Baltic Dry Index. 1699 +03 Brent Crude 43.19
Spot Gold 1800
Coronavirus Cases 17/7/20
World 13,951,259
Deaths 591,331
"Rarely have so many
people been so wrong about so much."
President Richard M. Nixon, on
Watergate.
We open, as usual,
with the stock market casino fantasist bubble. Market mania for the masses,
peddled by the global central banksters flirting with fiat currency disaster.
Asia stocks rebound, hopes of more stimulus offset virus worries
July 17, 2020 /
12:46 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares eked out
gains and U.S. stock futures bounced back on Friday as hopes of more government
spending around the globe suppressed concerns about rising new coronavirus case
numbers and worsening tensions between Washington and Beijing.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.5%,
paring a quarter of its 2% losses the previous day, while Japan’s Nikkei was
almost flat.
In China, the CSI300 index climbed 1.1%, clawing back some of Thursday’s
4.8% slide and shrugging off news that Washington is considering banning travel
to the United States by all members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Market watchers said investors are counting on U.S. policymakers to
adopt more stimulus measures as the world’s largest economy struggles to
contain the epidemic, with some existing programmes to support businesses set
to expire within weeks.
“The sustainability of this rebound will be determined to a large degree
by whether another fiscal deal is reached,” said ANZ bank analysts in Sydney in
a note.
U.S. Congress is set to begin debating such a package next week, as
several states in the country’s south and west implement fresh lockdown
measures to curb the virus.
“You would think such sharp rises in infections would normally lead to
fall in stock prices but at the moment, that was being offset by strong hopes
for vaccines,” said Tomo Kinoshita, global market strategist at Invesco in
Tokyo.
“But we now see higher risk of a market correction, considering the
improvement in hard economic data we have seen over the past couple of months
is likely to halt,” he said.
While retail sales for June released on Thursday beat market
expectations, real-time measures of retail foot traffic and employee working
hours and shifts have flatlined after steady growth since April.
The U.S. labour market remained in dire condition. There were 32 million
people receiving unemployment checks under all programmes in the last week of
June, down from the prior week but still the second-highest on record.
More
Back in the real
world, we haven’t got close to hitting bottom yet.
India's coronavirus cases cross 1 million
July 17, 2020 /
5:11 AM
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s cases of novel coronavirus crossed the
million mark, the health ministry data showed on Friday, as infections spread
out into the smaller towns and the countryside following the lifting of a vast
lockdown.
Only the United States and Brazil have a higher number of cases. India’s
total deaths stood at 25,602 the health ministry said.
China's western Urumqi cancels hundreds of flights after report of new virus case
July 17, 2020 /
1:16 AM /
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Urumqi, the capital of China’s far western region
of Xinjiang, cancelled hundreds of flights on Friday, after the report of its
first coronavirus case in about five months fuelled concerns of a potential new
outbreak.
Epidemic control measures led to the cancellation of more than 600
scheduled flights at Urumqi Diwopu International Airport, or more than 80% of
the day’s total, figures from aviation data firm Variflight showed.
Urumqi also suspended subway services from late Thursday.
The National Health Commission reported 10 new confirmed virus
infections for the mainland, one a locally transmitted case in Xinjiang and
nine involving international travellers from abroad.
On Thursday, health authorities in Urumqi said a 24-year-old woman with
symptoms such as a sore throat, fever and headaches, tested positive for the
virus. Three people with whom she had close contact tested positive but did not
show symptoms.
Also on Thursday, the eastern province of Zhejiang reported an
asymptomatic case involving a traveller from Xinjiang.
More
Japan June exports seen tumbling again, CPI drop to keep deflation fears alive - Reuters poll
July 17, 2020 /
5:39 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s exports likely
tumbled at a double-digit pace for the fourth month in a row in June, as the
coronavirus epidemic took a heavy toll on global demand and the country’s
export-led economy, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
Global demand for cars and other durable goods has plunged since March
as the pandemic prompted many countries to lockdown, forcing businesses to shut
and people to stay at home.
Though more countries have started re-opening their economies and
activity has likely bottomed out, policymakers and analysts play down the
prospects for a sharp recovery in global demand.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect data on Monday will show Japan’s
exports fell 24.9% in June from a year earlier, following a 28.3% fall in May,
which was the biggest annual decline since September 2009.
