Baltic Dry Index. 1770 +03 Brent
Crude 58.66 Spot Gold 1491
Never ending Brexit now October 31, maybe. 23 days away.
Trump’s Nuclear China Tariffs Now In Effect.
The USA v EU trade war starts October 18.
The definition of
insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different
result.
Albert Einstein,
attributed.
With the mid-level trade talks underway in Washington D.
C., and the top level trade talks due to start later in the week, Washington
chose yesterday to blacklist yet more Chinese technology companies. It’s a
funny way of trying to reach a new trade deal with China.
Today we focus on China and the likelihood of a new “fair
to all” trade deal ending the USA trade and technology war on communist China.
We open with Asian markets hoping against hope that the
talks succeed, but why?
China joins Asian shares in cautious advance ahead of trade talks
October 8, 2019
/ 1:46 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares inched up on Tuesday, with Chinese shares
making modest gains after a week-long holiday, though investors remained
cautious over U.S.-China trade talks after President Donald Trump said a quick
trade deal was unlikely.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) rose 1.2% after its profit guidance. The semiconductor firm said its third-quarter operating profit likely fell 56% on a downturn in global memory chip prices, but that was better than what analysts had anticipated.
Taiwan's stock index .TWII gained 0.7% to hit five-month highs while Hong Kong shares .HSI extended gains after the territory's leader said she had no plans to use the emergency regulation ordinance to introduce other laws.
Shanghai shares .SSEC rose 0.3% after the week-long break though gains were led mainly by defensive shares ahead of the crucial trade talks.
Spending on retail goods and dining during China’s National Day holidays returned to growth this year, offering unexpected respite to an economy that has been expanding at its weakest pace in almost three decades.
Still a private survey showed China’s services sector grew at its slowest pace in seven months in September.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.45% on Monday, unable to sustain gains made after positive tweets and news headlines about the trade talks.
---- U.S. and Chinese deputy trade negotiators on Monday launched two days of talks aimed at paving the way later this week for the first minister-level negotiations in months.
But prospects for progress in U.S.-China trade talks dimmed after
Washington blacklisted Chinese companies over Beijing’s treatment of
predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.
More
Hopes for a deal dim as U.S.-China trade talks get underway in tense atmosphere
October 7, 2019 /
2:23 PM
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Prospects for progress in U.S.-China trade talks dimmed on Monday
after Washington blacklisted Chinese companies over Beijing’s treatment of
predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities, and President Donald Trump said a quick
trade deal was unlikely.
The move by the U.S. Commerce Department could deepen divisions between
Washington and Beijing at a critical juncture in their 15-month trade war that
has roiled financial markets and triggered a slowdown in the global economy.
Another flashpoint has been a widening controversy over a tweet from a
U.S. National Basketball Association official. His backing of Hong Kong
democracy protests was rebuked by the NBA, sparking a backlash.
Trump and his top economic adviser Larry Kudlow spoke in generally
upbeat terms about this week’s discussions with China, the first such
high-level talks in more than two months, but Trump insisted he would not be
satisfied with a partial deal.
“We think there’s a chance we could do something very substantial,”
Trump said, referring to minister-level talks scheduled for the end of the
week. “I would much prefer a big deal and I think that’s what we’re shooting
for.”
Pressed to elaborate on the chances of progress this week, Trump sounded
more sceptical. “Can something happen? I guess, maybe. Who knows. But I think
it’s probably unlikely,” he said.
He also said he hoped China found a humane and peaceful resolution to
the ongoing political protests in Hong Kong, and warned the situation had the
potential to hurt trade talks.
“If anything happened bad, I think that would be a very bad thing for
the negotiation. I think politically it would be very tough,” he told reporters
at the White House.
More
China Vice Premier Liu will travel to U.S. for trade talks on Oct.10-11
October 8, 2019
/ 1:31 AM
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and top trade
negotiator will be travelling to Washington for the next round of trade talks
with the United States on Oct.10-11, China’s commerce ministry said on Tuesday.
Liu will meet U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the ministry said in a brief statement.
Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, China’s central bank Governor Yi
Gang, and the National Development and Reform Commission’s deputy head Ning
Jizhe will also attend the trade talks, according to the statement.
U.S. to blacklist Chinese artificial-intelligence companies
Published: Oct 7, 2019 11:30 p.m. ET
The United States is blacklisting a group of Chinese tech companies that
develop facial recognition and other artificial intelligence technology that
the U.S. says is being used to repress China’s Muslim minority groups.
A move Monday by the U.S. Commerce Department puts the companies on a
so-called Entity List for acting contrary to American foreign policy interests.
The blacklist effectively bars U.S. firms from selling technology to the
Chinese companies without government approval.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a written statement Monday that
the U.S. government “will not tolerate the brutal suppression of ethnic
minorities within China.”
