Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• California Debates Fracking Ban - Business Insider

  • Three separate bills to ban fracking in California have been introduced in Sacramento, as the state reckons with sitting on top of enormous shale energy deposits.
  • the bills call for separate conditional moratoriums on the practice, which involves shooting huge volumes of water down into rock formations to free up oil and gas

• Stock Buybacks Surge To Record Levels - Business Insider

  • many companies have been borrowing money to buyback massive amounts of their outstanding shares
  • Buyback announcements over the past 3 months total a record $214bn, or double the quarterly pace of actual repurchases (~$100bn)," write the analysts.
  • that's a lot of stock being pulled out of the market.

• Why Bonds Are Getting Slammed - Business Insider

  • fears that the Fed will begin to taper its bond purchases soon have risen in a big way this month
  • the central bank could begin reducing the pace of its bond purchases as soon as Labor Day if the data warranted such action.
  • If the U.S. economic data continue to improve and cause investors to push further and further into risky investments – and the Fed actually does begin to tighten monetary policy stimulus – the "safe haven" appeal appeal of the U.S. Treasury market could continue to dissipate

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.