Wall Street Journal (November 13)
The “booming” labor market has been the “Crown Jewel of Japan’s economy,” but it appears to be “losing its shine.” It now looks like the labor market “peaked even before the ill-considered sales-tax hike in October…. The shine is now coming off, with economic forces at home and abroad weighing on the employment gains made.”
Tags: Booming, Economy, Employment, Gains, Japan, Labor market, Peaked, Sales-tax hike
Newsweek (May 13)
“China’s decision to raise tariffs on U.S. goods made its impact felt on Wall Street as stock markets began the week on a downbeat note. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index fell by more than 2 percent in early trading,” while the Nasdaq dropped even further. Market volatility “was directly linked to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China…. The back-and-forth retaliation between the two superpowers wiped out the marginal gains stocks recorded at the end of last week.”
Tags: China, Dow Jones, Downbeat, Gains, Nasdaq, Retaliation, Stock market, Superpowers, Tariffs, Trade war, U.S., Volatility, Wall Street
LA Times (November 20)
“It looks as if the years-long stock market party might just be over.” The “recent plunge in share prices of U.S. technology giants spread like a software virus through the entire market Tuesday, triggering a broad sell-off that wiped out this year’s gains for the major indexes after they all hit record highs in recent months.”
Tags: Gains, Plunge, Sell-off, Share prices, Stock market, Technology giants, U.S.
Bloomberg (December 6)
“Every bull market is unique, but the one in China right now looks downright strange. The Shanghai Composite Index has climbed 24 percent from its January 2016 low, and yet a majority of stocks in the benchmark gauge have fallen during the period.” China has become a global outlier. “For all 45 of the other national equity gauges that have climbed at least 20 percent since last January, a majority of index members have recorded gains.”
Tags: Benchmark, Bull market, China, Gains, Gauge, Outlier, Shanghai Composite, Stocks
The Economist (March 12)
“Now after five decades, the end of Moore’s law is in sight.” This might not prove a bad thing as the quest for improvement will turn to more promising areas, such as the “deep learning” technology that recently beat Go legend Lee Sedol. “Huge performance gains can be achieved through new algorithms. Indeed, slowing progress in hardware will provide stronger incentives to develop cleverer software.”
Tags: Algorithms, Deep learning, Gains, Go, Hardware, Improvement, Moore’s Law, Performance, Progress, Promising, Software, Technology
Bloomberg (January 4)
“For the first year since 1989, foreigners sold Japanese stocks and missed a rally.” The TOPIX index gained 8.9% in dollars and 21% in euros, but overseas investors missed out on some gains by offloading more than 250 billion yen in Japanese shares last year. “The Topix capped a 9.9 percent gain in local-currency terms last year, its fourth straight annual increase. Combined with the yen’s resilience, that meant that the Topix outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in dollars for the first time since 2008” and its “gain in euros was triple that of the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.”
Tags: 1989, Dollars, Euros, Foreigners, Gains, Increase, Japan, Offloading, Rally, S&P 500, Stocks, Stoxx Europe 600, Topix, Yen
Wall Street Journal (April 3)
“It’s fashionable to despair over American progress against cancer, but the reality is that every year medicine makes steady and durable gains…. The mortality rate fell 1.5% a year on average for all cancers from 2002 to 2011, while new cases of cancer dropped 0.5% a year over the same period.”
New York Times (November 16)
“Recent gains in controlling the Ebola epidemic in West Africa have been encouraging, but they offer no reason for complacency.” The situation is improving in Liberia, stable in Guinea, but worsening in Sierra Leone. To make further progress, donor nations need to “increase their contributions.” To date, Ebola has taken over 5,000 lives.
Tags: Complacency, Contributions, Ebola, Encouraging, Epidemic, Gains, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, West Africa
Financial Times (December 4, 2013)
“Beijing, in its dispute with Japan, risks repeating the errors of an earlier era that led to war.” Though war is not inevitable, the risk has risen in a manner eerily reminiscent of how Germany set tinder that ultimately ignited, propelling Europe into the First World War. “One wonders why the Chinese leadership thinks asserting sovereignty over a few rocks worth the risk. Yes, China may get away with it this time and the next, and the time after that. But each throw of the dice renews the risks. What gains can justify the possible losses?” With tension and mistrust rising and “for the sake of the longer-term interests of the Chinese people, Mr Xi should think again – and halt.”“Beijing, in its dispute with Japan, risks repeating the errors of an earlier era that led to war.” Though war is not inevitable, the risk has risen in a manner eerily reminiscent of how Germany set tinder that ultimately ignited, propelling Europe into the First World War. “One wonders why the Chinese leadership thinks asserting sovereignty over a few rocks worth the risk. Yes, China may get away with it this time and the next, and the time after that. But each throw of the dice renews the risks. What gains can justify the possible losses?” With tension and mistrust rising and “for the sake of the longer-term interests of the Chinese people, Mr Xi should think again – and halt.”
Tags: ADIZ, Beijing, China, Europe, Gains, Germany, Interests, Japan, Losses, Mistrust, Risks, Sovereignty, Tension, WWI, Xi
