vladimir Putin threaten to shut off some of the world’s largest energy companies from one of the biggest untapped energy troves on the planet. As violence escalates in eastern Ukraine between government and separatist forces, the EU yesterday sought to punish Russia for its involvement by restricting exports of deep-sea drilling and shale-fracturing technologies. The U.S. followed suit, with President Barack Obama announcing a block on specific goods and technologies exported to the Russian energy sector. “Because we’re closely coordinating our actions with Europe, the sanctions we’re announcing today will have an even bigger bite,” Obama told reporters yesterday at the White House. “Russia’s energy, financial and defence sectors are feeling the pain.” (Businessweek – Continue Reading) Europe’s Bond Yields Lowest Since 15th Century Genoa On Deflation, Russia Risk Bond yields have fallen to the lowest level in modern history in Germany, France and the Eurozone’s core states, signalling a high risk of deflation and mounting concerns about sanctions against Russia. The yield on German 10-year bonds fell to a record low of 1.11pc in intra-day trading, partly on safe-haven flows. French yields dropped in tandem to 1.5pc. These levels are far below rates hit during the 1930s or even during the deflationary episodes of the 19th Century. “Yields fell this low in Genoa in the 15th century but there has been nothing like this in Europe in modern times,” said professor Richard Werner, from Southampton University. “This reflects the weakness in nominal GDP and a slow economic implosion caused by credit contraction. The European Central Bank is at last starting to act but it is only scratching the surface.” (Telegraph – Continue Reading) JPMorgan Says Don’t Fight PBOC As Stimulus Lifts Stocks Don’t fight the People’s Bank of China. That’s the advice to investors from Adrian Mowat, the Hong Kong-based chief Asia and emerging-market strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. who raised his rating on Chinese stocks to neutral from underweight in a report dated yesterday. He said shares will rally through October after the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) entered a bull market on July 28. China’s central bank presided over a bigger-than-estimated surge in new credit in June and has cut reserve requirements for some lenders, while local media reported the PBOC set up a 1 trillion yuan ($162 billion) lending facility with the China Development Bank to fund housing projects. The signs of monetary easing, along with accelerated government spending and gains in manufacturing industries, have spurred mutual fund managers to boost Chinese stock holdings to record highs, according to a July 28 report from HSBC Holdings Plc. (Bloomberg – Continue Reading) Time Almost Up For Argentina To Avoid Debt Default Argentina faced a race against on time on Wednesday to avert its second default in 12 years, needing to either cut a deal by the end of the day with “holdout” investors suing it or win more time from a U.S. court to reach a settlement. Argentine Economy Minister Axel Kicillof scrambled to New York on Tuesday to join last-ditch negotiations, holding the first face-to-face talks with the principals of New York hedge funds who demand full repayment on bonds they bought at a discounted rate after the country defaulted in 2002. The hedge funds are owed $1.33 billion (784 million pounds), but an equal treatment clause in an agreement Argentina made with bondholders in 2005 would cost Argentina many billions more. (Yahoo – Continue Reading) Files and Links HEADLINES ▪ ▪ EU Joins US In Escalating Pressure On Russian Economy ▪ ▪ Spanish GDP (QoQ) Q2 P: 0.60% (est 0.50%; prev 0.40%) ▪ ▪ Swedish GDP (QoQ) Q2 P: 0.20% (est 0.60%; prev -0.10%) ▪ ▪ Bundesbank’s Weidmann Welcomes Inflation-Busting German Wage Gains ▪ ▪ Argentine Debt Talks To Resume As Default Deadline Looms ▪ ▪ Japan Industrial Production (MoM) Jun P: -3.30% (est -1.20%; prev 0.70%) ▪ ▪ Barclays Profits Down 7% As Investment Bank Income Sags ▪ ▪ Bayer Q2 Underlying Profit Edges Higher On New Drug Sales ▪ ▪ Airbus Group H1 Core Profit Up, Studies Dassault Stake Sale ▪ ▪ Schneider Keeps 2014 Goals After Forex Hits H1 Sales ▪ ▪ BBVA Net Profit Falls Sharply ▪ ▪ Holcim H1 Profit Declines; Backs Growth Forecast For FY14 ▪ ▪ Antofagasta Posts Higher Quarterly Copper Output ▪ ▪ Twitter Tops Quarterly Estimates for Sales, User Growth ▪ ▪ Toyota Keeps Global Lead Over VW On Surging SUV Demand ▪ ▪ AstraZeneca Announces Almirall Deal Worth Up To $2.1 Bln ▪ ▪ Icahn Cuts Stake In Family Dollar ▪ ▪ Bank Of America Nearly Halves Exposure To Russia MARKET DATA ▪ ▪ GBP/USD Is Open For New Lows On US Data ▪ ▪ EUR/USD Hugging Channel Down Towards Key Level ▪ ▪ Dollar Touches Six-Month High Ahead Of GDP And Fed Tests ▪ ▪ European Markets Open Lower On Russia Sanctions ▪ ▪ Asia Stocks Elevated After Data, Fed Awaited ▪ ▪ Shanghai Composite Heads For Best Month Gain Since 2012 ▪ ▪ Gold Trades Near Week’s Low As US Growth Signs Offset Tensions ▪ ▪ Copper Futures Fall 0.10% On Global Cues, Weak Demand ▪ ▪ WTI Trades Near Two-Week Low Before Stockpile Data

