Baltic Dry Index. 1803 +02 Brent
Crude 61.36 Spot Gold 1492
Never ending Brexit now January 31, or maybe sooner.
Trump’s Nuclear China Tariffs Now in effect.
The USA v EU trade war started October 18. Now in effect.
"It is not the creation of wealth that
is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake."
Margaret Thatcher.
More optimism from President Trump on a China trade deal
part one, helped juice up US stocks, and with them President Trump’s
re-election chances, now just about one year away.
More optimism too on that Fed rate cut expected tomorrow,
although it’s already fully priced in to stocks. They wouldn’t rat out on
President Trump would they? They wouldn’t dare.
In our ever more disconnected “financialised first economy”
where the one percent hang out and make their living, the Fed and the cabal of
other central banksters, have their backs covered.
In the “everything else economy” where most people on
planet earth struggle to make their living, our central banksters have lost the
plot, hence all the growing social unrest in the world, where a generational revolution
is underway towards socialism, fuelled in part by the Soros assisted, Greta Thunberg
children’s propaganda campaign.
How it all ends is hard to say, but socialism never ends
well. As Mrs Thatcher put it, eventually they run out of other people’s money. Look
at Comrade Corbyn’s role model Venezuela.
Below, our stock markets waiting for “Godot” Powell.
Hopefully he shows up.
Lack of money is the root of all evil.
Anon.
Asia shares touch three-month top, cautious on Fed
October 29, 2019 /
12:37 AM
SYDNEY
(Reuters) - Asian shares crept to a three-month peak on Tuesday after Wall
Street hit all-time highs amid hopes of progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks and
for another dose of policy stimulus from the Federal Reserve this week.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 led the way with a rise of 0.4% to reach ground last trod a full year ago, while Shanghai blue chips .CSI300 dithered either side of flat.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS nudged up 0.2% and touched its highest since late July. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 extended their gains by 0.1% and EUROSTOXX 50 futures STXEc1 dipped 0.1%.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to sign a significant part of a trade deal with China ahead of schedule but did not elaborate on the timing.
The U.S. trade representative also said the U.S. was studying whether to extend tariff suspensions on $34 billion of Chinese goods set to expire on Dec. 28 this year.
“The market appears to be interpreting the improvement in trade talks as a positive sign that the U.S. will suspend its planned tariffs on $160 billion of Chinese imports due to take place in December,” said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at National Australia Bank.
“This is a big assumption as talks could easily fail again if both parties don’t find a compromise.”
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.56% to score a record closing peak, while the Dow .DJI rose 0.49% and the Nasdaq .IXIC 1.01%.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) climbed 2.46% after winning the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, beating out Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O).
Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) slipped in late NY trade after missing analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit even though revenue growth topped expectations.
More
Bond Sell-Off Extends; Stock Futures Trade Flat: Markets Wrap
By Andreea Papuc
Updated on October 29, 2019, 6:25 AM GMT
·
·
S&P 500 sets all-time high on trade
optimism, earnings
A global bond sell-off extended Tuesday, while U.S. and European stock futures traded little changed as investors await earnings releases and the Federal Reserve’s expected interest-rate cut.
Japanese shares closed at their highest of the year after gains on Wall Street that sent the S&P 500 Index to a record close. Stock trading elsewhere in Asia was mixed, with Shanghai dropping after a warning against speculation on blockchain-related stocks. Ten-year Japanese bond yields hit the highest since June, and their Australian counterparts jumped almost nine basis points.
The S&P 500 finally pierced its July high after President Donald Trump added fresh optimism on the U.S.-China trade front, saying the two are ahead of schedule on forging phase one of a trade deal.
“What we’ve had happening in markets in the last few weeks is a lifting of that perceived uncertainty” about U.S.-China trade and Brexit, with central bank easing providing a lift, Sue Trinh, a global macro strategist at Manulife Investment Management, told Bloomberg TV. “The real risk is that we’re seeing a boost to asset prices but no real uptick in the real economy,” she said.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-28/asia-stocks-to-gain-after-u-s-record-bonds-drop-markets-wrap
Three-peat? Fed copies 1990s playbook in bid to avert a downturn
October 29, 2019 /
5:35 AM
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - In the midst of what became a golden decade for the U.S. Federal
Reserve, central bankers twice in the 1990s cut interest rates in short bursts
that managed to help the U.S. economy continue growing despite slowing
investment and weak growth overseas.
