Rabu, 14 Desember 2016

Kanye West Tweets Why He Met With Donald Trump

By  17.00   No comments

Kanye West detailed his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in a series of tweets that ended with "#2024," suggesting that he would postpone his promised presidential run until after a second Trump term.

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"I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues," West wrote. "These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago. I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change."

West met with Trump at Trump Tower Tuesday morning. Following their chat, the two appeared in the lobby where the president-elect said of West, "He's a good man. We've been friends for a long time." He added that the two had spoken about "life."

West, meanwhile, did not answer questions about his 2020 presidential run â€" announced during the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards â€" or whether he would perform at Trump's inauguration. "I just wanted to take a picture right now," he said.

This marks West's second public appearance since he was discharged from the hospital in late November after being admitted for exhaustion. According to reports, West was experiencing nightmares and sleepless nights in the weeks leading up to his hospitalization. Not only was the rapper in the midst of his Saint Pablo tour, but he was reportedly still shaken by the experience of learning that robbers had tied up his wife, Kim Kardashian West, in a Paris Hotel in October.

Prior to his hospitalization, West canceled the remainder of his Saint Pablo tour following several strange concerts. Notably, during a show in San Jose, he unleashed a 25-minute political screed where he said that if he'd voted in the 2016 election, he "would've voted for Trump."

Kanye West met with President-Elect Donald Trump Tuesday at Trump Tower. 

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Who Dumped Lockheed Martin Stock Before F-35 Tweet

By  15.00   No comments

Even before Donald Trump went on Twitter and posted his market-cratering tweet lambasting Lockheed Martin‘s F-35 fighter jets, the company’s stock was already falling.

At 8:26 a.m. on Monday, Trump tweeted that Lockheed’s “F-35 program and cost is out of control,” referring to the defense contractor’s military equipment deals with the government.

By then, though, shares of Lockheed Martin >lmt had already lost about $1, sparking accusations of insider tradingâ€"some suggested that Trump had tipped someone off about which company he would next target on Twitter >twtr . How else could investors have known to sell Lockheed Martin before Trump’s tweet, which ultimately pushed the stock down nearly 2.5%?

It turns out, though, that Twitter is not only the place to read about the President-elect’s latest idea, it’s also a good tool for predicting what Trump will tweet about nextâ€"and what stocks are about to fall. And while many investors sold Lockheed Martin shares after Trump tweeted, hedge funds likely dumped the stock sooner.

Hedge funds are increasingly using analytics from companies like Dataminr and Social Market Analytics to uncover trading signals buried in the firehose of tweets and other social media posts. Fidelity customers, for example, can add Social Market Analytics’ sentiment indicators derived from social media to their stock dashboards, along with traditional metrics such as volatility.

And there were plenty of clues that Donald Trump was likely to attack Lockheed Martin, which hedge funds no doubt picked up on. For starters, Trump had made almost identical comments on Fox News Sunday an entire day before he tweeted them. “If you look at the F-35 program with the money, the hundreds of billions of dollars, and it’s out of control,” Trump said on the weekend television show (see clip posted on Twitter below).

Shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday, Twitter sentiment indicators from Social Market Analytics and Bloomberg suddenly spiked negative, while trading volume abruptly shot up 58-fold at about 8:08 a.m.â€"well before Trump’s tweet.

There were a few reasons the sentiment turned negative so early. Around 8:02 a.m., several Twitter accounts began posting alerts that Zacks Investment Research had downgraded Lockheed Martin stock. And Trump’s statements on Fox began circulating both on Twitter as well as in an article published Sunday by Aviation Week, which was later updated with the President-elect’s tweet.

Then at approximately 8:12 a.m. Monday, about 14 minutes before Trump tweeted about Lockheed Martin’s fighter jets, influential media personality Jim Cramer of CNBC expressed surprise that the market seemed to be ignoring the Fox News segment: “LMT shrugging odd ‘out of control’ cost comment on J-35 by Trump,” Cramer wrote in a tweet (which features a typo for F-35) that has since been deleted, according to people who saw and saved a record of the original tweet.

