Christmas 2025 A. D.
Peace on Earth, Good
Will Towards Men.
A Merry Christmas to one and all.
J.S. Bach, Christmas
Oratorio, bwv 248.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBvhqbAOvc8
Leopold Mozart - Sleigh Ride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWHzu1FJaOk&feature=related
And in honour of Christmas 2025, a double bonus.
Charpentier
- Marche de Triomphe H.547
Charpentier
- Marche de Triomphe H.547
Bing
Sings "O Sanctissima"
Normal LIR service resumes on Saturday
the 27th.
Baltic
Dry Index. 1979 -44
Brent Crude 61.93
Spot Gold 4515 Spot Silver 69.59
US 2 Year Yield 3.44 -0.04
US Federal Debt. 38.443 trillion US GDP 31.658 trillion.
“Bah,” said Scrooge Starmer, “Humbug.”
With apologies to Charles Dickens.
With dollar debasement in full swing and likely to accelerate next year as President Trump gets to pack the US central bank with low interest rate picks, stocks, gold and silver are soaring.
Add to the debasement play, President Trump seems set on regime change by any means in Venezuela and a growing shortage of physical silver in London, NYC, and Shanghai, while industrial demand is soaring as the world switches to electrification and AI data centres, and there’s little reason to think the stocks gold and silver boom will end any time soon.
Stock futures are little changed after S&P 500
notches three-day win streak: Live updates
Updated Tue, Dec 23 2025 7:13 PM EST
Stock futures traded near the flatline
Monday night after a strong start to a shortened trading week.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost
9 points. S&P 500 futures were
little changed, while Nasdaq
100 futures advanced about 0.1%.
The S&P 500 is coming off of
its third winning session, boosted by a 1.5% jump in chipmaking giant Nvidia and advances in Micron and Oracle. Ten out of 11 sectors saw
gains in the session. Materials and financials were the top performing sectors,
with Newmont and Freeport-McMoRan jumping 3% as
gold and silver futures hit records.
The 30-stock Dow advanced about 228
points, or 0.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed
0.5%.
“This market is still rather healthy.
Valuations are not high enough at this level. We don’t see the frothiness that
we saw back then, and the commercial aspect is so much better now that it was
in the late ’90s,” Chris Harvey, head of equity and portfolio strategy at CIBC
Capital Markets said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” comparing the hype
around AI stocks to the froth of the dot-com bubble.
Harvey noted that unlike the internet
investment craze of the late 1990s, financials have led the market higher in
recent weeks as investors have rotated into cyclical areas of the market. JPMorgan Chase shares have
also outperformed a sizable portion of tech names over the past three and five
years, Harvey pointed out.
The New York Stock Exchange will close
early on Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve and will be closed Thursday
for Christmas Day.
Stock
market today: Live updates
Asia-Pacific markets mostly climb after AI trade
lifts Wall Street overnight
Published Mon, Dec 22 2025 6:41 PM EST
Asia-Pacific markets opened mostly higher
Tuesday, after AI trade lifted major Wall Street indexes overnight.
Nvidia shares
rose more than 1% after Reuters said the company was looking
to start shipments of its H200 chips to China by mid-February. Micron Technology climbed
around 4%, while Oracle advanced
more than 3%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.11%
and is on pace for a fourth straight day of gains.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was flat, while
the broad-based Topix gained 0.56%, led by financials and healthcare stocks.
On Tuesday, Japan’s Finance Minister
Satsuki Katayama reportedly said the country had a “free hand” in
dealing with the yen’s recent sharp depreciation, signaling a currency
intervention was not off the table.
The yen weakened sharply on
Friday, despite the Bank of Japan raising interest rates to a 30-year high,
hitting a low of 157.77 against the dollar before strengthening on Monday and
Tuesday. It was last trading at 156.27.
Katayama said that the Japanese currency’s
fluctuations do not reflect economic fundamentals, describing them as
“speculative.”
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.43%, but the
small-cap Kosdaq slipped 0.79%. Shares of shipbuilding firm Hanwha Ocean surged
10% after U.S. President Donald Trump said the company was going to
work with the U.S. Navy to build its new frigates.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.1%,
while mainland China’s CSI 300 was up 0.35%.
Chinese newcomers lit up the Hong Kong
market on their debut Tuesday, with QingSong Health Corporation and Nuobikan
Artificial Intelligence Technology jumping 134% and 323%, respectively, after
their strong albeit small IPOs.
QingSong Health Corporation’s Hong Kong
IPO was met with overwhelming demand, with the domestic tranche subscribed
1,421 times, according to its exchange filing, raising nearly 602 million Hong
Kong dollars (about $77 million). Nuobikan, saw its Hong Kong public tranche subscribed 188.74 times,
raising HK$303 million.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore will release
its November inflation reading, with economists polled by Reuters expecting the
city-state’s inflation rate to climb to the highest in 2025.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 gained 0.64%,
posting its third positive day in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced
0.47%, and the Nasdaq
Composite climbed 0.52%.
Asia markets mostly climb after AI trade lifts Wall Street overnight
Gold hits record high on safe-haven demand; silver
climbs to new peak
By Sherin
Elizabeth Varghese December 23, 2025
5:34 AM GMT
Dec 23 (Reuters) - Gold soared to a record
high on Tuesday, coming within a whisker of breaching the $4,500-per-ounce
level, as investors flocked to the safe-haven metal on U.S.-Venezuela tensions,
while silver also rallied to a fresh peak.
Spot gold was up 0.8% at $4,479.18 per
ounce, as of 0527 GMT, after hitting a record $4,497.55 earlier in the day.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery jumped 1% to $4,511.50.
"U.S.-Venezuelan tensions are keeping
gold on the radar for investors as an uncertainty hedge," said Tim
Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, adding that gold had surged this
week as part of a broader positioning shift with U.S. interest rates projected
to ease further.
Waterer said buyers continued to see
precious metals as an effective way to diversify portfolios and preserve value,
adding that "I don't think we are at the high watermark yet for gold or
silver."
U.S. President Donald Trump last week
announced a "blockade"
of all oil tankers under sanctions entering and leaving Venezuela.
Further support for gold came from reports
that Trump could name a new Federal Reserve Chair by early January, with
markets pricing in two rate cuts for next year amid expectations of a more
dovish policy stance.
Bullion, a classic refuge in times of
geopolitical and economic unease, has surged more than 70% this year, riding a
potent mix of geopolitical risks, rate-cut bets, central bank buying,
de-dollarisation and renewed exchange-traded fund inflows.
"With year-end approaching, thinner
liquidity conditions could amplify price swings," said Frank Walbaum, a
market analyst at Naga, noting that gold might remain especially sensitive to
geopolitical headlines and shifts in rate expectations.
Spot silver was up 0.5% at $69.39 after
touching a record $69.98, with its year-to-date gains topping 141% and outpacing
gold on supply deficits, industrial demand and investment inflows.
Michael Brown, a senior strategist at
Pepperstone, said some consolidation was possible over the festive period as
liquidity thinned.
He, however, said the rally should resume
in earnest once volumes returned, with the $5,000 level a natural target for
gold next year and the $75 mark a longer-term objective for silver.
Spot platinum jumped 1.9% to $2,165.67,
its highest in more than 17 years, while palladium rose 1.9% to a three-year
high of $1,792.51, tracking strength in gold and silver.
Gold
hits record high on safe-haven demand; silver climbs to new peak | Reuters
In other news.
Why the chocolate in your holiday candy could be
‘fake’ this year
Published Sun, Dec 21 2025 6:02 PM EST
If you’re unwrapping chocolate this
holiday season, it might not contain any actual cocoa.
Market turbulence, ethical concerns and
sustainability questions have sparked a movement among some chocolate makers to
scrap cocoa in favor of alternative ingredients — prompting calls that the real
deal could soon become a “luxury” for consumers.
Market upheaval
Poor agricultural conditions in Ghana and
Cote d’Ivoire — the world’s leading cocoa producers — have damaged crop yields
in recent years, sending cocoa prices on a rollercoaster
ride.
