Baltic Dry Index. 539 +04 Brent Crude 52.53 Spot Gold 1595
Covid-19 Pandemic
underway, but not according to the WHO.
Coronavirus Cases 03/3/20
China 92,12 Deaths 3,131
(Maybe.)
Troops without
ammunition or food. Effective command no longer possible. 18,000 wounded
without any supplies or dressings or drugs. Further defence senseless. Collapse
inevitable. Army requests immediate permission to surrender in order to save
lives of remaining troops.
Radio message to
Adolf Hitler, January 24, 1943.
“They’re coming,”
the cry went up Monday. Stock markets
everywhere, on Monday, were saved by the massed ranks of central banksters, who
like a well-oiled machine, well oily machine anyway, wheeled into action,
adjusted their ties, hinted at lower interest rates to come, and struck terror
and fear into the fast ever spreading deadly coronavirus, known as Covid-19.
So far only
Australia has actually moved to lower their key interest rate, but the others
will surely follow, they wouldn’t lie to us would they?
Now watch as the
coronavirus crisis suffers the same fate as von Paulus at Stalingrad.
The
central banksters have spoken, and one of them actually acted. More talks are
to be held, via phone, there is a coronavirus crisis after all, later today or
perhaps tomorrow. Talking is after all, what central banksters do best. Onward and upward.
To
infinity and beyond.
President
Trump’s stock market order to Fed Chairman Powell.
Global shares extend rebound on policy easing hopes, eye G7 for cues
March 3, 2020 /
3:44 AM
TOKYO
(Reuters) - Global shares and oil prices extended their rebound on Tuesday as
policymakers indicated their willingness to move to ease the economic fallout
from the coronavirus, while investors waited for a conference call by Group of
Seven heads for trading cues.
Finance ministers from the G7 group and central bank governors will hold
a conference call on Tuesday (1200GMT) to discuss measures to deal with the
widening coronavirus outbreak and its economic impact.
The plan came after the European Central Bank (ECB) on Monday joined the
chorus of central banks signalling a readiness to deal with the growing threats
from the outbreak.
“Policymakers globally are talking about supporting the economy. So
short-term players, including myself, are closing positions for now ahead of
the G7 call,” said Masaru Ishibashi, joint general manager of trading at
Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.
Earlier messages from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) that it was
prepared to act weighed on the greenback.
The improved mood supported U.S. S&P 500 futures, which rose as much
as 1.0% in Asian trade. But the index pared gains after Reuters reported that
the G7 draft statement on coronavirus response does not specifically call for
new government spending or coordinated rate cuts.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1.4%.
Japan’s Nikkei lost steam and fell 0.7% after short-covering ran its
course and as the yen firmed on the dollar.
---- Money markets are fully pricing in a cut of at least 0.25 percentage point to the current 1.50%-1.75% target rate at the Fed’s March 17-18 meeting as well as a 0.10 percentage point cut to the ECB’s key rate at March 12 meeting.
The frantic moves by policymakers reflected growing fears that the
disruption to supply chains, factory output and global travel caused by the new
epidemic could deal a serious blow to a world economy trying to recover from
the U.S.-China trade war.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has cut its
forecast of global economic growth this year to 2.4%, the lowest since 2009 and
down from a forecast of 2.9% in November.
In the United States, six people in the Seattle area have died of the
illness caused by the coronavirus, as authorities across the country scrambled
to prepare for more infections.
“It would be myopic to think that (economic) policy actions alone will
bring back calmness to markets. The reality is, the coronavirus is still
spreading,” said Takehiko Masuzawa, head of sales trading for Japanese clients
at Macquarie in Tokyo.
More
Australia's central bank cuts rates over outbreak
By James
Glynn Published: Mar 2, 2020 11:00
p.m. ET
SYDNEY--The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates Tuesday in
response to the growing threat from the coronavirus epidemic to the global
economy, which threatens to snap the country's record run of 28 years without
recession.
The RBA lowered its benchmark cash rate by 25 basis points to a new
record low of 0.50%, with central bank Governor Philip Lowe signaling further
action was likely.
