President Donald Trump&#8217;s and House Speaker Paul Ryan&#8217;s decision to pull the Republican health care bill hours before Friday&#8217;s vote won&#8217;t cause irreparable damage to the bull market, according to Raymond James.
However, don&#8217;t get too comfortable.
The firm&#8217;s chief investment officer, Jeffrey Saut, is warning investors that stocks are in a danger zone — one that&#8217;s big enough to wipe out a chunk of gains from the so-called &#8220;Trump Rally.&#8221; He believes stocks will come under pressure Monday, as investors take the health care setback as a sign that Trump&#8217;s business friendly agenda is seeing serious cracks.
&#8220;You already have technical damage in the market. It was pretty evident last Tuesday,&#8221; said Saut in reaction to the news. &#8220;The [S&amp;P 500 Index] has been trapped in a trading range since mid-February.&#8221;
The worst case scenario would be a five to ten percent pullback from these levels, according to Saut.
In a Friday research note, he wrote that Raymond James remains &#8220;in cautionary mode given our models, and the fact that the SKEW indicators suggest that &#8216;smart money&#8217; is hedging for a significant downside move from here.&#8221;
Saut published that note hours before the health care bill suffered what Ryan called a &#8216;failure,&#8217; one that helped push major averages to their biggest weekly losses of the year.
Yet Saut, who acknowledges being erroneously cautious since early February, reiterates that the long-term model remains positive, and he&#8217;s been a bull since March 2009.
&#8220;Secular bull markets tend to last 14, 15, 16 years. We&#8217;re eight years into this one. It suggests there are years left to run,&#8221; said Saut on CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Futures Now&#8221; last week.
&#8220;I would also note that we have transitioned in our opinion from an interest rate secular bull market where interest rates come down and price earnings multiples expand to an earnings driven secular bull market.&#8221;
He believes technology, financials and energy stocks are the best places for investors right now, and getting too defensive would be a mistake.
Author:
<div class="reporter-info"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/stephanie-landsman/">Stephanie Landsman 
</a>Producer, CNBC’s &#8220;Fast Money&#8221;</div>
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A stock market drop is coming, but don’t blame Trump’s health care bill setback: Raymond James

When they meet in Kuwait Sunday, a handful of OPEC and other oil producers are expected to put a happy face on their production agreement, and they should point to the potential for extending the deal in May.
That should help support <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/oil-bounces-off-november-lows-but-bloated-us-stockpiles-pressure-market.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/oil-bounces-off-november-lows-but-bloated-us-stockpiles-pressure-market.html" target="_self">oil prices</a>, after the recent 10 percent plunge since investors began to doubt the deal earlier this month. The international benchmark Brent crude temporarily fell below the psychological $50 level this week.
Representatives of the five monitoring countries this weekend are expected to review where producers stand on compliance with the six-month agreement to remove 1.8 million barrels a day from the market. As president of OPEC, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/saudi-arabia/" target="_self">Saudi</a> Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih is expected to attend, along with representatives from the five members of the monitoring committee — Kuwait, Algeria, Venezuela, and non-OPEC nations Russia and Oman.
&#8220;Without the production cut agreement, I think you could basically target the low-to-mid $30s. I&#8217;m of the mind they extend it,&#8221; said Gene Marcial, manager market research at Tradition Energy. &#8220;The Saudis need the revenues from higher oil prices. They know that prices at $30 to $35 is trouble for them.&#8221;
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Oil could collapse into the $30s if OPEC doesn’t keep its act together

British police have searched six addresses and made seven arrests in raids as part of an investigation into <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/shots-reported-fired-outside-uk-parliament-building-in-lockdown-parliamentary-official.html" target="_self">Wednesday&#8217;s attack on the Houses of Parliament</a> which left four people dead and 40 injured, London&#8217;s Metropolitan Police has announced.
News of the police action, including one address in Birmingham, follows on from Wednesday when a suspected terrorist plowed a car into pedestrians on London&#8217;s Westminster Bridge and then fatally stabbed a police officer before being shot.
Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said at a press conference Wednesday night that the dead attacker was believed to be the only suspect, but declined to comment on the assailant&#8217;s identity. The police&#8217;s working assumption is that the attacker was inspired by international Islamist terrorism.
Londoners can expect to see heavier police presence, both armed and unarmed, throughout the city for the next few days, Rowley said.
Speaking Thursday morning, U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that Parliament is currently reviewing Parliament&#8217;s already stringent security measures.
Wednesday&#8217;s attack unfolded around 2.40 p.m. local time when the assailant drove a grey Hyundai i40 along a pavement on Westminster Bridge, before running to Parliament. There he was confronted by a police, including unarmed PC Keith Palmer, who later died from stab wounds.
Tobias Ellwood, a member of Parliament who was at the scene at the time, was praised for his efforts to provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Palmer. The other victims are yet to be named.
Addressing the country outside 10 Downing Street Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the attack and applauded the heroism demonstrated by the police.
<blockquote>&#8220;The terrorist chose to strike at the heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy and freedom of speech,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;But let me make it clear today, as I have had cause to do before, any attempt to defeat those values through violence and terror is doomed to failure.&#8221;</blockquote>
Londoners and tourists will wake up on Thursday and go about their lives as normal, May said.
The city&#8217;s mayor, Sadiq Khan, echoed the prime ministers remarks, saying &#8220;Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.&#8221;
The attack is the worst London has seen since 2005, when the capital was hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks on public transport during rush hour on July 7.
The city has been on &#8220;severe&#8221; alert since 2014, which indicates that an attack is &#8220;highly likely&#8221;, in response to conflicts in Iraq and Syria. This was an increase from a previous level of &#8220;substantial&#8221;, which implies a strong possibility of an attack.
Parliament is to hold a minute&#8217;s silence at 10 a.m. London time on Thursday to commemorate the victims of the attack.
Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of suicide attacks which took place in Brussels&#8217; Zaventem Airport. Memorial services were held around the country to remember the 32 people killed and 320 injured by the attack.