Those tweets were enough to trigger red flags among the social sentiment detectors, which in turn feed into hedge funds’ algorithms programmed to sell when Twitter negativity crossed a certain threshold. At 8:05 a.m., for example, Bloomberg’s Twitter sentiment metric jumped from 0 a few minutes earlier to -0.24; it would not reach that level again until 8:36 a.m.â€"10 minutes after Trump’s F-35 tweet. Meanwhile, Social Market Analytics, which scores online chatter about stocks based on how positive or negative it is compared to the norm, noticed its metrics trend negative beginning at 8:15 a.m.

For some tradersâ€"or computerized trading algorithmsâ€"just seeing those sentiment indicators head downward would be enough to sell Lockheed Martin shares. No need to wait and see if and what Trump tweets next: For hedge funds, the earlier they can act and stay farther ahead of the rest of the market, the more money they can make.

“The amount of people using Twitter specifically for finance has increased,” says Social Market Analytics CEO Joe Gits. “The predictive power of Twitter is really maturing.” Hedge funds are beginning to create and monitor lists of stocks vulnerable to Trump or other political commentary, just as some did with pharmaceutical stocks that swooned off Hillary Clinton tweets. Trump’s ability to move the market with his tweets has driven more investors to use social media analytics, adds Gitsâ€"which further amplifies the market’s reaction to tweets as even more people trade off them. “He couldn’t be any better for my businessâ€"keep tweeting away, Mr. President,” Gits says.

But you didn’t necessarily need to work at a hedge fund or have access to professional trading signals to make money from Trump’s tweet. The biggest predictor actually came a week ago, when Trump tweeted to “cancel” plans for a new Air Force One because “costs are out of control” for the Boeing >ba plane. Scores of people on Twitter responded to the President-elect suggesting that he also cancel Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program, which is now expected to cost more than $1 trillion overall.

If there’s anything we’ve learned about Donald Trump, it’s that he likes to please the crowd. Indeed, the day after the Boeing tweet, the editorial board of the Standard Examiner, a Utah news outlet, made a forecast that would soon prove true, in an article titled, “What if Trump’s next tweet is about the F-35?” Trump soon dialed up his criticism of the fighter jets during public appearances, such as at a Dec. 9 rally in Grand Rapids, Mich. last week.

Trump supporters applauded the commentsâ€"though even those who are amateur investors could foresee how Lockheed Martin’s stock price would react. “Yessss @realDonaldTrump calling out the F35 program,” one person tweeted during the rally, then followed up with a second post: “Although I shouldn’t be too happy. I got a couple shares in $lmt.”

Now, Wall Street is already predicting that after Lockheed, Walmart >wmt will be Trump’s next target. So far, Walmart’s social media sentiment remains positive. But if that changes, expect hedge funds to get out faster than Trump can tweet about it.

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From Kanye West to the Midwest, Donald Trump’s Presidential Reality Show Rolls On

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President-elect Donald J. Trump with Vice President-elect Mike Pence at a rally in West Allis, Wis., on Tuesday. Todd Heisler/The New York Times

WEST ALLIS, Wis. â€" President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Tuesday that his nominee for secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, would reverse “years of foreign policy blunders and disasters,” and that his close ties to antagonistic foreign leaders â€" a potential hurdle to his confirmation by the Senate â€" was one of the reasons he had picked him.

“Rex is friendly with many of the leaders in the world who we don’t get along with,” Mr. Trump said to a boisterous crowd here. “And some people don’t like that. They don’t want him to be friendly.” But he added, “That’s why I’m doing the deal with Rex, because I like what this is all about.”

Mr. Trump did not refer specifically to Mr. Tillerson’s longstanding ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a relationship he cultivated as chief executive of Exxon Mobil. But the president-elect described Mr. Tillerson as a “great diplomat, a strong man, a tough man,” noting that he had been endorsed by Republican foreign-policy elders including James A. Baker III, Robert M. Gates and Condoleezza Rice.

