Scott Barlow
A roundup of what The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow is reading this morning on the Web.
A long time ago, the actor who played D-Day in Animal House was on a TV show playing a wealthy health fund manager with terminal cancer. I forget the name of the show, but won't forget the exchange the character had with his doctor. He noted that it was easiest to make money from news outside of the business section. The example was the New York Times non-fiction book list – then led by meat-heavy Atkins diet books – which resulted in him making a fortune in pork belly futures.
The "Lazy Millennials living in their parents' basement" meme is among the current big (if probably overstated) topics in media lately, as noted by the ROB's Michael Babad this morning. Economics site Marginal Revolution may have found that video game stocks are the way to make money from it:
"[young men with less than a four year degree] are not going back to school or switching careers … The hours that they are not working have been replaced almost one for one with leisure time. Seventy-five percent of this new leisure time falls into one category: video games. The average low-skilled, unemployed man in this group plays video games an average of 12, and sometimes upwards of 30 hours per week."
"Young and jobless in Canada: Adult kids in 'more crowded' basements" – Babad, Report on Business
"What are young men doing?" – Marginal Revolution
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A glut of distillates supply – gasoline, propane, butane and others – is resulting in big losses for bullish oil traders:
"Traders in the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) market face a "career-ruining" glut that has led to millions of dollars in losses as Chinese buyers, far from coming to the rescue, are in a stand-off with oil companies to cancel deals…."I can't remember it being this bad. There was massive new production out of the U.S. and people hoped the Chinese market might absorb it," one LPG trader said."
"Oil traders lose millions as LPG glut shocks market" – Reuters
"Oil Drops as Glut Fears Grow" – Wall Street Journal
"Oil prices steady near $47 as oversupply concerns weigh" – Reuters
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Brace yourselves savers, Morgan Stanley is predicting that U.S. 10-year bond yields will fall to one per cent. Historically, Treasury yields drag Canadian yields with them even if our economy is going in an entirely different direction:
"The year of the bull for rates markets is set to continue with support from politics, productivity and policy," according to a Morgan Stanley report Matthew Hornbach sent by e-mail Monday. "We expect growth to come in increasingly below consensus over the coming 12 months."
"Morgan Stanley Says Year of the Bull Will Push U.S. Yield to 1%" – Bloomberg
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Tweet of the Day: "@business Here's how much it costs to fill up your car in 61 countries across the globe bloom.bg/2alldzb pic.twitter.com/gtb3fwmraH " – Twitter
Diversion: Technology from Formula One racing is making America's Cup sailboats much, much faster. "The tech helping Sir Ben's 'flying' boat go even faster" – BBC
See also (2014) : "Ben Ainslie and Adrian Newey join forces in America's Cup bid" – Guardian
Scott Barlow