"The global outbreak of the coronavirus is expected to delay
progress in Australia towards full employment and the inflation target...The
Board is prepared to ease monetary policy further to support the Australian
economy," he said in a statement.
The cut makes the RBA the first developed market central bank to cut
rates in response to the coronavirus, which is now reported to be in 75
countries.
Other major central banks are set to follow with the U.S. Federal
Reserve and the European Central Bank signaling a willingness to act in recent
days.
Australia is uniquely placed to feel pain from any slowdown in China,
with over a third of its exports going to that country, and with the vast bulk
of its trade done with countries in Asia.
The cut represents an abrupt about-face given the RBA began the year on
an optimistic note, downplaying the damage done by severe bushfires through
summer while retaining upbeat forecasts for GDP growth.
More
But below, the harsh, cruel reality.
Central bankster tinkering with interest rates will likely be no more
successful than Nero’s fiddling while Rome burned.
Coronavirus cases on Japan’s Hokkaido island may be 10 times the official number, expert warns
·
Hokkaido, a popular tourist spot that draws
millions of foreign visitors every year, has emerged as a hotbed of infections
in Japan
·
With about 77 confirmed cases, the island
accounts for more than a quarter of the total in the country, excluding the
cases related to the Diamond Princess
Published: 1:38pm, 3 Mar, 2020
The number of people infected with coronavirus in Japan’s northern
island of Hokkaido may have reached 940 last month, more than 10 times the
official figure, according to one scientist.
The estimate for infections as of February 25 was compiled by Hiroshi
Nishiura, a professor who specialises in statistical modelling of infectious
diseases at Hokkaido University’s medical school. It was based on the number of
foreign and domestic travellers who had been infected on the island, as well as
passenger volume.
“The difference from the reported cases is about
tenfold, so it’s likely there are people who only have minor symptoms or have
not developed any,” Nishiura told reporters on Monday. “My guess is that many
of them are younger people.”
----Hokkaido, a popular tourist spot that draws
millions of visitors from around the world every year, has been a hotbed of
infections in Japan. With about 77 confirmed cases, the island accounts for
more than a quarter of the total in the country, excluding the cases related to
the Diamond Princess. Hokkaido declared a state of emergency last week, set to
be in place until March 19.
Japan’s efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus have come under
increased scrutiny, as people questioned the scale of the testing and the handling
of the cruise ship’s quarantine. The country also has more at stake as it’s
preparing to host the Summer Olympics.
----Japan’s Health Minister Katsunobu Kato
acknowledged last week that Japan was conducting only a fraction of the number
of tests as its peers, meaning the cases confirmed so far may represent the tip
of the iceberg. Kato on Tuesday said he was aware of Nishiura’s projected
figures in Hokkaido and would tackle the situation accordingly.
Clusters have emerged across Hokkaido, home to more than 5 million
people. Tracking the path of some cases has not been possible because some of
those infected haven’t shown the typical symptoms, governor Naomichi Suzuki has
said.
More
Coronavirus spreading fast outside China, airports to increase screenings
March 2, 2020 /
12:18 PM
GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) - The new
coronavirus appears to now be spreading much more rapidly outside China than
within, and airports in hard-hit countries were ramping up screening of
travellers.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
almost eight times as many cases had been reported outside China as inside in
the previous 24 hours, adding that the risk of coronavirus spreading was now
very high at a global level.
At a briefing in Geneva, he said outbreaks in South Korea, Italy, Iran
and Japan were the greatest concern, but that there was evidence that close
surveillance was working in South Korea, the worst affected country outside
China, and the epidemic could be contained there.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said that within 12 hours, airports
across South Korea and Italy will screen all travellers for coronavirus. Pence,
who has been put in charge of the U.S. response to the outbreak, also said U.S.
travel restrictions may expand.
The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said U.S. industry
expects to have the capacity to perform 1 million coronavirus tests by the end
of the week.
The global death toll exceeded 3,000, with the number of dead in Italy
jumping by 18 to 52. Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Morocco reported cases
for the first time, bringing the total to more than 60 countries with the
illness known as COVID-19.
But equity markets surged after their worst plunge since the 2008
financial crisis last week, encouraged by the prospect of government action to
stem the economic impact. In the United States, the Dow jumped nearly 1,300
points, or 5%, while the S&P 500 closed 4.6% higher.
