Baltic Dry Index. 763 -02 Brent Crude 64.34 Spot Gold 1552
Never ending Brexit now January 31.
Trump’s Nuclear China Tariffs Now in effect.
The USA v EU trade war started October 18. Now in effect.
“Of course it is,’ said Trump, who seemed
ready to agree to everything that President Xi said; ‘there’s a large mustard-mine near here. And the moral of that is– “The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours.”
With apologies to Alice
in Wonderland
For more on Oh Canada and the Sussexes, scroll down to
Crooks Corner.
In a big let down to market expectations, US tariffs on
Chinese goods are apparently to
stay until after phase two of the trade deal.
But a phase two trade deal isn’t expected until after the November US
presidential election.
Will China now wait until phase two is complete before
stepping up to buy all those extra goods and services? Who knows?
Asian stocks were underwhelmed. And so on to Brexit.
Stocks slip ahead of U.S.-China trade deal signing
January 15, 2020 /
1:21 AM
TOKYO
(Reuters) - Stocks slipped in Asian trade on Wednesday as investors awaited the
signing of an initial U.S.-China trade deal, with sentiment somewhat dented by
comments from the U.S. Treasury Secretary that tariffs would remain in place
for now.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS retreated 0.40%, Japan's benchmark Nikkei .N225 and South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 shed 0.46% and 0.40%, respectively, while Australian stocks added 0.33%.
China's Shanghai Composite .SSEC fell 0.59% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI dropped 0.72%.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said late on Tuesday that the United States would keep in place tariffs on Chinese goods until the completion of a second phase of a U.S.-China trade agreement, triggering some profit-taking in risk assets.
The news came hours before the signing of a preliminary trade agreement to ease an 18-month-old trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
Wall Street stocks dipped on Tuesday, reversing earlier intraday record highs, after media reported the United States would likely maintain tariffs on Chinese goods past November’s presidential election. [.N/C]
“We should not expect further tariff relief until after the November presidential elections, suggesting today’s agreement is probably as good as it gets for 2020,” said Tapas Strickland, director of economics at National Australia Bank in Sydney.
---- Markets were also weighing the impact of the U.S. government nearing publication of a rule that would vastly expand its powers to block shipments of foreign-made goods to China’s Huawei, as it seeks to squeeze the blacklisted telecoms company, two sources said.
More
Despite trade truce, U.S. poised to crack down further against Huawei
By Bob
Davis Published: Jan 14, 2020 10:24
p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The U.S. and China are about to declare a pause in their
trade war by signing an initial pact at the White House this week, but a
continuing battle over technology is bound to keep relations between the two
superpowers on edge.
The Trump administration’s immediate focus is tightening restrictions on
Huawei Technologies Co., the giant Chinese telecommunications company that the
White House and Congress view as a national security threat. The Commerce
Department recently sent to the Office of Management and Budget new regulations
that would largely eliminate a loophole that allowed U.S. companies to sell to
Huawei from their overseas facilities, said people familiar with the actions.
Some lawmakers and national-security experts say Huawei’s equipment
would allow Chinese leaders to spy on Americans, which the company has
regularly denied. A Huawei spokesman didn’t immediately return a request for
comment on the potential restrictions.
China hawks in Congress also have been pushing to limit sales to Huawei,
and some are even calling for Washington to subsidize U.S. firms working on
next-generation 5G wireless technology, given how much Beijing has subsided
Huawei.
At the same time, a team of senior U.S. officials, including deputy
national security adviser Matt Pottinger, earlier this week lobbied the U.K. to
block local network operators from using equipment from Huawei and other
Chinese vendors in their 5G networks. A British decision is expected
shortly. More broadly, the National Security Council last week asked the
Commerce Department to suggest regulations to restrict sales of any U.S.
technology to China, according to people tracking the early-stage discussions.
In other bad news, unsurprisingly Boeing had a very bad
year, and following a disastrous release of incriminating internal emails seems
likely headed for more bad years.
Most damming of all, senior Boeing experts said that they
wouldn’t let their families fly on the 737-Max.
In light of the latest disclosures, will future
passengers ever want to fly on the 737-Max?
