Silly Season.

Baltic Dry Index. 1197 -03   Brent Crude 50.18

LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000.  Revised due to QE programs.

Common sense is not so common.

Voltaire.

We are deep into the 2015 silly season, and this year the silly season seems to have taken hold in US stock markets. Today we can proudly announce the return of the Bull Market in Hopium. Bull in every nuance of the word. Below, US stocks rebounded since Google, in a Carteresque moment, is going to reinvent itself as Alphabet, swapping one silly name for another, rather like when President Carter in a moment of silliness, swapped his hair parting from one side of his head to the other. Apple saw gains from short covering.  Berkshire Hathaway saw who knows what in Precision Castparts.

In commodities, copper rallied due to El Nino rains in Chile threatening disruption in some copper mines. Oil rebounded from short covering, likely triggered by Chinese oil imports hitting a record in July as prices slumped.

Below, Bloomie on yesterday’s action in the gambling dens.

S&P 500 Jumps Most in Three Months as Bonds Slip; Google Climbs

August 9, 2015 — 11:47 PM BST Updated on August 10, 2015 — 10:21 PM BST

U.S. stocks rose the most since May amid corporate deals and some push back in commodities. Gains in raw materials from crude oil to copper revived speculation over accelerating inflation, sending Treasuries lower.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 1.3 percent by 4 p.m. in New York, erasing last week’s losses in its steepest climb since May 8, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average halted its longest slide since 2011. The Bloomberg Commodity Index jumped the most since February, as U.S. oil advanced 2.5 percent and copper rallied 2.6 percent. Ten-year Treasury yields rose seven basis point to 2.23 percent. Google Inc. surged after hours on plans to change its corporate structure.

U.S. stocks rebounded after concern over global growth sparked a selloff last week targeting some of the bull market’s biggest winners. Commodities advanced from a 13-year low, with a recovery in Chinese imports bolstering crude, while Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said stubbornly slow U.S. inflation won’t persist with the economy near full employment.

----Google shares climbed more than 5 percent in extended trading after the company said it will separate its search, YouTube and other web companies from its research and investment divisions. All the businesses will be included under a new holding company called Alphabet, Google said in a blog post Monday. Larry Page will be Alphabet’s chief executive officer and co-founder Sergey Brin will be president.

The S&P 500 dropped 1.3 percent last week while the Dow posted its longest losing streak in four years. The broader index began its recovery after touching its average price for the past 200 days, and closed Monday above the 50-day average.

A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. measure of the most-shorted stocks rallied 2.6 percent Monday for its best day since February as many of last week’s biggest decliners reversed losses. Apple Inc., which had entered a correction after plunging 13 percent from its recent high, climbed 3.6 percent.

Energy producers surged 3.1 percent after the group capped its 14th straight weekly decline amid plunge in oil prices. Crude on Monday climbed from its lowest settlement price in almost five months in New York as Chinese oil imports rose to a record in July.

Materials stocks climbed 2.5 percent, the most this year, as copper rallied from a six-year low. Torrential rains in Chile halted work at some of the world’s biggest mines, easing concerns over a surplus in production. The metal has lost 16 percent this year on prospects for rising global output and slower demand in China, the biggest user.

More

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-09/copper-pulls-back-with-kiwi-on-china-asia-stock-futures-decline

Buffett pays high price for Precision Castparts

Mon Aug 10, 2015 7:42pm EDT

Warren Buffett is paying a hefty price for the biggest bet of his career as his Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) has agreed to buy Precision Castparts Corp (PCP.N), valuing the maker of aerospace and other parts at $32.3 billion.

The purchase is Berkshire's largest, and accelerates its transformation from a company largely dependent on insurance businesses into one resembling the broader U.S. economy, including a railroad, several industrial companies, utilities, a car dealership and consumer goods businesses.

It also joins several recent Buffett forays into unglamorous sectors, including a big stake Kraft Heinz Co (KHC.O) and the pending takeover of the Duracell battery business from Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N).

Berkshire has said it owned 3 percent of Precision Castparts prior to Monday's takeover. Precision Castparts earned $1.53 billion in its latest fiscal year.

"I'm not crazy about paying $30 billion for a $1.5 billion earnings stream of a cyclical company supplying airplane makers," said Jeff Matthews, a principal at hedge fund Ram Partners and author of a book about Buffett. "I'd keep the $30 billion and wait for the next crisis."

Known for buying undervalued and often unloved companies, Buffett acknowledged paying a steep price for Precision Castparts, which has been hurt by falling oil and gas prices.

More

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/10/us-precision-cast-m-a-berkshire-hatha-idUSKCN0QD0LD20150810

In currency war news, China ruined the day for Japan and Germany. As China’s exports and imports slump, China moved yesterday to make exports cheaper and imports dearer.  Retaliation for Uncle Scam and lackey Abe blocking the Yuan at the IMF? What, if anything will it do for China’s rigged stocks?

China moves to devalue the yuan

Published: Aug 10, 2015 10:12 p.m. ET

BEIJING — China’s central bank moved to devalue its tightly controlled currency Tuesday as the world’s second-largest economy continues to sputter.

In an apparent effort to blunt criticism over China’s exchange-rate policy, the People’s Bank of China took the step with an eye toward making the yuan’s value more market-based: the midpoint, or fixing, will now be based on how the yuan closes in the previous trading session. Until now, the fixing had been entirely determined by the central bank itself.

As a result, the yuan’s fixing was lowered 1.9% Tuesday from the previous day.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-moves-to-devalue-the-yuan-2015-08-10-221031211

U.S. dollar rises as China devalues yuan

Tue Aug 11, 2015 12:21am EDT

The U.S. dollar lurched higher on Tuesday as China allowed its yuan to fall to levels last seen in 2012, a shift that could provide a competitive boost to exports for the world's second-largest economy.

