“Going into Friday’s session, global equity markets’ valuations were enriched by some $2.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg calculations. As for U.S. stocks, Wilshire Associates reckons that they tacked on 3.44 percent, or approximately $800 billion, over the full week, based on the gain in the Wilshire 5000 index, their biggest weekly gain in nearly 12 months.”

Why does the same news elicit two very different responses? There are many reasons. Foremost among them is the fact a lot of elements influence markets – investor confidence, company valuations, central bank actions, automated trading, and many others. What does last week’s upward push mean? One analyst cited by Barron’s suggested we’re seeing a bear market rally, but only time will tell.  

Do You Hate Doing The Laundry? Then, You May Be In Luck.

The world’s most recent laundry bot was introduced at Japan’s 2015 Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC), a technology trade show. The Telegraph reported the robot was developed to eliminate the tedium of laundry, which (as moms and dads everywhere know) is one of the least popular household chores. Not only does ‘Laundroid’ wash and dry clothes, it also can sort them, fold them, and put them away in a cupboard. If you’re thinking, it sounds to good to be true, you’re right – for now. Digital Trends pointed out Laundroid works quite slowly:

“The last laundry-folding robot we saw in action took a long time to get a small towel neatly folded into a little rectangle, and that was with the video sped up. Laundroid is no faster, based on a demonstration at the CEATEC…It took several minutes for the robot – hidden inside a futuristic-looking black cabinet – to fold up a freshly washed T-shirt, according to Engadget. Although it did the task decently, if not in Martha Stewart-approved style, it’s obviously not ready to take on a basket full of jeans and sheets.”

The fly in the ointment is the bot must determine a shirt is a shirt, and a pair of pants is a pair of pants, and so on, before it can fold items. After all, each item is folded differently. Socks, it seems, pose a particularly ticklish challenge. So, how long does it take? Laundroid needs about seven hours to fold a basket of clothes. If you have a lot of laundry, you may want to check back in a few years. ]]>