Baltic Dry Index. 1510 +04 Brent Crude 44.65
Spot Gold 1880
Coronavirus Cases 12/8/20 World 20,495,545
Deaths 745,180
"The high tide of prosperity will continue."
Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary to the Treasury, 1928
For
the latest bad news development on Sars-coV-2, scroll down to the Covid-19
section.
The
big political news this morning is that Democratic Presidential challenger Biden
finally picked his Vice Presidential running partner. To no one’s surprise he
picked a woman of Afro-Asian heritage from safe Democrat state California. Did
China influence his decision?
With
the story well covered in mainstream media, I’ll leave it for them too cover,
but with the comment that both campaigns will now move on to regular US ferocious attack
mode. A good time is about not to be had by all.
In
other news, gold got hammered, by Russian vaccine “success,” profit taking, central
bank rigging, [your favourite reason here.] But with massive global
fiat currency creation to come to infinity-forever, I suspect that it’s nothing
more than the usual wild ride we get in commodity bull markets. Visit copper,
cocoa, coffee, silver and sugar back in the wild west mid to late 1970s. Limit
up, limit up, limit down.
In
other news, Asia continues to wobble. Along with Korea’s Kim Jong Un, President
Trump has fallen out of love with China’s President Xi. Few think President Trump’s Executive Orders
on the economy, will work, are big enough, are timely, or legal. Other than
that Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?
Asian stocks fall on U.S. stimulus uncertainty
August 12, 2020
/ 1:22 AM
TOKYO/BOSTON (Reuters) - Asian stocks dipped on Wednesday on growing
uncertainty over whether the U.S. lawmakers would agree on an additional round
of big fiscal stimulus to support an economy still struggling with the novel
coronavirus.
Hopes of vaccine development, however, prompted some investors to reduce safe-haven assets such as gold and government bonds, and to buy back battered stocks of companies hit hardest by the virus.
The mixed sentiment has led to choppy trade in Asia with the index of ex-Japan Asia-Pacific shares shedding 0.76% .MIAPJ0000PUS while Japan's Nikkei .N225 gained 0.2%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 snapped a seven-day winning streak after coming within reach of its all-time peak hit in February just before the global outbreak of the COVID-19.
The declines came as political gridlock between the Republican White House and congressional Democrats over coronavirus relief continued for a fourth day, with each party blaming the other for intransigence.
Barring a bipartisan deal, the U.S. economy could be left with measures U.S. President Donald Trump called for on Saturday through executive orders to bypass Congress.
“We have enormous uncertainty. It appears it’s getting harder for both sides to compromise as the election is nearing... Trump’s proposals would be smaller than markets have expected. There’s question over whether they are viable, too,” said Junpei Tanaka, strategist at Pictet.
More
Trump says his good relationship with China's Xi has changed
August 11, 2020
/ 1:39 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he
used to have a very good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping but
that changed after the novel coronavirus pandemic and that he has not spoken to
his Chinese counterpart in a long time.
Trump’s comments came in an interview on Fox Sports Radio.
Trump's COVID orders too little, too late to help U.S. economy, experts say
August 11, 2020 /
12:05 PM
(Reuters)
- U.S. President Donald Trump’s weekend attempt to sidestep stalled
congressional negotiations over the next coronavirus aid package will do little
to boost the economy, experts said.
Trump’s executive order and presidential memoranda, introduced on
Saturday, would temporarily extend enhanced unemployment benefits at a reduced
amount of $400 a week, defer payroll taxes for some workers, suspend federal
student loan payments and potentially provide eviction relief. Even if he can
overcome the legal questions surrounding his actions, the efforts may not pack
much punch, economists say.
Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, calculated the
orders could provide just over $400 billion in total relief. JPMorgan Chase
economist Michael Feroli wrote in an email note on Monday that the initiatives
could contribute “less than $100 billion” in stimulus.
That’s versus the $1 trillion aid package proposed by the Republican-led
Senate or the more than $3 trillion aid bill passed by the Democrat-led House
of Representatives.
Altogether, the president’s orders would add up to 0.2% of GDP, a
“negligible amount,” according to estimates from Lydia Boussour, senior U.S.
economist for Oxford Economics.
Millions of jobless Americans could be financially squeezed this month
after the expiration of a $600 weekly supplement to unemployment benefits, the
winding down of eviction moratoriums across the country and the end of the
Paycheck Protection Program, which supported small businesses.
