Frontrunning: January 11
- David Bowie, musical legend behind Ziggy Stardust, dies at 69 from cancer (Reuters)
- With No Powerball Winners, Jackpot Grows to Estimated $1.3 Billion (ABC)
- Stock Gains Short-Lived as Chinese Volatility Hurts Oil, Metals (BBG)
- China's yuan spikes higher, but stocks tumble (Reuters)
- Yuan Loan Rates Soar in Hong Kong as PBOC Halts Currency's Slide (BBG)
- China stocks close down at lowest level since September (Reuters)
- Arch Coal Files for Bankruptcy (WSJ)
- Fed Eyes Margin Rules to Bolster Oversight (WSJ)
- China Rout Threatens to Spawn India Crisis, Top Banker Says (BBG)
- Italy's Berlusconi calls for elections, vows to oust Renzi (Reuters)
- Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders Even in Early Races, Poll Finds (WSJ)
- Hedge Fund King Ray Dalio's All Weather Fund Down 7% In 2015 (Forbes)
- Merkel cancels Davos trip as pressure rises over Cologne attacks (FT)
- Zuma Begins Fightback as South Africa's Rand Gets Hammered (BBG)
- Car Insurers Find Tracking Devices Are a Tough Sell (WSJ)
- Drug lord Guzman closer to U.S. trial as Mexico starts extradition process (Reuters)
- Banks in U.A.E. Seen Ready for Extended Slump After Drop in Oil (BBG)
- Oil Seen Heading to $20 by Morgan Stanley on Dollar Strength (BBG)
- Wall Street's Big Ax Seen Reaping Best Year-End Profit Since '06 (BBG)
- Meet 2016's Worst Economic Performers Flirting With Disaster (BBG)
- China Retreat From U.S. Bonds Prompts Shrugs Where Fear Reigned (BBG)
- General Motors to face trial over recalled ignition switch (Reuters)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
- A consortium of investors including China National Chemical Corp agreed to buy KraussMaffei Group for 925 million euros ($1 billion) including debt in what could be the largest Chinese takeover of a German company ever. (http://on.wsj.com/1mP4WYL)
- Starboard Value LP wants Macy's Inc to find ways to unlock the value of its vast real-estate holdings, including its famous Herald Square store in New York.(http://on.wsj.com/1RhgT5Q)
- Mogujie.com, one of China's biggest fashion-focused e-commerce services, has agreed to take over a competitor to form a new company valued at roughly $2.5 billion, in the latest of a series of mergers among technology startups. The new company brings together Mogujie and rival Meilishuo.com, which is backed by social-network giant Tencent Holdings Ltd . (http://on.wsj.com/1ncw0Rv)
- As shoppers and investors abandon department stores, Kohls Corp is debating whether to take itself private or break up the company. (http://on.wsj.com/1mPay4k)
- Illumina Inc, seeking to build on its strength in DNA sequencing, is launching a new company that will develop and market a test to detect genetic evidence of cancer in the blood. The San Diego maker of gene-sequencing machines said Sunday it is forming the company, called Grail, with a group of other investors. (http://on.wsj.com/1OJ2zAR)
FT
Volkswagen AG has organised a new catalytic converter that could potentially fix the majority of cars in the United States affected by the diesel emissions scandal. The company has said up to 11 million vehicles worldwide had the software.
A survey has found that nine out of 10 small London-listed oil and gas companies are making losses. The survey consisted of 104 exploration and production companies listed on the London Stock Exchange's Aim market by Company Watch. The survey found that combined market value of the companies had dropped by 40 percent in the past year.
Talks over future of the UK's biggest steel plant are set to take place between its owner and union officials. The Community trade union said it would meet Tata Steel Ltd over Port Talbot steelworks, located in south Wales, which employs about 3,500 people.
NYT
- Illumina Inc, a maker of DNA sequencing machines, said it was forming a company to develop a type of blood test that would work for any kind of cancer, but some experts see risks involved. (http://nyti.ms/1RhoukE)
- On Monday, Bruin Sports Capital is expected to announce Courtside Ventures, a new $35 million venture investment firm to be based in Detroit and New York, that is meant to invest in nascent sports and media technology start-ups. (http://nyti.ms/1RvSVUN)
- Fifty years after Congress passed a law opening most government records to public scrutiny, the House is expected Tuesday to take up the most important open records overhaul since 2007. Majorities of both Republicans and Democrats are expected to support the legislation. (http://nyti.ms/1P1Hr4H)
- Princess Cristina of Spain is scheduled to appear in court on Monday, accused of tax fraud as part of a corruption case centered on money embezzled from public contracts that is bringing a member of the country's royal family to trial for the first time. (http://nyti.ms/1UIkNm2)
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Suncor Energy Inc is under pressure to sweeten its C$4.3 billion ($3.05 billion) takeover bid for Canadian Oil Sands Ltd after failing to get enough support from its target's shareholders. (http://bit.ly/1ZW9x9b)
** Small oil and gas firms want the Canadian government to reconsider its pledge to cap the amount that employees can claim through stock-option income deductions. They say the change, if implemented, will be another blow to an industry already downtrodden by depressed crude oil and natural gas prices. (http://bit.ly/1ZWds63)
** Political and community leaders say the pepper spraying of Syrian refugees in Vancouver is an isolated incident that does not reflect Canadian values. "This is not the Canadian way," Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said in an interview on Sunday. (http://bit.ly/1ZWaeQ7)
NATIONAL POST
** George Jonas, a journalist, novelist and poet who fled the Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian revolution for a new life in the West, has died aged 80. The cause was not specified; he had been ill for the past several years with Parkinsonism. (http://bit.ly/1IYrgJh)
Britain