UK police make seven arrests in raids linked to investigation into attack on Parliament

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/">Karen Gilchrist</a>
<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/" target="_self">Elon Musk</a> has hit back at claims that President <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_self">Donald Trump&#8217;s</a> new NASA bill will be good for his space exploration business, saying it does nothing to get SpaceX&#8217;s mission to Mars off the ground.
The serial entrepreneur took to Twitter Tuesday to respond to Kara Swisher, co-founder of technology news website Recode, who said the president&#8217;s decision to grant NASA $19.5 billion in funding would leave Musk &#8220;smiling.&#8221;
&#8220;I am not,&#8221; wrote Musk, chief executive of SpaceX. &#8220;This bill changes almost nothing about what NASA is doing. Existing programs stay in place and there is no added funding for Mars.
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I am not. This bill changes almost nothing about what NASA is doing. Existing programs stay in place and there is no added funding for Mars.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/844360665900838912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Perhaps there will be some future bill that makes a difference for Mars, but this is not it,&#8221; Musk added in a later Tweet.
The S.442 funding bill, signed by President Trump Tuesday, is the first of its kind to pass through Congress in six years and will help facilitate NASA&#8217;s deep space exploration projects and promote private-public partnerships and job creation, the White House said.
This includes &#8220;achieving human exploration of Mars and beyond,&#8221; the bill noted.
However, Musk claims the new funding will not provide a boost to his aims of making commercial travel to Mars a reality for the public.
His space transportation company SpaceX is currently working in collaboration with NASA under a $1.6 billion contract, which has so far flown 10 cargo missions to the International Space Station.
Its ultimate goal is to enable space travel to, and colonization of, Mars.
Musk met with President Trump in December alongside a host of technology leaders, including Apple&#8217;s <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/tim-cook/" target="_self">Tim Cook</a> and Amazon&#8217;s <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/jeff-bezos/" target="_self">Jeff Bezos</a>, to discuss the technology industry under his then upcoming presidency.

Elon Musk slams Donald Trump’s NASA bill saying it does nothing to help mission to Mars

Apple on Tuesday announced a new version of its 9.7-inch iPad, and a special edition of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
The new red aluminum iPhone is part of Apple&#8217;s decade-long (RED) campaign, which contributes to the Global Fund to fight AIDS. The new phone starts at $749 and will hit stores Friday.
READ: <a href="http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/03/08/apple-iphone8/">What to expect from the iPhone 8</a>
Apple said it&#8217;s the world&#8217;s largest corporate donor to the Global Fund, contributing more than $130 million.
The $329 updated iPad comes with a brighter display, Touch ID, worldwide LTE support, the A9 chip and iOS 10. A year ago, Apple released the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, priced from $599, which featured Apple Pencil compatibility and an improved display.
The company on Tuesday also announced a free new app, Clips, that helps users combine video clips, photos and music to be shared through messages and social media. Clips, which will be available in April on iOS 10.3, has &#8220;artistic filters&#8221; shapes and emojis.
The app automatically recognizes people in the video and suggests them as recipients of the messages, Apple said. The app pulls in elements that are popular in Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Google Photos and Musical.ly.
On top of the new products, Apple also announced new silicon and leather case colors for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and expanded storage capacity for the iPhone SE.
It also added new watch bands for spring, with colors like berry, pollen, sapphire, azure, orange and red. Nike watch bands can now be sold separately, and new luxury Hermes bands were released in &#8220;bleu,&#8221; lime and other styles.
The company is also doubling down on its learn-to-code app, Swift Playgrounds, which it released in simplified Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Latin American Spanish. Apple is investing heavily in recruiting new developers, aiming to double its software and services revenue by the end of 2020. Mainland China was one of the fastest-growing areas for the iPad last quarter.
And while Apple also added more capacity to the iPad Mini 4, it not longer promotes the iPad Mini 2 on its iPad landing page.
Apple shares closed at an all-time high of $141.46 a share on Monday, and inched higher in morning trading.

Apple unveils new products

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/" rel="author">Karen Gilchrist</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/_karengilchrist">@_karengilchrist</a>
Forget buying that new car, opt for a scarf and gloves and head to Norway if you want to achieve true happiness, a new report suggests.
Renowned for its good public services, political stability and enviable gene pool, Norway can now also claim pole position as the happiest country on earth, having risen in the ranks to surpass Denmark and claim first place in this year&#8217;s World Happiness Report.
The study, which measures social factors alongside economic data, points to the limitations of financial factors in achieving happiness. Therefore, Norway vaulted ahead despite its economy being hit by the plummeting oil price, meanwhile happiness in the U.S. continues to wain despite incomes increasing.
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&#8220;This report gives evidence that happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations. It&#8217;s time to build social trust and healthy lives, not guns or walls. Let&#8217;s hold our leaders to this fact,&#8221; said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which produced the report in association with the United Nations.
Norway sped ahead from fourth place last year to steal the top spot in the annual rankings, which combine economic, health and polling data on approximately 3,000 respondents in each of more than 150 countries. It is joined in the top five by fellow Nordic states Denmark, Iceland, Finland and central Europe&#8217;s Switzerland, which averaged a comparable happiness level of 7.5 out of 10.
The Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden were also placed in the top 10.
The U.S.&#8217;s happiness has slipped over the past year, however, the report suggests. Despite rising wages, overall happiness has fallen from 13th position globally to 14th, pointing to a need for a more comprehensive approach from government, the report suggests.
&#8220;The predominant political discourse in the United States is aimed at raising economic growth, with the goal of restoring the &#8216;American dream&#8217; and the happiness that is supposed to accompany it. But the data show conclusively that this is the wrong approach,&#8221; said Sachs, in a section of the report entitled &#8220;Restoring American Happiness&#8221;.
Income per person has increased roughly three times since 1960, but measured happiness has not risen – indeed, it has dipped over the past decade from 7.5 out of 10, to 6.8 out of 10.
&#8220;The United States can and should raise happiness by addressing America&#8217;s multi-faceted social crisis— rising inequality, corruption, isolation, and distrust—rather than focusing exclusively or even mainly on economic growth, especially since the concrete proposals along these lines would exacerbate rather than ameliorate the deepening social crisis.&#8221;
The comments follow a recent speech by Helen Clark, head of the UN Development Program (UNDP), in which she spoke out against the &#8220;tyranny of GDP (gross domestic product)&#8221;, arguing that quality of growth is more important.
The U.S. ranked just ahead of Ireland, which took 15th place, and was followed by Germany in 16th, the U.K. in 19th and France in 31st.
However, economic factors remain a certain contributor to achieving social cohesion and overall happiness, the report finds. The ten bottom spots were taken by some of the world&#8217;s poorest countries, with happiness levels averaging approximately 3 out of ten.
These included Yemen, South Sudan, Liberia, Guinea, Togo, Rwanda, Syria, Tanzania, Burundi and Central African Republic.

