Baltic Dry Index. 1371
+10 Brent
Crude 62.62
I'm plain incapable of getting
angry with Angela Merkel and likewise.
Donald Tusk European Council President.
For more on a man is
a dog’s best friend, and diamonds, scroll down to Crooks Corner. No crooks
today, just dogs, and none of the Wall Street or political variety.
Today we open with Bad
News Monday. Some days you just wonder why you got out of bed, as Chancellor
Merkel and Zimbabwe dictator Mugabe said yesterday. In wealth and jobs
destroying dying Euroland, reform just got even further away.
Below, the iffy start
to a US shortened Thanksgiving Day trading week.
Jean-Claude
Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro
Group of
Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. European Commission President. Scotch
connoisseur.
November 20, 2017 / 12:54 AM
Asia stocks falter as weakness in China markets dim mood
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares eased on Monday, with investor sentiment hurt by a retreat on Wall Street and sliding Chinese stocks, while the euro skidded after German coalition talks hit an impasse.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS extended losses and was down 0.2 percent.
Australian shares were down 0.1 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average .N225 was 0.6 percent lower.
China stocks fell sharply after Beijing set sweeping new
guidelines to regulate asset management products. Analysts said that could
dampen investor appetite for riskier assets.
The Shanghai Composite index .SSEC was
down 0.8 percent, while China's blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300
fell 0.7 percent.
“The new guideline is not the last shoe to drop, or the last
piece of bad news,” said Li Huiyong, an economist at Shenwan Hongyuan
Securities. “The era of tough financial supervision has just begun.”
More
Euro plummets as uncertainty in Germany rattles markets
Published: Nov 19, 2017 11:54 p.m. ET
The euro fell on Monday in Asia after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to
form a government in Germany collapsed overnight, leaving the eurozone’s
largest economy in political limbo almost two months after its general
election.The currency fell as much as 0.6% against the U.S. dollar EURUSD, -0.5088% , though it has since recouped some of its losses, according to Thomson Reuters data. In recent action, the euro was down 0.4% at $1.1743. The euro also lost 0.5% against the Japanese yen EURJPY, -0.49% and 0.3% against the British pound EURGBP, -0.3923% .
Merkel’s conservative alliance won the September election but finished with its worst result since 1949, forcing the longtime German leader to try to cobble together a coalition with a majority in Parliament. That effort hit a roadblock late Sunday in Germany after the chairman of the small, pro-business Free Democratic Party ended talks with Merkel’s conservative camp and the center-left Greens.
Read: Merkel’s future in doubt as German coalition negotiations break down
“It’s very concerning, and creates this big uncertainty in the eurozone,” said Kisoo Park, a global bond manager at Manulife Asset Management in Hong Kong, adding that he expects the euro to fall further in the short term.
The collapse of coalition talks in Germany is the latest episode of
political turmoil to hit the region. Spain has cracked down on the region of
Catalonia after it declared independence following a referendum the Madrid
government had deemed illegal. Meanwhile, the U.K. has made little progress in
its divorce proceedings from the European Union, which has major implications
for trade and the common currency.
The prospect of prolonged political uncertainty in Germany is
particularly worrying for markets. Merkel has long been seen as Europe’s
pre-eminent political leader, having steered Germany through both the global
financial crisis and the subsequent crisis in Greece.
More
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/euro-plummets-as-uncertainty-in-germany-rattles-markets-2017-11-19
Europe Faces a Hamstrung Germany as Merkel's Coalition Bid Fails
By Tony Czuczka and Birgit JennenWith the chancellor’s attempt to form a fourth-term government in disarray, Merkel’s once unquestioned ability to steer Europe is waning as the region’s biggest economy heads into uncharted waters and possibly a protracted political stalemate. Markets reacted with unease, with the euro slumping the most in three weeks against the dollar.
The breakdown in coalition talks late Sunday -- amid disputes over
migration and other policies between a grab-bag of disparate parties -- raised
the prospect of fresh elections, which probably would be held next spring.
Relying on a minority administration with shifting alliances to pass
legislation would run counter to Merkel’s promise to provide a stable
government.
However she attempts to move forward, European decisions on everything
from Brexit and Greece to Russian sanctions and French President Emmanuel
Macron’s proposals for strengthening the euro will now be hemmed in by Merkel’s
weakened role as a caretaker chancellor.