---- A senior U.S. official said he was concerned about a likely jump in the number of cases in the United States, which has had more than 90, with six deaths. More testing will almost surely lead to more confirmed cases.
“When you have a number of cases that you’ve identified and they’ve been
in the community for a while, you’re going to wind up seeing a lot more cases
than you would have predicted,” Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the infectious
diseases unit at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, told CNN.
More
China's factories at risk of double whammy as coronavirus hits South Korea, Japan
March 2, 2020 / 2:58
PM
BEIJING
(Reuters) - The spread of the coronavirus in South Korea and Japan could mean a
second wave of disruption at Chinese factories after the disease triggered a
record contraction in activity last month.
Cases of the flu-like epidemic have jumped in South Korea and Japan, prompting some manufacturers there to partially suspend operations and risking a reduction in the supply of spare parts to factories in China as they restart work.
China, the epicenter of the outbreak, has seen a sharp drop in new infection cases, and authorities have eased some travel restrictions and enabled some businesses to reopen.
But imports from South Korea and Japan play a key role in China’s manufacturing economy, particularly the production and assembly of electronics goods.
“The lack of a few components can halt the entire production process, so if Japanese and Korean firms can’t supply goods, then they’ll increase headaches for assemblers like Foxconn,” said Dan Wang, a technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm.
Apple iPhone maker Foxconn (2317.TW) said in late February it was restarting production of its main plants in China, and warned its revenue would be hit this year due to the epidemic.
Foxconn did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.
The coronavirus has killed over 3,000 people worldwide and infected more
than 80,000, most of them in China. But South Korea is the second biggest
hotspot with over 4,300 confirmed cases. Japan trails with nearly 1,000 cases,
stemming mostly from infections onboard a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo.
The epidemic triggered the sharpest contraction in activity on record at
China’s factories last month, a private survey showed on Monday, after
authorities imposed tough travel curbs and public health measures to contain
the outbreak.
If the virus worsens in South Korea and Japan, analysts said China’s
factories could take another hit even as they stutter back to work.
China takes in a quarter of South Korea’s total shipments abroad,
importing $64 billion of semiconductors last year as well as billions of
dollars in Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and mobile phone spare parts.
---- Despite some companies restarting operations, many small firms in China are still struggling to find enough workers to run plants, compounding the problems of manufacturers across Northeast Asia.
“Even though the situation in China seems to be improving, while Japan
and Korea are getting worse, Chinese firms have suffered greater pain,” said
Gavekal Dragonomics’ Wang.
“China-based production makes up a larger proportion of the work, so the
challenges are still deeper in China.”
Eulsung Auto Pack, a South Korean manufacturer of food packaging
machines, cannot get its Suzhou factory in eastern China back to work since the
extended Lunar New Year holiday ended in mid-February, its CEO Oh Pil-jae told
Reuters.
More
Brazil’s soybean exports spike in February
Brazil, the world’s largest soy producer and supplier, shipped 3.55
million mt of soybeans in the first three weeks of February, up 367% month on
month, according to a report from the Brazilian foreign trade department.
Despite the US-China Phase 1 trade deal, signed on January 15, the
Chinese crushers still prefer the more price competitive Brazilian beans over
the US-origin, market sources said.
According to S&P Global Platts, the price of SOYBEX FOB Santos for
April loading was assessed at $ 345.77/mt, while SOYBEX FOB New Orleans was
determined at $ 350.90/mt on February 28.
Soybean traders in Brazil are bullish despite prevailing global issues,
such as economic slowdown and epidemic outbreaks, sources said.
Brazil could export 9 million mt of soybeans in February, up 80% year on
year, on good harvest pace and currency depreciation, national crop agency
Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento said last week.
Another factor favoring the South American soy farmers is the timing of
exports. The period of February-May is considered the peak season for the
Brazilian soybean harvest and sales, while the new US soybean crop planting
starts in March.
Brazilian soybean harvest has picked up a brisk pace in February on
favorable weather across the country. The soybean harvest has reached 31% of
the projected area of 36.4 million ha in the 2019-20 crop year
(September-August) as of February 20, on par with the five-year average,
agricultural consultancy AgRural said on Monday.
