Baltic Dry Index. 1382 -29 Brent Crude 78.33
“You are
a slow learner, Trump."
"How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four."
"Sometimes, Trump. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder.
"How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four."
"Sometimes, Trump. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder.
President
Xi, with apologies to George Orwell 1984.
With hurricane Florence
well covered by mainstream media, today we will focus on the fallout from Trump’s
trade war and Trump’s attempt to bully the UN’s International Criminal Court
which sits in The Hague, Holland.
The Trump presidency
is doing everything in its power to force the rest of the world away from the dollar,
and to set up alternative trade mechanisms to bypass Trump threats and
sanctions. Although this can’t happen overnight, long after the Trump
presidency has ended, this process will have a life of its own.
We open with Asian
markets increasingly hoping that Trade War Team Trump has folded. Suddenly the
Americans want to talk to China, rather than impose sanctions on US consumers.
My guess is that it’s just the Trump pause before the Trump mid-term election
storm.
September 14, 2018 / 2:14 AM
Trade talk plans boost Asian shares, but China shaky
SHANGHAI
(Reuters) - Shares across most of Asia rose on Friday on expectations that the
United States and China could launch a fresh round of trade talks, and as a
surprisingly sharp interest rate hike in crisis-hit Turkey supported the lira
and global risk appetite.
But stocks in China fell amid lingering uncertainty over the outlook for trade.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS gained 0.8 percent, with Australian shares up 0.6 percent, Seoul's Kospi .KS11 gaining 1.3 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 0.7 percent.
Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 was 1 percent higher.
Those rises followed gains on Wall Street Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI ending 0.57 percent higher, the S&P 500 .SPX gaining 0.53 percent and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC adding 0.75 percent.
But Chinese shares fell, despite a short-lived bump from data that showed forecast-topping industrial output and retail sales data for August.
Other data showed real estate investment in the country fell in August, raising concerns that a cooling property market could increase risks for China’s economic outlook as the trade environment worsens.
China's benchmark Shanghai Composite index .SSEC was down 0.3 percent and the blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 eased 0.2 percent. Both indexes had wavered between gains and losses in the morning session.
“What the market wants is some degree of certainty,” said Jim
McCafferty, head of Equity Research, Asia ex-Japan at Nomura.
“I think everyone knows that the trade deal might not be as optimistic
as it might have been in ... June or July, and it might be negative for many
Chinese companies. But the fact that there’s no certainty there is one reason
that investors are staying on the sidelines.”
News of a possible new round of talks between Washington and Beijing
comes even as the trade war between the world’s two largest economies looks set
to escalate.
Chinese officials welcomed an invitation from Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin for new talks. But U.S. President Donald Trump tempered market
expectations, tweeting on Thursday that the U.S. is “under no pressure to make
a deal with China.”
More
Europe Pushing for Euro Dominance to Fend Off Trump, Spain Says
By Ben Sills and Esteban Duarte
The European Union wants to bolster the global role of the euro as part
of an effort to avoid being pushed around by President Donald Trump, whose
foreign policy actions are increasingly at odds with its trans-Atlantic
partner, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said.
It’s the latest sign that European leaders are seeking to establish
greater autonomy in the face of Trump’s efforts to remake the global order.
Since winning the White House, the American president has questioned the
importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, pulled out of a nuclear
accord with Iran and said, in the midst of a trade war, that the EU was a “foe”
of the U.S.
“We have to find a way to get around the American threats,” Borrell said
in an interview at his offices in Madrid this week. “It’s another way to get
around sanctions,” he said, referring to Trump’s May decision to leave the Iran
nuclear deal, which the EU lobbied him to preserve.
The U.S. decision forced European companies including Daimler AG and
Total SA to pull out of Iran to avoid U.S. sanctions. French Finance Minister
Bruno Le Maire and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have both suggested that
EU countries set up payment systems independent of the U.S. to sidestep the new
regulations.
But it’s not just Iran. U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton this week threatened sanctions against the International Criminal Court, a UN-backed tribunal, which is considering prosecuting U.S. servicemen over alleged abuses in Afghanistan.
