Links for May 16

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Norway's state pension fund, which is the biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world, will join other investors in suing the company for failing to provide accurate, timely information to investors about its cheating on emissions tests. "Volkswagen informed the public about the incorrect emissions data after U.S. authorities released a notice of violation letter," the fund said in a statement. "We have been advised by our lawyers that the company's conduct gives rise to legal claims under German law."

Norway's bombshell lawsuit for Volkswagen - May. 16, 2016

Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), the conglomerate run by Buffett, disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday that it purchased more than 9.8 million shares in Apple (AAPL, Tech30) during the first quarter. It marks Berkshire's first investment in Apple.

Warren Buffett buys stake in Apple - May. 16, 2016

"We just came through what is obviously a brutal earnings season," TheStreet's Jim Cramer, co-manager of the Action Alerts PLUS portfolio, said in an exclusive interview with Action Alerts PLUS subscribers earlier this week. "There were very few winners and a long line of losers." "Tech was pretty much a collapse of everything except those stocks that are directly related to the cloud," Cramer said. Cell phones are in a glut, as evidenced by Apple's (AAPL) results, While PCs remain "dreadful," he added.

Jim Cramer -- Few Earnings Winners, 'Long Line of Losers' - TheStreet

With estimates suggesting the global market for wearable tech will surpass $30 billion by 2020, significant prizes await those who can crack “the next big thing.” Ran Poliakine, best known for founding Powermat Technologies Inc. to eliminate the world’s dependence on electrical cables, is setting his sights on improving communication with wireless devices by transforming human hands into keyboards that type anywhere, and on anything. The new endeavor, Tap Systems, came out of stealth mode Wednesday with a foam strap that slips onto the hand almost like a brass knuckle. It translates 31 finger taps into letters and numbers, which are transmitted by Bluetooth to mobile devices like phones and tablets. With an accuracy level of “99 percent,”

Powermat Founder Wants to Kill the Keyboard - Bloomberg

According to Verizon's 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report, about 50 percent of all security incidents — any event that compromises the confidentiality, integrity or availability of an information asset — are caused by people inside an organization. And while 30 percent of all cases are due to worker negligence like delivering sensitive information to the wrong recipient or the insecure disposal of personal and medical data, roughly 20 percent are considered insider misuse events, where employees could be stealing and/or profiting from company-owned or protected information.

A surprising source of hackers and costly data breaches

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Defensive stocks have gotten expensive as a group, but by using my guru-based stock selection system, I have identified five "low volatility" stocks that still look attractive and should offer benefits if investors continue to favor this category of names. What's the reason for the lofty multiples for low beta stocks? Simple supply and demand principles at work. Investors have added billion to funds that focus on these types of stocks so far this year. Last month alone, the iShares MSCI USA Minimum Volatility ETF (which owns S&P large caps that fluctuate less than the stock market as a whole) took in $1.2 billion in new money, bringing its total assets to a whopping $12.5 billion and making it one of the most purchased ETFs so far this year.

5 Safe, Stable Stocks With Big Upside Potential - TheStreet

The median U.S. worker is enjoying their highest wage growth since 2009, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's wage growth tracker. This metric showed that the median employee saw pay rise 3.4 percent year-over-year as of April, setting a new record for this expansion.

One Measure of U.S. Wage Growth Just Hit a New Post-Recession High - Bloomberg

American businesses haven't had it this good over their European counterparts in more than four decades. That's no reason to get complacent, according to strategists at Barclays Plc., who scrutinized the earnings of U.S. and European firms to demonstrate that sheer profitability, rather than a sluggish economic backdrop, is what's been driving the equity markets' relative performance. Though corporate America's profitability versus that of peers across the Atlantic hasn't been this favorable in 41 years, Barclays reckons investors are missing a trick by betting that the extent of this profitability-advantage will "persist to perpetuity." The analysis of strategists led by Dennis Jose suggests that European companies are well-positioned to see their margins improve, in stark contrast to American firms:

U.S. Corporates' Biggest Advantage Over Europe Is Poised to Snap - Bloomberg

The S&P 500 is in an earnings recession and Wall Street doesn’t seem too worried. The blended earnings decline in the first quarter was -7.1% and marks the first time the S&P 500 has seen four consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in earnings since 2008. Analysts expect earnings growth to return in the second half of 2016, but they said something really similar last year at this time. The U.S. economy is fragile, consumer sentiment is tumbling, and the earnings recession shows no signs of slowing down.