“What it means is that Germany is pulled inward because it has to manage
its political transition,” said Daniel Hamilton, executive director of the
Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
“So the state of drift in Europe continues and now Germany, which has been the
stabilizer of the last number of years, is part of that.”
More
Tusk Says Poland Is Doing Kremlin's Work as EU Row Escalates
By Richard Bravo and Ewa Krukowska
Updated on November 19, 2017, 4:47 PM GMT
European Council President Donald Tusk lashed out at Poland, suggesting the
ruling Law & Justice party is forwarding Russian interests in what is an
unprecedented attack by an EU leader on a member state’s sitting government.“Strident dispute with Ukraine, isolation in the European Union, walking away from rule of law and judicial independence, attack on non-governmental sector and free media,” Tusk wrote on his personal Twitter account on Sunday. “Law & Justice strategy or Kremlin plan? Too similar to sleep well.”
Tusk’s tweet is the latest salvo in a war of words between
Poland and the EU, as fears mount in Brussels that Warsaw’s government is
shifting toward authoritarian rule. It also adds to speculation that the
60-year-old former Polish prime minister plans a comeback to domestic politics
when his term as chairman of EU leaders’ meetings expires in 2019, the
same year that current parliament and government’s term ends in Poland.
On Friday, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo criticized her fellow leaders and lawmakers from the bloc for weighing sanctions against the nation over anti-democratic actions and suggested they weren’t being honest. The European Parliament said last week it would examine possible sanctions against Poland over democratic backsliding. That opens a second EU front against Warsaw after the European Commission last year initiated a rule-of-law investigation into the right-wing Law & Justice party due to judicial independence concerns.
The EU Parliament tasked one of its committees with laying the groundwork for a vote on whether to ask national governments to trigger Article 7 of the EU treaty against Poland that foresees the possibility of stripping a member country of its voting rights.
More
In other saner news:
Goldman Sachs Sees Four 2018 Fed Rate Hikes as U.S. Growth Gains
By Brendan Murray
November 18, 2017, 7:13 PM GMT
The U.S. economy is heading into 2018 with strong momentum that’s likely
to boost wages and inflation more broadly, requiring the Federal Reserve to
raise interest rates four times next year, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists
said in a research note.
The New York-based investment banking and securities firm raised its
growth outlook for 2018 to 2.5 percent and lowered its forecast for
unemployment to 3.7 percent by the end of 2018, said Goldman chief economist
Jan Hatzius, a co-author of the note, which was released by email late Friday.
Before the latest revision the most recent Goldman Sachs forecast for
2018 growth was 2.4 percent, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.
The U.S. jobless rate, which was 4.1 percent in October, may reach 3.5
percent in late 2019, Goldman predicted. That would be the lowest level since
the late-1960s.
“Our projections would imply an evolution over the current cycle from
the weakest labor market in postwar U.S. history to one of the tightest,” the
economists said in a summary of their report. “We expect that a tight labor
market and a more normal inflation picture will lead the Fed to deliver four
hikes next year.”
That’s one more rate increase than the median forecast of Fed officials,
and more than financial markets are currently pricing in. One of the reasons
why Goldman Sachs economists said they disagree with market expectations is “we
see little evidence that soft inflation is structural in nature.”
Core inflation should accelerate in 2018, rising by about a half
percentage point to 1.8 percent by year end, Goldman projected.
The Fed has raised its target range for the federal funds rate four
times since December 2015, and futures trading indicates another quarter
percentage-point increase is likely again in December, at the final Federal
Open Market Committee meeting for the year.
In the world’s largest economy, the risk of a recession in the near term
“still looks fairly limited,” the Goldman economists wrote. “But the strength
is becoming ‘too much of a good thing’ and containing further overheating will
become a more urgent priority in 2018 and beyond.”
Poland is not a very large
country, but it's also not a small country.
Donald Tusk European Council President
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
The average dog is a nicer
person than the average person.
Andy Rooney
Getting a Dog May Save Your Life, Especially If You’re Single
Swedish researchers found that people with furry friends,
especially the unmarried, have fewer heart problems than those who don't.
By Michelle Cortez
November 17, 2017, 10:00 AM GMT
Having a dog can bring a lot of love into your life. It could also make
it last a little longer.