 

Quartz Weekend Brief—China v Japan, streaming music wars, Putin’s bubble, operatic racism

Good morning, Quartz readers! While the the kinetic conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East have dominated this week’s news, a more subtle contest, between China and Japan, has been playing out on an unlikely stage: Latin America. The leaders of Asia’s two largest economies have been hopping across the region, seeking or cementing political alliances as well as new business deals. Barely had Chinese president Xi Jinping headed home from a week-long trip to Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba, when Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe started his 11-day swing, which will take in Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. The Chinese media quickly declared Xi’s visit a grand success. The People’s Daily said it “not only fostered closer economic ties, but also led to many commercial contracts.” Expect similar triumphant proclamations from the Japanese media at the end of Abe’s trip. While both Japan and China want stronger economic ties to a region rich in resources, they are also keen to broaden the nature of their relationships. Xi wants China to be seen as a major player in world affairs, and that means more than striking business deals. Abe is seeking international support for Japan’s long-standing ambition of joining the UN Security Council.  And although Latin America is an ocean away from the main theater of Sino-Japanese friction, the East China Sea, each leader is seeking sympathetic ears for his complaints about the other. For Latin American nations, the heightened attention from the world’s second and third-largest economies is mostly welcome. But in political and territorial disputes, nobody really wants to pick sides between Beijing and Tokyo. Business deals will receive enthusiasm and fanfare; for the rest, polite nodding is the order of the day.—Bobby Ghosh Five things on Quartz we especially liked Who will win the streaming music wars? Will Spotify beat Pandora? Will Deezer surge ahead? Or will they all be swallowed up or steamrollered by a loss-leading music division of Apple, Amazon or Google? John McDuling examines the dynamics of a fragmented industry where only one or two big winners are likely to remain. How to deal with opera’s inherent racism. A recent Seattle production of The Mikado is eliciting anger over “yellowface,” meaning white performers made up to look Japanese. Gwynn Guilford explores the history of the ethnic parodies that underpin many operas—and some ideas about how directors can treat them in a more modern way. Ways for the West to put pressure on Russia. Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly, is losing its dominance as the state’s foreign-policy tool, but sanctions aimed at it could still bring pressure to bear, Steve LeVine writes. And Tim Fernholz explains how the Netherlands, as one of the chief offshore financial centers for Russian money, could do a little squeezing of its own. Why Google will remain the king of search. The company’s share of US search queries continues to inch up, and its competitors are far behind. But as Dan Frommer explains, search is such a huge business that it makes more sense to start smaller search engines for specific niches than challenge Google head-on. The US catches some of the world’s best salmon but eats some of the worst. Why are Americans eating bland, imported, farmed salmon when they could be feasting on the superb wild catches from their own rivers? Gwynn Guilford teases apart a paradox that’s the result of a curious mix of taste and economic history. Five things elsewhere that made us smarter A peek inside Putin’s bubble. Over several years of reporting, Ben Judah spoke with a wide range of current and former members of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, assembling an engrossing, impressionistic account of the inscrutable Russian president’s daily routine for Newsweek. He paints a picture largely of monotony, paranoia, and isolation. “There are no stories of extravagance: only of loneliness.” Le tour de malaise. In Der Spiegel, Alexander Smoltczyk traces the route of this year’s Tour de France, but cycling is not on his mind. He is on the road to chronicle the “new sick man of Europe,” speaking with anyone he bumps into about the “deep gloom” that seems to be gripping France. “The state is sick, the economy is sick, its education is sick and it is sick from an excessively glorified past that won’t go away,” says one particularly disgruntled Frenchman. How John Kerry’s Middle East peace plan crumbled. This impressively detailed account of a year of diplomacy from Ben Birnbaum and Amir Tibon in the New Republic is a microcosm of every set of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ever held, and shows the distrust, back-stabbing and communication breakdowns that have caused them to run aground. Seeing war through food. National-security writer John Little interviews celebrity chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, who has made an art of reporting on the cuisine of conflict zones. “Most people seem to be pretty nice—basically good people doing the best they can,” Bourdain says. “There is rarely, however, a neat takeaway. You have to learn to exercise a certain moral relativity.” Where restaurant reservations come from. From, umm… the need to book a restaurant, right? The seemingly silly question has a much more complicated answer, discovers Alexis Madrigal in the Atlantic—probably stemming from the 19th century, when private rooms in restaurants were the place unmarried men and women could meet without offending public decency. Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, war recipes, and Putin anecdotes to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day. You’re getting the Europe and Africa edition of the Quartz Daily Brief. To change your region, click here. We’d also love it if you shared this email with your friends. They can sign up for free here.