Some of the measures proposed by Trump would take time to set up and
could be challenged in court, experts said. “They’re not going to do anybody
any good in the here and now,” Zandi said in an interview.
More
Next,
does this look like a “V” shaped global economic recovery to anyone outside of
our global gambling stock casinos?
Holiday Inn owner cuts jobs after first-half profit slump
August 11, 2020
/ 7:52 AM
(Reuters) - InterContinental Hotels (IHG.L) will reduce staff by
10% at the corporate level, its chief executive said on Tuesday, after the
Holiday Inn-owner’s revenue more than halved and profit slumped 82% in the
first half of 2020. IHG, whose other brands include the Crowne Plaza, Regent and Hualuxe hotel chains, also underlined that it had limited visibility on when the travel market would recover after six months that have seen billions in business travel and holidays cancelled due to the pandemic.
The job cuts, announced internally in July, follow similar moves by major hotel operators, including Europe’s biggest hotel group Accor (ACCP.PA), Premier-inn owner Whitbread (WTB.L) and Hyatt Hotels (H.N) as they battle one of the worst downturns in the hotel industry.
“The impact of this crisis on our industry cannot be underestimated, but we are seeing some very early signs of improvement as restrictions ease and traveller confidence returns,” CEO Keith Barr said.
In line with other major hotel operators, IHG’s revenues dropped 52% to $488 million and adjusted operating profit was $74 million, down from $410 million a year earlier, as the group strove to cut costs and get hotels up and running again.
More
UK retailer Debenhams sheds 2,500 jobs in latest blow to stores sector
August 11, 2020 /
12:29 PM
LONDON
(Reuters) - Struggling British department store chain Debenhams is to cut a
further 2,500 jobs, dealing the latest blow to the country’s battered retail
sector from the COVID-19 crisis.
Official data, also published on Tuesday, showed the number of people in work in Britain has suffered the biggest drop since 2009 and signs are growing that the coronavirus will take a heavier toll on the labour market as the government winds down its huge job-protection scheme.
“We have successfully reopened 124 stores, post-lockdown, and these are currently trading ahead of management expectations,” Debenhams said in a statement.
“At the same time, the trading environment is clearly a long way from returning to normal and we have to ensure our store costs are aligned with realistic expectations.”
It said it would take “all necessary steps” to give Debenhams every chance of a viable future.
In April, Debenhams went into administration for the second time in a year, seeking to protect itself from legal action by creditors during the crisis that could have pushed it into liquidation. The retailer is owned by a lenders’ consortium called Celine UK NewCo 1 Ltd that includes U.S. hedge fund Silver Point Capital.
More
Cathay Pacific posts record $1.27 billion first-half loss amid pandemic
August 12, 2020
/ 5:15 AM
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (0293.HK)
on Wednesday reported a record HK$9.87 billion ($1.27 billion) first-half loss
and said it did not expect a meaningful recovery in passenger demand for some
time due to the coronavirus pandemic.The figure was in line with the HK$9.9 billion forecast it had flagged last month and included HK$2.47 billion of impairment charges.
Revenue plunged 48.3% to HK$27.7 billion in the six months ended June 30 as it slashed passenger flying to a barebones schedule due to lower demand and border restrictions, though it added more cargo-only flights as freight yields rose 44.1%.
UK's Heathrow Airport says July passenger numbers down 88%
August 11, 2020
/ 7:22 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Heathrow Airport said on
Tuesday passenger numbers in July were down 88% year-on-year as coronavirus
restrictions continued to prevent most people from travelling. The airport, which is owned by a group of investors including Spain’s Ferrovial (FER.MC), the Qatar Investment Authority and China Investment Corp, said 60% of Heathrow’s route network remained grounded.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-heathrow-fin/uks-heathrow-airport-says-july-passenger-numbers-down-88-idUKKCN2570OZ?feedType=nl&feedName=ukmorningdigest&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018%20Template:%20UK%20MORNING%20DIGEST%202020-08-11&utm_term=NEW:%20UK%20Morning%20Digest
Singapore warns of slow recovery as virus slams Asia's exporters
August 11, 2020 /
1:03 AM
SINGAPORE
(Reuters) - Singapore’s record recession was deeper than first thought in the
second quarter, data showed on Tuesday, signalling a lengthy path to recovery as
the coronavirus pandemic dealt a major blow to Asia’s trade-reliant economies.
