Citigroup Says Treasury Selloff Signals Bearish New Era for Risk

As the Treasury selloff kicks off in earnest, Citigroup Inc. says investors should prepare for a possible “normalization’’ of risk premiums across credit and emerging markets as the era of monetary distortion unravels. A bearish breakout in the world’s largest bond market remains an underestimated risk, strategists Mark Schofield and Ben Nabarro wrote in a Monday note. Investor sentiment remains sanguine, according to the strategists, with bulls arguing Treasury headwinds have been exacerbated by transitory forces like oil and stretched positioning.

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  U.S. Government Bonds Pay More Than Debt From Other Developed Nations

  The Wall Street Journal
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  US Treasurys mixed as investors await key auctions

  CNBC.com

Bitcoin bull argues for rally to $20,000; CFTC to provide guidance on virtual currency derivatives

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest digital currency, drifted back under $8,500 on Monday as weekend gains slowly faded. The broader digital-currency market fared even worse, with most virtual assets kicking off the week in decline. After reaching a weekend high of $8,575.99, bitcoin has retreated and a single bitcoin(BTCUSD)(COINDESK:BTC-USD) was last worth $8,402.63, down 1.8% since Sunday’s levels at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken exchange.

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  ‘Decent Probability’ Bitcoin Price Goes to Zero: Vanguard Economist

  CCN
• Blockchain: Party Like It’s 1999? Or 2000?

  InvestorPlace

Snap, Starbucks, and more in the blitz

The "Halftime Report" traders take investors through some of the day's biggest movers.

Companies win big at U.S. top court on worker class-action curbs

The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow to the rights of workers on Monday by allowing companies to require them to sign away their ability to bring class-action claims against management, agreements already in place for about 25 million employees. The justices, in a 5-4 ruling with the court's conservatives in the majority, endorsed the legality of the growing practice by companies to compel workers to sign arbitration agreements waiving their right to bring class-action claims on various disputes, primarily over wages and hours. The ruling could apply more broadly to discrimination claims like those raised by women as part of the #MeToo movement raising awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace but the court did not explicitly address that issue.

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  The Supreme Court Is Helping Companies Get Away With Sexual Harassment

  HuffPost
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  Supreme Court Just Screwed American Workers

  Esquire

Corporate Bonds Sink Fast in One of Worst Tumbles Since 2000

You need to rifle through 18 years of history to find selloffs that compare to the one corporate bond investors are now enduring. Debt of American companies just posted their third-worst 100-day returns since 2000, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. index, as tighter monetary conditions leave their mark on high-quality bonds with longer maturities. With negative returns likely to scare off retail investors, the outlook for the asset class looks grim, JPMorgan strategists said in a Friday note.

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  Citigroup Says Treasury Selloff Signals Bearish New Era for Risk

  Bloomberg
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  U.S. Government Bonds Pay More Than Debt From Other Developed Nations

  The Wall Street Journal

General Electric continues transformation; $11B rail deal

General Electric will tie its train engine division to the railroad equipment maker Wabtec in deal worth about $11 billion as GE CEO John Flannery continues to break off parts of the conglomerate. Wabtec CEO Raymond Betler will lead the combined company and its chairman, Albert Neupaver, will be executive chairman. Under the deal announced Monday and approved by the boards of both companies, General Electric Co. will get $2.9 billion in cash.

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  General Electric deal with Wabtec

  Yahoo Finance Video
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  GE Jumpstarts Overhaul With $11.1 Billion Wabtec Rail Deal

  Bloomberg Video

Bears Are in Trouble in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Stock

On and off the price chart, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is building the case for investors. Alibaba, or what many rightly call Asia’s Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) recently reaffirmed its position as the continent’s 800 lb. gorilla after delivering a stellar Q4 confessional. Bottom line, BABA’s solid earnings beat, raised guidance and enviable growth prospects in key markets as InvestorPlace’s Luke Lango recently laid out are simply hard to ignore — or worse yet, bet against.

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  What Alibaba Can Do With Ele.me

  Motley Fool
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  This Quote From Skechers' Management Can Teach Investors a Lot

  The Motley Fool

BP, ConocoPhillips in Talks to Sign Asset Swap Agreement

Per Bloomberg, BP plc BP and ConocoPhillips COP are in talks over an asset swap deal. Per the agreement, BP will raise stake in the North Sea Clair field, offshore U.K., in exchange of its assets in Alaska.BP is contemplating to acquire ConocoPhillips

5 Marijuana Stocks To Watch In 2018

Only a few years ago, marijuana was seen as a ‘’gateway drug’’. Flash forward to today: cannabis is a huge business, one that could be worth $25 billion in the U.S. alone by 2020, and analysts expect demand to skyrocket as new laws are passed and social attitudes change. In the United States, the legal cannabis industry is worth $6.7 billion, according to Bloomberg.

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  Are Oregon's Marijuana Woes a Precursor of What's to Come in Canada?

