Saturday, 6 June 2020

Special Update 06/06/2020 BLS Blitzes Economists. Pixie Dust.


Baltic Dry Index. 679 +47  Brent Crude 42.30
Spot Gold 1685

Covid-19 cases 30/05/20 World 6,041,611
Deaths 369,766

Covid-19 cases 06/06/20 World 6,895,132
Deaths 400,982

“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”

The BLS, with apologies to Peter Pan and President Trump.

On Friday, the US  Bureau of Lying Statistics blitzed US economists taking no prisoners along the way. In a fantasyland, seemingly at war with itself, far from a rise in unemployment of about -7.7 million, the economist consensus figure, according to the BLS, there was a surprise rise of 2.5 million new jobs in the US economy in May.

The word “surprise” being something of a British understatement.

Well maybe. Below I leave it to Mike Shedlock (Mish,) one of America’s finest economists to make sense of the employment report.

But I smell a rat. I suspect that the report was leaked on Thursday, with the Dow rallying 100 points in the final 10 minutes.  I also suspect that the BLS has been placed on a new weaponized “war” basis, the “war” being the coming US presidential election now just five months away.

The BLS has now been weaponised alongside Chairman Powell’s Fedsters, and both turned into something approaching the Committee to Re-Elect President Trump, (CREEP.)

Below, how could the US branch of the “dismal science” all get the May numbers so wrong?

Dow closes 800 points higher after jobs report shows surprise jump in payrolls, fall in unemployment rate


Published: June 5, 2020 at 10:13 p.m. ET
Stocks ended the week sharply higher on Friday after the U.S. May jobs report showed a surprise 2.5 million jump in payrolls and a drop in the unemployment rate to 13.3% as businesses began to reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +3.15% jumped 829.16 points, or 3.2%, to 27,110.98, while the S&P 500 SPX, +2.62% rose 81.58 points, or 2.6%, to 3,193.93. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +2.06% advanced 198.27 points, or 2.1%, to 9,814.08, setting a record intraday high at 9,842.49 in the process, though it ended 3.1 points shy of a new record close.

The Nasdaq-100 NDX, +2.02%, meanwhile, rose 194.73 points, or 2% to 9,824.39, a new record.

For the week, the Dow rose 6.8%, the S&P 500 gained 4.9%, while the Nasdaq advanced 3.3% and the Nasdaq-100 rose 2.8%.

The U.S. May unemployment rate fell to 13.3%from 14.7%, though the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the rate would have been 3 points higher if households had answered their forms correctly. The loss of jobs in April was raised to 20.7 million from 20.5 million.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted the loss of 7.25 million jobs and a May unemployment rate of 19%.

Read:‘The biggest payroll surprise in history’ — economists react to May jobs report

“At the very least, this report affirms that the economy is on the mend and employees are coming back to work after being temporarily unemployed as the unemployment rate declined from 19% to 13.3% with the participation rate moving higher,” said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management, in emailed comments. “Ultimately, this report provides additional confirmation for risk asset investors who are betting on a faster recovery of the economy.”

But market watchers cautioned against reading too much into the data, as well.

“One month does not make a trend, but the sharp turn in May justifies a bit more optimism about the near-term outlook,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran. “It’s still far too soon to know what the path back will look like, but the May employment report opens the door for an outcome that is less dire than the consensus view would suggest.”
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U.S. Hiring Rebounds, Defying Forecasts for Surge in Joblessness

By Katia Dmitrieva
Updated on June 5, 2020, 5:14 PM GMT+1
America’s labor market defied forecasts for a Depression-style surge in unemployment, signaling the economy is picking up faster than anticipated from the coronavirus-inflicted recession amid reopenings and government stimulus.

A broad gauge of payrolls rose by 2.5 million in May, trouncing forecasts for a sharp decline following a 20.7 million tumble the prior month that was the largest in records back to 1939, according to Labor Department data Friday. The jobless rate fell to 13.3% from 14.7%.

U.S. stocks jumped after the report with the S&P 500 up 2.9%, adding to weeks of gains in equities since mid-March. The figures were so astonishing that President Donald Trump held a news conference, where he called the numbers “outstanding” and predicted further improvement before he’s up for re-election in November.
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Surprise: The BLS Admits Another Phony Jobs Report

Jobs unexpectedly soared this month and the unemployment rate took a big dip. But the BLS admitted another error.

Mish June 5, 2020.