More
Cathay Pacific flags $1.3 billion first-half loss as travel demand battered
July 17, 2020 / 5:17
AM
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (0293.HK) expects a first-half net loss of
HK$9.9 billion (£1.03 billion), including impairment charges on 16 planes, the
airline said on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic crushed travel demand.
Earlier, the airline had flagged a “substantial” first-half loss and
that it had burned through cash of HK$2.5 billion to HK$3 billion each month
since February.
The estimated first-half loss would be Cathay’s biggest half-yearly loss
in at least a decade and compares to a HK$1.35 billion profit in the first half
of 2019, before widespread anti-government protests and the virus decimated
demand.
“The landscape of international aviation remains incredibly uncertain
with border restrictions and quarantine measures still in place across the
globe,” Cathay Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said in a
statement.
The airline, which last month received a $5 billion rescue package led
by the Hong Kong government, said it planned to operate 7% of normal passenger
capacity in July, rising to around 10% in August.
More
British Airways retires entire fleet of Boeing's jumbo jets
July 17, 2020 /
2:26 AM
(Reuters) - British Airways, the world’s largest operator
of Boeing 747, said late Thursday it would retire its entire jumbo jet fleet
with immediate effect due to the downturn in travel industry caused by the
coronavirus pandemic. Global curbs imposed to stem the spread of the virus led to a turbulence in air travel, placing the future of many airline companies in doubt.
“It is unlikely our magnificent ‘queen of the skies’ will ever operate commercial services for British Airways again,” the company said in a statement.
BA, which is owned by International Consolidated Airlines Group (ICAG.L), added that it will operate more flights on modern, fuel-efficient aircraft such as its new A350s and 787s and expects such aircraft to help in achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
A wave of restructuring triggered by the virus outbreak is hitting airlines and industrial firms across the world.
The Sun reported last month that BA had reached an agreement with its pilots to sack 350 and another 300 in ‘pool’ for rehiring when needed.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-iag/british-airways-retires-entire-fleet-of-boeings-jumbo-jets-idUKKCN24I04I
CDC Extends No-Sail Order for Cruises Through End of September
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has extended its “no-sail order” for cruise ships through the end of September, preventing vessels from sailing in U.S. waters out of concern over the Covid-19 pandemic.
The extension is the second for an
order that dates back to March 14 and was issued after a series of coronavirus
outbreaks on cruise ships. The latest extension was set to expire on July 24.
The move probably won’t dramatically
change the timeline for the biggest cruise lines in returning to the seas. Last
month, industry group Cruise Lines
International Association said it would suspend voyages from U.S.
ports until Sept. 15. Carnival Corp.,
Royal Caribbean
Cruises Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise
Line Holdings Ltd. are all association members.
David Rosenberg: Investors shouldn't be so smug when policy-makers are signalling tough times
Jul 16, 2020
•
Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem says this is no normal recession,
which means the recession is still ongoing and we are in a powerful bear market
rally. Adrian Wyld/Pool via Reuters
“However, it was clear to everyone on the Governing Council that this is
not a normal recession.” — Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem in his opening statement
at the Monetary Policy Report press conference on July 15.
Note that he said “is,” not “was.” He used the present tense, not the
past tense. In other words, the recession actually is ongoing, which means
that, with all deference to Mrs. Dow and Mr. Jones, this remains a powerful
bear market rally.
But this is not some flashy new secular bull market. Be careful out
there, especially since I detect on my Twitter account a growing sense of
smugness and complacency among those who claim they were brilliant enough to
buy at the lows. They never boast, mind you, that they failed to see the
mid-February peak and are flat on the year despite everything that U.S. Federal
Reserve chair Jerome Powell and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin have
done to ignite rampant asset inflation.
“Outlooks remained highly uncertain, as contacts grappled with how long
the COVID-19 pandemic would continue and the magnitude of its economic
implications,” the Fed Beige Book stated on July 15.
Not just “uncertain,” but “highly uncertain.”