The city-state has been hit hard by COVID-19 with the country under a
lockdown for most of the second quarter to curb the spread of the virus.
“The painful truth is this - we are not returning to a pre-COVID world.
Recovery will be some time yet,” said trade minister Chan Chun Sing.
The government said it now expects full-year GDP to contract between 5%
and 7% versus its previous forecast for a 4% to 7% decline. The transport and
tourism hub is facing the biggest downturn in its history, expected to wipe out
years of previous economic expansion.
“The forecast for 2020 essentially means the growth generated over the
past two to three years will be negated,” said Chan, adding that the data was
the economy’s worst quarterly performance on record.
Gross domestic product (GDP) fell a record 13.2% year-on-year in the
second quarter, revised government data showed, versus the 12.6% drop seen in
advance estimates.
The economy plunged 42.9% from the previous three months on an
annualised and seasonally adjusted basis, also a record and larger than the
41.2% contraction in the government’s initial estimates.
More
In
other US news, who would volunteer to be a farmer or rancher in the US corn
belt? Especially with all the free money
for “One-Way” Wall Street. I have this strange feeling, that the Great
Disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street, is about to soon reconnect.
Derecho winds tear through U.S. farmland, leave 500,000-plus without power
August 11, 2020
/ 1:28 AM
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A storm packing hurricane-force winds tore across
the U.S. Midwest on Monday, causing widespread property damage in cities and
rural towns and leaving more than half a million homes and businesses without
power.
The storm compounded troubles for a U.S. farm economy already battered
by extreme weather, the U.S.-China trade war and most recently, the disruption
caused to labor and consumption by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Winds as high as 100 miles per hour (160 kph) hit eastern Nebraska,
Iowa, Wisconsin and parts of Illinois in the widespread storm classified as a
“derecho” by the National Weather Service.
It toppled grain bins in dozens of counties and tore into livestock
farms in Iowa, the nation’s top hog and corn producer. Bin losses, ahead of
this fall’s harvest, could leave some farmers scrambling to find storage for
their crops, said agronomists.
The storm started early Monday and caused a wider scope of damage than a
tornado typically would, meteorologists said. By Monday evening, it was moving
east to Michigan and Indiana, and least 500,000 people were without power,
according to media reports.
---- Agriland FS Inc, a farm cooperative in Winterset, Iowa, posted images of massive grain storage bins twisted apart and corn spilling onto the ground on Twitter.
Heartland Co-op, which has dozens of grain storage facilities across
Iowa, said in a statement it had sustained serious damage at 21 locations.
“Several locations are rendered inoperable and we are making contingency
plans for managing the fall harvest,” the company said.
Landus Cooperative, one of North America’s largest grain storage
companies, saw damage at three of its facilities - including conveyor equipment
at its Bondurant, Iowa, location, Chief Executive Officer Matt Carstens told
Reuters.
About 30% of the cooperative’s 7,000 producers farm in the path of the
storm, Carstens said.
The storm crossed where about 20% of Iowa’s corn is grown, Carstens
said. “There’s no doubt we’re going to lose some of that,” he said.
Next, perhaps we need tougher ship inspection in Japan, or perhaps just this ship’s inspection needs inspection.
Japanese ship that caused Mauritius oil spill passed annual checks - inspector
August 11, 2020
/ 7:14 AM
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground off Mauritius
and has leaked at least an estimated 1,000 tonnes of oil, passed the latest
annual inspection in March with no problems, Japan’s ClassNK inspection body
said on Tuesday.
The ship, MV Wakashio, is owned by Nagashiki Shipping and operated by
Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mauritius-environment-inspection/japanese-ship-that-caused-mauritius-oil-spill-passed-annual-checks-inspector-idUKKCN2570NX?feedType=nl&feedName=ukmorningdigest&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018%20Template:%20UK%20MORNING%20DIGEST%202020-08-11&utm_term=NEW:%20UK%20Morning%20DigestFinally, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, stored next to fireworks in an unguarded hanger, with a broken door and holes in one of the walls. What to do?
Send in an unsupervised team of Syrian
welders to “fix” the holes. What could possibly go wrong?
Dryly, “Reuters could not determine what happened to the workers repairing the
hangar.” Rather too dryly, perhaps, given
what happened.
