Kamis, 30 Mei 2019

Wall St. pauses after trade tension-driven selloff - Investing.com

© Reuters. Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York © Reuters. Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York

By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose for the first time this week on Thursday, as President Donald Trump said trade talks with China were going well, offering a glimmer of hope to markets roiled by worries that a protracted dispute would slow economic growth.

A senior Chinese diplomat said provoking trade disputes is "naked economic terrorism", even as Trump said Beijing wanted to make a deal with Washington.

The escalating dispute has weighed heavily on Wall Street this month, putting its main indexes on track for losses of more than 5% in May. The benchmark is now 5.9% away from its all-time high of 2,954.13 hit on May 1.

"The positivity in markets is very muted today, there are fractional gains," said Peter Kenny, founder of Kenny's Commentary LLC in New York.

"Uncertainty is still the primary driver on the trade front. We have increasingly seen the fear of uncertainty being priced into the market, and that is all about trade and the prospect of a slowdown."

Despite a tick up in U.S. treasury yields on Thursday, they still hovered near 20-month lows as investors sought safety in government bonds. [US/]

The yield curve between three-month bills and 10-year notes remained inverted, with money markets pricing in roughly two U.S. rate cuts by the start of next year.

Interest-rate sensitive bank stocks fell 0.54%, while the broader financial sector declined 0.24%.

Technology stocks, among the worst performing S&P sectors this month, rose 0.38% and boosted markets.

The sector was helped by a 9.6% jump in Keysight Technologies after the electronic measurement equipment maker reported better-than-expected quarterly results and announced a $500 million share buyback plan.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:) and Intel Corp (NASDAQ:) also rose and offered support.

Also helping sentiment was data that confirmed domestic economic growth accelerated in the first quarter, but there were signs that the temporary boost from exports and inventory accumulation was already fading.

At 11:10 a.m. ET the was up 6.11 points, or 0.02%, at 25,132.52. The S&P 500 was up 5.54 points, or 0.20%, at 2,788.56 and the was up 19.47 points, or 0.26%, at 7,566.78.

The energy sector fell 1.1%, the most among the four major S&P sectors trading lower.

Among other stocks, Dollar General Corp (NYSE:) jumped 6.8% after the discount retailer's same-store sales and profit topped expectations.

Viacom Inc climbed 4.8% after report that CBS Corp (NYSE:) is preparing for merger talks with the media company. CBS rose 2.7%.

PVH Corp (NYSE:) tumbled 14.3%, the most among S&P companies, after the Calvin Klein owner cut its annual profit forecast as it grapples with tariffs and slowing retail growth.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.45-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.28-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and 13 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 18 new highs and 69 new lows.

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https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/futures-tick-higher-after-prior-sessions-selloff-1882964

2019-05-30 15:51:00Z
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'It is unwise to have so much power concentrated in one person': Here's the stinging message that will be read out to Mark Zuckerberg today by an investor who wants to take him down - Business Insider

Mark ZuckerbergMark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO and chairman.Reuters

  • Activist Facebook investors will on Thursday vote on whether to fire Mark Zuckerberg as chairman and rip up the firm's dual-class share structure.
  • The idea to oust Zuckerberg was put forward by Trillium Asset Management, and the firm's boss, Jonas Kron, will read out a message during Facebook's shareholder meeting.
  • With Zuckerberg in the room, he will say it is "unwise to have so much power concentrated in one person" following a string of Facebook scandals.
  • You can read his message in full below.
  • Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

Mark Zuckerberg is heading for a showdown with investors on Thursday, as the Facebook boss faces a vote on whether he should remain as both CEO and chairman.

At Facebook's annual shareholder meeting in Silicon Valley, investors will vote on two proposals: to hire an independent chairman above Zuckerberg, and to rip up the firm's dual-class share structure.

The former idea, to oust Zuckerberg as chairman, was put forward by activist shareholder Trillium Asset Management, and the firm's senior vice president, Jonas Kron, will read out a message in support of his proposal during today's meeting.