The blacklisted companies include Hikvision and Dahua, both of which are
global providers of video surveillance technology.
Hikvision said in a statement Monday that it respects human rights and
strongly opposes the Trump administration’s decision. The company said it has
spent a year trying to “clarify misunderstandings about the company and address
their concerns,” and that this will hurt its U.S. business partners.
Prominent Chinese AI firms such as Sense Time, Megvii and iFlytek are
also on the list. Sense Time and Megvii are known for the development of
computer vision technology that underpins facial recognition products, while
iFlytek is known for its voice recognition and translation services.
The companies are among 28 organizations added to the blacklist Monday.
Along with the tech companies, the Commerce Department’s filing targets local
government agencies in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.
More
China's Caixin services PMI hits 7-month low
By MarketWatch
Published: Oct 7, 2019 11:17 p.m. ET
BEIJING--China's services activity expanded at its slowest pace in seven
months, a private gauge showed, in line with official data that pointed to a
deceleration in growth.
The Caixin China services purchasing managers index slipped to 51.3 in
September from 52.1 in August, Caixin Media Co. and research firm Markit said
Tuesday. The reading, the lowest since February, remained above the 50 mark
that separates expansion in activity from contraction.
Services providers' expectations of the sector's development fell to the
lowest level on record and companies are less optimistic about the sector,
Caixin said.
Still, services companies in China experienced the quickest rise in new
orders since the beginning of 2018, reflecting stable demand in the sector. The
subindex for new export orders continued to drop in September, indicating that
growth in new business was mainly driven by domestic demand.
----
"China's economy showed signs of marginal recovery in September, as the
labor market improved and domestic demand increased at a faster pace,"
Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group, said in a
statement accompanying the data release.
----
China's official nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index, which includes the
construction sector, edged down to 53.7 in September from 53.8 in August, the
National Bureau of Statistics said earlier.
“But I
don’t want to go among mad people," Vice Premier Liu He remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Vice Premier Liu He.
"You must be," said Lighthizer, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
"Oh, you can’t help that," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Vice Premier Liu He.
"You must be," said Lighthizer, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Alice
in Wonderland
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled
over.
Today, Europe. Germany leads the rest into
recession, even before Brexit. The USA v EU trade war is just 10 days away. The EU misspent billions of Euros last year,
according to the EU auditors. Forget about it say the auditors. Brexit on
October 31 can’t come soon enough.
“Why,
sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
Alice in Wonderland
German manufacturing orders weaker than expected
By Emese
Bartha
Published: Oct 7, 2019 2:35 a.m. ET
German manufacturing orders fell August, data from the Federal
Statistical Office showed Monday, boosting the likelihood of economic
contraction in the third quarter in Europe’s largest economy.
Manufacturing orders declined 0.6% on the month in adjusted terms.
Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal forecast a meager 0.2% growth on
the month.
On an annual comparison, orders plunged by 6.7% adjusted to calendar and
price effects.
“Weak demand continued in the industry,” the Ministry of Economics said.
“The industrial business activity remains subdued for the time being,” it
added.
Domestic orders fell by 2.6%, while foreign orders rose by 0.9%, the
ministry said.
Drop in German industrial orders adds to recession signs
October 7, 2019 /
7:50 AM
BERLIN
(Reuters) - German industrial orders fell slightly more than expected in August
on weaker domestic demand, data showed on Monday, adding to evidence that a
manufacturing slump is pushing Europe’s largest economy into recession.
Contracts for ‘Made in Germany’ goods fell 0.6% from the previous month,
with demand for capital goods down 1.6%, the Economy Ministry said. The overall
monthly fall compared with a Reuters consensus forecast for a drop of 0.3%.
“The German economy is in the midst of a recession. Today’s data make
that clear again,” said Thomas Gitzel, economist at VP Bank Group. “The German
government will probably come under growing pressure to give up its strict
budget policy.”
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said last week that Germany would be able
to cope with an economic crisis but added that he did not expect a downturn to
be as bad as it was in 2008/2009.
---- Germany’s export-reliant manufacturers are suffering from a slowing world economy and business uncertainty linked to a trade dispute between the United States and China as well as Britain’s planned but delayed exit from the European Union.
Monday’s weaker-than-expected data adds to the sense of gloom around the
German manufacturing sector.
A survey released last Tuesday showed Germany’s manufacturing recession
deepened in September with factories recording their weakest performance since
the world financial crisis a decade ago.
More
Germany says the U.S. wants ‘confrontation’ with EU tariffs
Published: Oct 4, 2019 1:03 p.m. ET
BERLIN (AP) — European officials said Friday they hope to engage the
U.S. in talks on the new tariffs it has imposed on the EU, but are ready to
respond with taxes on American goods if needed.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the U.S. government is “going
down the path of confrontation,” after the Trump administration slapped hefty
taxes on EU goods.