Here’s why Norway is ranked the world’s happiest country

Jeff Jones, the president of Uber, is quitting the car-hailing company after less than a year. The move by the No. 2 exec, said sources, is directly related to the multiple controversies there, including explosive charges of sexism and sexual harassment.
Uber confirmed the departure and will be sending a statement.
Jones also confirmed the departure with a blistering assessment of the company. &#8220;It is now clear, however, that the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what I saw and experienced at Uber, and I can no longer continue as president of the ride sharing business,&#8221; he said in a statement to Recode.
Jones, said sources, determined that this was not the situation he signed on for, especially after Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced a search for a new COO to help him right the very troubled ship.
That was not the reason for Jones&#8217; departure, sources said, even though it meant that Kalanick was bringing in a new exec who could outrank him. Instead, these sources said, Jones determined that the situation at the company was more problematic than he realized.
Jones was certainly touted by Kalanick as a big hire when he arrived at Uber last fall from Target, where he was its well-regarded CMO. His job, among others, was to remake the company&#8217;s tainted image. He also was president of its main ride-sharing business.
Kalanick and Jones met just a year ago at the TED conference in Vancouver and there was much excitement that the company was attracting top-level corporate execs.
Jones replaced board member Ryan Graves, who started at the company as CEO but relinquished that role to Travis Kalanick in 2010, as president. Graves now heads up the company&#8217;s delivery business, UberEverything. The transition was pitched as a necessary move as the ride-hail company continued to scale.
&#8220;Over the last six months, Ryan and I have become increasingly convinced that our rapidly growing marketing efforts needed to be far more integrated with our city operations,&#8221; Kalanick <a class="inline_asset" href="https://newsroom.uber.com/jeff-jones/" target="_self">wrote</a> in a post announcing Jones&#8217; hire.
Jones spent much of the beginning of his tenure as the president of ride-sharing driving for Uber and meeting with drivers, after which he sent drivers an email about what he learned and what the company intends to do.
&#8220;It&#8217;s clear that there&#8217;s much we can be doing better. Listening is where we get our best ideas, because they come from you, the people using Uber every day &#8221; he wrote.
But in February, Jones&#8217; second public attempt to reach drivers went awry when drivers began flooding Jones&#8217; Facebook page with angry comments and complaints during a question and answer session.
Jones&#8217; decision to leave Uber likely won&#8217;t surprise people who worked with him at Target. &#8220;Jeff does not like conflict,&#8221; a source previously told Recode.
The situation at the company has deteriorated since then, obviously, after a blog post by a former female engineer chronicled a deeply dysfunctional management led by Kalanick that favored what board member Arianna Huffington called &#8220;brilliant jerks.&#8221;
Jerks indeed, as what has happened since then has made clear. Since the post, the company has fired its engineering head after revelations of a serious sexual harassment investigation at his previous employer, saw its head of product leave after questionable sexual behavior was uncovered at a company event and has initiated an investigation into the entire situation with a former Attorney General of the United States at the lead.
In addition, the now persistently apologetic Kalanick announced the search for a COO to help him do a better job.
—By Kara Swisher and Johana Bhuiyan, <a class="inline_asset" href="http://recode.net/" target="_self" data-nodeid="101305756">Recode.net</a>.
CNBC&#8217;s parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Recode&#8217;s parent Vox, and the companies have a content-sharing arrangement.

Uber president Jeff Jones is quitting as management turmoil at the ride-hailing company deepens

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<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/geoff-cutmore/" rel="author">Geoff Cutmore</a><a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB"> | </a><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/saheli-roy-choudhury/" rel="author">Saheli Roy Choudhury</a>
<a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a> and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a>&#8216;s runaway success in capturing large stakes in the digital advertising market comes with responsibilities and they need to do more when curating how advertisements are placed on their platforms, according to <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/WPP-GB" target="_self" data-gdsid="36873" data-inline-quote-symbol="WPP-GB">WPP Group</a> CEO Martin Sorrell.
Sorrell, whose company owns ad agencies such as the Grey Group and Ogilvy &amp; Mather, was speaking to CNBC at the sidelines of the China Development Forum, where he said the two tech giants have to exert more control over ad placements on behalf of brands, and take more responsibility for it.
&#8220;They&#8217;ve always maintained they were sort of digital engineers standing there with their digital spanners, trying to tighten the nuts on their digital pipes and not being responsible for the content that was going through the pipes,&#8221; said Sorrell.
A key criticism leveled against both Facebook and Google is that the companies are not doing enough to arrest fake news on their platforms.
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&#8220;They can&#8217;t just say look we&#8217;re a technology company, we have nothing to do with the content that is appearing on our digital pages,&#8221; Sorrell said. He added that, as far as placing advertisements was concerned, they have to be held to the same standards as traditional media organizations.
Another concern is that sometimes advertisements are automatically placed alongside objectionable and inappropriate content within those platforms that brands do not have control over.
&#8220;The big issue for Google and Facebook is whether they are going to have human editing at this point &#8230; of course they have the profitability. They have the margins to enable them to do it. And this is going to be the big issue — how far are they prepared to go?&#8221; Sorrell said, adding they needed to go &#8220;significantly far&#8221; to arrest these concerns.
A failure to address such issues could see Facebook and Google potentially take hits on ad revenue if brands stop advertising on their platforms. For example, French advertising firm <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/HAV-FR" target="_self" data-gdsid="16865" data-inline-quote-symbol="HAV-FR">Havas</a> recently pulled all its ad spend from Google and its video platform, YouTube.
The Guardian <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/17/google-pledges-more-control-for-brands-over-ad-placement" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/17/google-pledges-more-control-for-brands-over-ad-placement" target="_self">reported</a> that Havas took the step after talks with Google broke down because the tech giant couldn&#8217;t provide specific reassurances, policy and guarantees over the filtering and classification of video or display content.
Havas&#8217; decision came after the UK government joined organizations including the Guardian, BBC and Transport for London in pulling advertising from Google and YouTube, the Guardian report said.
Sorrell said blanket withdrawals from advertisers across these digital platforms will not solve the problem. Instead, he urged for greater cooperation with the tech giants.
&#8220;I think the most constructive way of doing it is getting Google and Facebook to understand the problem, which I think they do, and to get them to step up to control it just like any other media right now would in a traditional sense,&#8221; he said.