How fascinating that such a comment from the front lines of the economy
would occur just as the S&P 500 erased all its losses for the year. After
sifting through all the caveats in the Beige Book, I came to the conclusion
that the bull market really should be in uncertainty. Maybe stock market
participants think this is good, since elevated uncertainty means more Fed
support. That has been the trade for months.
Morehttps://financialpost.com/investing/investing-pro/david-rosenberg-investors-shouldnt-be-so-smug-when-policy-makers-are-signalling-tough-times/wcm/5828ad69-8181-43af-9508-381c1ac958b5/
Finally, Twitter
turns out to be aptly named, although Reuters gets their headline below
hopelessly wrong. No one is alarmed about the Great Twits platform “security.” Everyone is alarmed at the Great Twits LACK of
security.
Of course, as
usual it was the Russians who did it, raising funding for President Trump’s
re-election campaign. They’re very clever people, those Russians. Just wait for
the BBC News exclusive.
Twitter hacking spree alarms experts concerned about the platform's security
July 16, 2020 /
4:55 AM
SAN
FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The extraordinary hacking spree that hit
Twitter on Wednesday, leading it to briefly muzzle some of its most widely
followed accounts, is drawing questions about the platform’s security and
resilience in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election.
Twitter said late Wednesday hackers obtained control of employee
credentials to hijack accounts including those of Democratic presidential
candidate Joe Biden, former president Barack Obama, reality television star Kim
Kardashian, and tech billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
In a series of tweets, the company said: “We detected what we believe to
be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted
some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.”
The hackers then “used this access to take control of many
highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf.”
The company statements confirmed the fears of security experts that the
service itself - rather than users - had been compromised.
Twitter’s role as a critical communications platform for political
candidates and public officials, including President Donald Trump, has led to
fears that hackers could wreak havoc with the Nov. 3 presidential election or
otherwise compromise national security.
Adam Conner, vice president for technology policy at the Center for
American Progress, a liberal think-tank, said on Twitter: “This is bad on July
15 but would be infinitely worse on November 3rd.”
Posing as celebrities and the wealthy, the hackers asked followers to
send the digital currency bitcoin to a series of addresses. By evening, 400
bitcoin transfers were made worth a combined $120,000 (£95,564). Half of the
victims had funds in U.S. bitcoin exchanges, a quarter in Europe and a quarter
in Asia, according to forensics company Elliptic.
Those transfers left history that could help investigators identify the
perpetrators of the hack. The financial damage may be limited because multiple
exchanges blocked other payments after their own Twitter accounts were
targeted.
The damage to Twitter’s reputation may be more serious. Most troubling
to some was how long the company took to stop the bad tweets.
“Twitter’s response to this hack was astonishing. It’s the middle of the
day in San Francisco, and it takes them five hours to get a handle on the
incident,” said Dan Guido, CEO of security company Trail of Bits.
An even worse scenario was that the bitcoin fraud was a distraction for
more serious hacking, such as harvesting the direct messages of the account
holders.
More
"You
can't cheat an honest man."
W.C.
Fields, sucker.
Covid-19 Corner
This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Did
Reuters just publish “fake news?” They really hate Bolsonaro and Trump.
Brazil's Bolsonaro, infected with COVID-19, touts unproven drug
July 15, 2020 /
10:30 PM
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on
Wednesday again extolled the supposed virtues of malaria drug
hydroxychloroquine to fight COVID-19, as he said that he again tested positive
for the coronavirus, a week after he first announced he had become infected.
“I was medicated from the beginning with hydroxychloroquine, with a
doctor’s recommendation. I felt better the next day,” Bolsonaro said in a video
posted on social media. “Whether it is a coincidence or not... it worked for
me.”
Like close ally U.S. President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro has been quick to
sing the praises of hydroxychloroquine, despite scant scientific evidence that
it works against the novel coronavirus.
Since catching the virus, Bolsonaro has said he remains in good health
and that he would resume his normal work schedule once he tested negative.
More
Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine Cut Death Rate Significantly in COVID-19 Patients, Henry Ford Health System Study Shows
July
02, 2020
DETROIT – Treatment with hydroxychloroquine
cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19 –
and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study
published by Henry Ford Health
System.