S&P 500 Earnings Recession Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

For one, corporate America probably remained lodged in an earnings recession for the third-straight quarter in the first three months of 2016 — the longest such run since the financial crisis as the largest US groups struggle under the weight of a strong dollar and sputtering growth in other developed and emerging markets. Bears are also quick to point out that the recovery in junk bonds, which has been led by a rally in speculative-rated energy debt that has strengthened with oil prices, could be pre-mature. After all, they say, fundamentals look downright grim. The global default tally has climbed to 62 issuers for 2016, which is the highest level at this time in the year since 2009, according to data from Standard & Poor’s. At the same time, speculative-grade downgrades have been running at 55 a month year-to-date, far higher than the 29 a month rate over the same period in 2015, S&P data show.

US recession worries flare up … again

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A shuffle through Monday’s 13F filings finds some hedge funds were also struggling with their view of this market. One that has gotten a fair bit of attention is George Soros, who doubled his bet against the S&P 500 and made a big bet on gold in the first quarter. The billionaire investor is known for making big wagers in U.S. stocks via the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which show up in those filings.

What to back while waiting for the market’s big shift - MarketWatch

Who wouldn’t want a peek at the portfolio of George Soros, Warren Buffett and other billionaire investors? And thanks to the regulators, they have to give you one. However, don’t put too much emphasis on these snapshots. Monday was the deadline for the filing of a form with the Securities and Exchange Commission known as a 13-F. The SEC requires any institutional investment manager with positions of at least $100 million to reveal all long stock positions held at the end of each quarter. It is a great way to get a feel for what the “smart money” is doing, but, as the The Tell has warned before, there are caveats.

Soros, Buffett stock disclosures don’t tell the full story of what they own - MarketWatch

US companies stepped up to support their shares during the market tumult at the start of the year, making the first quarter potentially one of the best ever for share buybacks. Based on preliminary data, share repurchases are 20 per cent higher in the first three months of the year versus the fourth quarter and 31 per cent above the year-ago period, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

US companies step up share buybacks in first quarter of 2016 - FT.com

"[Virtual reality] is going to be the biggest change in filmmaking in our lifetimes," Oculus' head of video, Eugene Wei, said to a room of journalists in San Francisco last week. "It's on par with sound or color in film."

Oculus video chief: VR will be 'the biggest change in filmmaking in our lifetimes' - CNET

I keep pedaling. I'm heading towards the cowboys. Pulling the right trigger, I lasso them. Leaning makes me feel like I'm falling off the stationary bike. It gets worse when I'm on a flying horse. The VirZoom is an exercise bike, and it's a VR game controller. After a year of being teased and shown at game conventions, it's being shipped in about a month. I got a chance to try out the near-final version with the final set of games that will be available. Do you see yourself cycling in place while enjoying virtual reality? This is what the experience is all about.

Virzoom Release Date, Price and Specs - CNET

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They like fast fashion from Zara and H&M. They work out to be seen as much as to exercise. They drink cappuccinos to show how cosmopolitan they are. Some have had their eyelids done to make them look more Western. North Korea now has a 1 percent. And you’ll find them in“Pyonghattan,” the parallel ­universe inhabited by the rich kids of the Democratic People’s Republic.

North Korea’s one-percenters savor life in ‘Pyonghattan’ - The Washington Post

After more than 20 years in practice, Dr. John Principe was ready to quit. “I was just tired of doling out pills and having people die of the same disease I was quote-unquote treating,” says the 58-year-old internist. While he was helping his patients manage their illnesses, he says, he wasn't changing their lives. Before walking out the door in 2008, he attended the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference in California's Napa Valley, a collaboration between the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Culinary Institute of America. The conference teaches health professionals about the basics of nutrition and exercise, focusing not only on what to eat but also on how to cook it, topics most medical curricula never touch.

When Your Doctor Is Your Chef - Bloomberg

Shares of the mysterious company soon to be headed by John McAfee are whipsawing around Wednesday. Tiny MGT Capital is down about 10%, after opening trading with a double digit gain and then dropping by nearly 35%.

John McAfee's mysterious new company is going wild - Business Insider

A unique, remarkable and intimate film may change the way we think about animals, and their ability to feel grief. The newly-published film captures the solemn reactions of a group of chimpanzees who discover the dead body of a friend. For 20 minutes, the chimpanzees quietly gather around their friend, despite offers of food to tempt them away. They gently touch and sniff his body, with chimps who were closer friends with the deceased appearing to be the most upset. An older female chimp then attends to the dead ape, tenderly attempting to clean his teeth with a stem of grass. Excerpts of the film can be viewed above.

