Cheating: It's no longer just for Volkswagon

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said it manipulated mileage test data for its minicars sold in Japan, resulting in 620,000 vehicles produced in the past three years getting labeled more fuel efficient than they actually are.
The tests overstated fuel efficiency by 5 percent to 10 percent, and Mitsubishi Motors said it’s investigating who’s responsible. The company said the violation may result in the Japanese automaker having to pay back government tax rebates for the vehicles, of which 468,000 were supplied to Nissan Motor Co.
Mitsubishi Motors’ shares fell 15 percent for the biggest decline in more than a decade in Tokyo trading, cutting its market value to 721 billion yen ($6.6 billion). The company’s manipulation of tests will further intensify scrutiny of the auto industry after Volkswagen AG’s admission last year that it had rigged diesel models with software to meet U.S. emissions standards.
“This may be different from Volkswagen’s issue, but the market has become very sensitive to such kind of news,” Seiji Sugiura, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center, said by phone. “It may have a similar impact in terms of sales and the company’s reputation.”
The company said it tested the vehicles using tire and air resistance that yielded better fuel economy than the actual rates. The mishandling of the test data was “intentional,” said President Tetsuro Aikawa, who bowed in apology before a briefing in Tokyo Wednesday.

100,000 jobs

The number of jobs in the pot industry has surged in recent years, fueled by more states legalizing the drug. In fact, there are about as many employees of legal weed businesses as there are insurance underwriters, Web developers or nurse practitioners, according to Marijuana Business Daily.

Sarcasm or real news? You decide

The ability of stocks to move up on good news and easily discount bad news are the hallmarks of a sustainable bull market.
U.S. stocks had been in a holding pattern for three weeks due to an early Spring Break and the recently commenced earnings season. Monday, equities rallied—lead by energies, of all sectors—despite the failed Doha oil summit. After the bell, the smallest quadrant of the so-called FANG stocks, Netlfix (NFLX), got hammered because its growth projections didn't meet expectations. Tuesday was no better, with Intel announcing massive layoffs and lowering guidance
Yet, here we are, with the S&P 500 pushing up against all-time highs. It’s do or die time for the bulls, but they retain the edge. If they can push through overhead supply that extends to 2135, it’s clear sailing to the promised land of hallucinated multiples.
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The shorts are not putting up enough of a fight. If they can’t get traction in the wake of the current rout in tech earnings, it’s margin call time. Breadth and volume are not great, but they’ve both reversed their downtrends from 2015. The bottom line is this seven year bull might be creaky, but it still has a bit of steam in it.
Yes, fundamentals are terrible. But if you want to be rational, someone with a lot more money is going to take the other side of your trade until you’re insolvent.

From slave owner to slave

The Treasury Department will announce on Wednesday afternoon that Harriet Tubman, an African-American who ferried thousands of slaves to freedom, will replace the slaveholding Andrew Jackson on the center of a new $20 note, according to a Treasury official, while newly popular Alexander Hamilton will remain on the face of the $10 bill.

Well, that's pretty clear

After the Iraqi city of Mosul fell to a lightning Isis offensive in 2014, even the late Prince Saud al-Faisal, the respected Saudi foreign minister, remonstrated with John Kerry, US secretary of state, that “Daesh [Isis] is our [Sunni] response to your support for the Da’wa” — the Tehran-aligned Shia Islamist ruling party of Iraq.

Well, isn't that nice

In Tel Aviv’s Yitzhak Rabin Square on Tuesday evening, thousands of Israelis rallied in support of Elor Azarya, the soldier filmed executing a gravely wounded Palestinian last month.
Rally-goers shouted anti-Arab slogans and attacked persons perceived as being leftists or journalists.
Hours earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a call for leniency for the soldier.

This is going to happen a lot more

Hundreds of people are feared to have drowned in the southern Mediterranean last week, in what would be the deadliest migrant shipwreck in months.
A repurposed fishing boat overloaded by smugglers with up to 500 Africans hoping to reach Italy from eastern Libya sunk as passengers from smaller boats were trying to board it, survivors told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The survivors’ accounts described panicked passengers desperately trying to stay afloat by jumping between vessels.
A death toll of just half the size would bring the total number of mortalities in the Mediterranean in 2016 to over 1,000 – more than a quarter of last year’s record tally.