In a large-scale retrospective analysis of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020 across the system’s six hospitals, the study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. None of the patients had documented serious heart abnormalities; however, patients were monitored for a heart condition routinely pointed to as a reason to avoid the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.
The study was published today in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, the peer-reviewed, open-access online publication of the International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID.org).
Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine at Henry Ford met specific protocol criteria as outlined by the hospital system’s Division of Infectious Diseases. The vast majority received the drug soon after admission; 82% within 24 hours and 91% within 48 hours of admission. All patients in the study were 18 or over with a median age of 64 years; 51% were men and 56% African American.
“The findings have been highly analyzed and peer-reviewed,” said Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of Infectious Disease for Henry Ford Health System, who co-authored the study with Henry Ford epidemiologist Samia Arshad. “We attribute our findings that differ from other studies to early treatment, and part of a combination of interventions that were done in supportive care of patients, including careful cardiac monitoring. Our dosing also differed from other studies not showing a benefit of the drug. And other studies are either not peer reviewed, have limited numbers of patients, different patient populations or other differences from our patients.”
In a large-scale retrospective analysis of 2,541 patients hospitalized between March 10 and May 2, 2020 across the system’s six hospitals, the study found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died compared to 26.4% not treated with hydroxychloroquine. None of the patients had documented serious heart abnormalities; however, patients were monitored for a heart condition routinely pointed to as a reason to avoid the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.
The study was published today in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, the peer-reviewed, open-access online publication of the International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID.org).
Patients treated with hydroxychloroquine at Henry Ford met specific protocol criteria as outlined by the hospital system’s Division of Infectious Diseases. The vast majority received the drug soon after admission; 82% within 24 hours and 91% within 48 hours of admission. All patients in the study were 18 or over with a median age of 64 years; 51% were men and 56% African American.
“The findings have been highly analyzed and peer-reviewed,” said Dr. Marcus Zervos, division head of Infectious Disease for Henry Ford Health System, who co-authored the study with Henry Ford epidemiologist Samia Arshad. “We attribute our findings that differ from other studies to early treatment, and part of a combination of interventions that were done in supportive care of patients, including careful cardiac monitoring. Our dosing also differed from other studies not showing a benefit of the drug. And other studies are either not peer reviewed, have limited numbers of patients, different patient populations or other differences from our patients.”
More
Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread
Virology
Journal volume 2,
Article number: 69 (2005)
Background
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by a newly discovered coronavirus (SARS-CoV). No effective prophylactic or post-exposure therapy is currently available.Results
We report, however, that chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV infection of primate cells. These inhibitory effects are observed when the cells are treated with the drug either before or after exposure to the virus, suggesting both prophylactic and therapeutic advantage. In addition to the well-known functions of chloroquine such as elevations of endosomal pH, the drug appears to interfere with terminal glycosylation of the cellular receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. This may negatively influence the virus-receptor binding and abrogate the infection, with further ramifications by the elevation of vesicular pH, resulting in the inhibition of infection and spread of SARS CoV at clinically admissible concentrations.
More
Zn2+ Inhibits Coronavirus and Arterivirus RNA Polymerase Activity In Vitro and Zinc Ionophores Block the Replication of These Viruses in Cell Culture
- Aartjan J. W. te Velthuis, Sjoerd H. E. van den Worm, Amy C. Sims, Ralph S. Baric,
- Eric J. Snijder , Martijn J. van Hemert
- Published: November 4, 2010
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001176
Abstract
Increasing the intracellular Zn2+ concentration with zinc-ionophores like pyrithione (PT) can efficiently impair the replication of a variety of RNA viruses, including poliovirus and influenza virus. For some viruses this effect has been attributed to interference with viral polyprotein processing. In this study we demonstrate that the combination of Zn2+ and PT at low concentrations (2 µM Zn2+ and 2 µM PT) inhibits the replication of SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and equine arteritis virus (EAV) in cell culture.
More.
Most air conditioning systems don't protect against the coronavirus. In some cases, they can actually facilitate spread
USA TODAY Published 11:39 AM EDT Jul
15, 2020
Though some public health experts expected coronavirus transmission to
wane in the summer as temperatures rise and the air becomes more humid, cases
have actually skyrocketed in some of the hottest and stickiest parts of the
country.
