Monthly Archives: June 2017

This week was Technology Week at the White House,and the Trump Administration held events focusing on modernizing government technology and stimulating the technology sector.

On Monday, the White House invited major tech leaders and university presidents for the inaugural summit of the American Technology Council. Hosted by the White House's Office of American Innovation, the event consisted of multiple breakout sessions to discuss ways to modernize the government byretiring out-of-date legacysystems and increasing the use of shared services.

On Tuesday, United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn held a listening session with technologyleaders to discuss tax reform in the United States and the implications of a new tax plan on the technology sector.

On Wednesday, President Trump traveledto Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He toured Kirkwood Community College and spoke about agricultural innovation and empowering the American farmer.

On Thursday, the White House hosted the American Leadership in Emerging Technology Event, where American tech industryleaders demonstrated technologies like advanced drones and 5Gwireless networks to the President.

On Friday, President Trump signed the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017.

After a successful week of addressing American innovation and meeting with leaders of the technology sector, next week the Trump Administration will turn its focus to energy.

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Technology Week Recap - The White House (blog)

Many MIT-affiliated startups are innovating in the burgeoning fitness technology and science space, aiming to promote healthier lifestyles and help optimize athletic performance.

Novel products from these startups include a smart chair that fights back pain and diabetes, a sleeve that monitors muscle-movement data that users can share in the cloud, a wristband that tracks blood oxygen levels for greater performance, and even a so-called anti-aging pill.

A workshop hosted June 22 by the Industrial Liaison Programs STEX (Startup Exchange) program brought together some of these MIT entrepreneurs and industry experts to showcase their innovations and foster connections that could lead to new business opportunities.

Held throughout the year, the three-hour STEX workshops include lightning presentations from MIT-affiliated startups; brief talks from academic innovators, industry experts, government representatives, and venture capitalists; startup presentation and demonstration sessions; and an interactive panel discussion.

At last weeks event, eight entrepreneurs pitched their fitness-tech products several rooted in MIT research to a crowd of around 80 entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry experts in the ILPs headquarters on Main Street, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academic keynote speaker was MIT Novartis Professor of Biology Leonard Guarente, who took the opportunity to demystify the science behind his startup Elysium Healths anti-aging pill, which is made of compounds that aim to thwart age-related cell damage, which can lead to inflammatory and heart diseases, osteoporosis, and diabetes.

STEX events aim to stimulate discussion and build partnerships between MIT-affiliated startups and ILP-connected companies, which now number around 230. The series covers a broad range of topics: a recent workshop focused on energy storage, while upcoming events will focus on synthetic biology, robotics and drones, cancer therapies, renewable energy, world water issues, and 3-D printing.

These are very exciting areas, and MIT has young and old startups in all of these spaces. We certainly have industry coming to campus interested in all of these technologies and products coming from them, Trond Undheim, a senior industrial liaison officer and co-organizer of the event, said in his opening remarks.

Presenter Simon Hong, a researcher in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, and CEO of smart-chair startup Robilis, said last weeks STEX workshop provided an opportunity to interact with potential stakeholders.

Based on neuroscience research, Robilis developed StandX, a chair with two automated moving halves, side by side. The halves alternate one dropping down and the other staying straight making the user sit down on one half while standing on the opposite leg. The frequent alternation prevents stress on the spine caused by sitting in one position for extended periods, and the chairs design encourages proper posture. The movement also interrupts prolonged sitting, which is associated with diabetes.

During a startup demonstration session midway through the event, Hongs station was crowded with attendees looking to try out the chair. In the end, he walked away with a few contacts interested in helping with production and in introducing him to potential investors. I was quite satisfied with the event, Hong told MIT News. It is in a way a networking event, and good things tend to happen quite unexpectedly during many, many interactions with people.

Apart from providing a venue to spread the word about his wearables, the event enabled Alessandro Babini MBA 15, co-founder of Humon, to connect with larger organizations in the space. Humon, a wearable targeted at endurance athletes, attaches to a muscle, where it monitors blood oxygen levels by shining a light into the skin and analyzing changes in the light that indicate less or more oxygen.

It was interesting to get an understanding about what big brands seek in partners, what theyre looking to invest in, and what theyre working on now, Babini told MIT News. Big corporations have a lot of customers and a big influence on where the market is going.

Another interesting MIT spinout, figure8, presented a wearable that captures 3-D body movement that can be analyzed by the user or shared with an online community like a YouTube of movement data.

The wearable is a small sleeve made from novel sensor-woven fabric that fits over the arm or leg to track joint and muscle movement. It lets users map the movement of muscle, bone, and ligaments. Put on a knee, for instance, the wearable can map individual ligaments, which is valuable for, say, monitoring the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). One application is in physical therapy, so athletes can track injuries as they heal.