Facebook, Google need to ‘step up’ control of their platforms, says WPP’s Martin Sorrell

It&#8217;s often said that good things come to those who wait — but a bloated $4.5 trillion balance sheet might be a notable exception to that rule.
With the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/43752521" target="_self">Federal Reserve</a> facing a Herculean conundrum in unwinding its crisis-era monetary policy — and a <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/yellen-outlook-irrelevant-because-trump-will-reshape-fed-mark-grant.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/yellen-outlook-irrelevant-because-trump-will-reshape-fed-mark-grant.html" target="_self">likely leadership transition on the horizon</a> — <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GS" target="_self" data-gdsid="19203" data-inline-quote-symbol="GS">Goldman Sachs</a> suggested on Saturday the central bank could move early to reduce the vast sums of government and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/44178108" target="_self">mortgage-backed securities</a> (MBS) it holds on its books.
In a research note to clients, the bank pointed to the likelihood that <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_self">President Donald Trump</a>may &#8220;reshape the leadership&#8221; of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed&#8217;s powerful policy-making body, as the terms of Fed Chair <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/janet-yellen/" target="_self">Janet Yellen</a> and Vice Chair Stanley Fischer expire in early 2018.
&#8220;This could be important for balance sheet policy because many Republican-leaning economists have criticized quantitative easing (QE) and have expressed a preference for rapid balance sheet rundown, perhaps even through asset sales,&#8221; wrote Daan Struyven, a Goldman economist.
If the new appointments—especially the new chair—are thought to favor aggressive balance sheet normalization, perhaps even including asset sales, and if all decisions are left up to the incoming team, financial markets might experience heightened uncertainty during the transition.&#8221;
Goldman suggested there was a &#8220;strong &#8216;risk management&#8217; case for an announcement of very gradual balance sheet runoff later this year,&#8221; because of the political risk associated with new leadership at the Fed.
&#8220;Our forecast is that the discussion around reinvestment continues for most of this year and the plan is formally announced in December 2017,&#8221; Struyven said. &#8220;At that meeting, we expect the committee to hold the funds rate steady after hiking in both June and September. We expect the quarterly hikes to resume in March 2018.&#8221;
The economist harked back to 2013&#8217;s &#8220;taper tantrum,&#8221; in which markets reacted the Fed&#8217;s suggestions of tighter monetary policy by sending bond yields surging and stocks reeling — albeit temporarily.
<div id="attachment_109289" style="width: 464px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-109289" class=" wp-image-109289" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/shutterstock_3704567121-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="454" height="342" />Photo: Shutterstock.</div>
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A potential fire sale of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities by the Fed &#8220;could have significantly more adverse effects on financial conditions than gradual runoff, and the mere risk of such an outcome might set up another &#8216;taper tantrum,&#8217; &#8221; Struyven added.
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<h4 class="subtitle">&#8216;The uncertainty is substantial&#8217;</h4>
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As the central bank begins a campaign to tighten benchmark interest rates — making a quarter-point hike just last week — it&#8217;s renewed a debate over how to unwind the Fed&#8217;s massive bond buying program.
Some market observers have long argued that the Fed has distorted financial conditions with QE, and the central bank faces a huge task trying to pare down its bloated balance sheet.
&#8220;The bigger the Fed&#8217;s credit footprint, the more it interferes with the efficient employment and pricing of credit,&#8221; wrote George Selgin, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, in a <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.cato.org/blog/shrinking-feds-balance-sheet" href="https://www.cato.org/blog/shrinking-feds-balance-sheet" target="_self">blog post last month</a>.
&#8220;By directing a large share of savings to purchases of longer-term MBS and Treasury securities, for example, the Fed has artificially raised both the prices of those securities, and the importance of the housing market and the federal government relative to the rest of the U.S. economy,&#8221; Selgin wrote. &#8220;It has also dramatically increased its portfolio&#8217;s duration gap and, by so doing, the risk that it will suffer losses should it sell assets before they mature.&#8221;
On Friday, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari, the lone dissenter against the U.S. central bank&#8217;s decision last week to raise interest rates, the U.S. economy is still falling short on employment and inflation.
Kashkari, an alumnus of both Goldman Sachs and the U.S. Treasury who oversaw the government&#8217;s Temporary Asset Relief Program (TARP) during the financial crisis, believes the Fed should wait on raising interest rates until it publishes a detailed plan for how and when it will reduce its $4.5 trillion balance sheet.
Goldman set forth two scenarios under which the Fed could begin trimming its balance sheet. Under an &#8220;early start, passive runoff&#8221; scenario, the bank said the Fed &#8220;gradually tapers reinvestment in December 2017 over 10 months but does not sell assets.&#8221;
Conversely, under a &#8220;late start, active sales&#8221; scenario, Goldman said the Fed could cease reinvesting in bonds in July 2018 &#8220;without tapering and actively sells $40bn of assets per month.&#8221;
Under the latter, the Fed could shrink its balance sheet by about $250 billion per quarter starting in the second half of next year, &#8220;with similar contributions from maturing assets and active sales,&#8221; the bank added.
However, neither scenario is without its risks, Goldman&#8217;s economist wrote: &#8220;While our baseline estimate suggests relatively little tightening from balance sheet rundown, the uncertainty is substantial. The 2013 &#8216;taper tantrum&#8217; also provides a reminder that the impact of balance sheet policy on financial conditions is uncertain and could be larger than our baseline estimate.&#8221;
&#8211;Reuters contributed to this article.
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How a possible Yellen departure could spark a fire under the Fed to cut its $4.5 trillion balance sheet

