Baltic Dry Index. 900 +12 Brent Crude 49.06
“I've read hundreds of books about China over the decades. I
know the Chinese. I've made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese
mind.”
Donald J. Trump, The Art of
the Deal.
It is the summer slow season, aka the silly season, and like a dog chasing its tail, Asian stocks followed US stocks higher again. This time spurred on by China’s scripted GDP figures slightly beating the script. Everyone knows how this latest bubble ends, just not when, or why, or from what tulipmania level. “Icebergs? What icebergs?”
Below, the latest news from Asia and China.
“China
is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese.”
Charles de Gaulle
July 17, 2017 / 1:53 AM / an hour
ago
Asia shares rise on strong China GDP, accommodative Fed view
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks set a fresh two-year high on Monday, boosted by stronger-than-expected economic growth in China and bets that lacklustre U.S. data will keep the Federal Reserve cautious about the pace of further policy tightening.
Chinese blue-chips recouped steep early losses after data
showed the world's second-largest economy grew at a slightly faster than
expected pace of 6.9 percent in the second quarter, thanks to robust industrial
output, retail sales and exports.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS extended earlier gains to climb 0.4 percent after the buoyant
China readings. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
Australian shares , which started the day in negative
territory, were 0.1 percent higher, while South Korea's KOSPI .KS11
jumped 0.4 percent.
By midday in China, the CSI 300 .CSI300 was 0.2 percent higher, after slumping as much as 2.2 percent earlier. The Shanghai Composite .SSEC narrowed earlier losses of as much as 2.6 percent to trade 0.1 percent lower.
Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG in Singapore, said the
market fell initially after news at the weekend that President Xi Jinping wants
to create a new cabinet-level committee to coordinate financial oversight,
sparking concerns of further policy tightening.
Asian markets also rode the updraft from a strong Wall
Street performance on Friday.
----The chances of a Fed rate hike in December fell to 43.1 percent after the data came out from 55 percent late on Thursday, according to the CME Group's Fedwatch tool.
More
China Economic Expansion Exceeds Estimates on Factory Rebound
Bloomberg NewsKey Points
- Gross domestic product increased 6.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 6.8 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, matching the pace of expansion in the first quarter
- Industrial output rose 7.6 percent in June from a year earlier, compared with an estimated 6.5 percent increase
- Fixed-asset investment climbed 8.6 percent in the first half of this year, versus a median forecast of 8.5 percent gain
- Retail sales jumped 11 percent from a year earlier in June, compared with a median estimate of 10.6 percent in a Bloomberg survey
"It shows that Beijing’s financial deleveraging was well-timed and
carefully targeted not to have much spillover on the real economy," said
Rob Subbaraman, chief economist for Asia ex-Japan at Nomura Holdings Inc. in
Singapore. "Fiscal stimulus remains an important driver of growth. It’s
also encouraging to see more signs of rebalancing with the pickup in retail
sales growth."
More
July 17, 2017 / 2:43 AM / 9
minutes ago
Oil prices rise on strong China demand, signs of U.S. output slowdown
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday, supported by a slowdown
in the growth of rigs looking for crude in the United States and because of
strong refinery demand from China.
Brent crude futures were at $49.10 per barrel at 0454 GMT, up 18 cents,
or 0.4 percent, from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $46.70 per
barrel, up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent.
Both benchmarks extended gains from strong performances last week.
Analysts said the rising prices were a result of strong demand as well
as signs that a relentless climb in U.S. oil production was slowing.
----U.S. drillers added two oil rigs in the week to July 14, bringing the total to 765, Baker Hughes said on Friday.
While that is the highest level since April 2015, the rate of additions
has slowed. New rigs over the past four weeks averaged five, the lowest since
November 2016.
----Chinese refineries increased crude throughput in June to the second highest on record, with some independent plants raising output even as state oil majors prepare to take drastic steps to cut production during the peak summer season.
Throughput last month hit 46.08 million tonnes, or 11.21 million barrels
per day (bpd), a 2.3-percent rise from a year ago and up from May's 10.98
million bpd, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on
Monday.
The number was just short of December's record high of 11.26 million
bpd.