With Zuckerberg in the room, Kron will make the case that Zuckerberg's enormous power has exacerbated Facebook's problems over the past two years, such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal and election meddling on the social network.

"We have watched with growing dismay as that list of controversial and damaging social impacts grew very long. And as rigorous reporting from the New York Times has shown us, having a unified chair and CEO severely limited the board's ability to provide the company the oversight it needed," he will tell Zuckerberg and the Facebook board, according to a statement sent to Business Insider.

Read more: Facebook's activist shareholders are making another dramatic bid to oust Mark Zuckerberg and abolish the firm's share structure

"It is unwise to have so much power concentrated in one person," he will add, as he bids to drum up support from fellow investors. "Let us not miss this opportunity to make a simple, yet powerful change that would go a long way towards creating a successful future."

Facebook has always maintained that hiring an independent chairman would not be a good idea. "We do not believe that requiring the Chair to be independent will provide appreciably better direction and performance, and instead could cause inefficiency in board and management function and relations," it said in a filing last month.

The chance of Trillium's proposal becoming a reality is extremely slim, despite it being backed by investors that control around $3 billion of Facebook stock. A similar proposal in 2017 was popular among independent investors but was crushed because of Zuckerberg's voting power.

This is because of Facebook's dual-class share structure. Class B shares have 10 times the voting power of class A shares, and it just so happens that Zuckerberg owns more than 75% of class B stock. It means he has more than half of the voting power at Facebook.

Here's the full message Jonas Kron will read out to Mark Zuckerberg:

Good morning Mr. Chairman, members of the board, fellow shareholders. My name is Jonas Kron and I am here on behalf of Trillium Asset Management and the Park Foundation to hereby move Item Number 6, seeking an independent board chair policy for Facebook.

This proposal has been co-filed by the New York City Comptroller, the Treasurers of Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Oregon, and a multitude of smaller and faith based investors.

At its core this shareholder proposal is about the risk of concentrating too much power in one person – any person.

As proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis put it in its report supporting this shareholder proposal - "vesting a single person with both executive and board leadership concentrates too much responsibility in a single person and inhibits independent board oversight of executives …"

Facebook is incredibly powerful - with wide ranging and difficult to understand, let alone control, social impacts. Over the last two years we have watched with growing dismay as that list of controversial and damaging social impacts grew very long. And as rigorous reporting from the New York Times has shown us, having a unified Chair and CEO severely limited the board's ability to provide the company the oversight it needed.

It is these very facts about power and impact – responsibility and accountability - which highlight why a unified chair and CEO is such a misguided idea – it is unwise to have so much power concentrated in one person.

Which is why we should look to the examples of highly successful companies such as Alphabet, Apple, Autodesk, and Microsoft – to name just a few – which all have independent board chairs.

We recognize that Facebook has a lead independent director. And we acknowledge that the board has recently taken steps to articulate more clearly her powers and responsibilities. However, these recent changes are fundamentally insufficient to meet the task at hand because a lead independent director does not command the same authority as an independent board chair.

This question comes to shareholders at a critical moment. Facebook is embarking on a privacy pivot which leadership has described as requiring a completely new platform. At a time when there is little public trust in Facebook, it is navigating a regulatory landscape that is changing quickly. In this difficult and challenging environment it is important to stop and consider that the CEO position is the most demanding job in corporate America and the responsibilities of a Chairman of the Board are enormously time consuming. We need different people in these two distinctly different leadership positions.

Let us not miss this opportunity to make a simple, yet powerful change that would go a long way towards creating a successful future, not only for Facebook and its employees and its shareholders, but for individuals, families, and communities around the world.

Thank you for your time and attention – and for your support for an independent board chair.

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https://www.businessinsider.com/investors-demand-facebook-fire-mark-zuckerberg-as-chairman-2019-5

2019-05-30 14:30:43Z
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Wall Street rises after trade-driven selloff - Investing.com

© Reuters. Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York © Reuters. Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York

By Amy Caren Daniel

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose for the first time this week on Thursday, as President Donald Trump said trade talks with China are doing well, offering a glimmer of hope to markets roiled by trade tensions.