The Times
- Heathrow has handed its owners 2.1 billion pounds ($3.05 billion) in dividends over the past four years but paid only 24 miliion pounds corporation tax in almost a decade. The revelation will stoke the controversy over how large companies are able to pay minimal tax bills. Facebook Inc, Google , Apple Inc and other multinationals have been accused of avoiding hundreds of millions of pounds in United Kingdom tax. (http://thetim.es/1mP8DNe)
- J Sainsbury Plc faces an uphill struggle to take over Argos and Homebase after several shareholders demanded more than 1.6 billion pounds for the high street empire. ( http://thetim.es/1mP8SYH)
The Guardian
- Britain's biggest supermarkets will reveal a slide in Christmas sales this week, underlining the pressure placed on the industry by changing shopping habits and the growth of discounters Aldi and Lidl. (http://bit.ly/1mP92zo)
The Telegraph
- The world's biggest producer of wind turbines, Vestas Wind Systems, has accused Britain of obstructing use of new technology that can slash costs, preventing the wind industry from offering one of the cheapest forms of energy without subsidies. (http://bit.ly/1mP98qJ)
Sky News
- Train drivers on the London Underground look set to strike in a long-running dispute over pay and plans for an all-night Tube service. The union which represents them, ASLEF, has told Sky News it expects to call for three days of action after a meeting on Monday. (http://bit.ly/1mPaemm)
(2 votes)
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Nothing fishy about handing over your DNA to a company called Illumina. Nothing at all.
Idiots and their DNA testing.
Hey Mr. Illumina, tell me what my genetic code says about my body and ancestors.
Then the company makes up random bullshit about your health and ancestors. This is why America and Europe are a joke.
** Political and community leaders say the pepper spraying of Syrian refugees in Vancouver is an isolated incident that does not reflect Canadian values. "This is not the Canadian way," Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said in an interview on Sunday. (http://bit.ly/1ZWaeQ7)
Chastise them with harsh words, console them with beer, eh?
Europe is enabling a rape culture
(New York Post)
In the wake of horrifying tales of sexual assault perpetrated by potentially up to 1,000 men on New Year’s Eve, German officials have made two stunning decisions.
The first, from Cologne, Germany — where the attacks took place — was Mayor Henriette Reker telling women to adopt a “code of conduct” to prevent further sexual assaults, which crossed the line into “victim blaming.”
The second, from the broader German government, was to crack down hard — not on those responsible for the assaults, but for those criticizing the Muslim immigrants who may have perpetrated them.
But due to Germany’s desperation to prove not only that it’s the most tolerant country in Europe but also that letting in hundreds of thousands of immigrants would have no disastrous consequences, the female victims of the attacks were initially ignored by the political class. Had the alleged perpetrators been white members of a fraternity, the international response would have been completely different, as the Atlantic’s David Frum noted.
Besides my older children, I've introduced many people to Bowie's music at Karaoke (my favorite - Asshes to Ashes). It will always be timeless, if young people are made aware of it. Rest in peace. One more change.
Swear to God that around 10:30 last night I couldn't sleep, layin' there thinking about troubles, didn't understand why I couldn't get Bowie's Ashes to Ashes out of my head or why it was still there every time I woke. I hadn't heard of his death until this morning (didn't know he was ailing.) The song was still running in my head this morning when I got the news.
This one hurts alot. I feel ya.
Is there life on Mars?
Sadly he left us before we could find out.
Wasn't Bowie one of the first - if not the fisrt - to issue a scrutured loan based on his future reyalties revenues ?
Bowie's death was sudden (to me) and tragic.
Gozilla: I believe he did do some type of futures thing with his royalties....perhaps the Tyler's will do a piece on him.
ABSOLUTELY ahead of his time....
RIP David Jones
"We only bought one ticket, how miraculous is that!.." Winner of 1.2 billion spokesman Nathan Rothschild.
"We only bought one ticket, how miraculous is that!.." Winner of 1.2 billion spokesman Nathan Rothschild.
RIP Daivd Bowie. Music makes life better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4d7Wp9kKjA
Nothing on this week's audit the Fed?
Google is my friend: "Bowie Bonds are asset-backed securities of current and future revenues of the 25 albums (287 songs) that David Bowie recorded before 1990"
furthermore
The Bowie Bond issuance was perhaps the first instance of intellectual property rights securitization, a financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans or credit card debt obligations and selling said consolidated debt as bonds, pass-through securities, or Collateralized mortgage obligation (CMOs), to various investors. The securitization of the collections of other artists, such as James Brown, Ashford & Simpson and the Isley Brothers, later followed.
Noting that the youngest victims were only 11 or 12, an unnamed officer admitted that he would “never have let my own daughter [go to] the festival if knew what happened.”
However, when Stockholm police made a public statement on the event, it said there had been “relatively few crimes” considering the large number of festival-goers.
The police force has been accused of covering up the sexual assaults committed by refugees, with Officer Peter Agren – who was in charge of policing at the festival – calling the accusations a “sore point.”
https://www.rt.com/news/328523-swedish-police-refugee-assaults/