“People are looking at this résumé and honestly, they’ve never seen a résumé like this before,” he said.

Mr. Trump’s visit to Wisconsin was the latest stop on his “thank-you” tour of battleground states, and one of the most resonant, given that his slim victory in this previously reliable Democratic bastion was so unexpected, and for Hillary Clinton, so devastating.

During his remarks, Mr. Trump savored the results of a recount that reaffirmed his victory over Mrs. Clinton by close to 23,000 votes. “I refuse to say it was a scam tonight,” he said, before saying that Democrats were behind the recount campaign.

The rally also showed how victory can heal rifts: Gov. Scott Walker, a bitter primary rival of Mr. Trump’s who offered only a tepid endorsement and steered clear of him during the campaign, introduced the president-elect as a stalwart leader who had nominated Gen. James N. Mattis to serve as defense secretary.

The House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, who initially held off on endorsing Mr. Trump, thanked him for the Republican victory here. Mr. Trump said he looked forward to working with Mr. Ryan to pass his legislative agenda, but added rather pointedly, “We’re going to build the wall, Paul.”

Mr. Trump also lashed out at a familiar litany of foes, including the news media and Mrs. Clinton, drawing cries of “CNN sucks” and “Lock her up,” neither of which he tried very hard to dampen.

The rally came after a theatrical day of meetings at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, with visitors including Kanye West, Bill Gates and the retired football stars Jim Brown and Ray Lewis. There were cameos by familiar bit players: the Naked Cowboy and a man who paces through the lobby reading aloud from books like “Night,” by Elie Wiesel.

The scene showcased yet again how Mr. Trump has turned his transition into a kind of political reality show, with twists and turns, special guests and a running narrative built around his own celebrity.

A Trump rally at the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center in West Allis on Tuesday. Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Since soon after he was elected, he has summoned people to interview for cabinet jobs â€" a public spectacle that includes a ritual parade before a phalanx of reporters and cameras. But on Tuesday, with Mr. Tillerson’s nomination, he ended one of the longest-running personnel dramas.

With many of the major cabinet posts filled, Mr. Trump’s guest list has broadened to include people who are simply there to advise him, talk about big ideas or perhaps run a project by him. Sometimes, as with Mr. West, the purpose of the visit is not all that clear.

Shortly before 10 a.m., the polymorphous hip-hop star and the president-elect emerged from the gold elevators in the building’s lobby to pose for photographers and to engage in a stilted question-and-answer session with the scrum of waiting reporters.

Asked the reason for their meeting, Mr. Trump said: “Just friends, just friends. He’s a good man. Long time. Friends for a long time.” Mr. West stood silently next to him, arms crossed over his chest. The two continued to pose â€" Mr. Trump smiling; Mr. West glowering â€" while reporters tried to extract a comment from the normally opinionated musician.

“I’m just here to take a picture,” Mr. West said, before cracking a smile and offering a thumbs-up gesture, as Mr. Trump grabbed his hand and patted him on the shoulders to say goodbye.

Hours later, Mr. West wrote on Twitter that he had come to discuss “multicultural issues” with Mr. Trump, believing “it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change.” Mr. Trump had characterized their conversation as being about “life.”

Mr. Gates, the billionaire philanthropist who arrived at noon for his meeting, avoided such awkwardness by talking to reporters alone, and offering them only crumbs. “It was a good time,” he said of his encounter with Mr. Trump. The two talked about the “power of innovation,” Mr. Gates said before heading toward the exit.

It was a different story a few minutes earlier when Mr. Lewis and Mr. Brown emerged. They were accompanied by Darrell C. Scott, a Cleveland pastor and supporter of Mr. Trump. He wanted the news media to know about their sales pitch to Mr. Trump: that he throw his administration’s weight behind Amer-I-Can, a program co-founded by Mr. Brown to help young people caught up in gang violence.

“We couldn’t have had a better meeting,” said Mr. Brown, the legendary fullback who held a cane engraved with the name of his pro football team, the Cleveland Browns. “The graciousness, the intelligence; the reception we got was fantastic.”

