Baltic Dry Index. 1476 +54 Brent Crude 77.79
‘In the
West you have the notion that if somebody hits you on the left cheek, you turn
the other cheek. In our culture we punch back.”
President
Xi Jinping. June 30, 2018
It is Thursday July 5th
on the RMS GB-Titanic, and the deck chairs are all arranged and occupied, as we
await tomorrow’s spectacular, between the battleships USS Trump Trade War and
the Chinese battleship ZTE Revenge. Way off to the left, dead in the water and
listing to the right is the aged 50s cruise liner Turpitz-Europa, where the
deck chairs are similarly arranged and occupied, although there seems to be
frantic activity happening on the autos deck.
Tomorrow’s shootout promises
to be spectacular, although both combatants have promised to only use their
smaller batteries for now. Up on the bridge of the GB-Titanic, a heated
discussion is underway, between the dithering Captain May and her mutinous
crew, as to how close we ought to sail near the listing Europa, since the USS
TTW has threatened to test its main batteries against her autos deck.
Way down deep in the
stocks deck, it’s still gin and tonics as usual on the GB-Titanic, in the July
1914 belief that neither the USS TTW nor the ZTE-Revenge will sink each other,
and that it’ll all be over by Christmas. Trade wars are easy to win, according to
Commodore Trump, commanding the USS TTW, who seems for now to be zig-zagging.
The Titanic’s bitcoin-cryptocurrency
deck is another matter, a scene of wreckage and complete desolation, since
someone last December accidentally hit the nuke button, wiping out its “Tether.”
So it’ll be another
glass of Pol Roger, while we await the midnight spectacular, though both the
USS TTW and the ZTE-Revenge seem to be passing the time by flashing angry messages at
each other. What could possibly go wrong?
July 5, 2018 / 1:45 AM
Asian stocks wobbly before tariff deadline in Sino-U.S. trade row
TOKYO
(Reuters) - Asian stocks were shaky while major currencies barely budged in
early trade on Thursday, as financial markets remained in a state of anxious
uncertainty on the eve of a U.S. deadline to slap tariffs on Chinese imports.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS
was down 0.1 percent, having moved in and out of the red in early trade. The
index has lost 1.6 percent this week, during which it plumbed a nine-month low.
Asia was bereft of the usual leads as the U.S. markets were closed on
Wednesday for the Independence Day holiday.
U.S. stock futures ESc1 YMc1 were marginally higher, pointing to a
stronger open for Wall Street later in the day.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 lost 0.15 percent, South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 slipped 0.2 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI was off 0.2 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC edged down 0.1 percent.
“The markets lack strong direction without incentives from the United States, where their markets were closed yesterday. Moves by Chinese shares and the yuan remain a key factor in the meantime,” said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo.
The United States plans to implement tariffs on $50 billion worth of
imports from China as both nations remained locked in a bitter trade dispute
that has convulsed global financial markets in recent weeks.
On July 6, tariffs on $34 billion worth of imports will take effect, and
Beijing has promised to retaliate in kind.
China has put pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint
statement against U.S. President Donald Trump’strade policies, European
officials told Reuters.
“The $34 billion U.S. tariffs figure has been mostly factored by the
markets and focus is now on what the United States says on the remaining $16
billion,” Ichikawa said.
More
July 5, 2018 / 3:37 AM
China warns U.S. is 'opening fire' on global economy with tariff threats
BEIJING
(Reuters) - China’s commerce ministry said on Thursday the United States is
“opening fire on the entire world”, warning that Washington’s proposed tariffs
on Chinese goods will hit international supply chains, including foreign
companies in the world’s second-largest economy.
China
will continue to assess the impact of the trade dispute and will help firms
cope with possible shocks, Gao Feng, the ministry spokesman told reporters in a
regular briefing.
“U.S.
measures are essentially attacking global supply and value chains,” Gao said.
“To put it simply, the U.S. is opening fire on the entire world, including
itself.”
The comments come a day before Washington and Beijing pan to implement
tariffs against each others’ goods amid an escalating trade conflict that has
roiled financial markets.
Gao told reporters that China’s foreign trade is expected to continue on
a stable path in the second half, though investors fear a full-blown Sino-U.S.
trade dispute will deal a body blow to Chinese exports and its economy.
In a statement, China’s customs agency said Chinese tariffs on U.S.
goods will take effect immediately after U.S. tariffs on China goods kick in.
Washington has said it would implement tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese
imports on July 6, and Beijing has vowed to retaliate in kind on the same day
though it has said it will not be the first to pull the trigger.
European officials have told Reuters that China has put pressure on the
European Union to issue strong joint statement against U.S. President Donald
Trump’s trade policies..
Chinese stocks were mixed while the yuan slipped slightly against the
dollar in early Thursday trade as a targeted cut of reserve requirements for
banks took effect amid heightened the trade tensions.
July 5, 2018 / 5:05 AM
IMF cuts German 2018 economic growth forecast to 2.2 percent
BERLIN
(Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday cut its 2018
forecast for German GDP growth to 2.2 percent, saying rising protectionism and
the threat of a hard Brexit had exposed Europe’s biggest economy to significant
short-term risks.
The Washington-based lender, whose previous prediction from April was
2.5 percent, edged its 2019 forecast up to 2.1 percent from 2.0 percent.
