Baltic Dry Index. 1333 -08 Brent Crude 74.77
Without losers, where would
the winners be?
Casey Stengel
Today,
if this is winning in trade wars, what does losing look like? Only four days
left to dress up global stock markets for the usually important half year
figures. But in Trump year two, does it really matter? Is the Baltic Dry
(shipping) Index starting to send a sinking signal? What signal is Washington trying
to send, if it’s signalling at all?
Below,
stocks Trumped.
"Can't anybody here play this
game?"
President Trump, with apologies to Casey Stengel.
Stocks suffer worst day in weeks as Trump’s trade threats rattle; Dow ends below key level
U.S. stocks closed sharply lower Monday, with major indexes seeing their
biggest one-day drop in weeks and the Dow bearishly closing below a closely
watched level for the first time in two years as fresh threats from President
Donald Trump against U.S. trading partners underlined how the risk of
protectionist policies has not left the market.
The day’s losses were widespread, with 26 of the Dow’s 30 components
ending lower, along with nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors. Tech was
the biggest decliner of the day, however, dropping 2.3% in its biggest one-day
decline since early April.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.33% tumbled 328.09 points, or 1.3%, to 24,252.80. The blue-chip average posted its biggest one-day drop since May 29, and it closed at its lowest level since May 4.
The Dow also ended below its 200-day moving average, a closely watched gauge of an asset’s long-term momentum trends. While the Dow has dipped below it on an intraday basis two other times in 2018, it rebounded above it both times; Monday marks the first time it has closed below it since June 2016.
The S&P 500 SPX, -1.37% fell 37.81 points, or 1.4%, to 2,717.07. The benchmark index had its biggest daily decline since April 6, as well as its lowest close since May 31.
More
June 26, 2018 / 1:50 AM
Stocks pummelled on intensifying trade row, dollar wobbles
TOKYO
(Reuters) - Global stocks extended a sell-off on Tuesday as an escalating trade
fight between the United States and other major economies steered investors
away from riskier assets, lifting safe-haven U.S. Treasuries and keeping the
dollar on the defensive.
Markets in China - the epicentre of the trade tensions with the United States - were especially hard hit. Losses across Asian equities were broad-based after Wall Street tumbled overnight, with the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC suffering their steepest losses in more than two months overnight.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.75 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI retreated 1.2 percent, the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC slid 1.4 percent and Japan's Nikkei shed 0.5 percent.
Equities from tech-heavy regions such as South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 and Taiwan .TWII fell 1 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW) was down 1.15 percent, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc (000660.KS) lost 0.8 percent and Japan’s Tokyo Electron (8035.T) was down 1 percent.
U.S. technology shares were particularly hard hit. Chipmakers which derive much of their revenue from China had taken a battering on Monday, following a report that the U.S. Treasury Department was drafting curbs that would block companies with at least 25 percent Chinese ownership from buying U.S. tech firms.
Besides the trade spat with China, the United States has recently upped the ante in a challenge to the European Union by threatening to impose tariffs on cars imported from the bloc.
“Increasingly hawkish trade rhetoric the United States is employing
could begin impacting the economy by cooling investor sentiment and curbing
capital expenditure by corporations,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist
at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.
“It’s turning out to be a long-term bearish factor for the financial
markets, as the United States is unlikely to back down at least through its
midterm elections.”
The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies stood little
changed at 94.240 .DXY after dipping 0.25 percent overnight, when it fell for
the fourth straight session.
More
June 26, 2018 / 5:33 AM
China, Hong Kong stocks track global sell-off amid trade fears
SHANGHAI, June 26 (Reuters) - China and Hong Kong stocks tracked the
global sell-off to edge lower on Tuesday, as an escalating trade friction
between the United States and other major economies steered investors away from
riskier assets.
** The CSI300 index fell 1.1 percent to 3,520.17 points, hitting its
lowest in more than a year, while the Shanghai Composite Index hit a two-year
trough. ** The Hang Seng index dropped 0.2 percent to 28,898.64 points, while
the Hong Kong China Enterprises Index lost 0.5 percent to 11,148.42. **
Conflicting signals from the Trump administration over proposed restrictions on
foreign investment in U.S. technology companies, along with news that recently
imposed import tariffs are starting to disrupt supply chains, sent global stock
markets tumbling on Monday.