The U.S. imposed the tariffs after getting approval from the World Trade
Organization over European subsidies for plane-maker Airbus. The EU is
expecting a similar ruling over U.S. subsidies for Boeing that would allow it
to set tariffs on American goods.
“The EU must react and probably raise punitive tariffs itself after WTO
approval,” Maas wrote on Twitter, in an apparent reference to a similar WTO
case involving Boeing.
Maas, however, said that the EU “remains prepared to jointly negotiate
rules for subsidies to the aircraft industry.”
“We can still avert further damage,” he wrote.
The U.S. tariffs do not go into effect before Oct. 18, leaving some
space for negotiations.
The Spanish government echoed that hope.
Minister of Agriculture Luis Planas said, “there is still a margin for
negotiation.”
“The government of Spain will bring to bear all the pressure (it can),”
he said.
Planas said Spain was going to push the European Commission to have the
agricultural products removed from the American list.
He
said the government would be supporting its producers of olive oil, olives,
pork products and cheese, among the businesses most vulnerable to the U.S.
tariffs.
Billions of euros of EU funds misspent last year: auditors
October 7, 2019 /
11:09 PM
BRUSSELS
(Reuters) - More than 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of European Union funds
were misspent last year, EU auditors estimated in a report released on Tuesday,
which highlighted poor checks in receiving states on how the bloc’s funds are
invested.
The annual assessment is likely to fan the heated debate about the
bloc’s next seven-year budget which Germany, the largest contributor to it,
wants to cap below EU proposals meant to address new expenses on migration,
social security and job-creation.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA), which is responsible for assessing
the annual 155-billion-euro EU budget, estimated that an average of 2.6% of
last year’s EU expenses were irregular, up from 2.4% the previous year.
Because of that, auditors could not give a clean-sheet assessment of the
budget and issued a “qualified opinion” on the regularity of payments, the court
said in a note.
The
president of the court, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, said the irregularities detected
were not a reason for big concern as they represented a
small amount of the budget and were mostly caused by complex payment rules.
---- The irregularities detected are likely to represent a fraction of all errors in EU spending because of the limited resources available to auditors to conduct checks.
Authorities in EU states where EU money is spent are not always very
keen to help. Irregularities in spending could lead to reimbursements of funds
that in some EU states, especially in the east and the south of the bloc, are
crucial for local economies.
More
Jean-Claude
Juncker. Failed former Luxembourg P.M., serial liar, president of the European
Commission. 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?
UK universities in landmark deal to buy energy direct from windfarms
Twenty institutions including Newcastle and Exeter club together in 10-year deal worth £50m
Mon 7 Oct 2019 06.01 BST
Twenty of the UK’s leading universities have struck a £50m deal to buy renewable energy directly from British windfarms for the first time.
The collaborative clean energy deal will supply electricity from wind farms across Scotland and Wales to universities including Newcastle University, University of Exeter and Aberystwyth University.
The landmark deal, known as a “power purchase agreement” or PPA, is the first time that public sector energy users have clubbed together to buy clean electricity.
The PPA was arranged by deal brokers at The Energy Consortium and Squeaky Clean Energy to fix the price of renewable electricity from a portfolio British windfarms for the next 10 years.
The universities will be guaranteed clean energy by the windfarm owner, Norwegian energy giant Statkraft, which will issue certificates matching the output of the windfarms.
James Rolfe, the chief operating officer at Anglia Ruskin University, which is part of the deal, said the university has joined others in declaring a climate emergency, and plans to be climate neutral by 2030.
“To support this commitment we aim to source all of our electricity from zero carbon sources by 2025, and this power purchase agreement makes a significant contribution towards this goal whilst delivering financial savings and budget stability,” he added.
Richard Murphy, the managing director of The Energy Consortium, said the “groundbreaking deal” would help universities reduce their carbon emissions and save money by accessing the power purchase market for the first time.
Murphy helped arrange one of the first major corporate energy deals in
Europe in 2008 to supply supermarket giant with renewable energy.
Since then the PPAs have remained the preserve of larger, multi-site
corporations because most renewable energy developers require hefty deals over
long contract periods, according to Murphy.
One of the UK’s largest deals was struck last year between Budweiser brewer AB InBev and solar developer Lightsource BP to build 100MW of solar power, without subsidy, to help power their nationwide operations.
Last month, Google revealed the company’s $2bn plans for the biggest renewable energy deal in corporate history. It is made up of 18 separate agreements to supply Google with 1,600MW of electricity from wind and solar projects across the world.
Murphy said that collaborative energy purchase deals mean that even small institutions are now “able to navigate a previously inaccessible market” too.
“The combined challenge facing the wider public sector is to secure reduced carbon emissions whilst saving money and I am delighted that these universities have secured both,” he said.
“My
dear, here in the EUSSR, we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place.
And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”
Alice in Wonderland
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment