Baltic Dry Index. 1956 + 62 Brent Crude 42.87
Spot Gold 1785
Coronavirus Cases 07/7/20
World 11,753,405
Deaths 539,844
Gold is money. Everything else
is credit.
J. P. Morgan.
We
open with more stock mania madness, and why not, the central bankster’s all
have our backs covered should another “black swan” fly in.
If
we all keep buying the tech stocks, the Nasdaq will drive everything else
higher, it’s the 1995 – March 2000 dot.con bubble all over again. Besides it’s
the “Thunder” Full Moon time! What could
possibly go wrong?
Well
for one thing the global economy is nothing like 1995-2000. We are in the midst
of a global pandemic that’s still accelerating out of control. A trade war with
China and most of Europe. We have depression era unemployment. Millions more
being paid not to work by the nation states. A whole Andes mountain range of
unrepayable debt. US social discontent not seen since 1968. A collapse in
consumer demand. Disrupted manufacturing supply chains, and the onset of the great
2020’s real estate reset. Lastly, let’s not forget two septuagenarians fighting
“dirty tricks” campaigns to be the next US president.
What’s
not to like? “Buy more.”
Nasdaq hits new record as tech stocks push markets higher
July 6, 2020 /
5:02 PM / Updated July 6, 2020 at 8:41 PM
July 6 (UPI) -- The Nasdaq Composite hit a record high on Monday as stocks rose
sharply behind strong tech stocks to begin the week.The Nasdaq ended the day up 2.2 percent, it's largest single-day gain since mid-May, led by tech stocks such as Amazon, which rose 5.77 percent and shares climbed above $3,000 for the first time.
Netflix stock also rose 3.55 percent to an all-time high. Shares of Microsoft, Apple and Google's parent company Alphabet, also rose more than 2 percent each.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average 459.67 percent, or 1.78 percent, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.59 percent.
Sunday's announcement that Duke Energy and Dominion Energy canceled plans to develop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline also affected stocks as Duke stock fell 2.47 percent and Dominion dropped 10.98 percent.
Berkshire Hathaway stock rose 2.43 percent after it purchased Dominion Energy's natural gas transmission and storage assets.
Uber stock also climbed 6 percent after it acquired food delivery service Postmates.
Markets began the week with a strong showing after the Dow and S&P 500 climbed more than 3.7 percent and Nasdaq gained 5.2 percent last week after a slight rise on Thursday as the Dow gained 92 points.
SoftBank's shares return to dot-com bubble era highs
July 7, 2020 /
2:08 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T)
rose 3% on Tuesday to reach highs last seen during the dot-com bubble, as
massive buybacks help shrink the group’s persistent discount. Shares were priced at 6,100 yen in morning Tokyo trading, hitting levels last seen in early 2000, when speculation on internet stocks saw prices surge before crashing and wiping out most of SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son’s wealth.
The rebound comes after Son in March pledged to spend up to 2.5 trillion yen (£18.40 billion) on buybacks, helping lift the stock 130% from March lows.
With around 10 million SoftBank shares being shorted “we are seeing a typical short-squeeze,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
Other tailwinds for the company include progress in monetizing core assets such as e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding (BABA.N) to raise $41 billion to fund the buybacks and stabilise its balance sheet. The plan has caused jitters at credit-rating firms.
Alibaba’s stock price continues to appreciate, with a portfolio company backed by SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund - insurance startup Lemonade Inc LMND.N - successfully listing in New York last week.
More
Asian shares hit speed bump, China extends sharp rally
July 7, 2020 /
4:58 AM
TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Asian shares paused for breath on Tuesday
following a surge sparked by speculation Beijing is trying to orchestrate a
major domestic bull run to support an economy hit by the coronavirus and a
standoff with Washington.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was last down 0.25%, a seemingly inevitable correction after sharp gains of 7% in just five days that took it to a 4-1/2-month high.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 gave up 0.7% while U.S. stock futures shed 0.3% EScv1 in Asia after hefty gains on Monday in the wake of surging Chinese shares.
Analysts say jawboning by the Chinese government through a state-sponsored journal on the importance of “fostering a healthy bull market” is spurring the buying binge in mainland Chinese shares.
Bluechip CSI300 index of Shanghai and Shenzhen shares .CSI, which had gained more than 13 in the past five sessions, gained another 1.7%, led by rises in tech sector .SSEINT.
“China is now trying to put all its resources on the semi-conductor and the IT sector so it can stand on its own feet in the area,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
“Given this whole project is likely spearheaded by (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping, the rally could have a long leg to go, even though it does feel a bit risky and could be prone to setbacks.”
China’s moves came as the Sino-U.S. disagreements have gone beyond trade and tariff to include a whole gamut of issues, such as the status of Hong Kong, signalling to some investors that Beijing may be aiming to reduce its dependence on the West.
---- A sharp rebound in U.S. services industry activity in June, almost returning to pre-pandemic levels, also helped to whet investors’ risk appetite.
Still, new coronavirus cases surged in several states, forcing some
restaurants and bars to close again in a setback to the budding recovery,
keeping gains in risk assets in check.
More
Almost One-Third of NYC Restaurants Missed June Rent, Survey Finds
By Nicholas Rizzi July 2, 2020 3:45 pm
The majority of restaurant owners around the city did not pay their entire rent in June, with 30 percent skipping out on it altogether, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to make it harder for eateries to survive, a new survey found.
The nonprofit New York City Hospitality Alliance surveyed 509 restaurateurs around the city and found four out of five didn’t pay the full June rent. Of those, 90 percent said they paid half or less last month.“Pre-pandemic, it was incredibly difficult to run a successful restaurant,” Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the Hospitality Alliance, said. “These conditions, the longer that it goes on, is going to make it more and more challenging for small businesses to ever recover. The vast majority of small businesses will not be able to pay back months of missed rent.”
The survey also found that landlords have been unwilling to give
restaurants a break.
Sixty percent of restaurant owners said their landlords refused to give
them deferments during the pandemic, while only 10 percent were able to
renegotiate their leases.
Restaurant owners are “hanging on by a thread and they’re exhausting
their personal savings in the hope of one day getting their business up and
running again,” Rigie said.
---- Willimas said the return of indoor dining likely won’t be the shot in the arm for restaurants most people think it will be. He owns an eatery in New Haven, Ct., The Anchor Spa, which has been allowed to start indoor dining but the spot is still doing 30 percent of its pre-COVID-19 sales.
“We’re not back yet, we’re still struggling and indoor dining is not the
end-all,” he said. “There’s still a lot of trepidation of being inside a small
space.”
Plus, landlords and other debtors will think it’s business as usual once
indoor dining returns and will come to collect debts, Williams said. And
re-opening indoor seating too soon could be the death knell for many businesses
if a second-wave hits.
More
https://commercialobserver.com/2020/07/almost-one-third-of-nyc-restaurants-missed-june-rent-survey-finds/?utm_campaign=daily-new-york&utm_content=2020-06-07-20794307&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=CO%20NY%20Daily%20Newsletter
In
commodities news, yet another dodgy commodities deal in Singapore? What is it
with commodities traders? They can resist anything except temptation?
Though
I wasn’t around for the Great Salad Oil swindle, the Great Round White Maine
Potato default of 1976 was great fun! Oh, for the good old days.
Exclusive: CIMB alleges 'suspicious' Hontop Energy oil deals with BP
July 6, 2020 /
10:51 AM
SINGAPORE
(Reuters) - Singapore’s High Court has appointed an independent supervisor to
oversee the restructuring of trader Hontop Energy.
The move came after Malaysian lender CIMB, its biggest creditor, raised
concerns about what it described as ‘suspicious’ deals involving oil major BP,
according to an affidavit filed with the court this week and reviewed by
Reuters.
Hontop, the trading arm of Chinese independent refiner China Wanda
Holding Group Co Ltd, is one of four commodity trading firms in Singapore which
ran into financial trouble as the oil price crashed. CIMB is seeking repayment
of $105 million it lent the company.
In the affidavit requesting the appointment of an independent supervisor
to run Hontop’s affairs, CIMB Bank Berhad detailed how it lent Hontop the money
to finance two crude oil deals late last year in a section entitled ‘Suspicious
transactions’.
In total, Hintop owes nearly $470 million to
seven banks, accord to a list of creditors included in the affidavit.
---- The deals cited by CIMB in its affidavit involved Hontop buying cargoes from Sugih Energy International Pte Ltd, now known as Aeturnum Energy International Pte Ltd, and telling CIMB it was reselling them to BP Singapore Pte Ltd (BPS), a unit of BP.
Focus Law Asia LLC, representing Aeternum Energy, confirmed the
transactions with Hontop.
---- In the first deal, CIMB agreed to finance Hontop’s sale of Russian ESPO crude onboard vessel Green Attitude to BP on an “open account” basis, where goods are shipped and delivered before payment is due, according to the affidavit. [Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean.]
Green Attitude’s owner, Aegean Shipping, did not immediately respond to
a request for comment.
When CIMB reached out to BP for payment in February, the oil major told
the bank that the contract and payment for the cargo had been subject to a
separate agreement between BP and Hontop and because it had not received
payment from Hontop it was not obliged to pay Hontop or CIMB for the cargo,
according to the affidavit.
BP did not specify what the agreement was about or say why it was meant
to receive a payment from Hontop.
“It appears to be the case that, when applying for financing, Hontop
neglected to disclose to CIMB material details about the nature of its
agreement with BP,” BP said in a Feb. 20 letter to CIMB, a copy of which was
appended to the affidavit.
More
Salad Oil Scandal
By James Chen Updated Jul 25, 2018
The
Salad Oil Scandal of the early 1960s was one of the worst corporate scandals of
its time. It occurred when executives at New Jersey-based Allied Crude
Vegetable Oil Company discovered that banks would make loans secured by the
company’s soybean oil, or salad-oil inventory. When inspectors would test
Allied’s holding tanks to confirm they were full, the company consistently
passed the test. However, management didn't remind anyone that oil floats on
water. The containers, filled with water, had just a few feet of oil on
top, fooling everyone. In 1963, the scam came to light, and over $175
million-worth of salad oil was missing, causing several notable market
reverberations.
The
Salad Oil Scandal’s mastermind was Anthony De Angelis, a commodities trader,
and Allied founder. He eventually served seven years in prison for fraud and
conspiracy.
More
The Great Maine Potato War — The Year the Spuds Didn’t Show Up
It was May of 1976. The Apple Computer Company had started a month ago, The Bad News Bears showed in theaters, kids hummed along to Peter Frampton and, in New York, 50 million pounds of Maine potatoes that were supposed to be delivered never showed up. A Maine potato war for the ages had broken out.The story behind the Maine potato war would take more than 10 years to sort itself out in the courts. The potatoes in question hadn’t disappeared. Many simply rotted in warehouses in Maine and elsewhere, unavailable for delivery.
The spuds were destroyed by an out-of-control market and two groups of mega-millionaires hell bent on cheating each other, with neither side willing to back down.
Corruption in the Maine potato market was nothing new. Contracts for the future delivery of potatoes and other commodities such as grain were traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, notorious for its dishonesty.
As one regulator put it to author Leah McGrath Goodman for her book The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World’s Oil Market: “Any customer who traded there was molested, if not raped …
As far as we could see, the NYMEX traders did nothing but run scams.”
In 1976, potatoes were big business for NYMEX. And traders constantly manipulated the potato market to turn profit.
---- But despite all the manipulation in potatoes, no one had ever seen anything like the Maine potato war of 1975 and 1976.
J.R. Simplot
The futures market began selling contracts to buy May 1976 potatoes in 1975. That’s when J.R. “Jack” Simplot, a self-made billionaire, entered the picture.
More
Next, to misquote Ben Franklin, if the west doesn’t hang
together it will surely hang separately. Thanks to US bullying and over playing
its hand, Europe sets off to hang separately.
EU banks to take on Visa, Mastercard with new payments system
By Huw Jones and Maya
Nikolaeva
3,
July 2020.
LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - Sixteen banks from Germany, France and three
other euro zone countries on Thursday said a "truly European"
payments system was expected to be up and running in 2022 to fully digitalise a
region where half of all retail payments are still in cash.
European Union policymakers and central bankers have long sought a
"home grown" rival to take on Mastercard and Visa from the United
States, and more recently tech giants like Alipay and Google . But this has not
happened even though real-time payments have been possible in the euro zone
since 2017.
The
European Central Bank on Thursday welcomed the banks' decision to launch the
unified European payment system by 2022, after advocating for years an
industry-driven solution to compete with the likes of Mastercard and Visa.
"It is aimed at strengthening Europe, at making it more independent
and robust," said Thierry Laborde, deputy chief operating officer of
French bank BNP Paribas , which is part of the project.
"We will do it collectively, by pooling our resources. As for
distribution systems, prices will differ from one bank to another, but the
infrastructure will be pan-European."