Boeing had more cancellations than new orders in 2019
Jan. 14, 2020 /
4:06 PM
Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Boeing reported Tuesday it had more cancellations than new plane
orders for 2019, a year that saw the worldwide grounding of its 737 Max
aircraft after two crashes killed hundreds of people.The plane manufacturer said it had a net loss of 87 commercial planes after factoring in the likely loss of business with India's Jet Airways, which went bankrupt last year. Overall, the company had 246 new orders, not enough to offset the loss of business.
Aviation authorities worldwide grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9
in spring 2019 after a Lion Air crash in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines
crash in March killed a collective 346 people.
Investigators blamed a fault in the model's maneuvering characteristics
augmentation system, which caused the planes to nosedive.
Since the groundings, there's been little demand for the 737, which saw a 90 percent drop in new orders in 2019. There also was a 53 percent drop in deliveries, from 806 in 2018 to 380 in 2019.
Rival Airbus, meanwhile, had 654 new orders for its A320 aircraft, a competitor of the 737 Max.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun sent an email to employees Monday pushing the return of the Max to service. The company is awaiting certification and training to put the planes back in the air.
---- Last week, Boeing sent Congress more than
100 pages of internal communications exposing
communications between employees boasting about manipulating American and
international safety regulators.
Malaysia Airlines suspends taking delivery of Boeing 737 MAX jets due to grounding
January 15, 2020 /
2:43 AM
KUALA
LUMPUR/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Malaysia Airlines said on Wednesday it has suspended
taking delivery of 25 Boeing Co (BA.N) 737 MAX jets, citing the plane’s delayed
return to service since it was grounded last year following two fatal crashes.
The decision represents another setback for Boeing, which on Tuesday reported its worst annual net orders in decades, along with its lowest number of plane deliveries in 11 years, as the grounding of the 737 MAX saw it fall far behind main competitor Airbus SE (AIR.PA).
“In view of the production stoppage and the delayed return to service of the 737-MAX, Malaysia Airlines has suspended the delivery of its orders,” the airline said in an email.
The carrier had been due to take delivery of its first 737 MAX in July 2020 but last year its chief executive said the introduction to service could slide beyond that.
More
Finally, some things are just too good not to share. Note,
there is still a presumption of innocence, but the plot line would make for a
great movie. Is there a role for Meghan Sussex?
Three Romanians face French trial over 1 mn euro diamond swindle
Issued on: 14/01/2020 - 15:52Modified: 14/01/2020 - 15:51
Three Romanians have been ordered to stand trial in France on charges
they made off with one million euros worth of diamonds from a French jeweller
and his Indian partner, in an elaborate hoax resembling a Hollywood movie
script.
The suspects, thought to members of a network of gem thieves operating
across Europe, will go before a judge on March 3 in the southwestern city of
Castres, a source close to the inquiry told AFP.
They are accused of snatching three diamonds from a jeweller based in
the small town of Mazamet, near Castres, who was acting as a middleman for an
Indian gem trader.
The August 2017 scam was launched four months earlier at a diamond trade
fair in Monaco, when two of the suspects introduced themselves to the jeweller
as a wealthy Armenian couple looking to invest in precious gems.
They set up a second meeting in Milan, before a third meeting in Mazamet
in August, when the supposed buyers asked to have an independent expert examine
the stones owned by trader Nishit Shah.
After concluding the deal, the jeweller placed the gems in a sealed box
while awaiting a promised bank transfer of $1.1 million (one million euros).
But the next day, when no money arrived, the jeweller opened the box to
discover it empty.
"It's a classic technique, what we call a thief with golden hands
-- international experts with a talent for swiping valuables," the source
said.
The two Romanians posing as the couple were arrested a few weeks later
in Nice, where police seized luxury cars and watches as well as both real and
fake gems and counterfeit cash.
The supposed expert, who is also Romanian, was arrested in November 2017
in Modane, a village in the French Alps on the border with Italy, where he was
found in possession of a fake diamond.
Investigators say he was to receive 50,000 euros for spiriting away the
three stones in a theft orchestrated by a Serbian national based in the Paris
suburb of Bondy.
Prosecutors have seized the Serbian's home and issued a warrant for his
arrest.
"These are major criminal organisations with contacts across most
of Europe," the source said.
The diamond trader, Shah, will not be at the trial, having died of a
heart attack in Mumbai in 2018.
“When I make a trade deal”,
Humpty Trump said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I chose it to
mean – neither more nor less.
