Wednesday 27 November 2019

Fed Blowing Bubbles Again. Thanksgiving Stays.


Baltic Dry Index. 1426 +75 Brent Crude 64.22 Spot Gold 1459

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.

The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.

John Maynard Keynes

With tomorrow’s major holiday for Thanksgiving, today is a good day to dress up US stock markets in thin conditions. With the Trump Fed onside and blowing “Greenspan” type stock bubbles again, it shouldn’t be too hard to get the Dow Jones to its short term target of 30,000 by year-end.

But the economic reality is very different from the new Fed bubble. Sooner or later, reality always wins out. However, timing and its cause is everything.

In good news though, president Trump says that he’s not renaming Thanksgiving! In the same speech he implied that he’s not renaming Christmas either.  Well that’s a big relief.

A very happy and safe Thanksgiving, to all celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Asian shares climb on Trump trade deal comments

November 27, 2019 / 1:15 AM
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Wednesday as upbeat signals from Sino-U.S. trade talks fanned hopes of an easing of tariff hostilities, while expectations the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates low supported sentiment.

The positive mood pushed Wall Street indexes to fresh record closing highs on Tuesday and stoked confidence in Asia with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS up 0.19%. Australian shares added 0.65% and Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.36%.

Chinese blue-chip shares .CSI300, in contrast, dropped 0.39% after the data showed profits at China's industrial firms declined in annual terms for the third consecutive month in October, tracking sustained drops in producer prices and exports and underscoring slowing momentum in the world's second-largest economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States and China are close to agreement on the first phase of a trade deal after top negotiators from the two countries spoke by telephone and agreed to keep working on remaining issues.

But while Trump said Washington was in the “final throes” of work on a trade deal with Beijing, he also underscored U.S. support for protesters in Hong Kong, seen as a sore point for Beijing.

Trump’s comments came alongside softer-than-expected economic data from the United States, which showed a fourth straight monthly contraction in consumer confidence and an unexpected drop in new home sales in October.

---- Kay Van-Petersen, global macro strategist at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore, said while U.S.-China trade headlines may be driving some tactical, near-term moves in the market, they were mostly just “noise”.

The broader market direction is “about the accommodative Fed and accommodative monetary policy and the fact that structurally the meta-trend is still lower in yields and rates,” he said.

Some analysts said a fall in U.S. bond yields on Tuesday also pointed to more mechanical explanations beyond trade for rising equity prices.

“It reinforces the notion that it really is the Fed pump-priming to grease the wheels of market liquidity which is driving both these moves,” Greg McKenna, strategist at McKenna Macro, said in a morning note.
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Beware stock-market ‘FOMO’ as Wall Street churns out records, says long-term bull

Published: Nov 26, 2019 4:18 p.m. ET
With the U.S. stock market churning out a string of record highs, it would be no surprise for investors with some money on the sidelines might start feeling what people nowadays call “FOMO” — or fear of missing out.

But now is probably not the right time to get tactically aggressive, said one analyst who called earlier this month for a market pullback but also happens to be bullish on the long-term outlook for equities.

“While anything can happen, our indicators simply favor not chasing the market higher on fear of missing out (FOMO),” wrote Tony Dwyer, analyst at Cannacord Genuity, in a Tuesday note.

Read: Stock-market optimism gauge hits an extreme — and that explains a lot, analyst says

Dwyer urged investors not to “mistake our message.” Canaccord has a “front-end-loaded” 2020 target of 3,350 for the S&P 500 SPX, +0.22%, around 7% above the large-cap benchmark’s record close on Monday at 3,133.64. But Dwyer called earlier this month for stocks to suffer a pullback, warning that the firm’s indicators were pointing to overbought conditions.

Now, with stocks up just over 1% from that call for a “limited and temporary correction,” Dwyer said the question is whether to throw in the towel on those technical indicators and look for the market to chase higher into year-end.

“The short answer is no,” he wrote. “It was just six weeks ago when stocks were breaking down, the Cboe Volatility Index VIX, -2.78%, a measure of expected market volatility, was spiking above 20 and more than 90% of [S&P 500] components were trading above their respective 10-day moving averages.”

Then, when negativity was running high and pundits were warning of a rerun of the late 2018 stock-market swoon, “was the time to be tactically aggressive,” he said.

“The opposite appears true today,” Dwyer wrote. “The markets are printing records, the bears are waffling, the bulls are competing over who has the higher target, and the VIX has dropped to under 12.”
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Trump says he’s not changing the name of Thanksgiving

By Associated Press Published: Nov 26, 2019 8:41 p.m. ET
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Relax, America, President Donald Trump assured a Florida crowd he’s not going to change the name of Thanksgiving.

Trump was speaking Tuesday night at a reelection rally in Florida, where he is spending a long Thanksgiving weekend.

Trump told the crowd that “some people want to change the name Thanksgiving, they don’t want to use the term Thanksgiving.”

He also said that’s true of Christmas, but “now everybody is using Christmas again.”

Trump said people have different ideas about what to call the holiday. But he said he knows those attending the rally love the name Thanksgiving.

“And we’re not changing it,” he said.