After surging to all-time highs of more than $12,000 toward the end of last
year, cocoa futures have tumbled
more than 50% over the course of 2025 amid tentative signs of crop recovery.
Price volatility has left businesses in
the industry on edge, and it’s ultimately found its way into consumer goods,
with data from Circana and the U.S. Bureau for Labor Statistics showing
chocolate prices surged 30% in the
year to October.
In its third-quarter earnings
report, Mondelez
International —
the maker of Cadbury, Milka and Toblerone — flagged “volatility of cocoa” and
its “ability to effectively hedge against” related cost pressures as potential
problems that could derail the company from meeting its financial targets.
As manufacturers grapple with that
unpredictability, some are opting to reduce their exposure to the cocoa market
by shaking up their ingredient mix.
Earlier this year, a change to the
composition of McVitie’s Club and Penguin candy bars made waves in the U.K.,
when it was reported that the products could no longer be referred to as
chocolate. Both products must now
be labeled “chocolate flavored,” after parent company Pladis cut the
cocoa content in a bid to reduce costs.
‘Real’ chocolate becoming a luxury
Pladis declined to comment on whether the
changes had impacted sales when contacted by CNBC.
However, according to
Massimo Sabatini, co-founder and CEO of Italian startup Foreverland, a
move away from cocoa is gaining traction among international confectioners, so
much so that it could become the norm to see “fake” chocolate used in more budget-friendly
products. Foreverland uses carob, pumpkin seeds, and chickpeas to produce a
chocolate-like product that’s sold to companies producing confectionery, baked
goods, and ice creams.
“In the chocolate space there are many
products, from [bars] to products in which cocoa is not really the protagonist
but a participant,” he told CNBC, referring to goods like cookies, chocolate
flavored cereal and chocolate-coated snacks. “I believe the alternative
chocolate will substitute this big market, while [pure chocolate bars] will be
more and more a luxury product.”
Sabatini pointed to the recent Dubai
chocolate trend to
illustrate his point, noting that some of these chocolate bars were selling for
as much as 80 euros ($93.09) per kilogram.
″[The chocolate market] is already going
in this direction,” he argued.
More
Why the chocolate
in your holiday candy could be ‘fake’ this year
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Stagflation
will derail one of the biggest drivers of the stock market rally next year,
Apollo's top economist says
20
December 2025
A
top economist is back with a stagflation warning.
Torsten
Sløk,
the chief economist at Apollo Global Management, said he believes stagflation is still one
of the biggest risks facing the Federal Reserve next year, even as investors
breathe a sigh of relief after a light November inflation print.
That
risk is jeopardizing a key source of fuel for the stock market rally: the
prospect of more rate cuts.
"I
still think that stagflation is a risk
because there's still some headwinds coming, especially if AI does not
deliver," Sløk said, pointing to the downside risks to growth and upside
risks to consumer prices heading into the new year.
"Given
that inflation is very sticky and now has the risk of going up over the next
six months, then the key issue for the FOMC becomes: can we even cut in that
environment?" he later added.
Stagflation, which is often
referred to by market pundits as one of the worst-case scenarios for the
economy, describes a situation where growth remains sluggish while inflation
remains elevated. That's a difficult combo for policymakers to respond to, as
hot inflation prevents the Fed from cutting
interest rates to
boost economic growth.
On
paper, things seem to be moving in the opposite direction. GDP is expected to
have expanded a robust 3.5% over the third quarter, according to Atlanta Fed
economists, while inflation cooled to a 2.7% year-over-year pace, per the November
CPI report.
But
the US's vulnerability to stagflation is real,
Sløk suggested. He pointed to the risk that AI firms will start to slow their
spending on the technology, or that the billions they've already poured into AI
won't produce the returns investors are expecting.
Meanwhile,
the ISM Services Prices Index, one forward-looking inflation indicator, clocked
in at 65.4% in November, well within expansionary territory.
Central
bankers also seem to be worried about stagflation, Sløk said. The number of
FOMC members who said they believed the risks to inflation and unemployment
were skewed to the upside far outnumbered those who said they believed risks
were skewed to the downside, he wrote in a note to clients this week.