“The question is,” said
Xi, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said
Humpty Trump, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
With apologies to Lewis
Carroll and Alice.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner.
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled
over.
Today, Oh Canada. The Sussexes need
a good Canadian immigration lawyer, happily one is available pro bono.
However, Canada’s Globe and Mail says Canada doesn’t want or need them,
good lawyers or no. Apparently you can be discriminated against in Canada, but
only if you’re Royal. Perhaps Canada’s First Nations might provide a back door entry
route?
The relatives of those shot down Canadians need a good lawyer too.
Happily, they are queuing up, though not pro bono.
Harry and Meghan will need a good immigration lawyer if they want to stay in Canada
Published January 13, 2020
The Queen announced Monday that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex plan to
spend part of the year in Canada. Very nice for them, I’m sure, but there are
laws in this country. If the Sussexes want to live here, they’ll have to apply.
If they’re smart, Meghan will be the one filling out the forms.
Richard Kurland, a Vancouver immigration lawyer, has been considering
their case. If the royal couple wish to live in Canada, he says, Meghan would
qualify for permanent resident status under the cultural activities component
of the Self-Employed Persons Program.
“She would be the principal applicant,” Mr. Kurland said Monday in an
interview. “Her spouse would be the accompanying dependent," along with
their son, Archie. Meghan lived in Canada while filming Suits, a
television program, so her application would doubtless be viewed favourably.
With Harry as the principal applicant, the path would become more
difficult. The Express Entry program gives preference to younger applicants
with work experience in Canada. At 35, he is a bit old, and has not worked
here. Neither can he provide a degree or diploma from an accredited Canadian
university or college. The immigration law firm of Green and Spiegel calculates
that, under Canada’s points system, Prince Harry’s score “is not competitive
for an invitation to apply at this time.”
In any case, he would have to fill out the necessary forms and take a
language test in English or French.
----“He is not a Canadian Prince or Duke," said Philippe Lagassé, a political scientist who specializes in constitutional issues at Carleton University. “They’re British subjects in line to the British throne.” Constitutionally, as far as Canada is concerned, Harry is just a bloke from Britain.
As British citizens, the Sussexes are, of course, welcome to visit
Canada as often as they wish. But they can’t put down roots here. Making their
home in Canada or getting a job here could earn them a stern invitation to meet
with a border agent, who might well order them out of the country.
We are one of the most welcoming countries in the world. The immigration
target for this year is 341,000 permanent residents, slightly less than 1 per
cent of the country’s population. Half the population of the Greater Toronto
Area was not born in Canada, so if the Sussexes settled there, they would fit
right in.
But nothing annoys Canadians more than people who try to jump the
immigration queue. And while we can empathize with people fleeing impoverished
or violent countries in search of the better life, the only persecution Harry
and Meghan have to endure is from the British press. In any case, as a
designated safe third country, citizens of the United Kingdom would typically
not qualify as refugee applicants.
That said, if Harry and Meghan and Archie need help coming to Canada,
“it would be an honour for me to handle their case,” Mr. Kurland said. “I would
do it pro bono.”
The Sussexes should consider this generous offer. Because if they plan
on staying in Canada, they’re going to need a good lawyer.
'Why were they flying?' Law firms recruit relatives of Iran plane crash victims to sue airline
January 13, 2020 8:03 PM EST
As relatives grieve the loss of more than 100
Canadian-bound passengers killed in the Iran plane crash, two law firms have
joined forces to promote filing civil suits over the tragedy.Toronto’s Howie Sacks & Henry has launched a web page inviting loved ones to retain them for possible legal action, while a Farsi-speaking articling student has begun reaching out to the extended families of victims.
Some have already indicated an interest in suing, said Paul Miller, the lawyer heading the work.
Tehran admitted it accidentally shot down flight 752 with a surface-to-air missile after the plane had just left Tehran airport on route to Kyiv.
But the target of potential civil suits would be the jet’s operator, Ukraine International Airlines, not Iran, said Miller. It has no assets to speak of in Canada, the lawyer noted.
He argues the company is liable because it chose to fly out of Tehran just a few hours after Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. military bases in neighbouring Iraq, and in the midst of fever-pitch tensions with the Americans.
“The Iranians had no idea at that point if the Americans were going to retaliate quickly. Why would any airline fly?” said the lawyer. “That plane should never have taken off.”