A senior Chinese diplomat said that provoking trade disputes is "naked economic terrorism", even as Trump said Beijing wanted to make a deal with Washington.

The escalating trade war has weighed heavily on Wall Street, putting its main indexes on track for a monthly loss of more than 5% in May. The benchmark is now 5.7% away from its all-time high of 2954.13 hit on May 1.

"People are trying to figure out how much of the bad news is already priced in. The trade war looks like it might dampen growth but not enough to throw us into a recession," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"There has been talk about the Fed possibly cutting rates and that is a little bit positive for the stock market."

Despite a tick up in U.S. treasury yields on Thursday, they were still at 20-month lows as investors sought safety in government bonds.

The yield curve between three-month bills and 10-year notes also remained inverted and money markets were pricing in roughly two U.S. rate cuts by the start of next year. [US/]

The technology sector, among the worst performing S&P sectors this month, rose 0.60%, and provided the biggest boost to markets.

The sector was helped by a 11% jump in shares of Keysight Technologies after the electronic measurement equipment maker's quarterly results topped estimates and the company announced a $500 million share buyback program.

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:) and Intel Corp (NASDAQ:) rose between 0.3% and 1.3%, supporting the markets.

At 9:42 a.m. ET the was up 74.96 points, or 0.30%, at 25,201.37. The S&P 500 was up 12.02 points, or 0.43%, at 2,795.04 and the was up 32.96 points, or 0.44%, at 7,580.27.

Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors were trading higher, with only the energy and communication services sectors in the red.

Adding to the upbeat mood, the government confirmed domestic economic growth accelerated in the first quarter, but there are signs that the temporary boost from exports and inventory accumulation is already fading, and production at factories slowing.

Among other stocks, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:) rose 1.4% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) raised the bank's shares to "buy", as it expects the lender to achieve a higher return on equity in 2020.

Discount retailer Dollar General Corp (NYSE:) jumped 6.2% after the company reported quarterly same-store sales and profit above expectations.

PVH Corp (NYSE:) tumbled 12.1%, the most among S&P companies, after the Calvin Klein owner cut its annual profit forecast as it grapples with tariffs and slowing retail growth.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.25-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.48-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and six new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded eight new highs and 26 new lows.

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https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/futures-tick-higher-after-prior-sessions-selloff-1882964

2019-05-30 14:24:00Z
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Generate - May 30, 2019 - Axios

An electric ferry in France
An all-electric, zero-emission ferry in Lorient, France. Photo: Jean-Sebastien Evrard/AFP/Getty Images

Ships are the latest mode of transportation to see electric upgrades as the maritime industry faces increased pressure to reduce greenhouse gases, writes Axios Expert Voices contributor Maggie Teliska.

The big picture: Passenger ferries are ideal for electric propulsion using current battery technology, which can reduce water and air pollution while providing a quiet, vibration-free trip. Short routes with frequent stops along populated shorelines offer ample opportunities to charge the battery packs.

Where it stands: Globally, there were 185 battery-powered vessels operating or scheduled for delivery in 2018, 58 of which were passenger ferries. Norway introduced the first all-electric ferry, named the MF Ampere, in 2015 to shuttle passengers between villages in the fjords.

What's new: Maid of the Mist plans to launch 2 all-electric, zero-emission boats in September on the U.S. side of Niagara Falls — the first domestically built all-electric boats used for tourists in the U.S.

  • Washington State Ferries will introduce a 150-passenger hybrid ferry later this year in Puget Sound that runs on both diesel and battery power, using up to 60% less fuel than diesel counterparts. 
  • Also this year, New York City plans to introduce a 150-person ferry to shuttle commuters across the East River, from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Read more

Teliska is a technical specialist at Caldwell Intellectual Property Law and CTO of Regent Power. She is also a member of GLG, a platform connecting businesses with industry experts.