Exclusive: Lebanon's leaders warned in July about explosives at port - documents
August 10, 2020
/ 9:56 PM
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese security officials warned the
prime minister and president last month that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate
stored in Beirut’s port posed a security risk and could destroy the capital if
it exploded, according to documents seen by Reuters and senior security
sources.---- The port authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“The maintenance started and (port authorities) sent a team of Syrian
workers (but) there was no one supervising them when they entered to fix the
holes,” the security official said.
During the work, sparks from the welding took hold and fire started to spread,
the official said.
“Given that there were fireworks stored in the same hangar, after an
hour a big fire was set off by the fireworks and that spread to the material
that exploded when the temperature exceeded 210 degrees,” the high-ranking
security official said.
The official blamed the port authorities for not supervising the repair
crew and for storing fireworks alongside a vast deposit of high explosives.
Reuters could not determine what happened to the workers repairing the
hangar.
Morehttps://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-lebanon-security-blast-documents-excl/exclusive-lebanons-leaders-warned-in-july-about-explosives-at-port-documents-idUKKCN2562L3
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
Covid-19 Corner
Today, a very bad news development if it’s true the virus causing Covid-19 can survive on the packaging of frozen freight shipments.
New Zealand considers freight as possible source of new coronavirus cluster
August 12, 2020 /
1:54 AM
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand
officials are investigating the possibility that its first COVID-19 cases in
more than three months were imported by freight, as the country plunged back
into lockdown on Wednesday.
The discovery of four infected family members in Auckland led Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern to swiftly reimpose tight restrictions on movement in
New Zealand’s biggest city and travel limitations across the entire country.
The source of the outbreak has baffled health officials, who said they
were confident there were no local transmission of the virus in New Zealand for
102 days and that the family had not travelled overseas.
“We are working hard to put together pieces of the puzzle on how this
family got infected,” said Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.
Investigations were zeroing in on the potential the virus was imported
by freight. Bloomfield said surface testing was underway in an Auckland cool
store where a man from the infected family worked.
“We know the virus can survive within refrigerated environments for
quite some time,” Bloomfield said during a televised media conference.
China has reported instances of the coronavirus being detected on the
packaging of imported frozen seafood.
On Tuesday, the city government of Yantai, a port city in eastern
Shandong province, said it had found the virus on the packaging of frozen
seafood that had arrived from the port city of Dalian, which recently battled a
surge of cases. Officials said the seafood was from an imported shipment that
landed at Dalian, but did not say where it originated.
More
Australia suffers deadliest day of coronavirus pandemic, cases rise
August 12, 2020
/ 1:09 AM
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia recorded its deadliest day of
the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday and the biggest daily rise in infections
in three days, denting hopes that a second wave gripping the state of Victoria
may be stabilising.
Victoria reported 21 deaths - two more than the previous deadliest days
earlier this week - and 410 new cases in the past 24 hours, ending a run of
three consecutive days with new infections below 400.
A cluster of infections in Melbourne, the Victorian capital and Australia’s
second-largest city, forced authorities last week to impose a night curfew,
tighten restrictions on people’s daily movements and order large parts of state
economy to close.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said that while the number of cases
were trending down, the impact of the strict new lockdown measures was yet to
show up in the case numbers.
---- National numbers have yet to be released but outside the two largest states of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) the virus has been effectively eliminated. Queensland state reported no new cases on Wednesday.
Authorities in NSW are scrambling to trace infections linked to a new
cluster at a school in Sydney, which has raised fears of more widespread
community transmission than previously known in Australia’s most-populous
state.
NSW reported 18 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours. But with
authorities unable to trace the origins of some of these infections, NSW
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said businesses could face additional restrictions.
More
Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 1,226 to 218,519: RKI
August 12, 2020
/ 4:10 AM
BERLIN (Reuters) - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany
increased by 1,226 to 218,519, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for
infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.
The reported death toll rose by 6 to 9,207, the tally showed.
Mask safety: Study finds some materials may cause more harm than good
Rich Haridy August 10, 2020
Scientists
from Duke University have demonstrated a simple technique designed to test the
efficacy of different face mask fabrics and designs in reducing the spread of
respiratory droplets during normal speech. The research strikingly suggests
some alternative face mask options not only offer little protection, but could
be more harmful than wearing no facial covering at all.
