Baltic Dry Index. 1222 -27 Brent Crude 52.57
"We
will not have any more crashes in our time."
John
Maynard Keynes, leading British economist, in 1927
Run, do not walk to
the nearest bunker. President Trump threatens to use the nuclear option, but
not on North Korea. On the US government and the USA itself, and next month,
too. China just told Uncle Sam, you want
a trade war, we’ll give you a trade war! Wall Street’s dodgy, gambling,
rent-seeking, banksters warn that winter’s all but here. We are just one long
bank holiday away from entering stock market crash season.
Asian stock gamblers
think all this doesn’t matter. Stick around another week or two or three. We
are about to find out if it does.
"There
may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a
crash."
Irving
Fisher, leading U.S. economist, New York
Times, Sept. 5, 1929
August 24, 2017 / 1:48 AM
Asia stocks brush off Wall St. slide after Trump's comments, dollar recovers
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks and the dollar edged up on Thursday, shaking off the risk aversion that gripped financial markets overnight after President Donald Trump threatened to shut down the U.S. government and end the North American Free Trade Agreement.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.4 percent.
Japan's Nikkei .N225
pulled back 0.1 percent, with steelmakers slumping after the Nikkei business
daily reported that Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T)
was looking to cut the price of steel supplied to component makers in the
October-March period.
That is the result of lower rates, already agreed for the
six months through September with steelmakers such as Nippon Steel &
Sumitomo Metal Corp. Four of the five biggest decliners on the index were
steelmakers.
Chinese stocks .CSI300
.SSEC
were down about 0.3 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI
jumped 0.45 percent.
South Korea's KOSPI .KS11
added 0.4 percent and Australian stocks gained 0.25 percent.
Trump said at a Tuesday night rally in Arizona that he would
be willing to risk a government shutdown to secure funding for a wall along the
U.S.-Mexico border. Those comments came ahead of a late-September deadline to
raise the U.S. debt ceiling or risk defaulting on debt payments.
More
Dow just logged its longest streak without a gain of at least 1% in 10 1/2 years
Published: Aug 23, 2017 4:30 p.m. ET
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday marked its longest streak without a
gain of at least 1% in more than a decade, according to WSJ Market Data Group.
The Dow DJIA, -0.40%
hasn't posted a rise of at least 1% since April 25, when it rallied 232 points
or 1.1%. Its failure to do so on Wednesday, marks the 84th trading day without
such an advance, the longest since an 102-session streak ended March 2007. The
Dow narrowly missed a 1% gain in Tuesday's nearly 200-point rally--its
best one-day gain in four months.
Overall, Wall Street stocks ended lower
as investors fretted that comments made by President Donald Trump at a rally of
supporters late Tuesday in Phoenix suggest that he is willing to let a looming
government shutdown happen in autumn. The Dow closed off 0.4% at 21,812, the
S&P 500 index SPX, -0.35%
was off 0.4% at 2,444, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.30%
closed off 0.3% at 6,278. --Ken Jimenez contributed to this report
Wall Street Banks Warn Winter Is Coming as Business Cycle Peaks
By Sid Verma and Cecile Gutscher
22 August 2017, 17:47 GMT+1 23 August 2017, 09:48 GMT+1
HSBC Holdings Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley see mounting evidence
that global markets are in the last stage of their rallies before a downturn in
the business cycle.Analysts at the Wall Street behemoths cite signals including the breakdown of long-standing relationships between stocks, bonds and commodities as well as investors ignoring valuation fundamentals and data. It all means stock and credit markets are at risk of a painful drop.
“Equities have become less correlated with FX, FX has become less correlated with rates, and everything has become less sensitive to oil,” Andrew Sheets, Morgan Stanley’s chief cross-asset strategist, wrote in a note published Tuesday.
His bank’s model shows assets across the world are the least correlated in almost a decade, even after U.S. stocks joined high-yield credit in a selloff triggered this month by President Donald Trump’s political standoff with North Korea and racial violence in Virginia.
Just
like they did in the run-up to the 2007 crisis, investors are pricing assets
based on the risks specific to an individual security and industry, and
shrugging off broader drivers, such as the latest release of manufacturing
data, the model shows. As traders look for excuses to stay bullish, traditional
relationships within and between asset classes tend to break down.
---- For Savita Subramanian, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy, signals that investors aren’t paying much attention to earnings is another sign that the global rally may soon run out of steam. For the first time since the mid-2000s, companies that outperformed analysts’ profit and sales estimates across 11 sectors saw no reward from investors, according to her research.
