Baltic Dry Index. 1411 -28 Brent Crude 79.32
“If
you're not gonna pull the trigger, don't point the gun.”
James
Baker. United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan,
and U.S. Secretary of State and White House Chief of Staff under President
George H. W. Bush.
As Trump’s trade wars
really start to bite, has President Trump bitten off more than he can chew with
China? Is President Trump about to go down in history as the man who started Great
Depression Two? Possibly. It seems that Trade War Team Trump, if not yet Trump
himself, are belatedly awakening to the possibility that command economy China
might weather a growing trade war, far better and easier than the central
bankster rigged US economy.
Worse, while China’s Xi
has a natural political scapegoat in Trump and America, should a global
recession start and unemployment rise, Trade War Team Trump, and especially
Trump himself, have no convenient scapegoat to hand, and will take all of the
blame for the rising unemployment and pain.
We open on the last
pre-hurricane trading day, wondering if Trade War Team Trump just blinked.
Despite all the bombastic Trump bluster on new punitive China tariffs,
President Trump seems suddenly scared to pull the trigger. Something that will
not be missed in Toronto, Brussels, Berlin and Beijing.
U.S. offers renewed trade talks with China to avert new tariffs
The Trump administration is giving Beijing another chance to try to
stave off new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese exports, asking top officials
for a fresh round of trade talks later this month, people briefed on the matter
said.
The invitation from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin comes as some
Trump officials said they sense a new vulnerability — and possibly more
flexibility — among Chinese officials pressured by U.S. tariffs imposed earlier
this year and threats for more.
It also follows a steady rise in political pressure on President Donald
Trump to ease up on trade fights — which have pinched consumers and prompted
painful retaliation against U.S. exports — ahead of November elections in which
his Republican Party risks losing congressional control.
Given the difficult nature of the trade talks between the two countries
over the past year, there is no guarantee the invitation will yield a meeting.
Chinese officials said they’ve grown wary of the Trump administration’s
unpredictable decision-making process and may be hesitant to accept without a
clear sign U.S. negotiators have authority to speak for the president.
September 13, 2018 / 5:28 AM
Asia Inc second quarter profits grow at slowest pace in nearly two years as trade tensions rise
(Reuters)
- Asian companies posted their lowest profit growth in nearly two years in the
June quarter and earnings are likely to come under further pressure, weighed
down by the escalating U.S.-China trade war and high currency volatility,
Reuters analyses showed.
An analysis of about 4,000 Asian companies excluding Japan showed their
combined net profit rose 12.98 percent in the June quarter, easing for the third
straight quarter and the slowest pace of expansion the September quarter of
2016.
More pressure is building, with analysts slashing their forecasts for
the current fiscal year by 5 percent on average over the last 90 days, a
separate analysis of more than 15,000 firms showed.
In the same period, analysts have cut down their third-quarter earnings
forecasts by 4.9 percent.
China Inc, which has the biggest weighting with over 4,000 firms in the
survey, saw profit forecasts slashed by 7.3 percent for the current fiscal
year.
By sector, the technology industry is one of the biggest losers, as
Washington is set to impose tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods that would
make imported computer parts and intermediary products manufactured across Asia
more expensive.
----Profit
estimates for electronic equipment and parts industry were slashed by 9.68
percent over the last 90 days, while forecasts for communications &
networking segment were cut by 21.84 percent.
More
A third of U.S. companies in China may put off investments over trade worries
By Yoko
Kubota Published: Sept 12, 2018
10:28 p.m. ET
BEIJING — A new survey of U.S. companies doing business in China found that
31.1% are considering delaying or canceling investment decisions over
uncertainties created by tariffs and U.S.-China trade friction.In addition, 50.8% of the companies surveyed said they anticipate a loss of profits because of the tariffs, while 47.1% said they are bracing for higher manufacturing costs.
“American companies are suffering both from China’s retaliatory tariffs, and — ironically — from U.S. tariffs designed to harm the Chinese economy,” the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the chamber’s Shanghai chapter said in a joint statement.
The survey is based on responses from 432 of the two chambers’ member companies and was conducted between Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, they said. The chambers didn’t release the names of respondents, but members of the chambers include China-based operations of Apple Inc. AAPL, -1.24% , Boeing Co. BA, +2.36% and General Motors Co. GM, +0.86%
In hurricane news, growing fears that hurricane Florence
may stall turning into a massive rain and flooding event. Thankfully, those
about to be affected have had plenty of notice and time to take precautions or
flee, but there are no good outcomes to hurricanes.
Storm’s uncertain track sows fear; 10 million in crosshairs
By JEFFREY COLLINS
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Hurricane Florence put a corridor of more than 10 million people in the crosshairs Wednesday as the monster storm closed in on the Carolinas, uncertainty over its projected path spreading worry across a widening swath of the Southeast.Faced with new forecasts that showed a more southerly threat, Georgia’s governor joined his counterparts in Virginia and North and South Carolina in declaring a state of emergency, and some residents who had thought they were safely out of range boarded up their homes.
The National Hurricane Center’s best guess was that Florence would blow
ashore as early as Friday afternoon around the North Carolina-South Carolina
line, then push its rainy way westward with a potential for catastrophic inland
flooding.
Florence’s nighttime winds were down to 110 mph (175 kph) from a high of
140 mph (225 kph), and the Category 3 storm fell to a Category 2, with a
further slow weakening expected as the storm nears the coast. But authorities
warned it will still be an extremely dangerous hurricane.
