05-17-2017, 11:00 PM
Investors and the Federal Reserve may have grown too comfortable with gradualism — raising interest rates at a pace that is not too fast, not too slow, but just right. The outlook could abruptly shift if global growth gains momentum and U.S. unemployment sinks much lower. Markets look complacent. Prices in interest-rate futures show almost a 90 percent probability of a hike in June, according to the CME Group in Chicago. While investors have been moving toward another increase by the end of the year, they're not entirely convinced, according to Bloomberg calculations. Volatility has also slumped across different classes of financial assets, with a Merrill Lynch index that gauges options prices on Treasuries is near its lowest levels in data going back to 1988.
Fed Plan for Gradual Rate Hikes Is Starting to Look Complacent - Bloomberg
Top officials from two U.S. government economic-statistics agencies said their measurement tools are understating growth and overstating some components of inflation by modest amounts, while cautioning that this doesn’t explain the sluggish expansion in recent years. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis agree that price index mismeasurement continues to lead to understated growth in real output over time,” five current and former officials from the agencies wrote in a paper published May 3 in the American Economic Association’s Journal of Economic Perspectives and presented last week at a meeting of the BEA’s advisory committee.
U.S. Stats Officials Say Measurements of GDP, Inflation Are Off - Bloomberg
But we share far more than we perhaps intend when we check into establishments, share news stories and ‘like’ products publicly on Facebook, studies shows. After you “like” just 10 Facebook pages, advertisers (or political campaigns) can get to know you as well as a colleague, according to research from Cambridge University in the U.K., and after 70 “likes” as much can be deduced about you as a close friend knows. And after 150 “likes”? You’ve essentially given up as much about yourself as your parents know. (Users, of course, can make their likes private).
The shocking things you reveal about yourself when you ‘like’ things on Facebook - MarketWatch
Seth Klarman, the value investing giant who draws comparisons to Warren Buffett, bought large stakes in two Apple suppliers during the first quarter, according to an SEC filing Friday after the market close. Klarman's hedge fund, Baupost, acquired 5.2 million shares of Qualcomm worth $299 million and 7.2 million shares of Qorvo worth $493 million, according to the March quarter 13F filing.
Value investing giant who takes after Buffett just bought big stakes in two Apple suppliers
With fluffy faces, a timid demeanour and diminutive size, some animals look about as far from being dangerous as it is possible to imagine. Some seem almost helpless in the face of predators. Others, encumbered with clumsy appendages, appear almost too ridiculous to be much of a threat. Yet despite their cute, silly or feeble appearance, evolution has gifted a handful of animals with special abilities that make them a force to be reckoned with. These are nature's secret ninjas.
BBC - Earth - The animals that look helpless but are secretly fearsome