The BLS Employment Report for May shows employment rose by 2.5 million and the unemployment rate fell to 13.3%

Initial Reaction

Both numbers are way better than the consensus. 

The Bloomberg Econoday consensus jobs estimate was -7.725 million and the unemployment rate consensus was -19.8%. 

My unemployment rate estimate was -18.5%. I did not estimate jobs, fearing another fiasco like this.

BLS Admits Another Error

----Final Thoughts

Last month I stated "This was the most distorted BLS report in history."

Given the BLS repeated the same error, this report was worse.
Mish

Next, the once prestigious, now fallen The Lancet. Does anyone on the editorial board of The Lancet actually read The Lancet? How did they miss this?

Volume 3, ISSUE 11, P722-727, November 01, 2003

Effects of chloroquine on viral infections: an old drug against today's diseases

·         Dr Adrea Savarino
·         John R Boelaert
·         Antonio Cassone
·         Giancario Majori
·         Roberto Cauda

Summary

Chloroquine is a 9-aminoquinoline known since 1934. Apart from its well-known antimalarial effects, the drug has interesting biochemical properties that might be applied against some viral infections. Chloroquine exerts direct antiviral effects, inhibiting pH-dependent steps of the replication of several viruses including members of the flaviviruses, retroviruses, and coronaviruses. Its best-studied effects are those against HIV replication, which are being tested in clinical trials. Moreover, chloroquine has immunomodulatory effects, suppressing the production/release of tumour necrosis factor α and interleukin 6, which mediate the inflammatory complications of several viral diseases. 

We review the available information on the effects of chloroquine on viral infections, raising the question of whether this old drug may experience a revival in the clinical management of viral diseases such as AIDS and severe acute respiratory syndrome, which afflict mankind in the era of globalisation.

Authors retract journal studies on hydroxychloroquine use for COVID-19

June 4, 2020 / 4:51 PM
June 4 (UPI) -- The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine announced Thursday that the authors of published studies on use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 have retracted their findings.

The retractions come after reports questioned the validity of data used in the studies, and researchers and third-party reviewers could not verify data supplied to them for the study.

Published May 1, the New England study found COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular disease were at greater risk of death if treated with the drug.

On May 22, the Lancet study found the drug offered no clinical benefit in treating patients infected with the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and may also cause significant heart-related side effects.
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Finally, Alibaba. Compare and contrast.

“Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough.”

With apologies to Peter Pan.

Alibaba.com Launches 3 New Products and Services

Freight, payment terms and online trade shows now available

June 3, 2020 Elizabeth Galentine
Alibaba.com, a business unit of Alibaba Group, on June 2 announced three new products and services intended to allow U.S. small businesses to access digital logistics to source globally, alleviate cash flow with 60-day payment terms, and connect U.S. manufacturers and wholesalers with buyers through online trade shows:

• Alibaba.com Freight — Enables U.S. small- and medium-sized businesses to arrange their bulk shipments. According to a release, SMBs will have the ability to compare, book, manage and track ocean and air freight in real time.

• Alibaba.com Payment Terms — The trade financing solution embedded directly into the cross-border B2B ecommerce marketplace allows qualified buyers to order goods and pay for them up to 60 days after they are shipped.

• Alibaba.com Online Trade Shows USA — A series of digital trade shows that are category-specific and will connect U.S. manufacturers and wholesalers with business buyers in a live online format. According to the company, the first is the Nutrition & Supplements show, July 7-10.

“Doing business online is the bridge for American small businesses through this crisis and into the next decade,” says John Caplan, president of North America and Europe, Alibaba.com. “We are accelerating our transformation to get both sellers and buyers quickly set up for success and provide the critical tools and services that are required for growth.”
https://www.mdm.com/articles/41060-alibabacom-launches-three-new-products-and-services

Alibaba’s Fiscal Year-End Earnings Call….5/22/20

---- As you all know, I’ve been reviewing Alibaba’s investor calls and filings, just for fun, since they first started this quarterly Dog and Pony show just six short years ago.  Time flies.

Every call has been an adventure, to say the least, but I have to say, that this one, was an absolute work of art!….an unrelenting gut-buster, chock full of financial comedy genius….Oh God make it stop!….You’re killin’ me man!…..Bravo!