Mr. Scott said Mr. Trump had made a verbal commitment to “put the government behind it, put the Trump administration behind it.” Mr. Lewis, a former Baltimore Ravens linebacker, said the men had appealed to him by promoting the program, which has helped 30,000 to 40,000 gang members transform their lives, as a job-creation machine.

“Urban development and job creation are everything,” Mr. Lewis said.

When a reporter asked the men whom they had voted for, they became less chatty.

“The election is over,” Mr. Scott said, as the Naked Cowboy sauntered behind him, swaddled in a stars-and-stripes boxing robe.

Continue reading the main story"

| From | Kanye | West | Midwest, | Donald | Trump’s | Presidential | Reality | Show | Rolls | Photo< | span>< | div> President | elect | Trump | with | Vice | President | Mike | Pence | rally | Allis | Tuesday | span> | Credit< | Todd | Heisler | York | Times< | span> WEST | ALLIS | Trump< | said | that | nominee | secretary | state | Tillerson | would | reverse | “years | foreign | policy | blunders | disasters | close | ties | antagonistic | leaders | potential | hurdle | confirmation | Senate | reasons | picked | p> “Rex | friendly | many | world | don’t | along | boisterous | crowd | here | “And | some | people | like | They | want | added | “That’s | I’m | doing | deal | because | what | this | about | ”< | p> Mr | refer | specifically | Tillerson’s | longstanding | Vladimir | Putin | Russia | relationship | cultivated | chief | executive | Exxon | Mobil | president | described | “great | diplomat | strong | tough | noting | been | endorsed | Republican | elders | including | James | Baker | Robert | Gates | Condoleezza | Rice | p> “People | looking | résumé | honestly | they’ve | never | seen | before | visit | Wisconsin | latest | stop | “thank | you” | tour | battleground | states | most | resonant | given | slim | victory | previously | reliable | Democratic | bastion | unexpected | Hillary | Clinton | devastating | p> Continue | reading | main | story< | div> During | remarks | savored | results | recount | reaffirmed | over | votes | “I | refuse | scam | tonight | saying | Democrats | were | behind | campaign | p> The | also | showed | heal | rifts: | Scott | Walker | bitter | primary | rival | offered | only | tepid | endorsement | steered | clear | during | introduced | stalwart | leader | nominated | Mattis | serve | defense | House | speaker | Paul | Ryan | initially | held | endorsing | thanked | looked | forward | working | pass | legislative | agenda | rather | pointedly | “We’re | going | build | wall | lashed | familiar | litany | foes | news | media | drawing | cries | “CNN | sucks” | “Lock | neither | which | tried | very | hard | dampen | came | after | theatrical | meetings | Tower | Midtown | Manhattan | visitors | Bill | retired | football | stars | Brown | Lewis | There | cameos | players: | Naked | Cowboy | paces | through | lobby | aloud | from | books | “Night | Elie | Wiesel | scene | showcased | again | turned | transition | into | kind | political | reality | show | twists | turns | special | guests | running | narrative | built | around | celebrity | p> Photo< | span> < | div> A | State | Fair | Exposition | Center | span> Since | soon | elected | summoned | interview | cabinet | jobs | public | spectacle | includes | ritual | parade | phalanx | reporters | cameras | nomination | ended | longest | personnel | dramas | p> With | major | posts | filled | guest | list | broadened | include | simply | there | advise | talk | ideas | perhaps | project | Sometimes | purpose | div> Shortly | polymorphous | star | emerged | gold | elevators | building’s | pose | photographers | engage | stilted | question | answer | session | scrum | waiting | p> Asked | reason | their | meeting | said: | “Just | friends | just | He’s | good | Long | time | Friends | long | stood | silently | next | arms | crossed | chest | continued | smiling; | glowering | while | extract | comment | normally | opinionated | musician | p> “I’m | take | picture | cracking | smile | offering | thumbs | gesture | grabbed | hand | patted | shoulders | goodbye | p> Hours | later | wrote | Twitter | come | discuss | “multicultural | issues” | believing | “it | important | have | direct | line | communication | future | truly | change | characterized | conversation | being | “life | billionaire | philanthropist | arrived | noon | avoided | such | awkwardness | talking | alone | them | crumbs | “It | encounter | talked | “power | innovation | heading | toward | exit | p> It | different | story | minutes | earlier | when | accompanied | Darrell | Cleveland | pastor | supporter | wanted | know | sales | pitch | Trump: | throw | administration’s | weight | Amer | program | founded | help | young | caught | gang | violence | p> “We | couldn’t | better | legendary | fullback | cane | engraved | name | team | Browns | “The | graciousness | intelligence; | reception | fantastic | made | verbal | commitment | “put | government | administration | former | Baltimore | Ravens | linebacker | appealed | promoting | helped | members | transform | lives | creation | machine | p> “Urban | development | everything | p> When | reporter | asked | whom | they | voted | became | less | chatty | div> “The | election | sauntered | swaddled | stripes | boxing | robe | p> Continue |