Exclusive: G7's draft coronavirus statement does not detail fiscal, monetary response - source
March 3, 2020 /
4:45 AM
(Reuters) - Group of Seven nations are drafting a statement on how they
plan to soften the global economic hit of the coronavirus but are not yet
making specific calls for new government spending or coordinated central bank
rate cuts, a G7 official said on Tuesday.
In the statement, expected on Tuesday or Wednesday, the G7 countries
will pledge to work together to mitigate the damage to their economies from the
fast-spreading epidemic, the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity
due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Global financial markets had rallied sharply on Monday as central banks
from Japan, Britain and France followed the lead of the U.S. Federal Reserve in
saying they stood ready to support the global economy.
The U.S. dollar and Wall Street futures gave up some of their earlier
gains after the Reuters report that the statement does not include any
immediate calls for fiscal or coordinated monetary stimulus.
The language of the statement could change as it is still under
discussion, the source said.
The United States - this year’s G7 chair - said the group’s finance
ministers and central bank governors will hold a conference call on Tuesday
morning to discuss measures to deal with the epidemic and its economic impact.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell, Bank Japan
Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde
will also join finance ministers and other G7 central bankers on the call. The
virus, which has spread to 60 countries, has killed more than 3,000 people and
upended global supply chains.
More
In central banking as in diplomacy, style, conservative
tailoring, and an easy association with the affluent count greatly and results
far much less.
John Kenneth
Galbraith.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled
over.
What’s that screeching sound you hear? The velocity of money emergency braking towards zero.
MIPIM 2020 postponed over coronavirus fears
2 March, 2020
The organisers behind MIPIM have postponed the annual international
property fair in Cannes due to ‘growing concerns’ over the spread
of coronavirus
Pressure had been mounting on the show’s backers to shelve the global
event, which was set to attract more than 26,000 attendees to the French resort
including hundreds of UK architects.
Last week a raft of big names pulled out of the show including property
agents Knight Frank and Cushman & Wakefield, and architects HOK and Morrow
+ Lorraine.
Now the organisers have announced the ’world’s leading property market’
will be pushed back from 10-13 March to 2-5 June.
Paul Zilk, chief executive of event backer, Reed MIDEM, said: ’Given the
evolving context, the best course of action is to postpone MIPIM to June. This
is not a decision we have taken lightly.
He added: ’The wellbeing of our clients and staff is our priority. We believe these new dates will provide the international MIPIM community with the opportunity to achieve their business objectives.’
Yesterday (28 February) the mayor of Nice confirmed a woman in Cannes, reportedly a 23-year-old fashion student who had recently returned from Milan, had tested positive for coronavirus.
The outbreak in nearby Lombardy, north-west Italy is among the worst outside Asia. France now has 38 confirmed cases of the virus.
Earlier in the week MIPIM’s organisers had insisted the show would go ahead despite the threat of contagion which had already caused the Milan Furniture Fair to be postponed from April to June.
Speaking about the postponement, Chris Boyce of Assorted Skills + Talents* said: ’While I am sure cancelling/moving MIPIM is a good thing in terms of the inevitable spread of a virus which can kill, it seems like a horse v locked-stable measure when each day hundreds of thousands of people pass through every one of Europe’s airports, and smear their bodily fluids on plane seats, loos, door handles and café tables, spreading that self-same virus, among other things.
More
Thailand MotoGP postponed as virus wrecks season's start
Issued on: 02/03/2020 - 07:50
Thailand's MotoGP was postponed over the new coronavirus on Monday as
motorcycling's premier championship took its second hit in two days from the
deadly outbreak.
A day after the season-opening Qatar MotoGP was axed, Thailand
organisers postponed the March 20-22 race in Buriram without setting a new
date.
"I don't say it's cancelled, I just say it is postponed until time
allows us to do (the event)," Anutin Charnvirakul, chairman of the
Thailand MotoGP organising committee, told AFP.
"It's because of the coronavirus," added Anutin, who is also
Thailand's deputy prime minister and health minister.