Today’s Fed hopes a third time proves just as charmed.
In their latest two-day policy meeting this week, Fed officials look set
to nudge the economy along in similar fashion with their third consecutive rate
cut. That would match the moves made by then-Fed
Chairman Alan Greenspan in
1995 and 1998 during an era known as “the Great Moderation” for its steady
growth, falling unemployment and tempered inflation.
There’s been no clear commitment to another reduction in borrowing costs
from Fed policymakers, though a failure to lower rates on Wednesday could risk
upending financial markets that are confident another cut is coming. With billions
of dollars in bets on futures markets tied to anticipated Fed actions, any
deviation by the U.S. central bank from the expected course typically leads to
sharp swings in bond and stock markets.
A rate cut on Wednesday, which would be the Fed’s third this year, would
lower the overnight benchmark lending rate to a new range of between 1.5% and
1.75%. Policymakers may emphasize that “the three cuts cumulatively have served
to balance the risks to the outlook,” and will likely keep the economy on track,
JP Morgan economist Michael Feroli wrote last week.
The Fed is scheduled to announce its latest policy decision at 2 p.m.
EDT on Wednesday (1800 GMT). Fed Chair Jerome Powell will hold a news
conference half an hour later.
More
But back in the non financialised real economy, where
most people struggle to make their living, the reality is of a deepening global
economic slowdown. Our stock markets are headed towards a brutal comeuppance, I
think. But will it be before the US presidential election?
Japan steel group head: weaker global steel output shows world economy in slowdown
October 29, 2019
/ 5:30 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Iron and Steel Federation Chairman
Yoshihisa Kitano said on Tuesday that a year-on-year fall in global crude steel
output in September, which was the first drop in 41 months, underlined a
slowdown in the world economy. Global crude steel output in September fell 0.3% from a year earlier to 151.5 million tonnes, the first decline since April 2016.
Kitano, who is also president of JFE Steel, a unit of JFE Holdings (5411.T), also told a news conference that higher steel exports from India and Russia to ASEAN, reflecting a slower economy in Europe and India, are weighing on Asian steel markets.
Indian steelmakers face debt challenges after ill-timed bets
October 29, 2019 /
5:20 AM
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI
(Reuters) - India’s biggest steelmakers may be suffering from buyer’s remorse
as assets they bought from bankrupt rivals stretch their bottom lines while
market conditions have worsened.
Less than 18 months after scooping up these distressed assets in the
hopes of extracting value and boosting market share, the steelmakers are
struggling to meet sales and production targets because of a slowdown in the
key construction and auto sectors.
Tata Steel Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd and others are also wrestling with falling
revenues amid high debt loads.
“The operating environment has changed from when they bid for these
plants,” said Amit Dixit, senior steel analyst with brokerage firm Edelweiss
Financial Services. “So their payback period obviously gets elongated now.”
Steel prices were high and demand was booming then. Now, confronted with
falling prices and slower consumption, steelmakers are facing the risk of
credit downgrades, job losses and cuts in capital expenditure.
Arnab Kumar Hazra, assistant secretary general at the Indian Steel
Association, an industry group that also represents major steel producers,
noted companies would take a longer time to turn their assets around in the
current environment.
A deepening credit crunch in India’s shadow banking industry following
the collapse of a major infrastructure lender in 2018 has sharply dented
spending on cars and real estate in India.
More
Hong Kong shops shutter as months of protest darken economic gloom
October 29, 2019 /
4:28 AM
HONG KONG
(Reuters) - Hong Kong jeweller Jun Lam has already closed one shop. His
remaining outlet sits in an almost deserted shopping mall at the heart of a
district regularly hit by sometimes violent protests that have rocked the
Chinese-ruled city since June.
Restaurants, hotels and retail outlets like Lam’s, many of which cater
to mostly mainland Chinese tourists, form a central pillar of a small business
sector that employs more than one million people in the city.
But with visitors deterred by months of violence, many firms have closed
or are struggling to turn a profit.
