Baltic Dry Index. 445 -22 Brent Crude 34.52
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
The old believe everything, the
middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
Oscar
Wilde
The Great China
Stock Market Rig is back. In a
spectacular U-turn, the Chinese stock market “circuit breaker” system that came
into force on Monday is scrapped. Gone too is the ending of the restriction on
large holders of Chinese stock (5% or more,) from selling. Quote: "The
‘national team’ will probably continue to buy stocks significantly to stabilize
the market." Look for the New York Fedster’s team of riggers and fix-its
to be heavy buyers today, if not all day at least in the closing hour. The
global economy is going to be saved by rigging stock markets once again for the
benefit on bankster, Ebenezer Squid, and the one percenter’s. Release poor Mr Madoff,
he was only a privateer Fedster. What could possibly go wrong?
Below, what passes
for “normality” in the ending of the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money,
communist money. The benefits of fiat were all front loaded and long ago
dissipated in louche lifestyle, socialist bribes to voters and campaign
contributors, and most of all perpetual wars. Today’s lifestyle will be paid
for by tomorrow’s serfs. Tomorrow will not be like today which was like
yesterday.
“The
more the state "plans" the more difficult planning becomes for the
individual.”
Friedrich
Hayek
China Stocks Extend Rebound as State Funds Said to Buy Equities
January 8, 2016 — 1:28 AM GMT Updated on January 8, 2016 — 5:47 AM GMT
Chinese stocks gained in volatile trading after the government suspended
a controversial circuit breaker system, the central bank set a higher yuan fix
and state-controlled funds were said to buy equities.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 3 percent at 1:34 p.m. local time,
after falling as much as 2.2 percent earlier. Regulators removed the circuit
breakers after plunges this week closed trading early on Monday and Thursday.
The central bank set the currency’s reference rate little changed Friday after
an eight-day stretch of weaker fixings that roiled global markets.
State-controlled funds purchased Chinese stocks on Friday, focusing on
financial shares and others with large weightings in benchmark indexes,
according to people familiar with the matter.
“The scrapping of the circuit breaker system will help to stabilize the
market, but a sense of panic will remain, particularly among retail
investors," said Li Jingyuan, general manager at Shanghai Bingsheng Asset
Management. "The ‘national team’ will probably continue to buy stocks
significantly to stabilize the market."
While
China’s high concentration of individual investors makes its stock-market
notoriously volatile, the extreme swings this year have revived concern over
the Communist Party’s ability to manage an economy set to grow at the weakest
pace since 1990. The selloff has spread around the world this week, sending
U.S. equities to their worst-ever start to a year and pushing copper to the
lowest levels since 2009.
More
China's Stock Market Is Hardly Free With Circuit Breakers Gone
January 8, 2016 — 12:40 AM GMT Updated on January 8, 2016 — 2:08 AM GMT
China’s removal of market-wide circuit breakers after just four days
still leaves investors facing plenty of restrictions in how they trade.
A 10 percent daily limit on single stock moves and a rule preventing
investors from buying and selling the same shares in a day remain in force.
Volume in what was once the world’s most active index futures market is minimal
after authorities curtailed trading amid a summer rout, making it more
difficult to implement hedging strategies. Officials unveiled curbs Thursday on
share sales by major stockholders just a day before an existing ban was due to
expire. And the activity of foreign investors is limited by quotas, given
either to asset managers or to users of the Hong Kong-Shanghai exchange link.
More
China Woes Send Traders Running From Germany's Once-Mighty DAX
January 8, 2016 — 12:00 AM GMT
You know things are bad for German stocks when even Greece is beating
them.
The DAX Index has tumbled 7.1 percent this week through Thursday,
posting one of the worst drops among developed markets and its biggest slump
since the China-led rout in August. The German measure closed below 10,000 for
the first time since October, just after completing a fourth straight year of
advances.
Here’s how bad it’s been and why:
More
Oil prices move away from 12-year lows as China shares rise
Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Friday, following China shares
higher after Beijing deactivated a circuit breaker mechanism that was blamed
for aggravating equity market crashes, although a persistent global crude
surplus kept a lid on gains.
Oil prices plunged to 12-year lows in the previous session after China
allowed its yuan currency to slip, sending stock markets tumbling globally.
Beijing then suspended equities trading as the sharp falls triggered the
circuit-breaking mechanism for a second time since its introduction this week.
"As Chinese equity markets started to recover today, the oil prices
rallied much altogether," said Kang Yoo-jin, commodities analyst at NH
Investment and Securities based in Seoul.
---- Tracking this, Brent LCOc1 rose 58 cents to $34.33 a barrel by 0327 GMT (10.27 p.m. ET Thursday), near an intraday high of $34.72. It was about $2 away from Thursday's $32.16, a level last seen in 2004.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 was up 64 cents at $33.91 a
barrel. In the prior session, it hit its lowest since late 2003 at $32.10.