More
June 26, 2018 / 12:54 AM
Trump officials send mixed signals on China investment curbs, markets sink
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Conflicting signals from the Trump administration over proposed
restrictions on foreign investment in U.S. technology companies, along with
news that recently imposed import tariffs are starting to disrupt supply
chains, sent global stock markets tumbling on Monday.
Proposed restrictions on foreign investment in U.S. technology would not
just be confined to China, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The forthcoming restrictions would apply “to all countries that are trying to
steal our technology,” he said.
The U.S. Treasury is due to issue its recommendations on Chinese
investment restrictions on Friday.
Late Monday White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro
sought to downplay Mnuchin’s remarks, telling CNBC television that the
restrictions on investments in U.S. technology companies would just target
China.
Benchmark Wall Street stock indexes suffered their worst losses in two
months on Monday, while safe haven Treasury debt yields fell.
U.S. technology stocks were worst hit. Alphabet, the parent of Google,
fell 2.6 percent, Apple lost 2.75 percent, and Amazon dropped 3.0 percent.
More
Next, when the going
gets tough, the tough get going, though not exactly what President Trump
probably had in mind when he started his Great Global Trade War.
"Good pitching will always stop good hitting and
vice-versa."
Peter Navarro, with apologies to Casey
Stengel.
Harley-Davidson, stung by tariffs, shifts some production overseas
- Harley-Davidson, up against spiraling costs from tariffs, will begin shifting the production of motorcycles headed for Europe from the U.S. to factories overseas.
- Company shares slumped almost 3 percent before the opening bell on Monday. Other companies heavily reliant on aluminum and steel fell as well.
Published 1 Hour Ago Updated 35 Mins Ago
Navarro Seeks to Calm Investor Concern on Trump Trade Policy
By Jenny Leonard
Updated on 25 June 2018, 21:33 GMT+1
Stocks pare
losses after Trump trade hawk softens rhetoric
U.S. economy
is ‘bullish,’ growth should hit 4%, he says
White
House trade adviser Peter Navarro sought to ease investor concerns about U.S.
trade policy, indicating that a Treasury Department report later this week on
American restrictions on foreign investment won’t be as sweeping as markets are
anticipating.
More
Trade War Could Trigger Global Recession, China and Europe Warn
Bloomberg News
Updated on 25 June 2018, 15:01 GMT+1
Both sides
‘firmly oppose’ unilateralism, Xi aide Liu He says
U.S. to
release plan on restricting China investment in tech
China and the European Union vowed to oppose trade protectionism in an apparent rebuke to the U.S., saying unilateral actions risked pushing the world into a recession.
Vice Premier Liu He -- President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser -- said China and the EU had agreed to defend the multilateral trading system, following talks Monday in Beijing. The comments, made at a press briefing with European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen, come as both sides prepare to face off against President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-25/china-and-europe-warn-trade-war-could-trigger-global-recession
In illegal immigration news, urgently wanted, a coherent
immigration policy on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Simple suggestions
please, on a single A4 page double spaced to: Chancellor Merkel, President
Juncker, and President Trump.
June 25, 2018 / 8:45 PM
Illegal immigrant parents not facing U.S. prosecution for now
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Parents who cross illegally from Mexico to the United States with
their children will not face prosecution for the time being because the
government is running short of space to house them, officials said on Monday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has vowed to prosecute all
adults who cross the border illegally but its policy of separating immigrant
children from parents met fierce international criticism so it is now trying to
keep detained families together while the parents await trial.
That has created logistics problems of how to house those families, and
the Customs and Border Protection agency is now not referring new cases for
prosecution, CBP officials said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was not
dropping its policy of “zero-tolerance” of illegal immigration but it needed a
“temporary solution” until it can house migrant families.
“This will only last a short amount of time, because we’re going to run
out of space, we’re going to run out of resources in order to keep people
together. And we’re asking Congress to provide those resources and do their
job,” Sanders told reporters.
A source at the CBP said it expects to soon resume the referrals for
prosecution and is still sending for prosecution those adults who are caught
crossing illegally and do not have children with them.