Daniel, Maggie and Rob never fail to disappoint, and the “analysts” (Binnie Wong – HSBC, Eddie Leung – Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Piyush Mubayi – Goldman Sachs, Alex Yao – JP Morgan, Thomas Chong – Jefferies, Jason Helfstein – Oppenheimer, Gregory Zhao – Barclays, Alicia Yep – Citigroup, Mark Mahaney – RBC).….are absolutely worthy of “best performance in a supporting role” awards or possibly voted “sell-side analyst(s) most likely to get their firm(s) into a shareholder lawsuit”.

---- Share Based Compensation (SBC)

MY QUESTION: Could you folks do me a favor and explain why you needed to provide $4.483 Billion (3 Burj Khalifa’s) in Share Based Compensation (SBC) in the current fiscal year and $21.820 Billion (15 Burj Khalifa’s) since the IPO in 2014?  This seems like a lot of money to me.  Since you only have 117,600 employees right now, if all of the SBC was given to these same employees over the last 6 years, it would amount to $185,544 per employee if the amount was distributed evenly across the board, but it probably wasn’t was it?  In the “worlds second biggest economy”, where GDP per ca-pita is a per-pitiful US$10,000 a year, this seems like a really generous use of US Shareholder money…..unless, of course, the SBC is not actually going to your hard working employees, but deployed to Caymans ShellCo accounts controlled by Chinese Communist Party elites to provide instant wealth and stock price support.  But then it’s not technically “Share Based Compensation” is it?…. it’s actually “theft of US $21.820 Billion of US Shareholder money”.  Please provide a list of “who got the f&#*ing money?”

Questionable Assets

MY QUESTION: “So today, Alibaba has $97.262 Billion of “Questionable Assets” sitting on the Balance Sheet, up from about $5 Billion prior to the IPO.  I refer to these asset classes (Long Term Investment Securities, Investments in Equity Investees, Intangibles and Goodwill) as “Questionable” because they ONLY have value to Alibaba (i.e. BABA management can’t put a sign out on the front lawn that says “Goodwill and Intangible Assets For Sale” and expect the offers to come flooding in).  All of these “Questionable Assets” were created with the help of related and/or ‘friendly’ entities which were more than happy to help the Alibaba Accounting department make liberal use of GAAP/FASB and approved PCAOB valuation and accounting conventions.  So can you provide some color on what your real income would have been without all of these fake-gimmicky write-ups?  Oh wait, I have it right here, without all of these “investee gains”, write ups and capitalization of what should have been expenses, when we subtract all of these things out, the Balance Sheet drops by about $60 Billion and just like that, Alibaba’s earnings are gone forever….even if we are to believe all of the other silly metrics that you spout (which I don’t), you folks haven’t made a dime and have likely lost money since the IPO….does that sound about right?”       

More. Much, much, more.

Probably accurate, but way too much for me. I wouldn’t touch China’s stocks anyway. How’s Luckin Coffee doing?  WeWork China?

This weekend’s musical diversion. Italy’s almost unknown Nicola Conforto.
 


Nicola Conforto

Nicola Conforto (25 September 1718 – 17 March 1793) was an Italian composer.
He studied music in his hometown at the Conservatorio di Santa Maria di Loreto (Music conservatories of Naples), under the tutorship of John Whistles and Francesco Mancini . After receiving his training, he made his debut during the carnival of 1746 in Naples as an opera composer with La finta vedova (The false widow). In the following years he staged his other works both in Naples and in Rome; the fame he achieved thanks to these successes meant that in 1750 he received the commission from the Teatro San Carlo for his first opera seria, Antigonus .
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The Royal Palace of Caserta (Italian: Reggia di Caserta [ˈrɛddʒa di kaˈzɛrta; kaˈsɛrta]) is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed by the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies as their main residence as kings of Naples. It is the largest palace erected in Europe during the 18th century.

Trump touts job gains as 'greatest comeback in American history'

June 5, 2020 / 4:17 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday celebrated a stunning U.S. employment report that showed more than 2.5 million jobs were added last month during the thick of the coronavirus pandemic, and predicted the battered economy will recover all of its lost jobs by next year.

“Today is probably, if you think of it, the greatest comeback in American history,” Trump said at the White House.

“We’re going to be stronger than we were when we were riding high,” he added.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-economy-trump/trump-touts-job-gains-as-greatest-comeback-in-american-history-idUKKBN23C272

“Oh, the cleverness of me!”

President Trump, with apologies to Peter Pan.


DJIA: 25,383 +12 Down. NASDAQ: 9,490 +178 Up. SP500: 3,044 +83 Down.

The NASDAQ has rebounded to up. The S&P and the DJIA remain down. But the game is now totally rigged by the Fed.

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