"In
other words, the Fed continues to forecast stagflation and is concerned that we
in 2026 may experience rising
inflation and
rising unemployment at the same time," Sløk wrote.
"The
bottom line is, in the next six months, and especially when we get to April,
we'll begin to see some fairly meaningful risks that inflation is still
going to be elevated," he later told CNBC.
The
outlook for rate cuts looks dim heading into the new year. The probability that
the Fed will trim rates another 25 basis points in January ticked up following
the November CPI report, but investors are largely expecting the central bank
to keep rates steady at its next policy
meeting,
with the odds of a cut at the March meeting at just 45%, per the CME FedWatch
tool.
Covid-19
Corner
This
section will continue only occasionally when something of interest occurs.
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported.
This solvent-free process makes graphene both conductive and easy
to disperse
December 21, 2025
Graphene has dazzled scientists for
years with its extreme strength, thinness, and ability to carry electrical
current with almost no resistance. However, outside the laboratory, this
miracle material has remained stubbornly difficult to use.
The main reason is not cost or
performance, but chemistry. Graphene clumps
together instead of spreading evenly through liquids or plastics, making it
hard to turn into coatings, inks, or composites.
Attempts to fix this problem usually
ruin what makes graphene special in the first place, i.e., its conductivity. A
new study shows that this long-standing trade-off is not inevitable.
By using mechanical force and a common
amino acid, researchers have demonstrated a way to make graphene both electrically active and easy to process, and that too without
toxic chemicals, extreme heat, or high environmental costs.
Our “method could achieve a high yield (∼80%) under ambient temperature and pressure, with
significantly lower energy demand than conventional approaches,” the
researchers note.
Grinding graphite into something smarter
The central challenge researchers faced
was balancing two opposing needs. Graphene must interact with surrounding
materials to disperse well, but modifying its surface too aggressively breaks
the network of electrons that allows electricity to flow.
Nitrogen atoms offer a clever solution
because they can introduce polarity without destroying conductivity. However,
most nitrogen-doping techniques are far from practical. Some rely on
furnaces hotter than 760°C, others on
pressures comparable to deep-sea environments, and many involve hazardous
compounds such as hydrazine or melamine.
Even newer mechanical approaches still
depend on unsafe nitrogen sources or energy-intensive post-treatment steps. The
Monash University team took a different route. Instead of heat or solvents,
they relied on mechanochemistry, where chemical reactions are driven by
physical impacts.
In a rotating planetary ball mill,
graphite flakes were mixed with potassium hydroxide and glycine, a simple amino acid found
in living organisms. The milling ran at 400 revolutions per minute for 20
hours, all at room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure.
As the hard balls inside the mill
collided with the graphite, the material was repeatedly fractured and peeled
apart into thin graphene sheets. At the same time, potassium hydroxide
activated glycine by stripping a hydrogen atom from its amino group.
“This one-pot process enables
simultaneous exfoliation and nitrogen incorporation, producing pyrrolic,
graphitic, and pyridinic functionalities, delivering a unique balance of
conductivity (30% of Graphite powder) and long-term dispersibility in a range of
solvents (up to one month) rarely achieved through conventional
functionalization methods,” the study authors note.
The method produced an 80 percent yield,
which is unusually high for solid-state graphene processing, with a nitrogen
content of about 2.3 percent. The presence of graphitic nitrogen is
particularly important because it supplies extra electrons, helping preserve
electrical conductivity.
More
This solvent-free process makes graphene both conductive and easy to
disperse
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
“Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He
looked out.
The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless
haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's
Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none
were free”.
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.
Baltic Dry Index. 2023 -48 Brent Crude 61.18
Spot Gold 4440 Spot Silver 68.78
US 2 Year Yield 3.48 +0.02
US Federal Debt. 38.439 trillion US GDP 31.656 trillion.