Trump faced a global outcry this month, including sharp criticism from
some inside his Republican Party, over migrant children being separated from
their parents.
More
June 25, 2018 / 9:24 PM
EU summit to focus on lowering Mediterranean immigration
LUXEMBOURG
(Reuters) - European Union leaders meeting over migration later this week will
agree to further tighten their external borders, give more support to Libya and
look at creating “disembarkation” centres outside of their territory for people
who arrive by sea.
But a draft of their statement showed no agreement on distributing
asylum seekers around the bloc, a measure strongly opposed by eastern European
countries.
With anti-immigration politicians raising the stakes in EU countries
from Germany and Austria to Italy and Hungary, the bloc is seeking more ways to
curb Mediterranean arrivals.
Arrivals have already dropped to some 43,000 refugees and migrants so
far this year from a peak of more than a million in 2015, according to U.N.
data. But the related political crisis is still high inside the EU.
“A precondition for a functioning EU policy on migration is effective
control of the external borders,” the leaders will agree during their talks in
Brussels on Thursday and Friday, according to the latest draft of their joint
statement.
To that end, they will seek to beef up the European Border and Coast
Guard by giving it more resources and a stronger mandate. They will also assign
more funds to Libya, including for training its coast guards, and other
countries in Northern Africa. EU states Italy, Greece and Spain, where most
migrants arrive, will also get more support, said the document, reviewed by
Reuters.
The bloc will try to step up deportations of failed asylum seekers and
expand the EU-financed programmes for voluntary returns from Libya to further
south in Africa that U.N. agencies are carrying out.
The
leaders will seek a migration deal with Morocco and look into setting up
“regional disembarkation platforms” outside of the EU where the bloc would
assess asylum claims and hold those whose requests fail before they are sent
back.
More
Finally, today, more
unintended consequences from the Great Nixonian Error of fiat money, communist
money.
“The problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that can handle money, but fools the generation that has worked and saved money.”
“Adam Smith” aka George Goodman.
Social Security benefits buy 34 percent less than in 2000, study shows
- Housing and medical items top the list of fastest-growing expenses for retirees.
- Older Americans experienced a 4 percent loss in Social Security buying power from January 2017 to January 2018.
- For 2019, benefits are expected to increase by at least 3.3 percent, which could help reduce the year-over-year effect of higher costs.
Published 11:43 AM ET Thu, 21 June 2018 Updated 12:14 PM ET
Fri, 22 June 2018
If you feel like your Social Security check doesn't stretch as far as it once did, there's a likely explanation for it.
Since 2000, the buying power of monthly benefits has fallen by more than a third, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group based in Alexandria, Virginia.
In other words, the cost of goods and services common among retirees have collectively risen faster than the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, that Social Security recipients get every year.
"People who recently retired might have seen only a [small] decrease in buying power," said Mary Johnson, a policy analyst for the league. "But those retired for a long time are feeling the cumulative effect of this."
More
"Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the 'hidden' confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights."
Alan Greenspan 1966.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Today, the increasingly acrimonious
People’s Paradise of the dying EUSSR. This week’s coming “Great Leaders” summit
looks set to rival the recent G-7 meeting, but on speed. The role of Mr. Trump
will be played by Italy’s Mr. Salvini.
The role of Mr. Trudeau will be played by Mrs. Merkel. The role of Mrs May will not be noticed at
all. Brexit now before they all start the shooting once again.
Italy's League advances in local polls amid immigration crackdown
ROME
(Reuters) - Italy’s ruling right-wing League party gained ground in local
elections at the weekend, strengthening its hand as it cracks down on
immigrants fleeing Africa and urges the European Union to revise its policy on
asylum-seekers.
The League, in a governing coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement, extended its political reach in a second round of municipal elections
on Sunday, taking over some strongholds of the centre-left, which lost power
nationally in March.
The results are a boost for League leader Matteo Salvini, who flew on
Monday to Libya, staging post for waves of Africans fleeing to Italy in flimsy
boats, many with the ultimate aim of settling in other EU countries such as
Germany and France.
The elections appeared to confirm opinion poll findings which show the
League doubling its support since the March 4 election and putting it on par
with its larger coalition partner.