“This lack of a reaction could be another late-cycle signal, suggesting
expectations and positioning already more than reflect good results/guidance,”
Subramanian wrote in a note earlier this month.
More
August 24, 2017 / 3:48 AM
China says will use all necessary means to defend interests against U.S. trade probe
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will use all necessary means to defend the
interests of the country and its companies against a U.S. trade investigation,
a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.
The ministry on Monday expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with
the U.S. launch of the probe into China's alleged theft of U.S. intellectual
property, calling it "irresponsible".
The probe is the Trump administration's first direct measure against
Chinese trade practices, which the White House and U.S. business groups say are
bruising American industry.
"We will take all the necessary measures to resolutely defend the
interests of China and Chinese firms" in the face of the unilateral U.S.
actions, commerce ministry official Gao Feng told reporters at a regular news
conference.
Gao also said that China's support for overseas investment by Chinese
firms will not change, but that oversight of deals will increase and projects
related to China's Belt and Road initiative will be given priority.
China's cabinet released guidelines to manage overseas investments, with
certain sectors encouraged and others restricted or banned outright.
Mergers and acquisitions by Chinese companies in countries linked to the
Belt and Road initiative have been growing at a rapid rate, even as the government
takes aim at China's acquisitive conglomerates to restrict capital outflows.
More
"This
crash is not going to have much effect on business."
Arthur
Reynolds, Chairman of Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, October 24, 1929
We close for the day
with Brexit news. With Barnier and Juncker seemingly wanting a no deal Brexit,
are UK auto buyers starting to switch to buying British, ahead of future higher
import duties on European vehicles and parts? If they are and it becomes a
trend, the rump-EUSSR’s metal bashing auto makers are heading for a massive pile
up.
Below, anti-Brexit
Reuters spins the large jump in UK car output just as normal. The extreme left wing, anti-Brexit, anti-British
BBC Fake News headline:
“Brexit Fears Reduce UK
Auto Output Rise to just 7.8 percent in July.”
August 24, 2017 / 12:11 AM
UK car output reverses downward trend with 7.8 percent rise in July
LONDON (Reuters) - British car production rose by an annual 7.8 percent
in July as manufacturers boosted output ahead of the key selling month of
September, an industry body said on Thursday, reversing the downward trend
recorded in recent months.
Factories churned out 136,397 vehicles, according to the Society of
Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the first year-on-year increase since
March.
Exports, which account for around 80 percent of output, rose 5.3 percent
while cars destined for the home market surged by 17.7 percent, the first
increase since November.
September is one of only two occasions each year when a new licence
plate series is issued and accounts for around 20 percent of total sales.
"UK car production lines stepped up a gear in July, as usual
bringing forward some production to help manage demand ahead of September and
routine summer factory shutdowns," SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes said.
"As the timing and length of these manufacturing pauses can shift
each year, market performance comparisons for July and August should always be
treated with caution," he said.
More
“I
wonder what Juncker is doing," thought the BBC’s Head of Fake News.
"I wish I were there to be doing it to the British people, too.”
With
apologies to A.A. Milne, and Winnie-the-Pooh
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
No crooks or bent politicians today, more of them
tomorrow. Today, all about Halifax, Yorkshire, refurbishment and regeneration
of one of Yorkshire’s most important architectural historical buildings. A
square Roman Coliseum. Yet another reason, among so many, to visit England’s
largest county.
YORKSHIRE’S
MOST IMPORTANT SECULAR BUILDING
The Grade I listed Piece Hall, Halifax is a rare and precious
thing, an architectural and cultural phenomenon which is absolutely unique. It
is the sole survivor of the great eighteenth century northern cloth halls, a class
of buildings which embodied the vital and dominant importance of the trade in
hand woven textiles to the pre-industrial economy of the West Riding of
Yorkshire, from the Middle Ages through to the early nineteenth century.
Dating from 1779, when it was built as a Cloth Hall for the trading of
‘pieces’ of cloth (a 30 yard length of woven woollen fabric produced on a
handloom), The Piece Hall was the most ambitious and prestigious of its type
and now stands in splendid isolation as the only remaining example. It is
one of Britain’s most outstanding Georgian buildings.
It is impossible to overstate the scale and importance of this trade,
not just to the history of Halifax and the West Riding, but to the nation as a
whole over some 800 years between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries.