The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
John Kenneth Galbraith
It is nearly Christmas and the stock casinos and commodity markets are edgy. Normally in a holiday shortened trading week, in thin trading conditions it’s easy to dress up the stock casinos higher, but supposing President Trump chooses Christmas to invade Venezuela driving oil prices higher?
And what if the AI circular investment scheme unravels?
Look away from soaring gold and silver now.
Asia-Pacific markets trade higher as investors
assess China’s key lending rate decision
Published Sun, Dec 21 2025 6:34 PM EST
Asia-Pacific markets climbed Monday as
investors parsed China’s central bank’s decision to keep its loan prime rates
steady.
The People’s Bank of China kept its 1-year
and 5-year loan prime rates unchanged at 3% and 3.5% respectively, holding them
for a seventh straight meeting, in line with a Reuters survey. The one-year
rate influences most new and outstanding loans, while the five-year benchmark
affects mortgages.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.55%,
while the mainland CSI 300 advanced 0.55%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.54%
in early trade.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.58%, while
the Topix was 0.86% higher. The Bank of Japan raised its policy rate by 25
basis points to 0.75% —a three-decade high— last Friday.
South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.83% and the
small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.99%.
Last Friday in the U.S., stocks rose for a
second winning day, boosted by Oracle,
as the artificial intelligence trade regained its footing after experiencing
volatility.
Oracle shares were up 6.6% after
TikTok agreed
to sell its U.S. operations to a new joint venture that includes the
software giant and private equity investor Silver Lake.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.31%,
closing at 23,307.62. The S&P
500 added 0.88% to close at 6,834.50. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced
183.04 points, or 0.38%, and settled at 48,134.89.
Asia-Pacific
markets: Nifty 50, Hang Seng Index, Nikkei 225, China LPR
Stock futures rise as traders look ahead to
holiday-shortened week: Live updates
Updated Sun, Dec 21 2025 6:16 PM EST
U.S. stock futures rise on Sunday night
ahead of a shortened holiday week, as traders deliberate whether tech can
regain its footing before the year’s end.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose
by 83 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.2%
and 0.3%, respectively.
Wall Street is coming off a mixed week for
the major averages. A late-week surge in tech stocks helped lift the S&P
500 and Nasdaq Composite to their third winning week in four, up 0.1% and 0.5%,
respectively. The 30-stock Dow, which has outperformed this month, fell 0.7%,
snapping a three-week winning streak.
Artificial intelligence stocks enjoyed a
resurgence last week after their recent underperformance. Shares of Oracle, a
major laggard, jumped after TikTok agreed to sell its U.S. operations to a
new joint
venture that includes the software giant and private-equity firm
Silver Lake. Nvidia also made a comeback.
However, investors are watching to see
whether AI stocks can retain their leadership heading into the year-end,
especially as investors rotate into cheaper parts of the market amid concerns
about lofty tech valuations. There’s also doubt about whether a “Santa Claus
rally” will materialize, as the S&P 500 struggles to hold a key technical
level.
“My view a couple of weeks ago was an end
of year grind,” said Justin Bergner, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds. “And I
think that’s become an end of year churn.”
The New York Stock Exchange will close
early on Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve and will be closed Thursday
for Christmas Day.
Stock
market today: Live updates
Oil up on news the US intercepted an oil tanker
off Venezuela
December 22, 2025 4:35 AM GMT
SINGAPORE, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Oil prices
rose on Monday after officials said the U.S. had intercepted an oil tanker in
international waters off the coast of Venezuela, raising fresh supply
uncertainty.
Brent crude futures rose 46 cents, or
0.8%, to $60.93 per barrel by 0400 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate
crude climbed 46 cents, or 0.8%, to $56.98.
"The market is waking up to the fact
that the Trump administration is taking a hardline approach to the Venezuelan
oil trade," said June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta
Commodities.
"Oil prices have thus been supported
by this geopolitical news alongside the simmering Russian-Ukraine tensions in
the background in an otherwise very bearish market fundamentally," said
Goh.