“It’s only a third of the pedestrian flow compared with the past. On
some days, almost no shops were open in this mall,” Lam said. To stay afloat,
he has closed his other store in the New Territories district of Tseun Wan, the
site of some violent demonstrations between protesters and police.
When Reuters visited The Capital shopping mall, where Lam’s remaining
shop sits, almost half the units were closed or emptied.
---- Just last Sunday, the district was blanketed in tear gas during cat-and-mouse clashes between police and pro-democracy protesters.
It was the 21st consecutive weekend of protests over fears Beijing is
tightening its grip on the territory, the worst political crisis since colonial
ruler Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.
The unrest has dealt a double blow to the financial hub, which was
already grappling with sluggish economic growth.
Government support has been modest, and there is little optimism amid a
record decline in retail sales, rising unemployment and bankruptcies that have
started to hit banks’ bottom lines.
More
Finally, in other
news, trouble in continental Europe, China bets on cryptocurrency. Part of
de-dollarisation?
Elections in Germany, Italy shift political landscape
Oct. 28, 2019 /
11:37 AM
Oct.
28 (UPI) -- The Alternative for Germany Party
gained some key ground in elections over the weekend, but not enough to remove
the Left Party from power.The Left Party won 31 percent of the vote Sunday while the AfD Party claimed 23 percent in in Thuringia in eastern Germany. The Left Party was once part of the Communist Party in East Germany.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union Party finished third in voting, adding uncertainty to the makeup of the future state government.
The AfD Party in Thuringia is led by Bjorn Hocke, who made a name for himself by speaking against the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, calling it a "memorial of shame." He wants a "reversal" of Germany's culture of remembrance.
In central Italy, the League Party gained control for the first time in a half-century in a landslide victory. It won 58 percent of Sunday's vote in Italy's Umbria region. The two ruling parties, the Democratic Party and the 5StarMovement, earned 37 percent.
"We are writing history here tonight," League leader Matteo Salvini said
The results could shake up Italy's government just two months after the Democratic Party and 5StarMovement removed League from power. Umbria has long been a left-leaning stronghold ruled by communist, left or center-left parties.
Sunday marked the first time the Democratic Party and 5StarMovement teamed up with a joint candidate. Before the election, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the election was "not a vote on my government."
China passes new law to encourage cryptocurrency growth
Oct. 28, 2019 /
1:16 PM
Oct. 28 (UPI) -- China is moving forward with plans to promote
technology's frontier of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, according to
Beijing's state news agency.
Xinhua reported Monday China's National People's Congress has passed a
law that will allow the issuance of state-sanctioned cryptocurrency.
The NPC's Standing Committee completed preparations for issuing
crypto-assets on Saturday ahead of new legislation, according to the report.
The new crypto-asset law will come into effect on Jan. 1 with the aim of
"helping to develop the crypto-asset industry and to ensure the security
of cyber space and information," the Standing Committee said.
The report comes after Chinese President Xi Jinping said last week China will increase investment in blockchain technology, according to Bloomberg.
The statement triggered a buying spree among Chinese investors. Stocks witnessed double-digit gains as bitcoin rose 26 percent, according to the report.
"Most of these companies, especially those that are just beginning to state their connection with blockchain today, are trying to take advantage of the hype," said Li Shiyu, a fund manager at Guangdong Xiaoyu Investment Management, according to Bloomberg.
China wants to accelerate technological advances as it begins the fourth
plenary session of the Communist Party's 19th Central Committee, which opened
Monday.
The plenary session comes at the midpoint of Xi's second term. Ahead of
the meeting on Sunday, China issued a booklet that highlighted Xi's leadership
across all sectors.
Beijing is holding the meeting this week after postponing the plenary
session in October 2018, owing to the trade war with the United States.
More
"If
you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman."
Margaret
Thatcher.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled
over.
Today, China again. China fires a shot across Trump’s America’s bow. Stray
too far off the reservation, seems to be the message, and bad things can start
to happen. For a President hoping for re-election next year, I’m sure Team Trump
got the message.
China’s warning is probably meant more for a second term,
likely more reckless President Trump, rather than a real threat at present to switch
oil pricing away from dollars.