“Short-term risks are substantial, as a significant rise in global
protectionism, a hard Brexit, or a reassessment of sovereign risk in the euro
area, leading to renewed financial stress, could affect Germany’s exports and
investment,” it said in a report.
----The
IMF welcomed plans by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new coalition government to
raise public investments and support long-term growth, but it said Berlin could
do more.
Given Germany’s rapidly ageing society, IMF directors recommended
further expanding public investment in infrastructure and education as well as
setting more incentives for private investments.
“Such measures would bolster productivity growth, further lift long-term
output, and reduce Germany’s large current account surplus,” it said.
The surplus fell to 8.0 percent of economic output last year from 8.5
percent in 2016, but is expected to rise again to 8.3 percent this year, the
IMF said.
If all
else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
John Kenneth
Galbraith.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Today, what else, that Great Global Trump Trade War, finally really
getting underway. How many presently in employment in so many countries face an
unemployed Christmas? How many stocks face a Micron Technology fate?
Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
John Kenneth Galbraith.
Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods take effect from midnight Beijing time July 6 - source
04/07/2018
EIJING (Reuters) – Chinese tariffs on $34 billion (£25.75 billion) of
U.S. goods will take effect from midnight July 6 Beijing time, a person with
knowledge of the plan told Reuters, amid worsening trade tensions between the
world’s two largest economies.
Washington has said it would implement tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese
imports on July 6, and Beijing has vowed to retaliate on the same day.
However, the 12-hour time difference puts Beijing ahead in terms of
actually implementing the tariffs.
“Our measures are equal and being equal means that if the U.S. starts on
July 6, we start on July 6,” the source told Reuters, who requested anonymity
as they were not authorised to speak to media. “The implementation time for all
policies starts at midnight.”
Micron stock dives as China reportedly blocks sales, other chip stocks join in fall
By Wallace
Witkowski Published: July 3, 2018
5:10 p.m. ET
Half of memory chip maker’s revenue believed to come from mainland China
Fireworks came early for shares of Micron Technology Inc. on Tuesday, following a report that a Chinese court had blocked sales in China of memory-chip products from the Boise, Idaho-based company.Shares of Micron MU, -5.51% dropped 5.5% to close at $51.48 in Tuesday’s abbreviated session ahead of the July Fourth holiday, after touching an intraday low of $50.10. Shares are still up 25% for the year, compared with a 3.6% rise in the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, -1.82% and a 1.5% gain in the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.49% .
More.
"Gold
would have value if for no other reason than that it enables a citizen to
fashion his financial escape from the state." William F. Rickenbacker
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?
Water compresses under a high gradient electric field
Discovery of new physics may be useful for filtering biomolecules through a graphene nanopore
Date:
July 2, 2018
Source: University of Illinois College of Engineering
Summary: Scientists have predicted new physics governing compression of water under a high-gradient electric field. Physicists found that a high electric field applied to a tiny hole in a graphene membrane would compress the water molecules traveling through the pore by 3 percent. The predicted water compression may eventually prove useful in high-precision filtering of biomolecules for biomedical research.
Modern civilization relies on water's incompressibility -- it's something we take for granted. Hydraulic systems harness the virtual non-compressibility of fluids like water or oil to multiply mechanical force. Bulldozers, cranes, and other heavy machinery exploit the physics of hydraulics, as do automobile brakes, fire sprinkler systems, and municipal water and waste systems. It takes extraordinary pressure to compress water. Even at the bottom of the deepest oceans, two and a half miles under the surface, where pressure is equal to about 1000 atmospheres, water is compressed by only 5 percent.
But now scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have predicted new physics governing compression of water under a high-gradient electric field.
Physics Professor Aleksei Aksimentiev and his post doctoral researcher James Wilson found that a high electric field applied to a tiny hole in a graphene membrane would compress the water molecules travelling through the pore by 3 percent. The predicted water compression may eventually prove useful in high-precision filtering of biomolecules for biomedical research.
These findings were published June 26, 2018, in Physical Review Letters (120, 268101) as an editor's suggestion. Aksimentiev remarks, "This is an unexpected phenomenon, contrary to what we thought we knew about nanopore transport. It took three years to work out what it was the simulations were showing us. After exploring many potential solutions, the breakthrough came when we realized that we should not assume water is incompressible. Now that we understand what's happening in the computer simulations, we are able to reproduce this phenomenon in theoretical calculations."
The scientists undertook this study to test new methods in graphene-nanopore DNA sequencing. Over the last couple of years, graphene nanopores have shown tremendous promise for inexpensive DNA sequencing. The way it works, DNA is suspended in water and then the DNA, water and ions are pulled by an electric field through a tiny hole in a graphene membrane. The electric field applied across the graphene sheet attracts the dissolved ions and any charged particles -- DNA is a negatively charged particle. The DNA's four nucleobases are read as the differences in the flow of ions that each distinctively shaped nucleobase produces.
More
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished June.
DJIA: 24,271 +221 Down. NASDAQ:
7,510 +267 Down. SP500: 2,718 +169 Down.
All
three slow indicators moved down in March and have continued down in April. May
and June. For some a new bear signal, for others a take profits and get back to
cash signal.
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