The ECB had said last year that dependence on non-European players for
two-thirds of non-cash payments created a risk that the payments market would
not be fit to support the EU single market and euro.
The so-called European Payments Initiative aims to become a new standard
means of payment, offering a card for consumers and retailers across Europe, the
statement from the 16 banks said.
It will cover all types of transactions including in-store, online, cash
withdrawal and 'peer-to-peer' in addition to existing international payment
scheme solutions.
Banks that have already signed up include BBVA , BNP Paribas ,
Commerzbank , Deutsche Bank , Santander , ING , UniCredit and Societe Generale
.
In coming weeks the project will set up an interim company in Brussels,
with other payment service providers invited to join, the banks said.
More
Finally,
a good read. Now intelligence and police
just need to do something similar to all the violent anti-west coordinated
rioters.
How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime
Police monitored a hundred million
encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals
to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.
July 2, 2020, 11:34am
---- Because the messages were encrypted on the devices themselves, police couldn't tap the group's phones or intercept messages as authorities normally would. On Encrochat, criminals spoke openly and negotiated their deals in granular detail, with price lists, names of customers, and explicit references to the large quantities of drugs they sold, according to documents obtained by Motherboard from sources in and around the criminal world.
Maybe it was a coincidence, but in the same time frame, police across the UK and Europe busted a wide range of criminals. In mid-June, authorities picked up an alleged member of another drug gang.
A few days later, law enforcement seized millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs in Amsterdam. It was as if the police were detaining people from completely unrelated gangs simultaneously.
"[The police] all over it aren't they," the dealer wrote in one of the messages obtained by Motherboard. "My heads still baffled how they got on all my guys."
Unbeknownst to Mark, or the tens of thousands of other alleged Encrochat users, their messages weren't really secure. French authorities had penetrated the Encrochat network, leveraged that access to install a technical tool in what appears to be a mass hacking operation, and had been quietly reading the users' communications for months. Investigators then shared those messages with agencies around Europe.
---- Only now is the astonishing scale of the operation coming into focus: It represents one of the largest law enforcement infiltrations of a communications network predominantly used by criminals ever, with Encrochat users spreading beyond Europe to the Middle East and elsewhere. French, Dutch, and other European agencies monitored and investigated "more than a hundred million encrypted messages" sent between Encrochat users in real time, leading to arrests in the UK, Norway, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands, a team of international law enforcement agencies announced Thursday.
As dealers planned trades, money launderers washed their proceeds, and
even criminals discussed their next murder, officers read their messages and
started taking suspects off the street.
The messages "have given insight in an unprecedented large number
of serious crimes, including large, international drug shipments and drug labs,
murders, thrashing robberies, extortions, robberies, grave assaults and hostage
takings. International drug and money laundering corridors have become crystal
clear," Dutch law enforcement said.
The documents obtained by Motherboard detail some of the information
intercepted by authorities, and lay out not only the actions of one alleged
drug dealer, but show just how deeply law enforcement seems to have breached
alleged criminal organizations. Codenames are identified as money launderers,
ketamine, amphetamine, cannabis, and heroin suppliers, couriers, and customers.
The messages show how gangs allegedly directed members to gather money
from customers, how to launder it safely, and where to hide drugs. In
meticulous and timestamped sections, the Encrochat messages lay out alleged
crime after crime.
More
“It is difficult not to marvel at the imagination which was implicit in this gargantuan insanity. If there must be madness something may be said for having it on a heroic scale."
John Kenneth Galbraith. The Great Crash: 1929.
Covid-19 Corner
Though
hopefully, we are passing/have passed the peak of new cases, at least of the
first SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, this section will continue until it becomes
unneeded.
Spanish antibody study shows 5% of population exposed to coronavirus
July 6, 2020 /
12:09 PM
MADRID (Reuters) - Results from the final stage of a nationwide antibody
study showed some 5.2% of Spain’s population has been exposed to the
coronavirus, health officials said on Monday, confirming findings from earlier
stages.
The study, which tested nearly 70,000 people across Spain three times
over the past three months, found the virus’ prevalence had not altered
significantly since preliminary results were published in May.
US Pandemic Advisor Says the Country Needs to Shut Down Again
"The US response has been
extraordinarily disappointing and wrongheaded. Whenever there's been an
opportunity to do the right thing, we seem to have done the wrong thing"
by Dan Robitzski July 06 2020
According to one of the world’s foremost pandemic experts, everyone will need to stay vigilant for years in order to truly beat the coronavirus.
Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and a prominent government advisor on pandemic preparedness, told CNET that wearing masks and some degree of social distancing will be necessary for years — and that to beat the disease, we’d need to lock down the country again.
“I think what’s important is that there’s going to be no summertime lull with a big wave in the fall,” Toner told CNET. “It’s clear that we are having a significant resurgence of cases in the summer, and they’ll get bigger. And it’ll keep going until we lock things down again.”
In Toner’s view, the U.S. government can’t act quickly enough. While other countries managed their COVID-19 outbreaks comparatively swiftly, Toner sees the American response to the pandemic as a resounding failure across the board.
“The US response has been extraordinarily disappointing and wrongheaded,” Toner told CNET. “Whenever there’s been an opportunity to do the right thing, we seem to have done the wrong thing. The US has to recognize that it is competing for first or second position of the worst affected country in the world.”
Unfortunately, mass inoculation — one of the major requirements for actually ending the pandemic — may not happen until 2022, CNET reports. So above all else, Toner says that we need to get used to the idea of wearing masks in public. And he suggests those who complain about masks get on board pronto.
“They will get over it,” he said of the anti-mask crowd. “It’s just a question of how many people get sick and die before they get over it.”
Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 390 to 196,944 - RKI
July 7, 2020 /
4:30 AM
BERLIN (Reuters) - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany
increased by 390 to 196,944, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for
infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.
The reported death toll rose by 8 to 9,024, the tally showed.
Some useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
Rt Covid-19
Covid19info.live
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.
"Graphene armor" protects perovskite solar cells from damage
Michael Irving July 05, 2020
Perovskite is emerging as a promising material for solar
cells, but it has some durability problems. Now, engineers have developed a new electrode that could make them more stable, using a protective layer of "graphene armor."
In just 10 years or so, perovskite solar cells have advanced so fast that they’ve more or less caught up to silicon’s several-decade head start, reaching efficiencies of around 20 percent. But the advantage is that perovskite is cheaper and easier to produce in bulk, and it can be printed or sprayed directly onto surfaces.
But there’s always a catch, and in this case that’s stability. Perovskite is vulnerable to being degraded by ions coming from the metal oxide electrodes in the solar cell. But now engineers at Ulsan National Institute of Science and technology (UNIST) in South Korea have found a way to protect the perovskite, and the secret ingredient is everyone’s favorite wonder material, graphene.
Graphene is a two-dimensional lattice of carbon atoms, which is transparent, super strong and electrically conductive. That makes it perfect for this purpose – it allows photons of light and electrons to pass through, but blocks metal ions.
The team’s new system is made using what they call a graphene copper grid-embedded polyimide (GCEP), which sits between the metal electrode and the perovskite. This layer allows sunlight to pass through to the perovskite to convert the energy to electrons, which are then passed back through the GCEP to the metal electrode and out to be stored and used.
In tests, the researchers showed that the new design was almost as efficient as the regular kind. Solar cells protected by the "graphene armor" had power conversion efficiencies of 16.4 percent, compared to 17.5 percent for those without. It managed to maintain that for long periods too, retaining more than 97.5 percent of that efficiency after 1,000 hours.
Other advantages were also clear. The team found that the new cells were more stable, with much less diffusion of metal ions into the perovskite layer. Plus, the graphene layer blocked UV and near-UV light, preventing the damage that those wavelengths can cause.
As an added bonus, the new solar cells are also much more flexible. After more than 5,000 bending tests, it still retained 94 percent of its initial efficiency, which could make it useful for powering wearable electronics.
The research was published in the journal Nano Letters.
https://newatlas.com/electronics/graphene-armor-peovskite-solar-cell/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=8090163d54-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_06_08_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-8090163d54-90625829
The
threat of gold redeemability imposes a constant check and limit on inflationary
issues of government paper. If the government can remove the threat, it can
expand and inflate without cease.
Murray
Rothbard
The Monthly Coppock Indicators finished June
DJIA: 25,813 -2 Down. NASDAQ: 10,059 +196 Up.
SP500: 3,100 +75 Down.
The NASDAQ has remained up.
The S&P and the DJIA still remain down despite the best efforts of the Fed
to get them to go higher. The Dow has now gone negative.
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