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https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-generate-381c9392-75df-476d-834f-f01e216b3a55.html

2019-05-30 12:33:50Z
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Investors Brace for a New Cold War That Will 'Last Our Careers' - Bloomberg

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  1. Investors Brace for a New Cold War That Will 'Last Our Careers'  Bloomberg
  2. Ray Dalio warns China restricting rare earth metals would be 'major escalation' of trade war  CNBC
  3. Stocks Have Had Enough Of The Bond Rally  Seeking Alpha
  4. Dalio Sees a 'Risky Time' Ahead in U.S.-China Trade Conflict  Bloomberg
  5. Ray Dalio says brinksmanship is pushing U.S.-China conflict to a ‘risky’ level  MarketWatch
  6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/investors-brace-for-a-new-cold-war-that-will-last-our-careers

2019-05-30 09:10:00Z
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Safe Or Scary? The Shifting Reputation Of Glyphosate, AKA Roundup - NPR

John Draper pours glyphosate into the tank of his sprayer at the University of Maryland's Wye Research and Education Center. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption

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Dan Charles/NPR

John Draper and I are sitting in the cab of a tractor on the research farm he manages for the University of Maryland, alongside the Chesapeake Bay. Behind us, there's a sprayer.

"So, away we go!" Draper says. He pushes a button, and we start to move. A fine mist emerges from nozzles on the arms of the sprayer.

We're spraying glyphosate, killing off this field's soil-building "cover crop" of rye before planting soybeans.

Farmers have been using this chemical, often under the trade name Roundup, for about four decades now.

But now it's under fierce attack, accused of causing cancer. In three civil cases so far, U.S. juries have ordered Roundup's inventor, Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, to pay enormous damages to cancer survivors. Thousands more lawsuits have been filed.

For this chemical, and for Monsanto, it's a stunning change in fortunes.

Farmers felt that they could spray glyphosate with a clear conscience. It doesn't persist in the environment as much as, say, DDT did. It doesn't build up in groundwater like another widely used herbicide, atrazine. And it's certainly less toxic than some alternatives.

"If we were spraying Gramoxone [the trade name for paraquat, another herbicide], even for you to be standing next to the sprayer, you'd have to have a respirator on. I'd have to wear a respirator even in the tractor, spraying," says Draper.

Monsanto started selling Roundup in 1974. For 20 years, it didn't attract much attention. That was Act 1 of the glyphosate drama: the quiet years.

Act 2 began in the late 1990s.

In 1996, Monsanto started selling genetically modified crops, or GMOs. They were modified so they could tolerate glyphosate. This meant that farmers could now spray this chemical right over their "Roundup Ready" soybeans, corn and cotton, and the crops would be fine but the weeds would all die.

It was a farming revolution built on glyphosate. Monsanto quickly became the world's biggest seed company. And farmers started spraying a lot more Roundup. Sales of the chemical increased more than ten-fold.

It all happened so fast that it scared a lot of people. There were anti-GMO protests around the world, and glyphosate came under increasing scrutiny.

A pedestrian walks past anti-glyphosate art in Popayán, Colombia. Glyphosate has been deployed in Colombia to wipe out coca and poppy crops. Dan Charles/NPR hide caption

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Dan Charles/NPR

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, decided to carry out a new assessment of glyphosate's risks.

On March 20, 2015, IARC announced its conclusion: Glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans."

That conclusion rests on three kinds of studies. First, IARC found "strong evidence" that glyphosate can damage DNA in cells. This kind of damage, inducing mutations, is the first step in causing cancer. Second, there are studies showing that when mice ate glyphosate, they got more tumors. Kate Guyton, a senior toxicologist at IARC, told reporters at a news conference that "these two studies gave sufficient evidence of cancer in animals."