----As
a proof-of-concept testing the new technique, the researchers trialled a number
of common masks and mask alternatives. The test involved a speaker wearing a
mask repeating the phrase “Stay healthy, people” for ten seconds while a laser
illuminated any droplets coming through the mask.
“We confirmed that when people speak, small droplets get expelled, so
disease can be spread by talking, without coughing or sneezing,” says Fischer.
“We could also see that some face coverings performed much better than others
in blocking expelled particles.”
Unsurprisingly, a fitted N95 mask resulted in the most effective
reduction in droplet emissions, with a surgical mask relatively close behind.
However, most homemade cotton masks tested delivered strong results, blocking
droplet emissions at rates not far off what was seen in the surgical mask
tests.
But
not every type of facial covering was effective in reducing droplet emissions,
unfortunately. Knitted fabrics and bandanas were notably weak in reducing
droplet volumes from a speaker. But it was the results from testing neck
fleeces, also known as gaiter masks, that really surprised the researchers.
“The
notion that ‘anything is better than nothing’ didn’t hold true,” says Westman,
discussing the results of the neck fleece test. Westman says the number of
particles emitted through the neck fleece resembled the volume seen in baseline
tests with no mask at all.
More
Some useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
Rt Covid-19
Covid19info.live
"Anytime you don't want anything, you get it.”
Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States.
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.
The art of making tiny holes
Date:
August 3, 2020
Source:
Vienna University of Technology
Summary:
It sounds like a magic trick: A highly charged ion penetrates several layers of
a material. It creates a big hole in the top layer, but travels through the
next layer without damaging it. This new technique can be used to modify
surfaces with extremely hight precision.
Nobody can shoot a pistol bullet through a banana in such a way that the
skin is perforated but the banana remains intact. However, on the level of
individual atomic layers, such a feat has now been achieved -- a
nano-structuring method has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna), with which
certain layers of material can be perforated extremely precisely and others
left completely untouched, even though the projectile penetrates all layers.
This is made possible with the help of highly charged ions.
They can be used to
selectively process the surfaces of novel 2D material systems, for example to
anchor certain metals on them, which can then serve as catalysts. The new
method has now been published in the journal ACS Nano.
New materials from ultra-thin layers
Materials that are composed of several ultra-thin layers are regarded as
an exciting new field of materials research. Ever since the high-performance
material graphene was first produced, which consists of only a single layer of
carbon atoms, many new thin-film materials have been developed, often with
promising new properties.
"We investigated a combination of graphene and molybdenum
disulfide. The two layers of material are brought into contact and then adhere
to each other by weak van der Waals forces," says Dr. Janine Schwestka
from the Institute of Applied Physics at TU WIen and first author of the
current publication. "Graphene is a very good conductor, molybdenum
disulphide is a semiconductor, and the combination could be interesting for the
production of new types of data storage devices."
For certain applications, however, the geometry of the material needs to
be specifically processed on a scale of nanometres -- for example, in order to
change the chemical properties by adding additional types of atoms or to
control the optical properties of the surface. "There are different
methods for this," explains Janine Schwestka. "You may modify the
surfaces with an electron beam or with a conventional ion beam. With a two-layer
system, however, there is always the problem that the beam affects both layers
at the same time, even if only one of them is supposed to be modified.
---- "This provides us now with a wonderful
new method for manipulating surfaces in a targeted manner," says Richard
Wilhelm. "We can add nano-pores to surfaces without damaging the substrate
material underneath. This allows us to create geometric structures that were
previously impossible." In this way, one could create "masks" from molybdenum disulfide perforated exactly as desired, on which certain metal atoms are then deposited. This opens up completely new possibilities for controlling the chemical, electronic and optical properties of the surface.
"We are very pleased that our excellent collaborations via the TU
Doctoral College TU-D were able to contribute significantly to these
results," says Janine Schwestka, who was a member of the TU-D for more
than three years. "In addition, it distinguishes Vienna as a location for
science and research that we were able to establish contacts with the
University of Vienna through short distances in order to deepen our joint
expertise and complement each other methodically."
"God must love the common man, he made
so many of them."
Abraham Lincoln.
The Monthly Coppock Indicators finished July
DJIA: 26,428 -1 Up. NASDAQ: 10,745 +243 Up. SP500:
3,271 +89 Up.
The NASDAQ
has remained up. The DJIA and SP500 have turned up. With stock mania running
fueled by trillions of central bankster new fiat money programs, I would not
rely on the indicators.
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