Quartz Daily Brief—Israel flights banned, Facebook earnings, EU inaction, Beatle vs. beetles

Good morning, Quartz readers!

What to watch for today

A Chinese firm dices with default. Construction firm Huatong Road & Bridge Group is in danger of failing to meet a 400 million yuan ($64 million) bond payment. Chinese traders are fearful of what would be only the second mainland default ever, and the first ever default on a principal payment rather than interest.

Facebook tries to keep its outperformance streak alive. The world’s largest social network has topped analyst estimates ever since it began seeing major growth from mobile advertising. The company’s new CFO, David Wehner, is expected to report a 68% boost in revenue and a 55% rise in earnings per share.

GlaxoSmithKline gets a health check. The pharmaceutical firm’s second-quarter profit is expected to fall about 17% to £1.4 billion ($2.39 billion). Investors will be looking for updates on its respiratory drug Advair and an ongoing bribery scandal in China.

Taiwan braces for its first major storm of the year. Schools and offices are closing in anticipation of Typhoon Matmo, which has sustained winds of 137 kilometers (85 miles) per hour. Stocks and bonds will see no action and currency markets are expected to follow suit.

While you were sleeping

Airlines suspended flights to Israel after a Palestinian rocket landed about a mile (1.6 km) from Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport. US aviation regulators instituted a 24-hour ban, despite criticism that the move “hands Hamas an undeserved victory.”

The EU was all talk and no action. Divided EU leaders postponed new sanctions against Russia, as France proceeded with the delivery of a warship to Moscow. Meanwhile, Britain opened a new inquiry into the murder of a Russian defector who was killed on UK soil with a highly radioactive isotope back in 2006.

Shanghai Husi reprocessed old meat “as a policy.” The US-owned processor that sold out-of-date meat to brands including KFC, Starbucks, and Burger King did so routinely and at the direction of the factory’s managers, according to Xinhua, China’s state news agency.

McDonald’s and Coca-Cola came up short. The fast-food chain’s profit fell more than expected because of weak sales in the US and Europe. The soda company reported lower profit partly due to extra marketing costs (paywall) as it battles for the soda market share.

The iPhone drove Apple’s earnings. Although overall sales slowed, as they typically do in the quarter before a new iPhone launch, Apple sold 35.2 million of its cash-cow smartphones, a 13% increase from the same period last year. Profit increased by 12% to $7.7 billion, exceeding analysts’ expectations.

The legal battle over Obamacare isn’t over. Conflicting court rulings cast doubt on whether the federal government is allowed to subsidize individuals’ healthcare. Another round of appeals could take six months, and could eventually end up back at the Supreme Court.

Bill Ackman’s attack on Herbalife backfired. The billionaire hedge fund manager’s three-hour presentation that promised to deliver a deathblow to the nutritional drinks chain did not impress investors: Herbalife stock surged 15% as Ackman spoke.

Quartz obsession interlude

Jason Karaian analyzes Vladimir Putin’s phone records. “No leader has had more contact with Putin than German chancellor Angela Merkel. Over the past six months she has spoken with the Russian president about Ukraine more than twice as many times as any other world leader. In their most recent conversation, the German chancellor “urged the Russian President strongly to use his influence over the separatists,” according to her office. This account fits Merkel’s cautious, deliberate approach to diplomacy with Russia, which has nonetheless hardened since the annexation of Crimea in March.” Read more here.

Matters of debate

Sex in marriage is too much to hope for. There are too many other things going on.

Drone sales should be regulated, lest they get into the hands of terrorists.

Eat these fish and save the planet. Wild Alaskan salmon and Pacific sardines are among the few species that aren’t chronically overfished.

Bad highways are a threat to North America. Funding shortages have left US-Canadian transport systems in poor shape.

Surprising discoveries

A tree memorializing George Harrison died an ironic death. It was killed by beetles.

Two white flags replaced American flags atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Art? Terrorism?  Police are investigating.

New Hong Kong micro-apartments are the size of a prison cell. They’re being built by the richest man in Asia.