“Do you want to get hit with a train or do you want to get hit with a
cement truck?” said Jeff Byard, an administrator with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
Tropical storm-force winds extended 195 miles (315 kilometers) from
Florence’s center, and hurricane-force winds reached out 70 miles (110
kilometers).
The National Weather Service said 5.25 million people live in areas
under hurricane warnings or watches, and 4.9 million live in places covered by
tropical storm warnings or watches.
At the White House, President Donald Trump both touted the government’s
readiness and urged people to get out of the way of Florence.
----As of 11 p.m., the storm was centered 280 miles (455 kilometers) southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, moving northwest at 17 mph (28 kph). The hurricane center said Florence will approach the coast Friday and linger for a while before rolling ashore.
As of Tuesday, more than 1.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were warned to clear out. Airlines had canceled nearly 1,000 flights and counting. Home Depot and Lowe’s activated emergency response centers to get generators, trash bags and bottled water to stores before and after the storm. The two hardware chains said they sent in a total of around 1,100 trucks.
Duke Energy, the nation’s No. 2 power company, said Florence could knock out electricity to three-quarters of its 4 million customers in the Carolinas, and outages could last for weeks. Workers are being brought in from the Midwest and Florida to help in the storm’s aftermath, it said.
Boarding up his home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Chris Pennington watched the forecasts and tried to decide when to leave.
“In 12 or 18 hours, they may be saying different things all over again,” he said.
Computer models of exactly what the storm might do varied, adding to the uncertainty. In contrast to the hurricane center’s official projection, a highly regarded European model had the storm turning southward off the North Carolina coast and coming ashore near the Georgia-South Carolina line.
Reacting to the possibility of a more southerly track, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared an emergency but did not immediately order any evacuations.
More
Every
generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before
it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
George Orwell.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.
In Trump’s friend and foe alike trade war, not all American’s are on his
side.
Freedom
is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
George
Orwell.
September 12, 2018 / 5:06 AM
As Trump embraces more tariffs, U.S. business readies public fight
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - After months of waging a behind-the-scenes war against President
Donald Trump’s trade tariffs that have escalated far beyond what business
groups once imagined, more than 60 U.S. industry groups are launching a
coalition on Wednesday to take the fight public.
Emergence of the group, Americans for Free Trade, comes after Trump has
warmed to the use of tariffs, implementing billions of dollars worth in an
effort to use them as a threat to win concessions or in the belief they will
create U.S. jobs.
“A lot of other interest groups thought they wouldn’t go this long or go
this deep, but the layering effect (of tariffs) has finally gotten everyone to
say: ‘Enough is enough,’” said Nicole Vasilaros, the top lobbyist for the
National Marine Manufacturers Association, whose members are weighing laying
off workers after seeing costs rise as much as 35 percent.
Trump
has imposed 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, mostly
industrial machinery and intermediate electronics parts such as semiconductors.
A pending $200 billion list would extend further into consumer goods, and the threat of an additional $267 billion would basically cover every Chinese export to the United States. China has threatened retaliation, which could include action against U.S. companies operating there.
Washington has demanded that Beijing better protect American intellectual property, cut its U.S. trade surplus, allow U.S. companies greater access to its markets and roll back its high-technology industrial subsidy programs.
The business coalition includes groups representing some of the nation’s largest companies. Among them, the American Petroleum Institute, which represents the largest refiners like Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N), and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents companies like Target Corp (TGT.N) and Autozone Inc (AZO.N).
“There has been a lot of work that has been going on over the last eight months to try to persuade the president and the administration that tariffs are not going to work. Our view is that it’s not too late,” said Dean Garfield, chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), Google owner Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O).
More
Jean-Claude
Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of
Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. European Commission President. Scotch
connoisseur.
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?
Engineers protect artifacts by graphene gilding
Date:
September 11, 2018
Source:
University of Illinois College of Engineering
Summary:
Gilding is the process of coating intricate artifacts with precious metals.
Ancient Egyptians and Chinese coated their sculptures with thin metal films
using gilding. Scientists inspired by this ancient process, have added a single
layer of carbon atoms, known as graphene, on top of metal leaves -- doubling the
protective quality of gilding against wear and tear.
Gilding is the process of coating intricate artifacts with precious
metals. Ancient Egyptians and Chinese coated their sculptures with thin metal
films using gilding -- and these golden sculptures have resisted corrosion,
wear, and environmental degradation for thousands of years. The middle and
outer coffins of Tutankhamun, for instance, are gold leaf gilded, as are many
other ancient treasures.
In a new study, Sameh Tawfick, an assistant professor of Mechanical
Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
inspired by this ancient process, has added a single layer of carbon atoms,
known as graphene, on top of metal leaves -- doubling the protective quality of
gilding against wear and tear.
The study, "Gilding with Graphene: Rapid Chemical Vapor Deposition
Synthesis of Graphene on Thin Metal Leaves," is published in the journal Advanced
Functional Materials. The researchers coated thin metal leaves of palladium
with a single layer of graphene.
Metal leaves, or foils, offer many advantages as a scalable coating
material, including their commercial availability in large rolls and their
comparatively low price. By bonding a single layer of graphene to the leaves,
Tawfick and his team demonstrated unexpected benefits, including enhanced
mechanical resistance. Their work presents exciting opportunities for
protective coating applications on large structures like buildings or ship
hulls, metal surfaces of consumer electronics, and small precious artifacts or
jewelry.
"Adding one more layer of graphene atoms onto the palladium made it
twice as resistant to indents than the bare leaves alone," said Tawfick.
"It's also very attractive from a cost perspective. The amount of graphene
needed to cover the gilded structures of the Carbide & Carbon Building in
Chicago, for example, would be the size of the head of a pin."
More
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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