Users can also map their movement to others. Dancers, for instance, can use the sensor to match their movements to those of others during training. The startup is also developing a platform that lets users upload and share that data in the cloud.

Before YouTube, no one thought about video as something you can share, upload, and download as a commodity, said co-founder and CEO Nan-Wei Gong, an MIT Media Lab researcher, during her presentation. Were trying to create a system for everyone to collect this motion [data] they can upload and download.

Other startups that presented included: Kitchology, Fitnescity, Digital Nutrition, Food for Sleep, and SplitSage.

In his keynote, Guarente explained the science and history behind Elysiums anti-aging pill, called Basis, which he himself has been taking for three years. He noted the pill doesnt necessarily make people feel more youthful or healthier, especially if theyre already healthy. You should just fall apart more slowly, Guarente said to laughter from the audience.

Years ago, Guarente and other MIT researchers identified a group of genes called sirtuins that have been demonstrated to slow the aging process in microbes, fruit flies, and mice. For instance, calorie-restricted diets, long known to extend lifespans and prevent many diseases in mammals, is key in activating sirtuins. It turns out there are compounds that can do the same thing, Guarente said.

At MIT, the researchers discovered one of those compounds, which is abundant in blueberries. Later, they discovered that an enzyme called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) was also essential in carrying out the activity of sirtuins. But the enzyme deteriorated with age. If theres not enough NAD, you dont activate sirtuins. Metabolism and DNA-repair goes awry, and a lot of things go wrong, he said.

However, they soon found that in the NAD synthesis pathway, NADs immediate precursor, called nicotinamide riboside (NR), could be injected into an organism, where it would move efficiently into cells and be converted into NAD.

Basis is a combination of NR and the sirtuin-activating compound from blueberries.

Last year, Elysium conducted a 120-person trial. The results indicated that the pills were safe and led to an increase and sustainability of NAD levels. More trials are on the way, and the startup is growing its pipeline of products. It has not yet been shown whether Basis can extend life-span in humans.

We could really make a difference in peoples health, Guarente said at the conclusion of his talk. And it would add to all the medical devices and DNA analysis and motion sensors, so that people can begin to do what they want to do, which is to take charge of their health.

The investor speaker was David T. Thibodeau, managing director of Wellvest Capital, an investment banking company specializing in healthy living and wellness. The industry speaker was Matthew Decker, global technical leader in the Comfort and Biophysics Group of W.L. Gore and Associates, the manufacturing company best known for Gore-Tex fabrics.

Panelists were Guarente, Decker, Thibodeau, and Josh Sarmir, co-founder and CEO of SplitSage, an MIT spinout that is developing an analytics platform that can detect sweet spots and blind spots in peoples fields of vision to aid in sports performance, online advertising, and work safety, among other applications.

STEX has a growing database of roughly 1,200 MIT-affiliated startups. Last year, ILP created STEX25, an accelerator for 25 startups at any time that focuses on high-level, high-quality introductions. The first cohort of 14 startups have gone through the accelerator, gaining industry partnerships that have led to several pilot programs.

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STEX event showcases innovations in fitness technology and science - MIT News

If a new study is an accurate indication of what the investment management industry will look like in a decade, investors are poised to benefit.

Released by the CFA Institute, "Future State of the Investment Profession" shows that the trends influencing how money managers and financial advisors run their businesses are pushing them toward a more ethical, value-oriented and socially responsible profession over the next five to 10 years.

Advisors "need to become customer-focused," said Robert Stammers, director of investor engagement for the CFA Institute's Future of Finance team and one of the study's authors. "They need to change from trying to beat the market to focusing on how they meet client objectives and create better outcomes for investors."

Some of the forces reshaping the landscape range from regulatory and technology-related changes to shifting demographics and investor preferences.

The study surveyed 1,145 leaders in the investment industry around the world. Only 11 percent of respondents said their industry has a "very positive" impact on society. But 51 percent said if stronger principals were existent, there would be a very positive societal impact.

The public, too, sees room for improvement. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, the public's trust in the broader U.S. financial services industry stands at just 54 percent. While higher than the 36 percent recorded in 2009 following the financial crisis, it remains lower than the pre-crisis figure of 69 percent.

For financial advisors, much of the ethics picture focuses on whether they are required to put their clients' interests before their own when recommending investments. Such a "fiduciary standard" is viewed by many as more ethical than one of "suitability," which only says an investment must be appropriate for a client.

Fiduciaries typically are paid via service fees, while suitability adherents typically are paid in commissions. In simple terms, the difference in standards is dictated by exactly how they are regulated.

More from Portfolio Perspective: Three things investors should know when buying ETFs Why asset allocation is so important for investors Buying stock? Ask yourself this question first

While the Labor Department under the Obama administration jumped into the fray by adopting the so-called fiduciary rule which requires advisors to act in their client's best interest, specifically with retirement accounts the start date for the new regulation has been delayed until June 9 while parts of it are under review.