  Motley Fool
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  This Cannabis-Based Drug Is On the Verge of Making History

  Motley Fool

Paper Jam! How Carl Icahn And a Billionaire Partner Blocked Xerox’s Merger with Fujifilm

Carl Icahn typically works alone. Instead, Icahn relies on an in-house team of fewer than a dozen financial analysts and lawyers, a brain trust that toils alongside their controversial, 82-year-old boss on the 47th floor of Manhattan’s General Motors Building.

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  Carl Icahn says his stake in VMware worth 'hundreds of millions,' also owns Dell tracker stock DVMT

  CNBC.com
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  Carl Icahn: Energen is undervalued

  CNBC Videos

EasyJet, Ryanair Court EU Investors on Concern Over Hard Brexit

Discount rivals EasyJet Plc and Ryanair Holdings Plc are shoring up their shareholder base in continental Europe in order to safeguard their right to fly there after Brexit. EasyJet, based in Luton, England, is holding investor roadshows in France and Germany this week and last week in a bid to increase the proportion of stock held within the European Union once Britain leaves. Ryanair, Europe’s biggest discount airline, said Monday that it will remove the voting rights of non-EU holders in the event of a so-called hard Brexit.

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  Ryanair Plans to Restrict Non-EU Shareholders Amid a Hard Brexit

  Bloomberg Video
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  Airbus May Finally Crack Ryanair as O'Leary Touts Order Prospect

  Bloomberg

Airlines could go bust due to higher oil prices, says Rya...

Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary speaks about how the price of oil is impacting his business.

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  Small airlines face a brutal reckoning as oil prices surge, according to the CEO of Europe's biggest budget carrier

  Business Insider
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  Rising oil prices help ground U.S. airline stocks; could make them cheap

  Reuters

Mnuchin Urges Antitrust Probe of Tech After Google Report

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged the Justice Department to review the power that large technology firms such as Google have over the American economy, the latest U.S. official to back antitrust scrutiny of the industry. A “60 Minutes” segment on Sunday devoted to assertions that Alphabet Inc.’s Google wields a destructive monopoly in online search hammered home the notion of the company’s dominance during a time of heightened public concern with technology giants. “These issues deserve to be reviewed carefully,” Mnuchin said in a CNBC interview early Monday in response to a question about the CBS News report.

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  Steven Mnuchin urges DOJ to review the power of Google, other massive tech firms

  The Washingtion Times
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  U.S.'s Mnuchin: 'Significant' issues remain over NAFTA

  Reuters

The reporter who broke the Theranos saga wide open explains what makes the company different from any other overhyped Silicon Valley startup

It had to do with just how far its founder Elizabeth Holmes got based on technology that wasn't ready. Theranos, which promised blood tests that used a fraction of the blood traditional tests used, was no exception.

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  The story of how Elizabeth Holmes arrived at her infamous black turtleneck Steve Jobs-style look

  Business Insider
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  Ford bought a Silicon Valley startup that will work with the automaker's rivals — here's why that's a good thing

  Business Insider

Facebook, Qualcomm Teaming Up on High-Speed Internet

The agreement will have Qualcomm adding Facebook’s Terragraph technology to its chipsets. The goal of Facebook and Qualcomm’s new internet effort is to create high-speed wireless internet for users. “Our collaboration with Facebook will bring advanced 11ad and pre-11ay technologies to market increasing broadband penetration and enabling operators to reduce their capex for last mile access,” Irvind Ghai, Vice President of Product Management at Qualcomm Atheros, said in a statement.

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  Facebook and Qualcomm aim to bring mega-fast Wi-Fi to cities

  CNET
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  Qualcomm joins Facebook’s Terragraph Project to bring fast Wi-Fi to U.S. cities

  Digital Trends

Want to Invest in Jack Ma? Avoid Alibaba’s Rivals

HONG KONG—Global investors looking to buy stakes in China’s most valuable private technology company are being forced to pick a side in the nation’s biggest business rivalry. Ant Financial Services Group, a financial-technology juggernaut controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, is preparing to close a $10 billion private fundraising round that would value the Hangzhou-based company at $150 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. As part of the deal, investors putting money into Ant have to agree not to invest in or raise their stakes in companies controlled by major rivals such as social-media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and online retailer JD.com Inc., the people said.

This Baidu Inc (ADR) Dip Is Another Long Trade Opportunity for Easy Profits

Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) shares have been falling for the last two trading days on headlines. In a rising stock market, BIDU stock will be fine. Having said that, Baidu is a momentum stock, so it runs fast in either direction.

Has Cisco Systems (CSCO) Outpaced Other Computer and Technology Stocks This Year?

Investors focused on the Computer and Technology space have likely heard of Cisco Systems (CSCO), but is the stock performing well in comparison to the rest of its sector peers? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Computer and Technology peers, we might be able to answer that question. Cisco Systems is one of 632 companies in the Computer and Technology group.

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  Has Chemours (CC) Outpaced Other Basic Materials Stocks This Year?

  Zacks
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  Who Are The Largest Shareholders In Vogiatzoglou Systems SA. (ATH:VOSYS)?

  Simply Wall St.