By increasing the amount of international trade conducted in euros, the EU would make it easier for companies and individuals to do business beyond the reach of the U.S. government.
“Everyone who supports the International Criminal Court and who deals with the International Criminal Court could be punished by any means by the American authorities,” Borell said.
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, on Wednesday said it is “absurd” for European companies to pay for European planes in dollars and questioned why 80 percent of the continent’s energy imports are paid for in the U.S. currency.
In his annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament, Juncker promised to flesh out his ambitions with a plan by year-end.
More
September 14, 2018 / 1:14 AM
China says world trade system not perfect, needs reform
BEIJING (Reuters) - The current world trade system is not
perfect and China supports reforms to it, including to the World Trade Organisation,
to make it fairer and more effective, Beijing’s top diplomat said.
China is locked in a bitter trade war with the United States and has
vowed repeatedly to uphold the multilateral trading system and free trade, with
the WTO at its centre.
But speaking late on Thursday to reporters after meeting French Foreign
Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi said some reforms
could be good.
While certain doubts have been raised about the current international
trading system, China has always supported the protection of free trade and
believes that multilateralism with the WTO at its core should be strengthened,
Wang added.
“At the same time, we do not believe that the current system is perfect
and without flaws,” he said.
“China supports necessary reforms and perfection of the current system,
including to the WTO, to make it fairer, more effective and more rational,”
Wang added.
The basic tenets of the WTO, in opposing protectionism and supporting
free trade should not change, but the rights of developing nations should also
not be overlooked, he said.
“The aim of reform should be to allow countries to enjoy the development
fruits of globalisation more fairly, not to further widen the differences
between south and north,” Wang said.
WTO reforms need to include listening to voices from all parties and
broad consultation, and should especially listen to a respect the opinions of
developing countries, rather than just allowing “one person to have a say”, he
added.
More
In EUSSR news, it’s not all for one and one for all, anymore.
September 13, 2018 / 9:06 AM /
Updated 12 hours ago
'Wash your mouth out,' Italy's Salvini tells EU Commissioner
PARIS (Reuters) - The EU’s top economic official said on Thursday he
feared “little Mussolinis” might be emerging in Europe, drawing a furious
response from Italy’s far-right interior minister who accused him of insulting
his country and Italians.
Frenchman Pierre Moscovici, who is the European Union’s economics
affairs commissioner, said the current political situation, with populist, far-right
forces on the rise in many nations, resembled the 1930s when Germany’s Adolf
Hitler and Italian fascist chief Benito Mussolini were in power.
“Fortunately there is no sound of jackboots, there is no Hitler, (but
maybe there are) small Mussolinis. That remains to be seen,” he told reporters
in Paris, speaking in a jocular fashion.
Moscovici, a former French finance minister, mentioned no names, but
Matteo Salvini, who is a deputy prime minister and heads Italy’s anti-immigrant
League, took it personally.
“He should wash his mouth out before insulting Italy, the Italians and
their legitimate government,” Salvini said in a statement released by his
office in Rome.
Salvini took advantage of the spat to set out once again his grievances
with France, which he accuses of not doing enough to help deal with migrants
from Africa and of having plunged Libya into chaos by helping to oust former
strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
“EU Commissioner Moscovici, instead of censuring his France that rejects
immigrants ... has bombed Libya and has broken European (budget) parameters,
attacks Italy and talks about ‘many little Mussolini’ around Europe,” Salvini
said.
In
other comments at the Paris event, Moscovici said Italy needed to cut wasteful
spending and prioritise investment and infrastructure spending that will help
stimulate growth and productivity.
More
September 13, 2018 / 7:53 PM
ECB's Draghi should help Italy, 'not just criticise' - Salvini
ROME
(Reuters) - The head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi should look
after Italy’s interests and not just criticise the country, Italy’s Deputy
Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, said in a statement on Thursday.