Engineers and ventilation experts said this may be in part because
residents escape the heat by retreating indoors where heating, ventilation and
air conditioning (HVAC) systems could exacerbate airborne transmission with
unplanned air currents.
“The main way (air conditioning) can contribute to spreading
coronavirus is by creating strong air currents that can move the droplets
… and contribute to increase risk,” said William Bahnfleth, chair of the
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’
Epidemic Task Force (ASHRAE) and professor at Penn State University.
Even in bars and restaurants where social distancing is observed, air
ventilation can carry respiratory droplets or aerosols that contain virus, said
Len Horovitz, pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published initial
findings of an outbreak linked to the airflow in a Guangzhou, China,
restaurant. Over the course of 12 days, nine people who dined at the restaurant
Jan. 24 fell ill as a result of another patron with a COVID-19 infection, the
authors determined.
Within five days, three people sitting at the infected patron's table
were infected along with another below the air conditioner. Of the 91 people in
the restaurant during that hour, only those at tables in the way of the air
conditioner’s airflow contracted the virus.
The World Health Organization only recently recognized that aerosolized
droplets can lead to infection after more than 200 medical experts wrote an
open letter urging the agency to react to mounting evidence and go a step
further with its recommendations.
----After
ventilation, the next line of defense in an HVAC system is filtration. Most
commercial and residential HVAC systems have a MERV 6 or 8 filter, which takes
care of the basic pollen, dust, dust mites, mold and bacteria. It’s unable to
capture small particles that contain virus, which can be about 1 micron.
More
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.
A new path for electron optics in solid-state systems
Date:
July 14, 2020
Source:
ETH Zurich Department of Physics
Summary:
In combined theoretical and experimental work, physicists introduce and
demonstrate a novel mechanism for electron optics in two-dimensional
solid-state systems. The discovery opens up a route to engineering
quantum-optical phenomena in a variety of materials and devices.
Electrons can interfere in the same manner as water, acoustical or light
waves do. When exploited in solid-state materials, such effects promise novel
functionality for electronic devices, in which elements such as
interferometers, lenses or collimators could be integrated for controlling
electrons at the scale of mirco- and nanometres. However, so far such effects
have been demonstrated mainly in one-dimensional devices, for example in
nanotubes, or under specific conditions in two-dimensional graphene devices.
Writing in Physical Review X, a collaboration including the Department
of Physics groups of Klaus Ensslin, Thomas Ihn and Werner Wegscheider in the
Laboratory for Solid State Physics and Oded Zilberberg at the Institute of
Theoretical Physics, now introduces a novel general scenario for realizing
electron optics in two dimensions.
The main functional principle of optical interferometers is the
interference of monochromatic waves that propagate in the same direction. In
such interferometers, the interference can be observed as a periodic
oscillation of the transmitted intensity on varying the wavelength of the
light. However, the period of the interference pattern strongly depends on the
incident angle of the light, and, as a result, the interference pattern is
averaged out if light is sent through the interferometer at all possible
incident angles at once. The same arguments apply to the interference of matter
waves as described by quantum mechanics, and in particular to interferometers
in which electrons interfere.
As part of their PhD projects, experimentalist Matija Karalic and
theorist Antonio Štrkalj have investigated the phenomenon of electronic
interference in a solid-state system consisting of two coupled semiconductor
layers, InAs and GaSb. They discovered that the band inversion and
hybridization present in this system provide a novel transport mechanism that
guarantees non-vanishing interference even when all angles of incidence occur.
Through a combination of transport measurements and theoretical modelling, they
found that their devices operate as a Fabry-Pérot interferometer in which
electrons and holes form hybrid states and interfere.
The significance of these results goes firmly beyond the specific
InAs/GaSb realization explored in this work, as the reported mechanism requires
solely the two ingredients of band inversion and hybridization. Therefore new
paths are now open for engineering electron-optical phenomena in a broad
variety of materials.
Another weekend, and
is that really President Trump Twitting or is it President Putin? How can we
tell? Have a great weekend everyone.
"Get a good night's sleep and don't bug anybody without
asking me."
Richard M. Nixon, 37th US President, on tape to his re-election
campaign manager.
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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