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<a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/02/billionaire-warren-buffett-discusses-the-book-that-changed-his-life.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/02/billionaire-warren-buffett-discusses-the-book-that-changed-his-life.html" target="_self">Warren Buffett&#8217;s</a> enormous wealth is only matched by his <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2015/10/04/not-for-investors-only-top-10-nuggets-of-buffett-wisdom-for-life-success/#5ec784b83971" target="_blank">incredibly valuable wisdom</a>. So when the Oracle of Omaha says he has a simple rule to improve your life financially and personally, you should pay attention.
In a lecture to USC Business School students, Warren Buffett&#8217;s right-hand man, Charlie Munger, <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/a-lesson-on-worldly-wisdom/" target="_blank">revealed a strategy</a> that Buffett has used time and again to build success.
More from Elle Kaplan: 
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://medium.com/the-mission/these-writing-hacks-from-stephen-king-will-immediately-improve-your-success-c8456b192cd4#.atftmsqi0" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/these-writing-hacks-from-stephen-king-will-immediately-improve-your-success-c8456b192cd4#.atftmsqi0" target="_blank">How to Become an Insanely Good Writer, According to Stephen King 
</a><a class="inline_asset" title="https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-crush-your-goals-in-2017-according-to-harvard-psychologists-1e82beb80677#.bvdporw45" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-crush-your-goals-in-2017-according-to-harvard-psychologists-1e82beb80677#.bvdporw45" target="_blank">How to Crush Your Goals in 2017, According to Harvard Research 
</a><a class="inline_asset" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-create-a-brand-new-chapter-in-your-life-starting-today-8aabcb0d9007#.z93ruy32f" target="_blank">How to Create a Brand New Chapter in Your Life — Starting Today</a>
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Warren Buffet preaches that he could:
&#8220;Improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches — representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime.&#8221;
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<div class="caption">Elle Kaplan</div>
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Once you punched through the card, you couldn&#8217;t make any more investments at all
Buffett said that, &#8220;under those rules, you&#8217;d really think carefully about what you did and you&#8217;d be forced to load up on what you&#8217;d really thought about. So you&#8217;d do so much better.&#8221;
In a nutshell: We&#8217;re tempted to take advantage of every opportunity possible (especially when it comes to money), but our opportunities are actually incredibly finite. As I&#8217;ll explain, by narrowing down these opportunities beforehand, you can focus on the successful ones with your limited resources, instead of jumping at every opportunity that presents itself.
This &#8217;20-Slot-Rule&#8217; is a concept that doesn&#8217;t just speak to making smart investments, however. It also applies to all areas of life and business that require our decisions to be well informed and incredibly selective.
Without further ado, here are some simple tips for following Buffett&#8217;s &#8217;20-Slot Rule&#8217; to improve your life:
Use the rule to find your true motivation
Warren Buffett may be the savviest investor on earth, but even he knows there are certain tasks beyond his realm. In 2013, <a class="inline_asset" href="http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/22/warren-buffett-on-cell-phones-email-and-material-goods/" target="_blank">he told talk show host Piers Morgan</a> that he has sent exactly one email in his entire life, and the <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/" target="_blank">Berkshire Hathaway website</a> itself makes <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.myspace.com/" target="_blank">Myspace.com</a> look like the internet&#8217;s Mona Lisa.
Does the Oracle of Omaha have the intelligence that it would take to learn how to update the web page and turn it into something snazzier? Of course. Is it worth his time? Definitely not.
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<a class="" href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000589121" data-videoid="3000589121" data-videotype=""><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" title="Warren Buffett made $53,000 by age 17" src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2017/01/31/104251946-makeit_warren_buffett_first_jobs2_mezz.600x400.jpg?v=1485878732" alt="Warren Buffett made $53,000 by age 17 " width="600" height="400" /></a>
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If you have a finite amount of skills, goals, or business opportunities you can cash in on within your life, that means being incredibly choosy.
So focus on what you do best — your <a class="inline_asset" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/86-400-193e4866d62c#.lidql7lh8" target="_blank">Genius Zone</a>. If you don&#8217;t have that yet, spend some time figuring out what you bring to the table better than anyone else. It&#8217;s worth the investment to find what you do effortlessly and gravitate towards.
Use the rule to make yourself wealthier
<a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/warren-buffetts-breakfast-never-costs-more-than-317.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/warren-buffetts-breakfast-never-costs-more-than-317.html" target="_self">Unlike Buffett</a>, our wealth is relatively limited. But when you start thinking of your wealth in terms of &#8220;slots,&#8221; you can direct it towards what really matters and stretch it a lot further. For instance, is your excess budget being punched in the &#8220;$4 latte&#8221; slot every day, or towards a future business or investment account?
The truly wealthy, like <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/07/warren-buffett-and-sheryl-sandberg-agree-on-most-important-decision.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/07/warren-buffett-and-sheryl-sandberg-agree-on-most-important-decision.html" target="_self">Buffett</a>, got that way because they&#8217;re able to think about each dollar and investment carefully through a long-term lens. They know that investing in future endeavors is the ultimate luxury in life, and they&#8217;re able to see the long-term value of each dollar in their wallet (or purse).
You don&#8217;t have to <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/how-one-woman-saved-24000-in-one-year-by-not-buying-anything.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/how-one-woman-saved-24000-in-one-year-by-not-buying-anything.html" target="_self">live the frugal life of a monk</a>, but the next time you get a tax return or have some extra money because you just got a raise, carefully consider which &#8220;slot&#8221; to use.
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<div class="attribution">J. Kempin | Getty Images</div>
<div class="caption">Warren Buffett attends the &#8216;Becoming Warren Buffett&#8217; World Premiere at The Museum of Modern Art on January 19, 2017</div>
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Use the rule to become incredibly productive
Buffett&#8217;s rule refers to much more than our money — for instance, one of the most frequently used phrases in job listings is &#8220;multitask.&#8221; It&#8217;s something most of us (including yours truly) wind up doing during a hectic workday.
But it&#8217;s been <a class="inline_asset" href="http://news.stanford.edu/2009/08/24/multitask-research-study-082409/" target="_blank">scientifically</a> proven that doing a million things at once trains our brain to become easily distracted, and it even takes up to four times longer to process new information that way.
Instead, you should treat your task list like a punch card. Realize you can only take on X number of tasks every day, and think carefully about which ones you want to give your full, laser-focused attention to. By prioritizing, you&#8217;ll have intense focus on each project rather than sloppily attempting to tackle everything at once.
When you have a clear motivation, how you work and why you work will drastically transform, and — most importantly — you&#8217;ll feel happy and passionate about what you do.
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://medium.com/the-mission/why-warren-buffetts-20-slot-rule-will-make-you-insanely-successful-and-productive-252a3745a5bf#.6nvrnl5vp" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/why-warren-buffetts-20-slot-rule-will-make-you-insanely-successful-and-productive-252a3745a5bf#.6nvrnl5vp" target="_self">This piece originally appeared on Medium.</a>
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://twitter.com/ellekaplan" href="https://twitter.com/ellekaplan" target="_self">Elle Kaplan</a> is the Founder and CEO of <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.lexioncapital.com/" href="http://www.lexioncapital.com/" target="_blank">LexION Capital</a>, a fiduciary wealth management firm in New York City serving high-net-worth individuals. She is also the Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager at <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.lexionalpha.com/" href="http://www.lexionalpha.com/" target="_blank">LexION Alpha</a>, her systematic hedge fund that will soon be open to new investments. It is one of the only women-owned and -run hedge funds in the nation.
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Why Warren Buffett’s ‘20-Slot Rule’ will make you insanely successful and wealthy