Regardless of the rule's fate, the industry is continuing to move toward a fiduciary environment more earnestly than it had before the rule passed in 2016. To some degree, peer pressure and client inquiries due to greater public awareness have contributed to the shift.

David Hays, president of Comprehensive Financial Consultants, said that in some of the advisor circles he moves in, non-fiduciaries are given less respect.

"If you aren't a fiduciary, you are kind of looked down upon," said Hays, who is a fiduciary but was not when he started his career more than two decades ago. "It's peer pressure that if you aren't one, you [had] better become one."

He also said that among new clients, awareness of the role of a fiduciary is growing.

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Trends, technology help make advisors better: Study - CNBC

The Dow industrials on Monday ended a string of daily losses at four, but the Nasdaq Composite faltered, putting pressure on the broader market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.07% rose 14.79 points, or less than 0.1%, at 21,409.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.29% shed 18.10 points, or 0.2%, to 6,251 as Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.31% dropped 0.3%, and Facebook Inc. FB, -0.95% and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -1.42% dropped about 1% each.

The S&P 500 SPX, +0.03% finished up 0.77 points, or less than 0.1%, to 2,439.07, with so-called defensive sectors, such as utilities and telecoms, leading gains. The technology sector, which was trading up 0.7% in early trade, reversed course to end down 0.6%.

For the first half of 2017, the benchmark S&P 500 is on track to advance about 9%, with some analysts suggesting that the second half will likely be positive as well.

When the 500s first-half price gain was between 7% and 12%the market went on to record an average price rise of 5.1% during the second half and posted a positive performance an above-average 87% of the time, wrote Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, a market research firm.

Stovalls calculations would put the S&P 500 at 2,565 by the end of 2017.

While this forward six-month level for the S&P 500 approximates our 12-month target, based on current EPS and inflation projections, history implies that we may be underestimating the markets rest-of-year potential, Stovall said.

Volatile moves in crude-oil prices CLQ7, +1.07% early in the session also contributed to dampening appetite for stocks.

Weaker-than-expected durable-goods orders may also have limited gains for equities. Both the dollar and Treasury yields weakened after the release of the report. Durable-goods orders slipped 1.1% last month following a similar drop in April, disappointing economists who expected a smaller decline.

After vast improvement at the start of the year, manufacturers have recorded fewer than expected durable-goods orders for the second consecutive month, said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel Fixed Income, in a note. Short-lived optimism, no doubt, from pro-growth policies ushered in by the Trump administration have been replaced by a more lackluster reality of a little improved domestic growth and consumption profile.

Read: Want to know where the stock markets headed over next 6 months? Dont ask OPEC

Stock movers: Facebook FB, -0.95% declined 1% after first gaining on news that the social-networking giant is talking to Hollywood studios and agencies about producing TV-quality shows, according to people familiar with the talks.

U.S.-listed shares of Nestl SA NSRGY, +3.94% jumped 3.9% following news that billionaire activist investor Daniel Loebs Third Point LLC hedge fund has taken a $3.5 billion stake in the consumer-products giant.

Arconic Inc. ARNC, -5.99% shares sank 6%, topping the losers on the S&P 500. The company said it would halt sales of one type of aluminum cladding for use in high-rise buildings after at least 79 people died in a fire at the Grenfell Tower in London. The material was suspected to have partly contributed to the spread of the inferno.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. HTZ, +13.52% surged 14% on a Bloomberg News report that the rental car company will be leasing a fleet of its cars to Apple to test the iPhone makers self-driving technology.

Shares of Yum Brands Inc. YUM, -0.11% closed 0.1% lower, erasing gains from news of Australian company Collins Foods Ltd. CKF, -0.96% buying 28 KFC restaurants from the fast food-chain operator.

Economic news and Fed speakers: The Chicago Fed national activity index fell to negative 0.26 in May from 0.57 in April.

See: MarketWatchs Economic Calendar.

A quarterly mortgage sentiment survey from Fannie Mae showed U.S. lenders are preparing for tougher times ahead and planning to relax lending standards, according to Reuters.

In central-bank news, San Francisco Fed President John Williams said at a speech in Australia that gradual hikes in interest rates are needed to avoid overheating the U.S. economy. Separately in Salzburg, Austria, Fed Gov. Jerome Powell said he sees room to ease some banking rules in the U.S.

Other markets: The dollar DXY, +0.19% rose 0.2% against peers while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.13%. Meanwhile gold GCQ7, -0.89% stumbled 1%.

Asian stock markets closed higher across the board, serving as a tailwind for European stocks.

Sara Sjolin and Anora Mahmudova contributed to this article

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Dow halts 4-session skid, but Nasdaq slumps as technology stocks stumble - MarketWatch