One in every 25 New Yorkers is a millionaire. The percentage is even higher in Monaco, Zurich, and Geneva.

A Chinese shopping mall has parking spots for women. They’re pink, wider than normal, and have sparked a feminist outcry.

Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, tiny apartment floor plans, and Pacific smoked salmon to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.

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Quartz Weekend Brief—Borders, battery science, the science of art, blood types

Good morning, Quartz readers!

International air travel makes the world a smaller and, it would often seem, a friendlier place.

But after a week of frankly horrific news capped by the destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 and the 298 innocent people on board, it’s clear that it’s not really possible to fly above suffering and conflict—figuratively, or literally in the case of this tragedy.

In the MH-17 disaster, we saw in Vladimir Putin a leader whose support for an insurgency just across his border loosed forces he can no longer control. That culminated, in the most likely scenario to explain MH-17, with a deadly missile launched at a plane the fighters couldn’t see, much less identify. As we grapple with the toll—80 children and three infants among the dead—there is more focus on which nations will gain or lose politically in this tragedy than how it could have been prevented. We’ve hardly begun to contemplate the soul-crushing irony that many of the passengers were AIDs researchers bound for a conference on fighting the disease, which devastates Russia and Ukraine as well as millions of children.

At another contested border, between Israel and the Gaza strip, four children were inexplicably killed in front of a global cadre of journalists, and more will suffer as Israel sends ground troops into the densely populated area. This latest round of violence—spurred by the murder of Israeli teens and reprisals against their Palestinian counterparts—has seen children as political props for historic grievances, not victims of them.

Even the most settled borders, in wealthy counties, don’t escape this cynicism: At the US border with Mexico, children fleeing violence in troubled nations are piling up in poor conditions, and the political debate in the US is largely focused on how quickly they can and should be sent back.

The critique of globalization we know so well—that it creates an unfortunate homogeneity in the world—may be overstated. In a world where the economy has us all so closely connected, humans are still adept at finding ways to tear themselves apart.—Tim Fernholz

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Five things on Quartz we especially liked

Is the breakthrough automobile battery dead? Despite the hopes of researchers, it appears the battery that GM and the automobile industry expected to revolutionize electric cars isn’t all it was hoped to be—and, Steve LeVine writes, that could be a win for Elon Musk’s Tesla and others who bet on conventional batteries.

Art needs science. Jeff Koons, the artist/provocateur behind some of the most expensive artwork in the world, doesn’t just rely on inspiration: Nina Stoller-Lindsey discovered that he also needs the advice of Nobel prize-winning physicists, 3D-imaging, and advanced materials to make enormous balloon dogs and mysteriously floating basketballs.

What Microsoft’s layoffs mean around the world. When a truly global company decides to cut 14% of its workforce, the repercussions play out from Manaus, Brazil to Oulu, Finland. Nikhil Sonnad and Tim Fernholz have mapped out exactly where CEO Satya Nadella intends to prune, and to grow.

The future of passwords isn’t better passwords. It’s not two-factor authentication, either. Leo Mirani argues that technology reliant on a trusted log-in or a physical USB key will replace the increasingly bewildering array of phrases you try to remember while managing your digital life.

Our suggestions for the next BRICs. SNIP, SNAP, and STOIC—and many more—can be found in a new tool Nikhil Sonnad and Zach Wener-Fligner built for constructing emerging market investment strategies and the catchy acronyms used to market them. Which is another way of saying: Maybe there’s less uniting the BRICs than meets the eye.

Five things elsewhere that made us smarter

Why’s your type? Scientists discovered more than a century ago that humans have different varieties of blood. But Carl Zimmer says they still don’t know the purpose of this evolutionary feature—which has only encouraged the development of pseudoscientific explanations.

The biggest star on YouTube is a mystery woman. “DisneyCollectorBR” probably earns more money than most CEOs by simply opening and playing with toys for the all the world to see, reports BuzzFeed’s Hillary Reinsberg.

In the battle between Google and Hitler, Google is losing. Jeffrey Gettleman travels in a Nairobi matatu minibus named Hitler to understand why the modern, contact-less transit card from Google is failing.

How total pop domination set the BeeGees up for failure. In 1978, Bob Stanley writes, the band was responsible for 2% of the recording industry’s profits. But then it faced the full backlash of the disco era.

What happens when your child has an unknown disease. The structure of scientific research makes it hard for victims of newly identified diseases to build a community—and momentum toward successful treatment. The New Yorker’s Seth Mnookin found one family who used the internet and the falling price of genetic sequencing to create a new model for battling a rare condition.

Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, Disney toys, and enormous balloon dogs to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.

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