More
In other news, Dirty Diesel cheat Volkswagen might have to
buy back all the pollution cheating vehicles it can’t fix. But what about all
that pollution they deliberately created and are still creating in our heavily
polluted and stressed cities?
VW, BMW Shares Tumble as China's Woes Put Growth Under Threat
January 7, 2016 — 9:47 AM GMT
Shares in Volkswagen AG, BMW AG and Daimler AG tumbled as China’s woes put
growth plans at risk.The German carmakers were among the biggest losers in the European market, leading the Euro Stoxx autos and parts index to its lowest level since October 2015. Volkswagen, already reeling from the emissions-cheating scandal, fell 4.9 percent. BMW shares dropped 5 percent, and Daimler, the parent of Mercedes-Benz, slid 4.8 percent.
“The massive devaluation of the Chinese currency is currently seen as the single biggest threat to the global economy and the reason for panic selling,” Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst with Evercore ISI, said in a report. He estimates that a 20 percent drop in the yuan’s value will equate to a loss of about 5.5 billion euros ($6 billion) in the combined profit of the German automakers.
China, the world’s biggest auto market and the largest buyer of German autos, halted stock trading after less than 30 minutes following a selloff after the central bank cut its yuan reference rate by the most since August.
The move raises concerns that the slowdown in Asia’s biggest economy is deeper than official data suggest. Billionaire investor George Soros said China is transferring problems to the rest of the world.
The auto industry relied on Chinese consumers to weather downturns in the U.S. and Europe following the global financial crisis in 2008. China also plays a key role in expansion plans for PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Peugeot was down 5.2 percent and Fiat Chrysler fell 3.4 percent.
More
VW Weighs Buyback of Thousands of Cars in Talks With U.S.
January 8, 2016 — 12:15 AM GMT Updated on January 8, 2016 — 12:56 AM GMT
Volkswagen AG may buy back tens of thousands of cars with diesel engines
that can’t be easily fixed to comply with U.S. emissions standards as part of
its efforts to satisfy the demands of regulators, according to two people
familiar with the matter.Negotiations between the German automaker and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are continuing and no decisions have been reached. Still, a buyback would be an extraordinary step that demonstrates the challenge of modifying vehicles that were rigged to pass emission tests.
VW has concluded it would be cheaper to repurchase some of the more than 500,000 vehicles than fix them, said the people, who declined to be cited by name because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. One person said the number of cars that might be bought back from their owners totals about 50,000, a figure that could change as talks continue.
"We’ve been having a large amount of technical discussion back and forth with Volkswagen,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Thursday, when asked about the possibility of VW having to buy back some vehicles. “We haven’t made any decisions on that.”
McCarthy told reporters after an event in Washington Thursday that VW’s proposals to bring its cars into compliance with emissions standards have so far been inadequate.
“We haven’t identified a satisfactory way forward,” McCarthy said. The EPA is “anxious to find a way forward so that the company can get into compliance,” she said.
VW is continuing talks with U.S. authorities and working toward a solution, said Eric Felber, a company spokesman. He declined to comment on details of the discussions.
The models in question aren’t the oldest ones, the so-called Generation 1 cars, the people said. Volkswagen’s U.S. chief, Michael Horn, said in October that those models would be the most complicated to bring into compliance.
McCarthy is scheduled to meet with Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller at his request on Jan. 13 in Washington -- the day before the California Air Resources Board is scheduled to publicly respond to VW’s proposed repairs. Mueller will be making his first visit to the U.S. as VW’s CEO next week.
More
Capitalism is the astounding belief that
the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest
good of everyone.
John
Maynard Keynes
At the Comex silver depositories Thursday final figures were: Registered 36.50 Moz, Eligible 124.72 Moz, Total 161.22 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today, yet another missing Chinese Billionaire. I
wonder how many they’ve got and how many they can afford to lose?
If this is the way China treats its
billionaires, she doesn’t deserve to have any.
With apologies to Oscar Wilde,
prisoner C. 3.3 and Her Majesty’s prisoners everywhere.
Another Chinese billionaire goes missing
Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai, additional reporting by Jackie
Cai
07 January, 2016
The billionaire founder of Metersbonwe, one of China's best-known fashion brands, has
gone missing, the latest in a series of Chinese business people and financiers
apparently ensnared in the country's anti-corruption campaign.Metersbonwe suspended trading in its shares on the Shenzhen stock exchange on Thursday while the company said it was investigating reports in the Chinese media that Zhou Chengjian, its chairman, had been picked up by police.
The company is a household name on the Chinese high street and Mr Zhou was China's 65th-richest man last year, according to the Hurun Rich list, with a fortune of Rmb26.5bn ($4.01bn).
The company said in a second statement on Thursday night that it was
unable to reach Mr Zhou or the secretary of the board, Tu Ke. The statement
gave no further details.