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<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/arjun-kharpal/" rel="author">Arjun Kharpal</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/ArjunKharpal">@ArjunKharpal</a>
Just under $2 billion has been wiped off the value of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/BTC%3D-USS" target="_self" data-gdsid="76662810" data-inline-quote-symbol="BTC=-USS" rel="noopener">bitcoin</a> in under three days as a fight over the future of the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency wages on.
Bitcoin was trading at around $1,142.60 at time of publication, giving it a market cap of $18.53 billion, according to CoinDesk data. This is down from highs of $1,255.32 on Tuesday, which valued the total bitcoin pile at $20.36 billion.
Meanwhile, rival cryptocurrency ether is up over 84 percent from highs of $29.87 on Tuesday to trading at all-time highs of around $55 on Friday, according to Coinmarketcap.com. The market captilization shot from $2.68 billion to $4.95 billion. It is the only other cryptocurrency to be valued at over $1 billion.
<div id="inline_movable_ad"> Much of the inverse price movement stems from traders&#8217; worries over the future of bitcoin and the underpinning blockchain technology.</div>
What&#8217;s happened?
To understand the issue, it&#8217;s key to look at how bitcoin transactions are processed. Transactions by users are gathered into &#8220;blocks&#8221; which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin.
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<div class="attribution">Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images</div>
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But there&#8217;s a massive backlog of transactions in bitcoin that are waiting to happen. The number of outstanding transactions is up more than four times from just six months ago, according to data from bitcoin wallet Blockchain. This is bad for a system that has promised fast and cheaper transactions than the traditional financial system.
Because of this, a group called Bitcoin Unlimited has emerged. This faction is suggesting increasing the size of the block which would allow more transactions to be bunched together and processed. Major bitcoin industry players including Roger Ver have backed the plan. But some developers in the community suggest that increasing the block size could be unsafe.
What&#8217;s this about a fork?
The real concern is if Bitcoin Unlimited gains major support, it could have an impact on the underlying blockchain technology that supports bitcoin. Bitcoin Unlimited has about an 11 percent market share of all the &#8220;nodes&#8221; in existence. Nodes are the backbone of bitcoin&#8217;s infrastructure and refer to those mining the transactions as well as those tracking the movement of bitcoin to make sure it is all working correctly.
Nodes can run Blockchain Unlimited software which would signal their support for increasing the block size. If 50 percent of bitcoin miners adopted Bitcoin Unlimited, there would then be two major blockchains and a &#8220;fork&#8221; would be created made of Bitcoin Core, the current main software behind the infrastructure, and Bitcoin Unlimited.
Both blockchains would continue to run as long as there are nodes running them. But there would then be essentially two different coins – Bitcoin and Bitcoin Unlimited.
So why has the price fallen?
And this is why bitcoin has seen sharp declines in price, while other cryptocurrencies like ether have gained support.
&#8220;Bitcoin traders may have wanted to offset some of their exposure should a fork occur or the scaling deadlock continue, and ether seems to be the most promising alternative. Bitcoin-ether volumes have surged since and are currently rivaling bitcoin-fiat currency trading liquidity,&#8221; Aurélien Menant, founder and CEO of Gatecoin, a regulated blockchain assets exchange based in Hong Kong, told CNBC by email on Friday.
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Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/" rel="author">Karen Gilchrist</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/_karengilchrist">@_karengilchrist</a>
Wearable technology is set for its most literal incarnation with a new partnership between Google and clothing line Levi&#8217;s.
From this fall, technology lovers will quite literally be able to wear their hearts on their sleeves, donning a new smart jacket which allows them to control their mobile device at the swipe of a cuff.
Users will be able to skip songs, use Google maps and make phone calls by brushing their sleeve.
The denim jacket, which will retail at $350, is the first of its kind and makes use of &#8216;Project Jacquard&#8217; technology, which has been under development by Google since 2015.
The technology combines thin, metallic alloys with natural and synthetic yarns to create touch-sensitive interactive fabrics.
<div id="attachment_106044" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-106044" class="size-full wp-image-106044" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/104342804-Commuter_with_Jacquard.530x298.jpg" alt="Google | Model shows touch sensor on Levi's Google jacket" width="530" height="298" />Google | Model shows touch sensor on Levi&#8217;s Google jacket</div>
These conductive yarns can then be connected to a tiny circuit, no larger than a button, creating data which can be wirelessly transmitted to mobile phones and other electronic devices.
The smart fibres are washable and the button circuit has a two-day battery life.
According to the Project Jacquard website, the technology can be incorporated into a variety of fabrics, suggesting further wearable technologies could be on the horizon should the smart jacket be well-received by consumers.
&#8220;Jacquard is a blank canvas for the fashion industry. Designers can use it as they would any fabric, adding new layers of functionality to their designs, without having to learn about electronics.
&#8220;Developers will be able to connect existing apps and services to Jacquard-enabled clothes and create new features specifically for the platform.&#8221;