The ECB’s Draghi, who is an Italian, earlier told reporters in Frankfurt
that suggestions by some policymakers in Italy that the country’s 2019 budget
may fail to comply with EU norms had impinged on the economy and hit financial
markets.
“I count on Italians in Europe to look after the interests of Italy as
happens in all other countries, and that they help and advise and not just
criticise,” Salvini said in a statement, adding that he was responding to the
previous comments from Draghi.
Finally, Volvo
presents the next decade’s big logistics advance. Shame about all those union jobs. Trains and
planes next? Drivers and pilots gone, guards and stewardess hired? How long before they automate ancient dog
walkers like me!
September 12, 2018 / 6:41 PM
Volvo shows off self-driving, electric truck with no cab
BERLIN (Reuters) - Sweden’s Volvo (VOLVb.ST), the world’s second-biggest truck maker, presented a new self-driving electric truck on Wednesday, which it said should help respond to the boom in ecommerce and a shortage of freight drivers.Volvo said the truck, which does not have a driver’s cab, was still under development and declined to say when it would be available commercially. It expects the vehicle to be deployed first in places like ports and large logistics centres.
“We believe there will be a driver behind the steering wheel for the
foreseeable future, but we will pretty soon see self-drive commercial vehicles
in confined areas,” Lars Stenqvist, Volvo chief technology officer, told a
conference in Berlin.
Trucking is viewed by transport experts as a natural application for
self-driving technology because of the relative predictability of highways
compared with busy city streets.
The cabless truck - which Volvo calls Vera and can pull loads weighing
up to 32 tonnes - can be attached to any standard trailer, Michael Karlsson,
head of autonomous solutions at Volvo Trucks, said after the vehicle was
unveiled.
“Vera means faith and we have faith in the future,” Karlsson said,
adding the vehicle has a lower operating speed than a normal truck for safety
reasons.
Guests at the presentation were made to stand behind a barrier as the
truck drove out unaided from a tent and were only allowed to approach when it
came to a stop.
The 1.4-million member International Brotherhood of Teamsters union is
campaigning against new U.S. rules to speed the deployment of self-driving
trucks, warning they could mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and
hit road safety.
However, trucking firms in many countries are finding it harder to
attract and retain drivers amid tight labour markets.
Karlsson said the truck would allow places like ports that are currently
dependent on daytime working hours to run round-the-clock, optimising the flows
of goods and potentially cutting down on stockpiles and increasing
productivity.
He expects autonomous technology to increase the need for skilled
drivers, while cutting down on the need for people to perform repetitive tasks.
Morehttps://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-volvo-autonomous/volvo-shows-off-self-driving-electric-truck-with-no-cab-idUKKCN1LS2QT
“Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a
dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in
order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution.
The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power”
George
Orwell 1984.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
Yes, those unlovable gambling
banksters again. A rough Diamond defends the indefensible.
Bob Diamond defends risk-taking banks
13 September 2018.
Mr Diamond told me the risk-averse culture means they can't support the economy and generate jobs and growth.
Ten years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers he believes the appetite for risk taking within banking may have swung too far the other way.
"If they are totally without risk, they are not helping create jobs and economic growth," he said.
"The culture of banking now is that if anyone makes a mistake they get fined - or the bank is in trouble.
Once dubbed the unacceptable face of banking, Mr Diamond mounted a spirited defence of the culture and behaviour of crisis-era Barclays.
He told me that critics of the banking industry's behaviour in the run up to the financial crisis should distinguish between those that ultimately needed government bailouts and those that didn't.
Defending a culture
Barclays raised money from Middle East investors to stay afloat while RBS needed a £45bn taxpayer bailout."I think HSBC and Barclays deserve credit for raising capital privately," said Mr Diamond. "People should be angry with RBS for failing in the way it did - ten years later people still haven't got their money back. Private investors who put money into Barclays have seen very good returns."
He also defended the culture that prevailed at Barclays during the time
he ran the investment bank and subsequently took over as chief executive in
2011. In these years, Barclays employees - along with those of other banks -
were found to have rigged markets including interest rate benchmarks, precious
metals, foreign exchange and energy prices.