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Aleppo, Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump: Your Wednesday Briefing

By  14.00   No comments

Good morning.

Here’s what you need to know:

Justin T. Gellerson for The New York Times

• A Times investigation reveals how Russia aimed the perfect weapon at the U.S. presidential election: cyberattacks that were honed in elections elsewhere.

Intelligence officials believe an operation to collect information evolved into an effort to support Donald J. Trump’s campaign. Calls are coming from both parties to investigate Russian meddling. And in Europe, fears are rising that Russia could try to sway election outcomes next year.

Above, the Democratic National Convention’s hacked server on a table in the organization’s basement, next to a reminder of a past breach: a filing cabinet jimmied in the Watergate burglary of its offices in 1972.

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Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images

• Russia, Turkey and Syrian rebel groups reached an agreement for rebels to leave the last pockets of territory in the ravaged city of Aleppo after a four-year battle.

Evacuations were expected to begin this morning, leaving the city fully in the hands of government forces.

But there was confusion over whether the deal would assure safe passage for civilians, who the U.N. said had been shot in the streets by the score.

_____

Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

• Mr. Trump selected Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, to lead the Energy Department, which would place him in charge of America’s aging nuclear arsenal.

The president-elect is lining up veteran members of the Republican foreign policy establishment to endorse his choice for secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson. The Exxon Mobil chief executive will face sharp scrutiny over his ties to Russia.

Here’s the latest on the transition.

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Bartlomiej Zborowski/European Pressphoto Agency

• In Poland, thousands joined a march from the former Communist Party headquarters in Warsaw to the offices of the governing party, Law and Justice, to protest what they see as a slide toward authoritarianism.

“Free and democratic Poland is in danger,” said Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity leader.

_____

Business

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

• Jobs will be high on the agenda when Mr. Trump meets with tech leaders later today, including Elon Musk of Tesla, Timothy D. Cook of Apple and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

• Asahi, the Japanese beer giant, will pay $7.8 billion to Anheuser-Busch InBev for a group of some of the most popular beers in Central and Eastern Europe.

• Chinese investors have dropped a bid to take over Osram Licht, a German lighting and semiconductor company, amid mounting political opposition to such deals.

• Don’t view retirement as a light at the end of a career tunnel, our personal finance writer warns. He offers a few tips to rearrange your work life.

• Stock markets are up as investors anticipate an interest-rate increase today by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

In the News

Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images

• The French government is seeking to turn “La Marseillaise,” the national anthem, often associated with the political right, into a symbol of national unity. [The New York Times]

• Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition politician, announced his intention to run for president in 2018, vowing to make corruption a prominent issue of his campaign. [The New York Times]

• The U.S. blocked a transfer of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia because of concerns about civilian casualties in its war in Yemen. [The New York Times]

• The European Parliament’s suspension of payments to a euroskeptic think tank linked to the U.K. Independence Party is part of wider scrutiny of populist groups’ use of E.U. funds. [Politico]

• A review of data from 151 countries found wide gaps in education among followers of the world’s major religions. [The New York Times]

• Europeans overestimate the Continent’s Muslim population, a regional poll shows. [The Guardian]

• After Theresa May, the British prime minister, was criticized for wearing $1,250 leather trousers, many argued that no man would face such an attack. [The New York Times]

Noteworthy

• Satellite images provide a picture of how the world’s lakes and rivers have been altered over the past three decades by drought and global warming.

