What we’re reading (1/10)
“US Labor Market Exits 2024 With Strong Job Gains, Drop In Unemployment Rate” (Reuters). “U.S. job growth unexpectedly accelerated in December while the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% as the labor market ended the year on a solid footing, reinforcing views that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates unchanged this month.”
“The Stock Market Embraced Higher Yields. Now It Fears Them.” (Wall Street Journal). “The 10-year bond yield came within a whisker of its high from last April on Wednesday morning, and stocks, especially smaller stocks, didn’t like it one bit. It is part of a switcheroo by investors over the past month. They have shifted from thinking that higher Treasury yields are just an unwelcome side effect of the stronger growth promised by President-elect Donald Trump, to worrying that higher borrowing costs might end up being very important. If the concern is right, get ready for a bumpy ride in 2025.”
“Japan Is The Silicon Valley Of The Robot Revolution. The Stocks Are Cheap.” (Barron’s). “Japan is the Silicon Valley of industrial robotics. Companies like Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric, and Nachi-Fujikoshi churn out nearly half of the global supply of robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics. U.S. producers barely figure, as yet.”
“The Consensus On Havana Syndrome Is Cracking” (The Atlantic). “Two years ago, U.S. intelligence analysts concluded, in unusually emphatic language, that a mysterious and debilitating ailment known as “Havana syndrome” was not the handiwork of a foreign adversary wielding some kind of energy weapon. That long-awaited finding shattered an alternative theory embraced by American diplomats and intelligence officers, who said they had been victims of a deliberate, clandestine campaign by a U.S. adversary, probably Russia, that left them disabled, struggling with chronic pain, and drowning in medical bills. The intelligence report, written chiefly by the CIA, appeared to close the book on Havana syndrome. Turns out, it didn’t. New information has come to light causing some in the intelligence community to adjust their previous conclusions.”
“Zuckerberg Says Biden Administration Pushed Meta ‘Super Hard’ To Take Down Vaccine Content” (CNBC). “‘And they pushed us super hard, to take down the things that were honestly were true,’ Zuckerberg told Rogan. ‘They basically pushed us and said, you know, anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.’ Zuckerberg didn’t specify who from the White House made the requests, saying, ‘I wasn’t involved in those conversations directly.” But he said the company’s response was that it wasn’t going to take down content that ‘is kind of inarguably true.’”