"I don't think the reprehensible behaviour of a few people out of
160,000 employees is representative of the culture we had at Barclays - I think
we had a very strong culture".
Really? I asked.
"Yes Really", he replied tartly.
Not for the first time since the financial crisis, Mr Diamond seemed in
no mood for insincere apologies. This is the man who transformed Barclays from
a sleepy but profitable retail bank into a trading and investment powerhouse -
becoming the poster child of buccaneering, risk taking, highly paid bankers in
the process.
Was there never a point when he privately thought the bank was taking
too much risk?
"After every earnings report up to 2007 I would have investors and
shareholders saying - can't you take more risk, get higher returns and there
was no regulatory pressure. But with 20/20 hindsight any banker working at that
time will now say we didn't have enough capital."
As well as being called the "unacceptable face of banking" by
Peter (now Lord) Mandelson, Mr Diamond was branded a casino banker by Liberal
Democrat leader Vince Cable and eventually lost the confidence of the governor
of the Bank of England in the wake of the Libor scandal - forcing him to resign
in 2012.
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?
Industry Giants Samsung and Hyundai Invest in Solid-State Batteries
Solid Power wins $20 million from automotive and electronics players.
Eric WesoffSeptember 11, 2018
Automotive and electronics giants are flooding the battery ecosystem
with strategic investments.
Solid-state battery startup Solid Power, based in Louisville,
Colorado, just won $20 million in a Series A investment round
from Hyundai, Samsung Venture Investment, Sanoh Industrial, Solvay
Ventures and A123 Systems. Late last year, Solid Power announced a partnership
with BMW to work jointly on automotive batteries.
The company claims that its battery technology provides
"substantially higher energy than conventional lithium-ion" while
also reducing the system-level costs of safety precautions.
With the level of investment and excitement in automotive and consumer
battery markets, one might forgive a battery startup for using such
aspirational language as "a multi-MWh roll-to-roll facility, which will be
fully constructed and installed by the end of 2018," or writing,
"The company’s ultimate objective is to displace lithium-ion as the
battery of choice."
But the company's claim that its technology provides "2 to 3X higher energy vs. current lithium-ion" really raises a red flag in the world of battery improvements. We spoke with Solid Power's CEO to learn more.
In an industry that is thankful for 10 percent performance gains, Solid Power co-founder and CEO Doug Campbell said that the 2x to 3x greater energy claim encompasses its near-term and longer-term targets.
Campbell told GTM that state-of-the-art nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cathodes with metallic lithium in a rechargeable chemistry can result in a 50 percent to 100 percent improvement in watt-hours per kilo compared to conventional graphite-based anodes and liquid electrolytes.
The CEO also noted that the startup is working on a more advanced chemistry, a conversion reaction cathode instead of the NMC formulation. This was the technology the startup initially licensed from the University of Colorado, and according to Campbell, when combined with metallic lithium, it can "credibly reach 2x to 3x" improvements.
The CEO added that his firm's chemistry requires fewer safety precautions and less stringent cooling requirements.
----Solid Power is by no means the only well-funded startup going after these markets with new battery technologies. Here's a partial list of competitors.
More
Another weekend, and another weekend for me to be thankful
to God for Rosie my border
collie’s, fast recovery from her breast cancer
operation. Thankfully there’s more to life than our rigged markets, trade and
currency wars, unrepayable debt mountains, incompetent politicians and bent
central banksters.
We are one week away from the autumn equinox. What will
autumn bring, a Democrat Congress and an impeachment? Probably not, butstill a
market shattering possibility just a few weeks ahead. Have a great weekend everyone.
“If you
want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
George
Orwell 1984.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished August.
DJIA: 25,965 +207 Down. NASDAQ:
8,110 +265 Up. SP500: 2,902 +168 Up.
All
three slow indicators moved down in March, but the S&P and NASDAQ have now turned
up. September will be critical for
confirmation of this change.
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