• Yes, darts: Michael van Gerwen from the Netherlands could be the greatest player of all time.

• In memoriam: Esma Redzepova, who brought wide recognition to Romany music, and E. R. Braithwaite, whose memoir of teaching in London’s deprived East End was adapted into a hit 1967 film.

• “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opens in most European countries today and tomorrow, and it is projected to have one of the biggest December debuts. Here’s our spoiler-free review.

• Torun, the Polish hometown of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, has for centuries closely guarded its gingerbread recipes.

• Finally, researchers offer some advice on gift-giving: Recipients often don’t care how much thought went into the present. In other words, don’t try so hard.

Back Story

Credit Stuart Isett for The New York Times

We told you last week about a fight in Canada over a proposed official bird, the gray jay.

Canadians have also sparred over whether poutine (fries topped with cheese curds and gravy) should beat out maple syrup as their most representative food (no).

In some places, trademark foods are not so self-evident.

Many Britons consider chicken tikka masala, a colonial adaptation featuring a bright orange sauce, as their national dish â€" more so than fish and chips. The concoction, one official said, “is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences.”

In other places, there’s no question about the winner.

For example, New Mexico reveres the local chile. It’s nowhere near as hot as peppers in China, India or the Caribbean, but it is perhaps the most consistent ingredient in the state’s dishes.

Lawmakers in the late ’90s declared the state’s official question to be “Red or green?” As in: Which variety of chile sauce do you want?

One answer plays no favorites. Order “Christmas,” and you’ll get both.

Can’t handle the heat? Reach for a glass of milk, which neutralizes the capsaicin that makes your taste buds sting.

It’s also the official beverage of 21 states.

Anna Holland contributed reporting.

_____

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com.

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Netherlands | greatest | player | time< | memoriam:< | Esma | Redzepova | brought | recognition | Romany | music< | Braithwaite | whose | memoir | teaching | London’s | deprived | East | adapted | 1967 | film< | “Rogue | One: | Star | Wars | Story”< | opens | tomorrow | projected | biggest | December | debuts< | spoiler | free | review< | Torun< | Polish | hometown | astronomer | Nicolaus | Copernicus | centuries | closely | guarded | gingerbread | recipes< | Finally< | researchers | offer | advice | gift | giving: | Recipients | don’t | care | much | thought | went | present | other | words | hard< | p> Back | Story< | Credit | Stuart | Isett | span> We | told | week | fight | Canada< | proposed | official | bird | gray | p> Canadians | also | sparred | poutine | (fries | topped | cheese | curds | gravy) | should | beat | maple | syrup | their | representative | food< | (no) | places | trademark | foods | self | evident | p> Many | Britons | consider | chicken | tikka | masala | colonial | adaptation | featuring | bright | orange | sauce | dish | more | than | fish | chips | concoction | “is | illustration | Britain | absorbs | adapts | external | influences< | ”< | there’s | question | winner | p> For | example | Mexico | reveres | local | chile | It’s | nowhere | near | peppers | China | India | Caribbean | perhaps | consistent | ingredient | state’s | dishes< | div> Lawmakers | late | ’90s | declared | question< | “Red | green | Which | variety | want | p> One | answer | plays | favorites | Order | “Christmas | you’ll | p> Can’t | handle | heat | Reach | glass | milk | neutralizes | capsaicin< | makes | taste | buds | sting | p> It’s | beverage | states< | p> Anna | Holland | contributed | reporting | p> Your | Morning | published | weekday | mornings | p> What | like | here | Contact | europebriefing@nytimes | com< | p> Continue |

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