More
July 16, 2017 / 10:07 AM / 20
hours ago
U.S.-China trade talks sputtering at 100-day deadline
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Bilateral talks aimed at reducing the U.S.
trade deficit with China have yielded some initial deals, but U.S. firms say
much more needs to be done as a deadline for a 100-day action plan expires on
Sunday.
The negotiations, which began in April, have reopened China's market to
U.S. beef after 14 years and prompted Chinese pledges to buy U.S. liquefied
natural gas. American firms have also been given access to some parts of
China's financial services sector.
More details on the 100-day plan are expected to be announced in the
coming week as senior U.S. and Chinese officials gather in Washington for
annual bilateral economic talks, rebranded this year as the "U.S.-China
Comprehensive Economic Dialogue."
"We hope to report further progress on the 100-day deliverables
next week," a U.S. Commerce Department spokesman said on Saturday.
"That will be the basis for judging the extent of progress."
The spokesman declined to discuss potential areas for new agreements
since a May 11 announcement on beef, chicken, financial services and LNG.
Earlier in April, when Chinese President Xi Jinping met U.S. President
Donald Trump for the first time at his Florida resort, Xi agreed to a 100-day
plan for trade talks aimed at boosting U.S. exports and trimming the U.S. trade
deficit with China.
More
We close on China today,
with President Xi consolidating his power, and removing potential rivals ahead the
19th Communist Party Congress due to be held in October or November
this year. Below, sunset for Chongqing’s Sun Zhengcai. Is it any wonder that
China’s GDP figures always meet or exceed the script?
Downfall of Chinese Rising Star Points to Xi Power Play
By Ting Shi and Keith Zhai
16 July 2017, 22:41 GMT+1
The fall from grace of a rising star in China’s Communist Party sheds
light on how a reshuffle of the country’s top officials may play out under the
leadership of President Xi Jinping later this year.
Sun Zhengcai, 53, the youngest member of the ruling Politburo, was
replaced Saturday as party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing.
He is under investigation for violating party regulations, according to four
officials with knowledge of the matter.
The officials said they attended a municipal meeting in Chongqing on
Sunday, where they were told by a senior local party member that Sun severely
damaged the party’s interests. The officials, who asked not to be identified
because the discussions were private, said they were urged to eliminate Sun’s
influence and were told that senior local officials committed serious mistakes
under Sun’s guidance. The officials said they were also exhorted to follow the
instructions of the central leadership and President Xi’s teachings.
Sun’s downfall underscores Xi’s dominance ahead of a party congress that
will set the tone for his second five-year term as president, analysts said.
Sun’s age and rank had positioned him to advance to the Politburo’s smaller,
supreme Standing Committee at the upcoming party congress. That could have set
up him for a top leadership post after 2022.
-----The 19th Party Congress is expected to be held in the final quarter of the year and will mark the halfway point for Xi’s presumed term in power. Based on recent retirement conventions, he and Premier Li Keqiang are the only ones on the seven member Standing Committee expected to stay on.
Amassing Power
The president has been amassing power ahead of the reshuffle. Xi was given the status of “core leader" at a party conclave last October, a significant semantic change in China’s elite politics, which has for more than three decades stressed collective leadership. And he’s undertaken a sweeping crackdown on graft in the party.That could give him the opportunity to fill the party’s top positions with allies. Sun was replaced by his longtime associate Chen Miner, 56, who was party chief of the southwestern province of Guizhou.
The shakeup in Chongqing comes before an annual meeting of party elites in the seaside resort of Beidaihe -- expected to be held in early August -- which will review key decisions ahead of the party congress.
More
“The
Master said, “The gentleman understands what is right, whereas the petty man
understands profit.”
Confucious.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Not the usual suspects today. Today southern Europe
is facing a drought disaster. But what will it mean for European food prices
later in 2017, and how much of a drag will it be on southern Europe’s already
weak economy?
“Our future begins on January 1, 1999. The euro is Europe’s key to the
21st century. The era of solo national fiscal and economic policy is over.”German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, December 31, 1998
July 14, 2017 / 5:42 PM / 2 days
ago
One of worst droughts in decades devastates South Europe crops
ROME/MADRID (Reuters) - Italian durum wheat and dairy farmer Attilio
Tocchi saw warning signs during the winter of the dramatic drought to come at
his holding a mile away from the Tuscan coast.