The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an
oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, in what would be the second
such operation over the weekend and the third in less than two weeks if
successful, officials told Reuters on Sunday. The White House did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
A rebound in oil prices has been sparked
by geopolitical developments starting with U.S. President Donald Trump's
announcement of a "total and complete" blockade on sanctioned
Venezuelan oil tankers and subsequent developments there, followed by reports
of a Ukrainian drone strike on
a Russian shadow fleet vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, IG analyst Tony
Sycamore said.
"The market is losing hope that the
U.S.-brokered Russia-Ukraine peace talks will reach a lasting agreement any
time soon," he said.
"These developments are helping to
offset ongoing oversupply concerns, and combined with the false break lower
last week which has caught the market on the wrong foot, the balance of risks
is very close to shifting back toward the upside in crude oil."
Brent and WTI fell about 1% last week
after dropping about 4% in the week of December 8.
More
Oil
up on news the US intercepted an oil tanker off Venezuela | Reuters
Data center deals hit record $61 billion in 2025
amid construction frenzy
Published Fri, Dec 19 2025 4:15 AM EST Updated
Fri, Dec 19 2025 5:59 AM EST
Global data centers dealmaking surged to
hit another record high this year, driven by a rush to build out the
infrastructure required for energy-intensive AI workloads.
That surge came even as investors grew
increasingly wary of inflated artificial intelligence valuations and the
financing underpinning the rapid expansion of data centers. Global stocks sold off in November
as worries of an AI-fueled bubble persisted.
But S&P Global reported that more than
$61 billion has flowed into the data center market this year, up slightly from
$60.8 billion last year, amid what it called a “global construction frenzy.”
A surge in debt financing contributed to
the record high as hyperscalers increasingly tap private equity markets rather
than funding the expensive infrastructure themselves.
That trend has sparked concerns from some
investors as they question the value
of the advanced tech that
data centers house.
Shares of cloud company Oracle fell 5% on Wednesday
following a report that Blue Owl Capital was pulling out of
a deal to
back a $10 billion data center in Michigan. Oracle has denied the report,
but Broadcom, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices retreated
after it was published. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.81%
in its worst day in nearly a month.
Iuri Struta, TMT analyst at S&P
Global Market Intelligence, said his team expects market concerns around AI and
Oracle to be temporary and unlikely to have a “massive impact” on data center
buildout and M&A in the near future.
“The competitive dynamic among frontier AI
model providers, like OpenAI, Alphabet and Anthropic, is changing quickly, and
this can have an impact on investor sentiment in public markets. But overall,
we see demand for AI applications continuing to grow strongly in 2026.”
Despite the recent pullback in AI stocks,
many analysts remain bullish on the sector. ING expects secular trends to point
to healthy investment levels in 2026 driven by AI advancements and growing
public and private support for digital innovation.
More
Data center deals
hit record amid AI funding concerns grip investors
Fed’s Hammack says there’s no need to change
interest rates for months, WSJ reports
Published Sun, Dec 21 2025 8:11 AM EST Updated
Sun, Dec 21 2025 8:22 AM EST
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
President Beth Hammack said she saw no need to change U.S. interest rates for
months ahead after the central bank cut borrowing costs at its last three
meetings, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
Hammack opposed recent
rate cuts as she is more worried about elevated inflation than the
potential labor-market fragility that prompted officials to lower rates by a
cumulative 75 basis points over the past few months, the report added.
Hammack told the Journal that the Fed
didn’t need to change its benchmark interest rate, currently in a range between
3.5% and 3.75%, at least until the spring.
By then, Hammack said, it would be able to
better assess whether recent goods price inflation was receding as U.S.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs
are more fully digested through the supply chain, the report said.
Hammack said that November’s
consumer price index of 2.7% probably understated 12-month price
growth due to data distortions, the report added.
“My base case is that we can stay here for
some period of time, until we get clearer evidence that either inflation is
coming back down to target or the employment side is weakening more
materially,” Hammack told the Journal in a podcast interview recorded on
Thursday, citing inflation concerns.
Speaking at an event in Cincinnati earlier
this month, Hammack said she wanted to focus on high inflation and that she
would prefer monetary policy to be tighter.