Salvini, who wants the EU to do more to help Libya stop people making
the perilous journey, announced his departure for Libya in a Twitter post on
Monday, without giving details.
He is due to meet Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala and Prime
Minister Fayez Seraj, and appear at a news conference there later on Monday.
More
June 24, 2018 / 11:51 AM /
Italy criticises Malta over migrant ship ahead of EU summit
MILAN
(Reuters) - Italy criticised Malta on Sunday over its refusal to take in the
Dutch-flagged MV Lifeline ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in
Brussels over the dispute on migration.
Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli criticised Malta on his
Facebook page, where he also posted a copy of an official note from Malta
saying it would not intervene except to offer emergency services in a few
cases.
Italy’s new populist government has thrust migration back onto the
European Union agenda and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has pledged to no
longer let ships offload rescued migrants in the country.
Toninelli said the Lifeline, with over 230 migrants on board, was
stationary in the SAR (Search and Rescue) waters off Malta, adding no other
country was coordinating operations meaning Malta’s responsibilities were
greater still.
Malta has previously said the country is not the competent authority
because initial SAR operations were done by Libya and the ship breached
obligations to oblige by Libyan instructions.
“The inhumanity of Malta is the mirror of Europe’s attitude,” Toninelli
said.
Italy has become the main route into Europe for economic migrants and
asylum seekers, with hundreds of thousands making the perilous crossing from
North Africa each year and thousands dying at sea.
In an interview in Italian daily Il Messaggero on Sunday foreign
minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said the EU had been particularly inactive on
the migrant issue allowing national self-interests to prevail.
More
June 23, 2018 / 3:41 PM
Italy says 'arrogant' France could become main enemy on migration
PARIS
(Reuters) - Italy on Saturday said “arrogant” France risked becoming its “No.1
enemy” on migration issues, a day before European leaders convene in Brussels
for a hastily arranged meeting on the divisive topic.
In answer to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said
migration flows towards Europe had reduced compared with a few years ago,
Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said Macron’s words showed he was
out of touch.
“Italy indeed faces a migration emergency and it’s partly because France
keeps pushing back people at the border. Macron risks making his country
Italy’s No.1 enemy on this emergency,” Di Maio wrote on his Facebook page.
----
“The reality is that Europe is not experiencing a migration crisis of the same
magnitude as the one it experienced in 2015,” the French president said.
---- But Italy’s Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said his country had faced 650,000 arrivals by sea over the past four years, 430,000 asylum requests and the hosting of 170,000 “alleged refugees” for an overall cost of more than 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion).
“If for the arrogant President Macron this is not a problem, we invite
him to stop insulting and to show instead some concrete generosity by opening
up France’s many ports and letting children, men and women through at
Ventimiglia,” he said in a statement, referring to the northeastern Italian
town at the border with France.
More
June 25, 2018 / 8:26 AM
France won't take any lessons from Rome on immigration, says minister
PARIS
(Reuters) - France’s minister for European affairs said international law
obliged Italy to let the stranded migrant rescue vessel Lifeline dock in an
Italian port and that Rome was in no position to tell Paris how to behave.
With more than 230 migrants on board, the MV Lifeline is stuck in
international waters in the Mediterranean sea, the second rescue ship in weeks
to expose Europe’s deep divisions over how to share refugees and economic
migrants.
The standoff comes as European leaders on Sunday failed to find a
solution to the migration crisis, which has weakened EU unity, threatens to
unravel Germany’s coalition government and undermined Europe’s Schengen
free-travel area.
Ahead of Sunday’s mini-summit, Rome accused Emmanuel Macron of
“arrogance”, with Interior Minister Matteo Salvini urging the French president
to show some “generosity” in its immigration policy.
“France’s generosity cannot be called into question by anybody and it is
not for Mr Salvini, who closes his ports (to migrants) ... to teach France a
lesson,” French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau told France 2
television.
Loiseau said Europe needed to do more to help EU member states such as
Italy and Greece where migrants fleeing war, persecution and poverty, largely
from Africa and the Middle East, tend to first set foot on European soil.
But she said international law was clear on where the Lifeline should be
received: “You dock at the nearest port. The nearest port is in southern Italy.