Finally, IARC says there's "limited evidence" that people exposed to glyphosate had higher rates of a particular kind of cancer — non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Guyton has been studying the causes of cancer for decades. Nothing she has ever done, she says, provoked as much of a reaction as the glyphosate announcement. "The Internet kind of exploded," she says.

Anti-GMO groups felt vindicated. Monsanto's top executives were furious and launched a public relations campaign attacking IARC and its report.

And in the small town of Orange, Va., a personal injury lawyer named Michael Miller started lining up clients — people with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who'd used Roundup. "I decided that these people needed a voice in the courtroom," he says.

The scientific picture got more complicated, though. Other government agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Food Safety Authority, took a fresh look at glyphosate. And they concluded that it probably is not giving people cancer.

David Eastmond, a toxicologist from the University of California, Riverside, helped conduct one of these glyphosate reviews for another part of the World Health Organization, the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues.

"From my reading of things, if glyphosate causes cancer, it's a pretty weak carcinogen, which means that you're going to need pretty high doses in order to cause it," he says.

Eastmond says that there are several reasons for this apparent disagreement between IARC and the other agencies.

First, IARC just looks at whether glyphosate can cause cancer; regulators, on the other hand, have to decide whether it actually will, considering how much of it people are exposed to.

Second — and most important, according to Eastmond — different agencies considered different evidence. Eastmond's committee and regulatory agencies like the EPA considered a large number of studies that aren't publicly available because Monsanto paid for them and submitted them to the agencies. "I have never seen a chemical with as many animal cancer studies as glyphosate," Eastmond says.

IARC, however, didn't look at most of this research because it accepts only studies that are publicly available. This allows any other scientist to see exactly what IARC's conclusions are based on.

Eastmond, for his part, thinks company-financed studies are credible and valuable, despite the potential conflict of interest for companies carrying out those studies. The labs, he says, have to follow strict guidelines.

Finally, scientists sometimes look at the same data and disagree about what it means. Eastmond says that he and Guyton had "animated discussions" about some of the data. "We just evaluated the evidence differently, but, you know, these are honest disagreements [among] people who I think are well-meaning," Eastmond says.

Then Act 3 arrived. Glyphosate went to court. There were three civil trials in or near San Francisco.

Lawyers for Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, repeatedly reminded jurors that regulatory agencies had concluded that glyphosate is not a cancer risk.

Lawyers for the cancer victims, though, suggested that those same regulators couldn't be trusted because they'd been manipulated or fooled by Monsanto.

Miller and his legal team showed the juries a whole collection of internal Monsanto emails. In one, company executives described phone calls with an official at the EPA. As Miller describes it, the official said, "I don't need to see any more studies. I'm going to declare Roundup safe, and I'm going to stop another agency from looking at it."

Another Monsanto executive discussed ghostwriting papers on glyphosate's safety that scientists could publish under their own names.

"I think the jury was rightfully offended," Miller says.

All three trials ended with resounding verdicts in favor of the cancer victims. The juries ordered Bayer to pay huge punitive damages. In the most recent case, the damages totaled $2 billion.

Bayer is appealing these verdicts — and the damages probably will be reduced. But more lawsuits are waiting. The total value of Bayer's stock has fallen $40 billion since the first verdict was announced.

Alexandra Lahav, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, says that one lesson of this case so far is that attempts to get favorable decisions from regulators can backfire in court.

"They then open themselves up for the jury to say, 'Wait a minute — you're trying to convince the regulator not to regulate you, and now you want me to believe that the regulator is completely objective,' " Lahav says.

When regulators are seen as weak or ineffectual watchdogs, she says, their seal of approval also carries less weight with the public — and with juries.

The next glyphosate trial is set for August in St. Louis.

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https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/05/30/727914874/safe-or-scary-the-shifting-reputation-of-glyphosate-aka-roundup

2019-05-30 09:00:00Z
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'Molecules of freedom': US Energy Department tries rebranding natural gas - ABC News

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https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/molecules-freedom-us-energy-department-rebranding-natural-gas/story?id=63366255

2019-05-30 07:47:00Z
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