Google and Levi’s $350 smart jacket lets you control your phone with your sleeve

OPEC&#8217;s production cut agreement is not yet succeeding in driving down supply, suggesting that $50 per barrel oil may turn out to be a market top, industry experts told CNBC on Thursday.
The predictions follow Wednesday&#8217;s slump in oil prices when the benchmark WTI and Brent indices both tumbled over 5 percent to close the session at $50.28 and $53.11, respectively. For WTI, the level represented its biggest one-day fall since February 2016 and the lowest closing price since early December.
Both benchmarks had failed to sustain a recovery by mid-morning European trade on Thursday with WTI down a further 2.35 percent for the session to break below $50 and Brent down 1.64 percent as of 10:30 am London time.
The price plunge has been primarily attributed to U.S. data showing domestic stockpiles had recorded a ninth consecutive month of supply rises in February to reach 8.2 million barrels. Adding to the negative sentiment, non-committal comments from OPEC and non-OPEC members on Wednesday indicated that while producers intend to continue pursuing production cuts, they will not pledge at this point to renew their existing six-month agreement once it expires in May.
Indeed, despite claims from participants that the existing agreement is functioning well, it actually has fundamental flaws if you peek behind the headlines, according to Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Commerzbank.
&#8220;Compliance within OPEC is less than 50 percent if you exclude Kuwait and Saudi Arabia who cannot shoulder the whole burden over the long-term,&#8221; Weinberg told CNBC by phone on Thursday.
Furthermore, while production cuts might be underway on the part of some participants, export numbers have not softened, hence why market supply is still elevated.
&#8220;The export numbers are at the same level as last December which demonstrates that the oil production cut is having little effect on market levels,&#8221; he added.
&#8220;The market is looking for a price recovery from here but as there is still not enough of a cut to send supply into deficit, I think $50 per barrel is more likely to be a ceiling than a floor with prices potentially slipping down to $40 this year,&#8221; opined the Commerzbank analyst.
His pricing outlook was supported by Kevin Boscher, chief investment officer, Brooks Macdonald Asset Management, speaking on CNBC&#8217;s Squawk Box on Thursday.
&#8220;Our view is the oil price is in a trading range. $50 – 55 is more likely to be the ceiling for now than the floor, particularly as part of Trump&#8217;s policies is likely to be making the U.S. more self-sufficient from an oil perspective,&#8221; he posited.
&#8220;We&#8217;re likely to see an increase in supply of oil at a time where supply and demand are roughly a little bit more balanced,&#8221; Boscher added.
The psychologically critical $50 mark was also within the sights of Sam Wahab, director of oil and gas research at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, who described continued U.S. upgrades in both inventory and production as the greatest downside risk for now.
&#8220;There are also certain doubts as to whether all OPEC members will stick to their quotas (notably Iraq), which combined, could very well see the Brent oil price slip towards $50 over the coming fortnight,&#8221; added Wahab.
Yet not everyone shares the bearish view, with analysts at Goldman Sachs publishing a more optimistic note on Monday claiming that oil demand is now poised to overtake supply.
&#8220;Our conviction that OECD inventories will steadily decline through 2Q17 remains high…with stocks showing declines over the past two weeks and crude forward curves flattening significantly recently,&#8221; reads the research.
&#8220;While the shale production rebound has surprised to the upside, the slightly larger production cuts than we had expected and most importantly, the higher 2016 realized demand level, lead us to expect a slightly faster normalization in OECD inventories through 2017 than previously,&#8221; the analysts concluded.

Why $50 is more likely to be a ceiling than a floor for the oil price

Elon Musk&#8217;s vision of hyperloop, a super-fast transport system, has taken a step closer to reality and now we know what it might look like.
Hyperloop One, one of the companies developing the system, has released pictures of a test track to begin trialing the technology.
A hyperloop system would involve propelling pods through a large tube at up to 750 mph using magnets. It is seen as a way to cut long-distance travel times as well as a way to alleviate congestion in many cities.
Hyperloop One&#8217;s &#8220;DevLoop&#8221; is a 500-meter full-scale test structure that weights over a thousand tons. One tube measures 3.3 meters in diameter and the test track has been put together in the Nevada desert.
Hyperloop One is expected to perform a public trial with the new DevLoop in the first half of this year. The company has signed deals with a number of countries to explore the feasibility of setting up the transport system. One of those agreements is with the government in Dubai with the idea of connecting the city to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 12 minutes. This journey would take over 2 hours in a car.
At the Middle East Rail trade show in Dubai this week, Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd, shared his vision for connecting a number of major cities in the Gulf region.
&#8220;Tying together the Middle East region would produce greater virtual density, without congestion and pollution, spurring innovation, productivity, job growth and more powerful sharing of knowledge, labor and investment,&#8221; Lloyd told an audience, according to a statement from the company.
Hyperloop One estimates that around 4,000 vehicles travel every day between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with traffic congestion costing the economy $800 million in lost working ours, something it says a hyperloop could fix.
Last year, Hyperloop One carried out a propulsion test in the Nevada desert in which a sled accelerated to 116 miles per hour in 1.1 seconds. It was a proof of concept test of the underlying technology of a hyperloop and the company will be hoping with a full-scale build of the tubes, it can carry out further trials.
Hyperloop One is not the only company developing the vision Musk laid out in a white paper in 2013. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), a rival company, is also looking into the feasibility of building a track in countries from Indonesia to the Czech Republic. The firm recently announced plans to set up a research and development center in Toulouse, France, where it hopes to build its own test track.