Hammack said the current policy rate was
right, around a neutral level, but would prefer a slightly more restrictive
stance to help put more pressure on inflation.
Hammack will be a voting member of the
FOMC next year, which oversees important decisions regarding monetary policy
and interest rates.
Fed
Hammack says no reason to change interest rates for months
In other news.
Nine of the largest pharma companies ink deals
with Trump to lower drug prices
Published Fri, Dec 19 2025 2:32 PM EST Updated
Fri, Dec 19 2025 5:14 PM EST
Several of the largest U.S. and
European-based drugmakers inked deals with President Donald Trump on Friday
to voluntarily
sell their medications for less, as his administration pushes to link the nation’s
drug prices to
cheaper ones abroad.
That includes Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Amgen, Gilead, GSK, Sanofi, Roche’s Genentech, privately-held Boehringer
Ingelheim and Novartis. In exchange, the
companies agreed to a three-year grace period during which their products won’t
face Trump’s planned pharmaceutical-specific tariffs — as long as the
drugmakers further invest in U.S. manufacturing.
Among the most notable pledges on Friday
is that Bristol Myers Squibb will offer Eliquis, its blockbuster blood thinner
and top-prescribed product, for free to Medicaid.
The companies make up the majority of the
17 drugmakers Trump sent letters to in July, calling on them to lower prices as
part of his “most favored nation” policy. Trump signed an executive
order in
May to revive that policy, calling for prices to be increased outside of the
U.S. and to “end global freeloading.”
“As of today, 14 out of the 17 largest
pharmaceutical companies ... have now agreed to drastically lower drug prices
for … the American people and the American patients,” Trump said at an event on
Friday. “This represents the greatest victory for patient affordability in the
history of American health care, by far, and every single American will
benefit.”
Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and Regeneron are the
remaining companies among the largest that haven’t signed drug pricing deals.
But Trump noted that Johnson &
Johnson “will
be here next week.”
How the drug pricing deals will work
The full terms of the deals were not
immediately released, which makes it unclear how broad their impact will be.
The nine drugmakers agreed to take
measures to reduce U.S. drug prices, including selling their existing
treatments to Medicaid patients at the lowest “most favored nation” prices, and
guaranteeing that pricing for new medicines. Trump said the drugmakers also
agreed to list their most popular drugs on his upcoming direct-to-consumer
website, TrumpRx, which is launching in January.
Some companies also launched new or
expanded existing direct-to-consumer offerings for certain drugs. For example,
Gilead said in a release that it will launch a program that will enable
patients to access its hepatitis C treatment and cure, Epclusa, at a discounted
price.
Sanofi said it will offer discounts of
nearly 70% on certain medicines to treat infections and cardiovascular and
diabetic conditions on TrumpRx and other direct-to-consumer platforms.
Merck said it will offer three diabetes
medications, Januvia, Janumet and Janumet XR, at a roughly 70% discount to
cash-paying patients through a direct-to-patient program. That program will be
extended to the company’s experimental daily cholesterol pill if it gets
approved in the U.S., according to the company.
More
Nine pharma
companies ink deals with Trump to lower drug prices
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
US
coffee drinkers face higher prices even after Trump's tariff reset
December
19, 20252:17 PM GMT
LONDON,
Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. coffee lovers hoping President Donald Trump's tariff
rollbacks last month will soon lower the cost of their daily caffeine hit had
better think again.
The
widespread import tariffs imposed by Trump mostly over the summer, which
included top coffee producers such as Brazil, boosted the price of raw coffee
beans. But the added costs are mostly still filtering through supply chains and
have yet to reach consumers, according to brokers, traders and industry
experts.
High
U.S. retail coffee prices have, in other words, been driven mostly by last
year's coffee bean supply shortages, which spurred a doubling in raw bean
prices in the 12 months to March.
"Most
of the (retail) price increases we've seen so far are not in response to
tariffs. (They're) associated with the record high (raw bean) market that we've
been in since last year," said independent coffee analyst Christopher
Feran.
Feran
and other industry experts estimate it takes at least nine months for raw bean
prices to filter through to coffee drinkers, partly due to roasting times and
price negotiations, meaning it could be well into next year before prices
retreat.