When it was built, The Piece Hall was a highly visible statement of the
great wealth, pride and ambition of the cloth manufacturers. Although built for
trade, it also embodied the most cultured sensitivities of the Enlightenment;
these bluff northern manufacturers deliberately chose a design for their
building which adapted the neo-classical orders of architecture derived
originally from the Romans.
From its inception, The Piece Hall was a stunning combination of
commerce and culture, an icon of hard business but also a broader statement
about the history, the lives and the values of its surrounding community. This
fascinating mix of purpose and idealism – business, arts and people, continues
to influence and drive The Piece Hall’s role today. A direct link back over
almost a quarter of a millenium of history.
The development is one of the most significant and high profile heritage projects to have happened in the UK
Extensive works were undertaken to sensitively and expertly conserve the
Grade I listed building. The project also included new elements in the creation
of a heritage and learning visitor attraction with high quality interpretation
and learning spaces, a new extension to the east wall to include restaurants
and conferencing facilities, and a redesigned accessible courtyard that will
house events and festivals in a year round programme creating a twenty-first
century town square.
The Piece Hall is a unique and special place that demands a high quality
and expert finish. While work on the project moved forward, as might be
expected with the age and complexity of such a building, there were challenges
along the way. The works were completed in July 2017, with the building fully
reopened in the August with shops, cafes and events.
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?
The story of how discarded orange peels turbocharged a Costa Rican forest
Rich
Haridy August 22, 2017
Sixteen years after a controversial biodegradation plan allowed 1,000
truckloads of orange peels to be unloaded onto a barren, deforested area of
Costa Rican land, a team of Princeton researchers has discovered unexpectedly
positive results. The area that was covered with orange waste is now a lush,
overgrown forest with richer soil and more tree species than the adjacent land
that was untreated.
The Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) is a World Heritage-listed and
government-managed conservation area in northwestern Costa Rica. In the early
1990s, it was discovered that a large-scale orange plantation was being
established on one of the ACG's borders in order to sustain a new orange juice
manufacturing plant called Del Oro.
In 1996, two ecologists from the University of Pennsylvania, who had
worked for many years with the ACG, had a radical suggestion. What if the
organic waste from the orange juice factory could be recycled to accelerate the
reforestation of some barren spaces in the conservation area?
A deal was signed and the orange juice company dumped 12,000 metric tons
of orange pulp and peels onto a three-hectare stretch of former cattle pasture.
Many newly designated conservation areas in the ACG suffer from rocky,
nutrient-poor soils due to the prominent history of overgrazing and fire-based
land management in the region. The hope was that this plan would be the perfect
synergy between industry and conservation.
The initial results were positive, yielding rich black soils and a
variety of multi-species broadleaf herbs. A follow-up deal was struck between
ACG and Del Oro, with ACG agreeing to take 1,000 truckloads of orange waste a
year for 20 years.
But all was not well in the competitive orange juice business in Costa
Rica.
A rival orange juice company, Ticofruit, was not happy with the deal
between the government and its competitor, so it launched a court case against
Del Oro, claiming this dumping of orange waste was "sullying a national
park." Despite the fact that the original deal was actually between the
government and Del Oro, Ticofruit's lawsuit went all the way to the country's
Supreme Court and politics ultimately prevailed over common sense.
Ticofruit won the lawsuit, and the court determined the deal between ACG
and Del Oro must be terminated. Progress on the initiative halted, and the land
strewn with orange peels was left alone, untouched for the following 15 years.
Fast forward to 2013 and Timothy Treuer, a graduate student at Princeton
was on the hunt for research topics. In his talks with one of the original
ecologists who worked on the ACG project it was suggested that a follow-up
study on the effects of the orange peel on the land had never been properly
done. So Treuer went to visit the site and was stunned by what he found.
"It was so completely overgrown with trees and vines that I
couldn't even see the 7-foot-long sign with bright yellow lettering marking the
site that was only a few feet from the road," says Treuer. "I knew we
needed to come up with some really robust metrics to quantify exactly what was
happening and to back up this eye-test, which was showing up at this place and
realizing visually how stunning the difference was between fertilized and
unfertilized areas."
More
...for,
as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions
remain
under EUSSR rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours
that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man
gives up but with life itself.
The People’s
Declaration of Brexit June 24th 2016, with apologies to the
Declaration of Arbroath April 6th 1320.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished July
DJIA: 21,891 +207 Up. NASDAQ: 6,348 +250 Up. SP500: 2,470 +171 Up.
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