A group of academics from Uppsala University in Sweden analyzed the
health records of 3.4 million people in that northern European country,
where databases contain detailed information on everyone’s hospitalizations,
medical history and even whether they own a dog. Such detailed records made it
relatively easy to suss out the impact of having a canine companion.
The results were heartwarming.
People in possession of a pooch were less likely to have cardiovascular
disease or die from any cause during the 12 years covered by the research,
according to the study published in Scientific Reports. The impact was
greatest for single people, said Mwenya Mubanga, an author of the paper from
the university’s Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life
Laboratory.
“Dog ownership was especially prominent as a protective factor in
persons living alone, which is a group reported previously to be at higher risk
of cardiovascular disease and death,” Mubanga said. “Perhaps a dog may stand in
as an important family member in the single households.”
The researchers examined seven national databases in Sweden, including
two that track dog ownership, focusing on people aged 40 to 80.
Single dog-owning adults who lived alone were 11 percent less likely to
subsequently develop heart disease and 33 percent less likely to die than
non-dog owners, the analysis found. Hunting dogs seemed to offer the most
protection when it came to staying alive.
It’s not clear exactly how the dogs helped avert heart disease, or
whether getting one directly led to better health, cautioned Tove Fall,
the senior author of the paper and associate professor in epidemiology at
Uppsala University. It’s possible that dog owners are healthier and more active
before they get a canine companion, she said.
“We know that dog owners in general have a higher level of physical
activity, which could be one explanation to the observed results,” Fall said.
“Other explanations include an increased well-being and social contacts or
effects of the dog on the bacterial microbiome in the owner.”
Either way, maybe an extra treat for that doting Lab waiting for you at
home is in order.
You learn in this business: It
you want a friend, get a dog.
Carl Icahn
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?
Breakthrough could launch organic electronics beyond cell phone screens
Date:
November 17, 2017
Source:
Princeton University, Engineering School
Summary:
A new discovery points the way to more widespread use of an advanced technology
generally known as organic electronics.
A discovery by an international team of researchers from Princeton
University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Humboldt University in
Berlin points the way to more widespread use of an advanced technology
generally known as organic electronics.
The research, published Nov. 13 in the journal Nature Materials,
focuses on organic semiconductors, a class of materials prized for their
applications in emerging technologies such as flexible electronics, solar
energy conversion, and high-quality color displays for smartphones and
televisions. In the short term, the advance should particularly help with
organic light-emitting diodes that operate at high energy to emit colors such
as green and blue.
"Organic semiconductors are ideal materials for the fabrication of
mechanically flexible devices with energy-saving low temperature
processes," said Xin Lin, a doctoral student and a member of the Princeton
research team. "One of their major disadvantages has been their relatively
poor electrical conductivity, which leads to inefficient devices with a shorter
operating lifetime than required for commercial applications. We are working to
improve the electrical properties of organic semiconductors to make them
available for more applications."
Semiconductors, typically made of silicon, are the foundation of modern
electronics because engineers can take advantage of their unique properties to
control electrical currents. Among many applications, semiconductor devices are
used for computing, signal amplification and switching.
They are used in
energy-saving devices such as light-emitting diodes and devices that convert
energy such as solar cells.
Essential to these functionalities is a process called doping, in which
the semiconductor's chemical makeup is modified by adding a small amount of
chemicals or impurities. By carefully choosing the type and amount of dopant,
researchers can alter semiconductors' electronic structure and electrical
behavior in a variety of ways.
In their recent Nature Materials article, the researchers describe a new
approach for greatly increasing the conductivity of organic semiconductors,
which are formed of carbon-based molecules rather than silicon atoms. The
dopant, a ruthenium-containing compound, is a reducing agent, which means it
adds electrons to the organic semiconductor as part of the doping process. The
addition of the electrons is the key to increasing the semiconductor's
conductivity. The compound belongs to a newly-introduced class of dopants
called dimeric organometallic dopants. Unlike many other powerful reducing
agents, these dopants are stable when exposed to air but still work as strong
electron donors both in solution and solid state.
More
“Of
course, there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to
draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?”
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed
Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance
Ministers. Confessed liar. European Commission President. Scotch connoisseur.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October
DJIA: 23,277 +233 Up. NASDAQ: 6,728 +284 Up. SP500: 2,575 +183 Up.
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