Elon Musk’s hyperloop vision takes a step closer to reality

Nestlé chocolates will have 10 percent less sugar starting next year as the firm tries to make their products healthier.
Key brands such as KitKat, Aeros, Lion and After Eight will all have a total of around 7,500 tonnes of sugar removed and be replaced by existing and non-artificial ingredients.
&#8220;Nestlé is at the forefront of efforts to research and develop new technology that makes food products better for our consumers. These innovations will help us to reduce sugar in confectionery when they are combined with other, more common methods like reformulating recipes and swapping sugar for other, non-artificial ingredients,&#8221; Fiona Kendrick, chairman of Nestlé UK and Ireland said in a press release on Tuesday.
Nestlé told CNBC via email that the move was not linked to the weakening pound following the Brexit vote.The fall in sterling as a result of the Brexit vote has meant higher import costs. Some companies have been forced to increase prices or shrink their products to offset the impact of the higher import bills.
Last November, Mondelez International, who sells Toblerone decided to widen the gap between the triangular pieces. At the time, the firm also denied that the decision was related to Brexit.
On Tuesday, data showed that grocery inflation reached nearly three-year high of 1.4 percent in the 12 weeks to February. Butter prices jumped 15 percent, fish is 8 percent more expensive and tea prices rose 6 percent.

Your Nestle chocolate will now have less sugar

Apple has been awarded a patent for advanced facial recognition technology boosting rumors about features in the upcoming iPhone 8 and hinting at future areas such as augmented reality (AR) and driverless cars.
A number of reports have suggested bolstered recognition technology. Top Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note last month that the iPhone 8 would feature a camera and infrared module that can detect faces and even lead to 3D selfies which could then be used to replace a character&#8217;s face in a game, for example.
JPMorgan analyst Rod Hall published a report claiming that the iPhone 8 might forgo a fingerprint sensor and home button in favor of a 3-D scanner which could carry out biometric facial scanning. This could be used to unlock the phone as well as authenticate a user for the App Store or Apple Pay.
Apple&#8217;s patent filing is for an &#8220;enhanced face detection using depth information&#8221;. The Cupertino, CA-based firm has not mentioned the iPhone 8 in the document, but much of the technology outlined appears to mirror what the analysts have said.
The technology would work by scanning a scene via the camera, with the software able to detect human faces.
Apple outlined how its technology would be able to detect faces depending on where people were standing in a shot. For example, if there were two people in the shot and one person was closer to the camera than another, it would still be able to identify both faces accurately.
The technology is not just to detect faces, but can be used to analyze other objects too, Apple said.
Such innovation outlined in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filing, could lay the groundwork for a number of technologies.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has talked up augmented reality (AR), which refers to digital images being overlaid on the real world. The impact of AR could be as large as the iPhone, Cook said. &#8220;I think AR is that big,&#8221; the Apple boss said in an interview with The Independent newspaper in February. A camera with 3-D sensing technology is key for advanced augmented reality.
&#8220;For example, the methods described herein may be applied in detecting the locations of the hands in an image of a user of a gesture-controlled computerized system, so that the posture and motions of the hand can be recognized quickly and reliably. As another example, these methods may be used in a vehicle-mounted system for automatic detection and reading of traffic signs,&#8221; Apple said.
So 3-D recognition technology could also give hints as to what Apple is thinking about the way we will interact with future devices. For example, a TV could be controlled via gestures. And the patent also mentioned this camera technology on cars. Rumors have been swirling around since 2015 that Apple is building a car. If the patented technology can read traffic signs, then it could be a key component of autonomous vehicles for Apple.
The patent was acquired by Apple in 2013 when it bought Israeli computer vision company PrimeSense. Even though Apple has been awarded the patent, it does not necessarily mean this technology will see the light of day in its products.

What to expect from the Apple iPhone 8

Original post by <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/marguerite-ward/" rel="author">Marguerite Ward</a>
Whether or not you think Elon Musk can recover from the very public SpaceX failure, there&#8217;s no denying he&#8217;s a visionary.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is working to shuttle humans to Mars, bring electric vehicles to the mass market, and revolutionize both artificial intelligence and transportation — with some hits and misses.
Musk&#8217;s winding path to success all started in South Africa, when a young Musk started voraciously reading sci-fi books and building his own video games.
Here&#8217;s a comprehensive infographic created by Funders and Founders designer Anna Vital that explores Musk&#8217;s fascinating road to the top.
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<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-90334 size-full" src="http://sc.cnbcfm.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/files/2016/08/31/how-elon-musk-started-infographic.png" alt="" width="600" />

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Facebook, Google need to ‘step up’ control of their platforms, says WPP’s Martin Sorrell

How a possible Yellen departure could spark a fire under the Fed to cut its $4.5 trillion balance sheet

Why Warren Buffett’s ‘20-Slot Rule’ will make you insanely successful and wealthy

Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork

Google and Levi’s $350 smart jacket lets you control your phone with your sleeve

Why $50 is more likely to be a ceiling than a floor for the oil price

Elon Musk’s hyperloop vision takes a step closer to reality

Your Nestle chocolate will now have less sugar

What to expect from the Apple iPhone 8

How billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk got his start

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A stock market drop is coming, but don’t blame Trump’s health care bill setback: Raymond James

Oil could collapse into the $30s if OPEC doesn’t keep its act together

UK police make seven arrests in raids linked to investigation into attack on Parliament

Elon Musk slams Donald Trump’s NASA bill saying it does nothing to help mission to Mars

Apple unveils new products

Here’s why Norway is ranked the world’s happiest country

Uber president Jeff Jones is quitting as management turmoil at the ride-hailing company deepens

Facebook, Google need to ‘step up’ control of their platforms, says WPP’s Martin Sorrell

How a possible Yellen departure could spark a fire under the Fed to cut its $4.5 trillion balance sheet

Why Warren Buffett’s ‘20-Slot Rule’ will make you insanely successful and wealthy

Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork

Google and Levi’s $350 smart jacket lets you control your phone with your sleeve

Why $50 is more likely to be a ceiling than a floor for the oil price

Elon Musk’s hyperloop vision takes a step closer to reality

Your Nestle chocolate will now have less sugar

What to expect from the Apple iPhone 8

How billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk got his start

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