Miller, who represented passengers from the 2005 Air France crash-landing in Toronto and other air mishaps, is working with Vancouver lawyer Joe Fiorante, a specialist in aviation-related personal-injury litigation.
But the Toronto lawyer said the extraordinary circumstances and Iran’s lack of diplomatic relations with Canada would make this case unlike any he’s handled.
He admitted that some will see the firms’ actions as exploitive, but said it’s important that victim families who want to sue use lawyers with experience in the area.
“This is the worst part of the job, I know it makes us look like vultures. That’s why we’re not going out to vigils and handing out cards, and we’re not going out and organizing a meeting,” said Miller. “I get the idea that it’s ambulance chasing. But here’s the reality – these families deserve compensation.”
More
Globe editorial: Harry and Meghan, and why members of the Royal Family can’t live in Canada
Published 12 hours ago
Britain is the inventor of one of the world’s great innovations in
government: a monarchy that reigns but does not rule. Canada took that system
and improved it, by pushing it one step further. The Canadian monarchy is
virtual; it neither rules nor resides. Our royals don’t live here. They reign
from a distance. Close to our hearts, far from our hearths.
And that is why, in response to the sudden announcement of a vague and
evolving plan for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – Prince Harry and Meghan – to
move to Canada while remaining part of the Royal Family, the Trudeau
government’s response should be simple and succinct: No.
You are welcome to visit, but so long as you are senior royals, Canada
cannot allow you to come to stay.
This isn’t about breaking up with the Crown. On the contrary, it’s about
maintaining Canada’s unique and highly successful monarchy.
----Canadians like their monarchy, and visits by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family tend to produce outpourings of public enthusiasm. But while the people who embody the Crown pay visits from time to time, they don’t set up a home on the premises. A royal living in this country does not accord with the long-standing nature of the relationship between Canada and Britain, and Canada and the Crown.
If they were ordinary private citizens, plain old Harry and Meghan from
Sussex, they would be welcome. But this country’s unique monarchy, and its
delicate yet essential place in our constitutional system, means that a royal
resident – the Prince is sixth in the line of succession – is not something
that Canada can allow. It breaks an unspoken constitutional taboo.
----Furthermore,
since the 1950s, governors-general have always been Canadians. Princes are not
shipped over here when no useful duties can be found for them on the other side
of the Atlantic.
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?
Atomic tuning on cobalt enables an eightfold increase of H2O2 production
Date:
January 13, 2020
Source:
Institute for Basic Science
Summary:
Scientists have recently report an ultimate electrocatalyst that addresses all
of the issues that trouble H2O2 production. This new catalyst comprising the
optimal Co-N4 molecules incorporated in nitrogen-doped graphene, Co1-NG(O),
exhibits a record-high electrocatalytic reactivity, producing up to 8 times
higher the amount of H2O2 that can be generated from rather expensive noble
metal-based electrocatalysts.
Just like we take a shower to wash away all the dirt and other
particles, semiconductors also require a cleaning process. However, its
cleaning goes extreme to make even trace contaminants "leave no
trace." After all the chip fabrication materials are applied to a silicon
wafer, a strict cleaning process is taken to remove residual particles. If this
high-purity cleaning and particle-removal step goes wrong, its electrical
connections in the chip are likely to suffer from it. With ever-miniaturized
gadgets on the market, the purity standards of the electronics industry reach
to a level, like finding a needle in a desert.
That explains why hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a
major electronic cleaning chemical, is one of the most valuable chemical
feedstock that underpins the chip-making industry. Despite the ever-growing
significance of H2O2, its industry has been left with an
energy-intensive and multi-step method known as the anthraquinone process. This
is an environmentally unfriendly process which involves the hydrogenation step
using expensive palladium catalysts. Alternatively, H2O2
can be synthesized directly from H2 and O2 gas, although the reactivity is
still very poor and it requires high pressure.
More
"Why, sometimes
I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
President Trump, with apologies to Lewis
Carroll and Alice.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished December
DJIA: 28,538 +91 Up. NASDAQ: 8,973 +125 Up.
SP500: 3,231 +114 Up.
All higher again, but it’s
not a buy signal I would take. The rally is all down to the Fed monetizing at a
rate of about 100 billion a month. I continue to look on the Fed’s latest stock
bubble as an exit rally.
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