Market Toccata
4 AugBloomberg: European, Asian Shares Decline; U.S. Stock-Index Futures Fall.
The Wall Street Journal: When currency markets get volatile, official comments get parsed.
Forbes.com: Health Care Stocks Withstand Market’s Dip.
Reuters: UPDATE 4-PDVSA’s 2009 net profit slumps 53 pct to $4.4 bln.
MarketWatch: China doesn’t just have a property price bubble, but a quantity bubble too.
Barrons: Deferring the Dream of First Solar Stock.
PHD On The Booty Call Market
4 Aug
Vaughan Bell (via @NoahWG) covers a study on booty calls. Why? Not enough research on the field. They find an expanded discussion from last year:
“For men: a booty call offers sexual access at a low, although not minimal, cost. For women, a booty call relationship offers more affection than a one-night stand,” the authors wrote. At the same time, an existing platonic friendship that turns sexual may have a greater chance of becoming a long-term relationship.
Research also suggests that women who are open to uncommitted short-term sexual relationships tend to attract better-looking men – and good looks suggest good genes. As such, the authors believe that women may engage in booty-call relationships so as to test and enter into a long-term relationship with an attractive man.”
Market Prelude
4 Aug
The Wall Street Journal: Asia Stocks Slip as Yen Climbs.
Bloomberg: California Democrats Seek Higher Income Tax, Oil Levy.
Reuters: Higher GM and Ford sales point to steady recovery.
The Financial Times: China seeks to widen gold market.
The Guardian: David Cameron warns public sector cuts will be permanent.
MarketWatch: Oil prices rally to 12-week high.
Crude oil for September delivery rose $1.21, or 1.5%, to $82.55 a barrel on NYME.
Misplaced Pessimism?
4 Aug
“The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) has given an upbeat signal on the economy, registering its biggest rise since October and a return to the level of June 2008.
The ESI rose to 42.3 in July, two points higher than the 40.3 tracked in June 2010. The rise is modest, but it is an acceleration from the slender gains of recent months and implies some recent pessimism about the economy may be misplaced.”
Via Dow Jones and Mark J. Perry
WSJ Markets
- Gold's Fall Stings Universities' EndowmentGold's slump has saddled the second-largest U.S. college endowment with more than $300 million in paper losses.
- Apple CEO, Lawmakers Square Off Over TaxesApple's tax strategies came under harsh scrutiny Tuesday in the Senate, where lawmakers are finding it far easier to call for a simpler tax code than to produce one.
- Tech Oldie H-P Might Still Be a GoodyBeleaguered Hewlett-Packard is a notable beneficiary of this year's reversal, with its shares having beaten once-highflying Apple's by 66 percentage points so far.
- Labor Woes Jolt South African AssetsSouth Africa's currency stumbled to a four-year low and the country's bonds sold off, signs that escalating labor unrest is starting to outweigh the lure of high yields for many investors.
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