Coffee
drinkers in the U.S., the world's biggest coffee consumer, will have to swallow
higher prices for longer. And the White House will have a tricky job trying to
cool food inflation before the U.S. 2026 November midterms.
Trump,
under pressure from Democratic wins in New Jersey, New York and Virginia linked
to voter frustration
over rising food prices, last month rolled back "reciprocal"
tariffs of between 10-41% on over 200 food
items that
cannot easily be grown in America, such as coffee.
He
also exempted non-native food items from an additional 40%
tariff on imports from Brazil, which supplies the U.S. with around a
third of its beans.
'COFFEE
PRICES RISE MORE QUICKLY THAN THEY FALL'
Raw
bean prices account for at least 40% of the cost of producing a bag of roast
and ground coffee. They rose sharply last year as the market was unable to
bounce back from three seasons of production deficit linked to adverse weather.
Most
industry experts expect a coffee production surplus in the current and upcoming
2025/26 and 2026/27 October to September seasons which should, alongside the
tariff removal, soften raw bean prices and eventually feed through to U.S.
consumers.
But
this will take time, analysts say, because U.S. roasters typically hold about
two to three months' worth of bean stocks on average and need another two to
three months to roast and package their products.
They
also tend to negotiate prices with retailers only on a quarterly basis.
In
other words, very little of the 18.8% rise in U.S. retail coffee prices in the
year to November is due to tariffs.
And
the near 35% rise in raw bean prices between August and November when most of
Trump's tariffs were in place, is still to hit coffee on supermarket shelves.
Also, since Trump's tariff reversal, raw bean prices have fallen just 6%.
More
US coffee drinkers face higher
prices even after Trump's tariff reset | Reuters
Covid-19
Corner
This
section will continue only occasionally when something of interest occurs.
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported.
2025
officially a record year for UK solar power generation
The
amount UK power generated by solar this year has surpassed previous records by
some margin, according to official new figures.
Published 19th December 2025
The new findings show a 30% rise in
energy generation from the sun alongside other records this year, based on data
supplied by the National Energy System Operator (NESO).
An estimated 18,314GWh of solar
electricity was generated in 2025, smashing the previous record of 14,067GWh in
2024, according to NESO’s historic generation mix and carbon intensity
dashboard.
Solar Energy UK (SEUK) says the steady
growth of solar energy in the UK has significantly contributed to the country’s
electricity grid supplies having their second lowest carbon intensity ever this
year – averaging only 125g of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour, down from a
peak of 444g recorded 16 years ago.
The surge was also helped by the UK
recording 1,622 hours of sunshine over the 12 months to December – the highest
amount since official Met Office records began in 1910.
The new figure smashes the previous high
of 1,587 hours recorded in 2003. Scotland saw its second sunniest year in 2025,
while Wales recorded its sixth. Meanwhile, sunshine in Northern Ireland was
well above the long-term average.
The leap in solely generation is also
attributed to an 18% surge in capacity in 2025 – jumping from 20.2GW to around
23.8GW by the end of the year.
Approximately 650MW of installed
capacity is projected from distributed small-scale systems on residential
rooftop installations, while an additional 450MW is anticipated from
medium-scale deployments on commercial and industrial building rooftops.
Utility-scale ground-mounted solar farms
are expected to contribute to around 2.5GW of capacity.
Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of Solar
Energy UK, says the market is “now supplying six times more hydropower, more
than half of the output from nuclear, and a quarter of the power generated from
natural gas”.
He added: “With capacity set to rise to
almost 60GW over the coming decade, we are guaranteed to see records tumble
each year, putting the nation on course for cheaper, cleaner power.”
Other 2025 records suggest solar power
is rapidly becoming the cheapest form of energy in the UK. A report, published
by standards body the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), showed the
number of smaller-scale solar rooftop installations surpassed an annual record
of 203,125 that had remained since 2011, based on 250,000 reported
installations.
More
2025 officially a record year for UK solar power generation - edie
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just
the opposite.
John Kenneth Galbraith