Mr Zhou is the latest high-profile private sector businessman believed
to have been caught up in probes, and his disappearance follows the detention
last month of Guo Guangchang of the conglomerate Fosun, which owns Club Med.
Mr Guo went missing for several days and was later reported by his
company to be assisting authorities with an unspecified investigation. Sources
close to the company later said he was not a target of that investigation.
Until recently, the mainland private sector had been largely spared in
the Chinese Communist party's anti-corruption drive. Mr Guo's detention
therefore sent shockwaves through China's business community.
Dozens of government officials, state-owned company officials and
financial industry executives have also been investigated or detained in recent
months.
Mr Zhou, a former tailor who became rich after founding one of China's
first nationwide fashion brands, went bankrupt twice before he was 18, but
repeatedly relaunched businesses until he was successful.
More
Some cause happiness wherever they go;
others whenever they go.
Oscar
Wilde
Solar & Related Update.
With events
happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this
new section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable
cheap AC or DC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century
onwards? DC? A quantum computer next?
£1m solar energy storage project unveiled
Jan 07, 2016
Plans to develop a new £1 million energy storage facility in the UK have
been unveiled.
It will involve the installation of a 640kWh battery system at a 1.5MW
solar park in Somerset, which will be connected to Western Power Distribution’s
(WPD) power network.
WPD is carrying out the project, funded by Ofgem’s Network Innovation
Allowance, alongside British Solar Renewables (BSR) and the National Solar
Centre.
The battery will be built and supplied by UK-based renewable energy firm
RES.
The industrial-scale project will investigate the technical and
commercial feasibility of linking a batter storage facility, a solar park and
the electricity network.
Jenny Woodruff, WPD’s Innovation and Low Carbon Networks Engineer said:
“Finding an economical way to store renewable energy will provide security of
energy supply from renewable sources. It will ensure renewables aren’t wasted
as in this case it will allow solar energy to be stored and accessed when
required.”
WPD delivers electricity to around 7.8 million customers in the
Midlands, South West England and South Wales.
Graphene sieves deuterium from hydrogen
6 January 2016 Jon Cartwright
Materials composed of a single
layer of atoms, such as graphene, can
separate hydrogen and deuterium more effectively than almost any other process.1
That is the conclusion of scientists in the UK, who believe the new sieves
could slash production costs for deuterium for nuclear power generation and
research.
Deuterium – a heavier isotope of hydrogen containing a neutron in addition to a proton – is widely used in the nuclear industry. Combined with oxygen to make ‘heavy’ water, it is used in fission reactors to slow down emitted neutrons. It is also used in prototype fusion reactors, where deuterium ions are fused with ions of tritium (hydrogen with two neutrons) and helium-3, among others.
In heavy water form, deuterium is present in very small quantities in the Earth’s oceans, but is not especially easy to extract. The production of heavy water normally begins with the energy intensive Girdler sulfide process, which typically enriches seawater to about 20% heavy water through a loop reaction with hydrogen sulfide. Nuclear-grade heavy water is at least 99% pure so further processing steps that include electrolysis, which is again energy intensive, or distillation, which is very slow, are needed.
Atom-thick membranes, according to chemists and physicists at the University of Manchester, could extract deuterium more quickly and efficiently. In 2014, the researchers surprised theorists by demonstrating that hydrogen nuclei could permeate graphene and a structurally similar material, boron nitride, with the help of a small applied voltage.2 Now they have gone one step further, by showing that the two-dimensional sheets have a preference for passing common hydrogen nuclei over those of deuterium, and tritium too.
The researchers’ measurements show that graphene and boron nitride exhibit an isotope enrichment factor of about 10 for heavy water mixed with normal water. That is in contrast to the Girdler sulfide process, which has an enrichment factor of about two to three, up to 10 for electrolysis or a little over one for distillation. The preference of the graphene and boron-nitride sieves for hydrogen over deuterium is thought to be due to hydrogen’s greater vibrational energy, which allows it to ‘jump’ over the materials’ energy barriers.
Chemical engineer Karl Johnson at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, US, calls the isotope enrichment demonstration a ‘very significant achievement’, but believes the sieves would be more useful if they worked the other way around – that is, preferring deuterium over hydrogen. That way, he says, you would only need a little electrical energy to transport the relatively small amount of deuterium across the sieve, rather than a lot of energy to transport the much greater amount of hydrogen.
Even so, Irina Grigorieva, a member of the Manchester group, says that the energy cost of graphene or boron nitride-based isotope separation ought to be at least 10 times lower than most other methods.
More
Have a great weekend everyone. Check with the weekend update.
If economists could manage to get
themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists,
that would be splendid.
John
Maynard Keynes
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished December
DJIA: +18 Down. NASDAQ:
+110 Down. SP500: +36 Down.
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