But at some point ahead this century, one of two things is likely to
happen. China’s Yuan joins the dollar, euro, Pound, and Yen in international
usage, in which case China will probably start paying for oil and other
commodities in Yuan.
We get a massive financial crisis that ends the fiat dollar reserve
standard, and the world puts together a replacement.
The bell to end the oil dollar hegemony is ringing
By
Hu Weijia Source:Global Times Published: 2019/10/27 21:03:41
China,
the world's biggest oil importer, should follow the lead of Russia and switch
to the euro from the US dollar for its oil and natural gas contracts.
Rosneft, Russia's top crude oil producer, has reportedly set the euro as the default currency for its oil product sales. Rosneft's move can be seen as a strong signal that the US dollar is losing its dominant role.
About 90 percent of global oil-product trade reportedly involves the US dollar, but the situation is gradually changing, partly due to US economic policies. According to the Russia Today news channel, the US has not ruled out imposing sanctions on Rosneft because of its trade with Venezuela. The switch from the dollar to the euro is a cost the US must pay as Rosneft shields its transactions from potential fresh US sanctions.
We support the efforts of Russia to break the dollar's dominance as the principal currency for the world's oil-product trade. Measures should also be taken by Chinese enterprises to promote the use of the euro and other major currencies, notably the yuan, in oil trading settlements.
Global business groups have generally expressed anxiety about unilateral actions taken by the US against Iran, which holds large proven crude oil reserves. Ending dollar dominance in energy trading is a good choice to oppose unilateral actions by the US.
More importantly, US President Donald Trump is a big fan of a weaker US dollar, repeatedly calling on the Fed to cut interest rates.
A rapid depreciation will probably make the US dollar completely lose its dominant role. At this critical moment, the increased use of the euro in oil trade tends to eclipse the US dollar.
China and Russia are important players in the global energy market. China surpassed the US in annual gross crude oil imports in 2017, said the US Energy Information Administration. Russia is one of the world's largest oil and natural gas producers, and China's largest crude oil supplier.
If China and Russia join hands to switch to other currencies for their oil and gas contracts, their combined share of the market will be large enough to break the dominance of the US dollar in global oil trade.
A diversified world currency system cannot be built overnight. But it is undeniable that US financial hegemony is breaking down. At the beginning of the year, some European countries announced a new transaction channel called INSTEX to facilitate legitimate trade with Iran.
Hopefully Rosneft's moves can set an example so European nations and other countries in the world can switch away from dollar for their oil contracts.
Rosneft, Russia's top crude oil producer, has reportedly set the euro as the default currency for its oil product sales. Rosneft's move can be seen as a strong signal that the US dollar is losing its dominant role.
About 90 percent of global oil-product trade reportedly involves the US dollar, but the situation is gradually changing, partly due to US economic policies. According to the Russia Today news channel, the US has not ruled out imposing sanctions on Rosneft because of its trade with Venezuela. The switch from the dollar to the euro is a cost the US must pay as Rosneft shields its transactions from potential fresh US sanctions.
We support the efforts of Russia to break the dollar's dominance as the principal currency for the world's oil-product trade. Measures should also be taken by Chinese enterprises to promote the use of the euro and other major currencies, notably the yuan, in oil trading settlements.
Global business groups have generally expressed anxiety about unilateral actions taken by the US against Iran, which holds large proven crude oil reserves. Ending dollar dominance in energy trading is a good choice to oppose unilateral actions by the US.
More importantly, US President Donald Trump is a big fan of a weaker US dollar, repeatedly calling on the Fed to cut interest rates.
A rapid depreciation will probably make the US dollar completely lose its dominant role. At this critical moment, the increased use of the euro in oil trade tends to eclipse the US dollar.
China and Russia are important players in the global energy market. China surpassed the US in annual gross crude oil imports in 2017, said the US Energy Information Administration. Russia is one of the world's largest oil and natural gas producers, and China's largest crude oil supplier.
If China and Russia join hands to switch to other currencies for their oil and gas contracts, their combined share of the market will be large enough to break the dominance of the US dollar in global oil trade.
A diversified world currency system cannot be built overnight. But it is undeniable that US financial hegemony is breaking down. At the beginning of the year, some European countries announced a new transaction channel called INSTEX to facilitate legitimate trade with Iran.