That doesn’t suit everybody, but it is international law.”
At a European summit on June 28-29, Europe’s leaders are expected to
endorse further tightening of their external borders and giving more money to
foreign countries to prevent people from setting sail for Europe.
But there are no signs of an agreement on how to divvy up the burden of migrants.
Loiseau’s comments underscore the degree to which relations between
Macron’s pro-European integration government Rome’s new anti-establishment
government have become strained by immigration.
More
June 24, 2018 / 2:03 PM
Migration fight erodes support for German conservatives, far-right AfD gains
BERLIN
(Reuters) - Divisions in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc
have weakened public support for her “grand coalition” and pushed the
anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to its highest ratings, a
poll published on Sunday showed.
The poll conducted by Emnid for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper showed
Merkel’s bloc at 31 percent, down two percentage points from the previous poll.
The AfD added one percentage point to reach 16 percent, its highest rating in
an Emnid poll.
The centre-left Social Democrats, junior partner in the ruling
coalition, remained unchanged at 18 percent.
Merkel’s conservatives are embroiled in an internal dispute over whether
to turn back migrants at the German border who have registered elsewhere in the
European Union.
The issue has divided longtime conservative allies and poses the most
serious challenge yet to Merkel’s leadership, raising questions about a
possible collapse of her coalition a little more than 100 days after it took
office.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, of the conservative Bavarian Christian
Social Union (CSU), which is preparing for regional elections in Bavaria in
October, has threatened to defy Merkel’s wishes and order police to turn back
asylum seekers unless she secures a broader EU deal on distributing migrants
more evenly.
More
June 23, 2018 / 1:44 PM
Austria's Strache expects EU chain reaction if Germany blocks borders
ZURICH
(Reuters) - Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said on Saturday
he expects a chain reaction across the European Union if Germany closes its
borders to refugees.
“That’s the logical consequence, and we are prepared for it and will
similarly protect our borders,” Strache told Austrian broadcaster Oe1’s
Mittagsjournal programme, adding that Italy was taking similar measures.
EU nations have been at loggerheads over migration since a spike in
arrivals from the Middle East in 2015, when more than a million migrants
reached its shores across the Mediterranean.
“It can’t come to a renewed (migration) wave like the one seen in 2015
again,” Strache said.
More
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?
HDB closer to solar power target after latest tender
Published Jun 25, 2018, 5:00 am SGT
Solar panels are set to be installed in blocks of public flats managed
by the West Coast and Choa Chu Kang town councils, in a move to reduce
Singapore's carbon emissions and, in turn, the effects of climate change.
Work will begin in the current third quarter, said the Housing Board
yesterday when it announced that the tender for the job had been won by a
consortium made up of Sembcorp Solar Singapore and Japan's Kurihara Kogyo.
This is the third such contract to be awarded and it involves 848 HDB
blocks and 27 government sites that include 22 educational institutions and the
Choa Chu Kang Columbarium.
When completed, the total number of public housing blocks with such
panels will exceed 2,400, bringing the HDB a step closer to its target of
having solar panels in 5,500 blocks by 2020.
By then, the solar panels are expected to have a solar capacity of
220MW-peak, which can generate the equivalent energy to power about 55,000
four-room flats and reduce carbon emissions by 132,500 tonnes annually.
The solar power can be used for common services such as lifts, water
pumps and lighting for common areas in the day.
Said HDB chief executive Cheong Koon Hean: "Harnessing solar power
is key to HDB's efforts in conserving and optimising the use of energy in our
housing estates."
She also said that HDB has made steady progress since it conducted its
first solar test-bedding projects at two precincts in 2008.
The latest tender comes under the HDB and Economic Development Board's
SolarNova programme, which compiles solar demand from various agencies to enjoy
economies of scale.
It is the largest under the programme and nine companies submitted bids
for it after the launch last November.
The fourth tender will be called at the end of next year.
More
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished May.
DJIA: 24,416 +201 Down. NASDAQ:
7,442 +276 Down. SP500: 2,705 +180 Down.
All three slow indicators moved down in March
and have continued down in April and May. For some a new bear signal, for
others a take profits and get back to cash signa
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