"We need to postpone it today until further notice."
The move means both of the season's first two races have been shelved.
The next race on the schedule is in Austin, Texas on April 5.
It could also put renewed focus on Formula One, whose season starts with
the Australian Grand Prix on March 15.
The Chinese F1 Grand Prix has already been postponed, and Vietnam is due
to host its inaugural race in Hanoi on April 5.
However, Hanoi's mayor said last week that the city was "ready to
cancel it in case of the epidemic's progression".
More
Hong Kong’s retail sales plummet 21 per cent in January as mainland visitors slow to a trickle amid coronavirus battle
·
The steep drop was even worse than that for
December, despite having the pre-Lunar New Year shopping season to buoy it
·
Only supermarkets, driven by panic buying, and
petrol stations were impervious to the down turn
Denise Tsang Published: 4:51pm, 2 Mar, 2020
Hong Kong’s retail sector, battered by a steep drop in mainland tourists
attributed to the coronavirus battle, plunged by 21.4 per cent year to year in
January, with the government warning of dire repercussions to the overall
economy and joblessness
The decrease to HK$37.8 billion (US$4.8 billion) was even worse than
December’s revised year-to-year drop of 19.4 per cent, the Census and
Statistics Department said on Monday.
A government spokesman noted that the sharp drop in retail sales continued
even amid what is traditionally a peak shopping season – the lead-up to the
Lunar New Year holiday.
Only supermarkets and petrol stations were impervious to the downturn,
with grocery sales soaring 10.2 per cent in January as citizens started hoarding
toilet rolls, rice, and sanitising products as the epidemic worsened.
A number of retailers have closed in the past few weeks, while furniture
chain Pricerite Group, beauty retailer Sa Sa Cosmetics and jewellery firm Chow
Tai Fook have announced plans to close shops, cut wages and lay off staff
members.
More
Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
John Kenneth Galbraith
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?
Oil separation made easier with 2D material membrane
27 February 2020
University
of Manchester researchers have made a leap forward in overcoming one of the
biggest problems in membrane technology- membrane fouling.Membrane-based separations are essential for various processes, such as water filtration and oil and gas separation. The use of graphene and other 2D materials in membrane technology has attracted significant attention due to the tunability of these materials making it possible to filter impurities previously not thought possible.
Fouling is an inevitable event in membrane separation, where blockages occur in the pores of a membrane, stopping the flow and preventing the membrane from functioning normally. Fouling is an especially severe issue for oil separation technology due to how easily the oil droplets stick onto the membrane surface.
Published in Nature Communications, the team based in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Analytical Science, Henry Royce Institute and the National Graphene Institute in collaboration with University College London (UCL), have demonstrated that the exfoliated two-dimensional form of vermiculite, a natural clay mineral, can be used as a fouling resistant coating for oil-water separation.
----Now the team at The University of Manchester have found that the wetting properties of vermiculite membranes, prepared by stacking many layers of two-dimensional vermiculite sheets, can be tuned from super-hydrophilic to hydrophobic simply by exchanging the cations present on the surface and between the layers of vermiculite.
Further, the team also demonstrated how to exploit this unusual property for reducing the membrane fouling during oil-water filtration by using superhydrophilic lithium exchanged vermiculite (lithium vermiculite) as a coating layer for commercial microfiltration membranes.
Dr Kun Huang, the lead author of the paper said: “Lithium vermiculite membranes not only provide superhydrophilicity but also repel oil droplets during filtration due to their underwater superoleophobic property. The under-water oil adhesion on vermiculite coated microfiltration membranes was more than 40 times lower than the noncoated membrane.”
The demonstrated oil-water separation is just one example of the use of super-hydrophilic antifouling membranes. Their application could be expanded to other areas such as developing self-cleaning surfaces, and antifouling filters for biofiltration.
More
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/oil-separation-made-easier-with-2d-material-membrane/?_ga=2.106264067.161420304.1583139301-1205775395.1583139301
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished February
DJIA: 25,409 +75 Down. NASDAQ: 8,567 +171 Up.
SP500: 2,954 +133 Up.
In current circumstances,
this is no time to be blindly following technical signals.
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