Hopefully Rosneft's moves can set an example so European nations and other countries in the world can switch away from dollar for their oil contracts.
"There is no such thing as society.
There are individual men and women and there are families."
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 develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air
The process could work on the gas at any concentrations, from power plant emissions to open air
Date:
October 25, 2019
Source:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Summary:
A new way of removing carbon dioxide from a stream of air could provide a
significant tool in the battle against climate change. The new system can work
on the gas at virtually any concentration level, even down to the roughly 400
parts per million currently found in the atmosphere.
A new way of removing carbon dioxide from a stream of air could provide
a significant tool in the battle against climate change. The new system can
work on the gas at virtually any concentration level, even down to the roughly
400 parts per million currently found in the atmosphere.
Most methods of removing carbon dioxide from a stream of gas require
higher concentrations, such
as those found in the flue emissions from fossil
fuel-based power plants. A few variations have been developed that can work
with the low concentrations found in air, but the new method is significantly
less energy-intensive and expensive, the researchers say.
The technique, based on passing air through a stack of charged
electrochemical plates, is described in a new paper in the journal Energy
and Environmental Science, by MIT postdoc Sahag Voskian, who developed the
work during his PhD, and T. Alan Hatton, the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical
Engineering.
The device is essentially a large, specialized battery that absorbs
carbon dioxide from the air (or other gas stream) passing over its electrodes
as it is being charged up, and then releases the gas as it is being discharged.
In operation, the device would simply alternate between charging and
discharging, with fresh air or feed gas being blown through the system during
the charging cycle, and then the pure, concentrated carbon dioxide being blown
out during the discharging.
As the battery charges, an electrochemical reaction takes place at the
surface of each of a stack of electrodes. These are coated with a compound
called polyanthraquinone, which is composited with carbon nanotubes. The
electrodes have a natural affinity for carbon dioxide and readily react with
its molecules in the airstream or feed gas, even when it is present at very low
concentrations. The reverse reaction takes place when the battery is discharged
-- during which the device can provide part of the power needed for the whole
system -- and in the process ejects a stream of pure carbon dioxide. The whole
system operates at room temperature and normal air pressure.
"The greatest advantage of this technology over most other carbon
capture or carbon absorbing technologies is the binary nature of the
adsorbent's affinity to carbon dioxide," explains Voskian. In other words,
the electrode material, by its nature, "has either a high affinity or no
affinity whatsoever," depending on the battery's state of charging or
discharging. Other reactions used for carbon capture require intermediate
chemical processing steps or the input of significant energy such as heat, or
pressure differences.
"This binary affinity allows capture of carbon dioxide from any
concentration, including 400 parts per million, and allows its release into any
carrier stream, including 100 percent CO2," Voskian says. That is, as any
gas flows through the stack of these flat electrochemical cells, during the
release step the captured carbon dioxide will be carried along with it. For
example, if the desired end-product is pure carbon dioxide to be used in the
carbonation of beverages, then a stream of the pure gas can be blown through
the plates. The captured gas is then released from the plates and joins the
stream.
In some soft-drink bottling plants, fossil fuel is burned to generate
the carbon dioxide needed to give the drinks their fizz. Similarly, some
farmers burn natural gas to produce carbon dioxide to feed their plants in greenhouses.
The new system could eliminate that need for fossil fuels in these
applications, and in the process actually be taking the greenhouse gas right
out of the air, Voskian says. Alternatively, the pure carbon dioxide stream
could be compressed and injected underground for long-term disposal, or even
made into fuel through a series of chemical and electrochemical processes.
The process this system uses for capturing and releasing carbon dioxide
"is revolutionary" he says. "All of this is at ambient conditions
-- there's no need for thermal, pressure, or chemical input. It's just these
very thin sheets, with both surfaces active, that can be stacked in a box and
connected to a source of electricity."
More
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of
other people's money.” The monthly Coppock Indicators finished September
DJIA: 26,917 +57 Up. NASDAQ: 7,999 +62 Up. SP500: 2,977 +61 Up.
Another inconclusive month,
but all three moved up weakly. I would not rely on nor take such a weak buy
signal.
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