There is no harm in being sometimes wrong - especially if one is promptly found out.

John Maynard Keynes

Crooks and Scoundrels Corner.

The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over. 

Today, those bureaucrats at the OECD want to raise our taxes.  Well corporation taxes anyway, but those corporations will merely pass them right along to the consumer.  I doubt that any taxes will be reduced or repealed, if these unelected gangsters succeed.

Corporate Executives Try to Assess Potential Impact of Tax Change Proposals

Companies are studying suggestions by the OECD that would mark a departure from current international tax rules, but details are murky 

By  Nina Trentmann  Updated Nov. 25, 2019 7:51 pm ET
Corporate tax chiefs are trying to assess the potential implications of a proposal for a new global tax system for consumer-facing businesses, an effort that is being complicated by what some companies describe as a lack of critical details. 

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is running the initiative, was scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Paris to discuss a proposal that would set a standard tax rate for a company’s global operations and allow individual governments to tax profits above that based on sales accounted for by each country.

The new rules would represent a departure from current regulations that look at where companies are based and where they hold patents and brands. 

Dubbed the “unified approach,” the rules would apply to companies with annual revenues of more than €750 million ($830 million) in consumer-facing industries, a broad term that includes technology companies—which have been in the spotlight for their tax practices—and other firms selling services and goods to consumers.

Companies—some of which are still working through the OECD’s 2016 framework on base erosion and profit shifting, which abolished various tax loopholes, or the 2017 U.S. corporate tax overhaul—could be required to again make sweeping changes to their global tax structure within a short period.

The OECD aims to have agreement among its 36 member states on the unified approach by 2020.
That has caused high-profile companies and business associations to voice their concerns publicly ahead of this week’s meeting.

“Before deciding on the final proposal, we encourage the OECD to clarify a number of issues,” music-streaming company Spotify AB said in published remarks to the organization.

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. said the current consultation document provided by the OECD only provides the framework for a discussion and that more information is necessary to come to an agreement.

Volvo AB, in comments submitted to the OECD, said the lack of detail makes it difficult for the Swedish truck maker to assess the implications of the policy changes.

Seventy-nine percent of tax executives at global companies described the current tax environment as uncertain, according to a recent Ernst & Young survey. Many respondents cited the OECD’s initiative as one of the reasons for the fogginess.

The OECD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The organization’s proposal follows moves by various countries to implement unilateral digital-services tax regimes to increase receipts from tech giants such as Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. ’s Google. Some of these firms pay very little tax in European countries even though they book substantial revenue there.

Global tax rates for U.S. multinational companies are likely to go up as part of the OECD’s proposed changes, said Michael Lebovitz, a partner in law firm Mayer Brown’s tax transactions and consulting practice without specifying how significant the increase could be.
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If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.

John Maynard Keynes

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 first: Solar power plant helps keep the lights on at night

One of Lightsource BP’s solar farms in East Sussex provided a reactive power voltage support service overnight, delivered through UK Power Networks’ distribution network
Monday 25 November 2019

A new trial in the UK has seen a solar farm successfully smooth voltage fluctuations for the first time at night.

Lightsource BP used one of its solar plants in East Sussex to provide a reactive power voltage support service overnight, delivered through UK Power Networks’ (UKPN) distribution network.

Reactive power is the ability to maintain voltage levels on electricity transmission systems, allowing more energy to be transported down existing infrastructure and increasing capacity without the need for infrastructure upgrades.

Inverters within a solar plant can provide reactive power by reducing or increasing voltage levels and Lightsource BP says its trial showcased how it could help National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) manage voltage on the transmission network, with the potential to save energy customers more than £400 million by 2050 and provide up to an additional 4GW of power capacity in the South East.

Kareen Boutonnat, Lightsource BP Chief Operating Officer, said: “The success of this trial clearly demonstrates that innovation is key in addressing the future growth of the energy sector. With electricity demand increasing so rapidly we have to be in a constant state of evolution in order to solve the problems of the future.

“Right now, we have proven that solar plants can play a larger role across the electricity network – even at night. However, it is only the beginning and as our team continue to develop and support this project, we will remain focused on pushing the boundaries and forging partnerships to remain a leading innovator across our sector.”

National Grid confirmed it is the first night-time grid support service from a solar power plant in the UK.

Dr. Biljana Stojkovska, National Grid Electricity System Operator, Power Potential Project lead added: “As we move towards our 2025 ambition of being able to operate the GB electricity system carbon free we are seeing more renewable generation come online – such as wind and solar – which in turn requires finding new ways of managing system characteristics like voltage.

“This innovative trial, which forms part of our Power Potential project, is an exciting first step. We look forward to seeing it progress over the coming months as we explore new reactive power markets for distributed energy resources, and their potential to cut costs for energy consumers.”
https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/11/25/uk-first-solar-panels-help-keep-the-lights-on-at-night/

Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older.

John Maynard Keynes

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished October

DJIA: 27,046 +59 Up. NASDAQ: 8,292 +67 Up. SP500: 3,038 +67 Up.

Another inconclusive month, but all three continued to move up weakly. A buy signal. But, like the Fed, I would await more data.

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