BBC - Earth - Chimps filmed grieving for dead friend

"There are fewer and fewer abject frauds from places like China," Block told Business Insider. "There has been a shift in accounting, though — more and more companies are using financial engineering to make things on their balance sheets look very different than they are," Block said... He mentioned, as we have before, that the gap between adjusted earnings and nonadjusted earnings is the largest it has ever been, and corporate buybacks are at their highest level ever as well. This sort of "financial engineering," in Block's opinion, lets companies get away with more than they would otherwise. And while there is nothing inherently criminal about this, many firms are coming up to the edge.

Companies are acting similar to the financial crisis - Business Insider

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For one, the data is old: The filings aren’t due until 45 days after the end of the quarter. So think of it as more of a month-and-a-half old snapshot. In most cases, you don’t know exactly when in the quarter the shares were bought or whether the investor has subsequently dumped them or added more. Second, the data isn’t necessarily a complete picture. Investors must only report their long positions, so any short bets on individual stocks or on particular options won’t be apparent. That isn’t necessarily a big deal for many portfolios, particularly those held by long-term focused, buy-and-hold types.

Soros, Buffett stock disclosures don’t tell the full story of what they own - MarketWatch

I can't knock his approach, but when I look at some of his more recent purchases, I can tell that he is not checking with a technical analyst before going long.   Of the 10 stocks highlighted here in "10 Stocks Warren Buffett Loves for 2016," at least half of them are unappealing to me as a chartist. One -- Charter Communications ( CHTR) -- is attractive from the long side, and two --  Deere ( DE) and IBM ( IBM)  -- have potential but need more basing work before I can get enthusiastic about them.   Let's take a look at those stock charts now.

Buffett Is Betting on These 3 Stocks -- and the Charts Agree - TheStreet

We recently shared with you Rogers' thoughts on current market conditions, the U.S., China, real estate, gold, oil and bonds. Rogers also noted that he is looking for ways to start investing, or invest more, in five markets: Russia, Iran, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Venezuela. (The full report is available available here.)

5 Troubled Economies Where You Can Find Great Investments - TheStreet

Marc Faber, editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, is well-known for his persistently negative outlook on equities. But that doesn't mean he's bearish on every stock. "Some depressed sectors are showing signs of major lows," Faber wrote to CNBC on Thursday. "I am still negative about stocks but I can see more money printing in the future, which will lift some sectors." Specifically, Faber is bullish on mining stocks as well as on oil and gas names. His reasoning is that if the values of currencies become depressed, gold and other commodities could see additional demand from those hoping to use them as stores of value. "The most attractive asset in my view is gold shares and oil and gas shares," Faber said Wednesday on CNBC's "Trading Nation." "I think they still have significant upside potential this year."

Marc 'Dr. Doom' Faber is a big bull on these stocks

The warning signs of a credit slowdown are beginning to appear. Late Friday, the Federal Reserve's weekly H.8 report showed that growth in lending for commercial and industrial (C&I) loans has significantly cooled off in recent weeks. According to Bespoke Investment Group, the annualized quarter-over-quarter growth rate of C&I loans fell to 15.17% based on Friday's data. Just two weeks ago this was 19.34%.

US economy is cooling off - Business Insider

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A Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc strategist who called the yen’s rally back in October is now telling Japan’s biggest investors not to underestimate the central bank’s ability to weaken the currency. Mansoor Mohi-uddin forecasts a decline to 110 to 120 per dollar in a few months. It was at 110.27 as of 3:02 p.m. in Tokyo. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has a track record of shocking the market and will probably expand buying of Japanese government bonds and exchange-traded funds as early as June, he said.

Yen Bulls Beware Says RBS Analyst Who Sees BOJ Surprise in June - Bloomberg

Flash storage is too slow for your device's main memory, but RAM is expensive and volatile. Thanks to a breakthrough from IBM, phase-change memory (PCM) might one day replace them both. The crystal-based storage has been used in optical disks and other tech for at least 15 years, but the technology has been limited by the cost and storage density -- cells are either "on" or "off." However, IBM researchers have figured out how to save 3-bits of data per cell, dramatically increasing the capacity of the original tech.

IBM's optical storage is 50 times faster than flash

Each year Rome hopefully pencils in a fall in the ratio of public debt to GDP, and each year the ratio rises. The reason is always the same. Deflationary conditions prevent nominal GDP rising fast enough to outgrow the debt. The putative savings from drastic fiscal austerity - cuts in public investment - were overwhelmed by the crushing arithmetic of the 'denominator effect'. Debt was 121pc in 2011, 123pc in 2012, 129pc in 2013. It came close to levelling out last year at 132.7pc, helped by the tailwinds of a cheap euro, cheap oil, and Mario Draghi's fairy dust of quantitative easing. This triple stimulus is already fading before the country escapes the stagnation trap. The International Monetary Fund expects growth of just 1pc this year. The global window is closing in any case.  US wage growth will probably force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates and wild speculation will certainly force China to rein in its latest credit boom.  Italy will enter the next downturn - perhaps early next year - with every macro-economic indicator in worse shape than in 2008, and half the country already near political revolt.

Italy must choose between the euro and its own economic survival

In their recent paper "HoloFlex: A Flexible Holographic Smartphone with Bend Input", researchers from Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab (Ontario, Canada) disclosed the world's first holographic smartphone. The researchers laminated a flexible micro-lens array on top of the OLED-based ReFlex flexible smartphone they had demonstrated back in February to turn its bendable touch-display into a light-field capable interface. Combined with custom ray-tracing algorithms running on the phone's GPU, the flexible display renders holographic-like 3D images with motion parallax and stereoscopy to multiple simultaneous users without head tracking or glasses.

32K OLED resolution in demand for holographic smartphones | Electronics EETimes

The tie-up between Apple Inc. and Chinese car hailing app Didi started off with a joke. Didi President Jean Liu said on Friday that talks began less than a month ago when she stopped by to see Tim Cook at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. Any company named after a fruit “could achieve something big,” she jested during the April 20 meeting. Didi’s legal name, Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc., means “little orange,” she explained. The $1 billion deal was announced just 22 days later. Liu, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker, frequently meets with tech executives when she visits the U.S., according to a person familiar with the matter. She didn’t go into the meeting to ask for capital, but rather to discuss the China market and opportunities for cooperation, the person said.

Apple’s Cook Struck $1 Billion Deal With China’s Didi in 22 Days - Bloomberg

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Quantum mechanics is a conceptually counterintuitive area of science that has baffled some of the finest minds – as Albert Einstein said “God does not play dice with the universe” – so it’s not something you expect to hear politicians holding forth on. Throw it into the context of computing and let’s just say you could easily make Zac Goldsmith look like an expert on Bollywood. But Trudeau rose to the challenge and gave what many science observers thought was a textbook example of how to explain a complex idea in a simple way.

Has the age of quantum computing arrived? | Technology | The Guardian

A cleaning lady in Thailand is being charged by the government for posting the words "I see" on Facebook. She is accused of insulting the monarchy - a charge that can lead to jail sentences of up to 15 years. However, she says she is being punished because her son is an activist, as the BBC's Jonathan Head reports.

The Thai cleaning lady facing prison for 'I see' - BBC News

When everyone is the same, no one is special. And when no is special, no one can make magic happen. And as Goldman Sachs has pointed out in a recent report, that's what is happening to hedge funds. They are way too alike, and it's showing in their performance, which has been dismal. A stock that we might call a "hedge fund parking lot," Goldman politely refers to as "concentrated." The bank took a look at the 20 most concentrated stocks, or stocks in which a lot of the market cap is owned by hedge funds, and noted that the pile-in usually does work.

Hedge funds too concentrated - Business Insider

Legal hyperbole perhaps, but also an indication of just what the tobacco industry believed was at stake last week when the high court handed down its landmark judgment rejecting a coordinated attempt by the world’s four largest cigarette manufacturers to derail the new EU regulations that came into effect on Friday. The new tobacco directive means graphic health warnings with photos, text and cessation information must cover 65% of the front and the back of cigarette and roll-your-own tobacco packs. Member states have 12 months to sell old stock, and up to four years to sell menthol and flavoured cigarettes, which were banned outright. The EU directive also allowed the UK to go further and parliament voted last March by a majority of 254 MPs to introduce its own regulations, requiring all tobacco products to be sold in uniformly drab green-brown packaging with large images designed to act as health warnings. Having failed to overturn the changes at the European court of justice last month, big tobacco hoped it could succeed in front of a British judge.

How big tobacco lost its final fight for hearts, lungs and minds | Society | The Guardian

4K will not make you go blind. Increased sharpness may, in fact, be better for your health. Gary Heiting, optometrist and senior editor of the website AllAboutVision, made that clear. “Increasing screen resolution so it exceeds the discriminating ability of the eye lowers the risk of strain,” Dr. Heiting said, “by making objects and print more defined and comfortable to focus on.”  What really causes eyestrain has little to do with cutting-edge technology. Display brightness is one prominent factor. A display that’s too dim or too bright for your environment can cause squinting either to let in or block excess light.

Can a 4K or Retina display cause eyestrain? | Digital Trends