Asian stocks turned mixed as investors weighed the implications of the surprise move, which seemed to end months of officially sanctioned yuan strength.

China's central bank set the midpoint for its currency at 6.2298 per dollar CNY=SAEC, down from Monday's fix of 6.1162, and said it was aiming for a depreciation of 2 percent.

Markets reacted by selling the Australian dollar, often used as a liquid proxy for the Chinese currency. The Aussie AUD=D4 sank to $0.7314, compared with $0.7430 ahead of the news.

Other currencies in the region also lost ground to the U.S. dollar as investors reasoned they would need to fall to keep exports competitive with China.

---- In commodity markets, the shift in Beijing's currency policy could be seen as a negative in the very near term as a lower yuan makes resources more expensive to Chinese buyers.

Three-month copper futures CMCU3 were off 0.7 percent, although that followed a sharp rally on Monday.

Oil also eased back from Monday's highs. Brent crude LCOc1 was quoted 41 cents lower at $50.00 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLc1 eased 44 cents to $44.53.

More

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/11/us-markets-global-idUSKCN0QG00F20150811

And so on to today in silly season. Will Germany put in a bid for Greece?

If anything can go wrong, it will.

Murphy’s Law.

At the Comex silver depositories Monday final figures were: Registered 55.83 Moz, Eligible 116.27 Moz, Total 172.10 Moz. 

Crooks and Scoundrels Corner

The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.

Today, Chancellor Merkel gets Merkelled in Germany.

German youth to create new verb 'to Merkel,' meaning to dither or to do nothing

"Merkeln," a new verb meaning to do nothing or fail to make decisions is to enter the German language

By Justin Huggler, Berlin 6:13PM BST 06 Aug 2015

Angela Merkel may be about to add yet another triumph to her glittering career and enter the German language with a word of her own.

Merkelling looks set to be named as the Youth Word of the Year by the publishers of the famous Langenscheidt dictionary.

Merkeln, or “to Merkel”, is currently leading a national poll organised by the publishers to choose the best neologism coined by young people in 2015.

It is, however, not entirely complimentary to the German Chancellor.

The publishers’ website gives the definition of Merkelling as “to do nothing, make no decisions, express nothing of yourself”.

It seems that German youth is less than enamoured of Mrs Merkel’s famously non-committal style of politics.

An arch-pragmatist, Mrs Merkel is known for preferring to react to events rather following any political ideology.

“She has a strong value of freedom, and everything else is negotiable,” one of her opponents, Katrin Göring-Eckardt of the Green Party, once said of her.

And one of Mrs Merkel’s own advisors told a former US ambassador: “The Chancellor’s long-term view is about two weeks”.
More

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11788216/German-youth-to-create-new-verb-to-Merkel-meaning-to-dither-or-to-do-nothing.html

Solar  & Related Update.

With events happening fast in the development of solar power, I’ve added this new section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC energy mankind’s future from the 21^st century onwards? DC? A quantum computer next?

August 05, 2015

KYOCERA Solar Lights Up Arco Metropolitano, Brazil's Largest Solar-Powered Highway

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL--(eSolarEnergyNews)--Kyocera Corporation and Kyocera Solar, Inc. announced today that Kyocera is completing Brazil’s largest highway solar-lighting project on the Arco Metropolitano do Rio de Janeiro, a highway project connecting the five main highways crossing Rio de Janeiro. Slightly more than half of the 145-kilometer highway will be lit at night by stand-alone solar streetlights powered by Kyocera solar modules, installed by Soter over the last two years with funding from the Rio de Janeiro State Government.

This enormous transportation initiative is helping to streamline transit logistics, improve traffic and reduce importing costs throughout the region — especially for industries such as petrochemicals, which export from the Port of Itaguaí. Improved transportation is expected to stimulate economic growth in this rural region, which was not easily accessible in the past.

The 3.2MW (DC) solar lighting project encompasses more than 4,300 solar-powered, free-standing streetlights, which are expected to produce 2.8GWh of solar energy per year. That’s equivalent to the amount of power used by approximately 1,527 average homes and equal to the carbon dioxide emissions that 1,583 acres of forest would offset. According to a World Energy Outlook Report from 2013, almost 45% of Brazil’s primary energy demand is met by renewable energy, making Brazil’s energy sector one of the least carbon-intensive in the world.

“Kyocera continues to be dedicated to solar solutions that are helpful in rural areas,” said Sergio Beninca, President of Kyocera Solar do Brasil. “This solar lighting project helps contribute by not overburdening the energy grid system that many lower-income households in the area depend on.”

“From preliminary reports, the Brazilian government expects Arco Metropolitano to provide 16,000 jobs to the region and generate US$90 million in tax revenue from sales tax generated at the municipal and federal levels, while bringing together parts of the country that were not easily accessible before,” Beninca continued. “Utilizing solar power allows the Brazilian government to deliver reliable light on the highway in areas without a traditional electricity grid. We’re honored to deliver a simple, energy-efficient solution to help advance this very important project for Brazil.”

The Kyocera Solar Streetlight Kit, available now, includes: one 150W LED lamp, three solar modules (Kyocera KD250), four 240Ah/ 12Vcc batteries, one controller (TS-MPPT-45/ 48Vcc), one photocell, and one pole with mounting structures.

http://www.esolarenergynews.com/2015/08/kyocera-solar-lights-up-arco.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FNrBn+%28Solar+Energy+News%29

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished July

DJIA: +88 Down. NASDAQ: +189 Down. SP500: +116 Down.