"When it still hadn't rained at the beginning of spring we realized
it was already irreparable," he said, adding that he had installed fans to
try and cool his cows that were suffering in the heat.
Drought in southern Europe threatens to reduce cereal production in
Italy and parts of Spain to its lowest level in at least 20 years, and hit
other regional crops including olives and almonds.
Castile and Leon, the largest cereal growing region in Spain, has been
particularly badly affected, with crop losses estimated at around 60 to 70
percent.
"This year was not bad, it was catastrophic. I can't remember a
year like this since 1992 when I was a little child," said Joaquin Antonio
Pino, a cereal farmer in Sinlabajos, Avila.
Pino said many of his fields had not even been harvested, because crop
revenues would not cover the wages of laborers who gathered them.
While the EU is collectively a major wheat exporter, Spain and Italy
both rely on imports from countries including France, Britain and Ukraine.
----Spain and Italy are also among the world's top producers of olive oil.
Production in both countries is expected to fall, but the decline is
likely to be particularly steep in Italy, where drought is the latest headache
for olive growers already plagued by insects and a bacterial disease in
recent years.
A 60 percent drop in Italian output is forecast by the
International Olive Council.
"We expected good production this year, but it hasn't turned out like
that," said Francesco Suatoni, who tends about 4,000 olive trees on
the fringe of the ancient town of Amelia, in Umbria, central Italy.
Holding up a branch with small, shriveled pods on it he added:
"Each little ball could have been an olive, but it's scorched.
"This year we expect to produce 50 percent less than last year.
Let's hope not, but it will be very difficult to have a good crop."
Other crops have been damaged, and Italy's agricultural association
Coldiretti has estimated the drought could cost the nation's farmers more
than 1 billion euros.
"The drought is affecting, to a greater or lesser extent, all crops
in Spain, even those that rely on greenhouses, because there's a limit on the
amount of water available," said Jose Ugarrio, analyst at the Spanish
young farmers' association.
The production of nuts such as almonds and pistachios has also fallen
sharply.
"We expect a 23 pct drop in almond production this year from last
year," Ugarrio said.
More
“The euro is a sickly premature infant, the result of an over-hasty
monetary union.”German Opposition leader Gerhard Schröder, March 1998
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this 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?
Indian Railways launches first solar-powered diesel electrical multiple unit train
Indian Railways today launched first solar-powered DEMU (diesel
electrical multiple unit) train from the Safdarjung railway station in Delhi.
The train will run from Sarai Rohilla in Delhi to Farukh Nagar in Haryana. A
total of 16 solar panels, each producing 300 Wp, are fitted in six coaches.
The cost of these solar panels, manufactured under 'Make in India' initiative, is Rs 54 lakh. This is the first time in the world that solar panels are being used as grid in railways.
The cost of these solar panels, manufactured under 'Make in India' initiative, is Rs 54 lakh. This is the first time in the world that solar panels are being used as grid in railways.
In last year's railway budget, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had announced
that railways would generate 1,000 MW of solar energy in the next five years.
Solar-powered DEMU trains are part of this plan. "Indian Railways is
committed to promote clean and renewable energy," Prabhu said during the
launch of the train.
Ravindra Gupta, Member (Rolling Stock), Railway Board, said solar power
would be introduced first in urban trains and later in long-distance trains as
well.
The railways are planning to introduce nearly 50 more such coaches in the coming days.
The railways are planning to introduce nearly 50 more such coaches in the coming days.
Nearly Rs 700 crore will be saved by Indian Railways annually once the
full project is implemented, according to Ravinder Gupta, the CEO of Indian
Railways Organisation for Alternative fuel.
He said that railways could save 5.25 lakh litres of diesel per such a
train in 25 years. The railways will be able to save Rs 3 crore per train in
the same period. The solar power will help in reducing 1,350 tonnes of carbon
dioxide emission per train in 25 years.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/indias-first-solar-power-train-launched/articleshow/59592199.cms
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished June
DJIA: 21,350 +196 Up. NASDAQ: 6,140 +235 Up. SP500: 2,423 +166 Up.
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