Baltic Dry Index. 1568 -18 Brent Crude 45.02
Spot Gold 1947
Coronavirus Cases 20/8/20 World 22,493,169
Deaths 795,047
"Liquidation sometimes is orderly, but more frequently
degenerates into panic as the realization spreads that there is only so much
money, not enough to enable everyone to sell out at the top."
Charles P. Kindleberger, Manias, Panics and Crashes.
Forget the 60s “nifty fifty.” Just six US stocks, led by
Apple, keep the Fed’s US stock bubble, bubbling. What could possibly go wrong?
How well did the nifty fifty end?
Well, a mania is a mania, is a mania, until one day out
of the blue it isn’t, and everyone and their dog want to sell out at the same
time.
Presumably, the Fedsters are going to be the buyers of
last resort and end up owning Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft and Google's parent,
Alphabet. At least they’ll look good alongside the Fed’s purchase of bankrupt
car rental Hertz’s bonds.
Asian stocks, oil buckle on uncertain U.S. recovery
August 20, 2020 /
1:03 AM
TOKYO/NEW
YORK (Reuters) - Asian equities and U.S. futures fell on Thursday, hurt by the
U.S. Federal Reserve’s cautious view of the economy, tensions with China and
new clusters of coronavirus infections.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 1.24%.
U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, were down 0.61%.
Australian stocks dropped 1.04% due to concern that ties with China will
worsen further after a report that Australian regulators will reject
acquisitions by a Chinese company.
Shares in China fell 0.8%, and Japanese stocks slid 0.77%. South Korean stocks
tumbled 2.11% amid a spike in coronavirus cases in Seoul.
Market sentiment had been bullish up until Fed policymakers’ comments
highlighted uncertainties over the U.S. recovery, with the S&P 500 and the
Nasdaq hitting all-time highs driven largely by Apple Inc..
The iPhone maker’s shares rose 1.4% to make the first publicly listed
U.S. company reach $2 trillion in market capitalisation, while strong results
from retailers Target and Lowe’s also lifted sentiment.
The positive mood quickly faded however after several Fed members said
additional easing may be needed because a rebound in employment was already
slowing.
The downbeat tone spilled over into Asia, which weighed on equities and
oil futures but pushed gold prices slightly higher due to economic uncertainty.
“It was a decent day for banks, Apple, and Nike but everything else was
in the reverse after the Fed said economic conditions will be difficult for a
while,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.
More
Rising stock market would be in the red without a handful of familiar names
David J. Lynch, The Washington Post
Five hundred companies make up Wall Street's most widely used measure of
the stock market's performance: the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. If
it were not for just six of them, the benchmark would be down this year
.
That's the bad news. The good news is that thanks to these six
highflying stocks - including Apple, which on Wednesday became the first
company to be valued at $2 trillion - the S&P 500 has powered through the
coronavirus pandemic to gain almost 5 percent and set a record.
Along with Apple, the overachievers - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix,
Microsoft and Google's parent, Alphabet - are household names that have
leveraged digital expertise to prosper amid the new, socially distanced
reality. Through Tuesday, these six stocks collectively were up more than 43
percent this year, while the rest of the companies in the index together lost
about 4 percent.
----The market's growing reliance on a handful of technology industry heavyweights, however, underscores a societal dominance that may be distorting investment signals, spawning a winner-take-all economy and warping political debates, critics have said. As the tech-dependent S&P 500 roared back from its pandemic crash earlier this year, these companies faced growing political opposition, including the threat of regulatory action in the United States and Europe aimed at curbing their influence.
"The regulatory environment next year is going to be brutal for
these companies. It doesn't make any difference who the [U.S.] president
is," said Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners, a Silicon
Valley private-equity firm. "The issues facing these tech companies are
becoming more serious all the time. And the market may not be able to count on
them."
The outsize role played by these digital stars also creates risks for
individuals trying to save for retirement. Investors have more than $1.1
trillion in mutual funds designed to mimic the S&P 500′s performance. With
the stocks Yardeni dubs "the Magnificent Six" accounting for more
than one-quarter of the index's value, investors who think they are buying a
diversified slice of the broad U.S. stock market are actually making a
concentrated bet on companies that share many attributes, analysts said.
----But with most other stocks struggling amid the pandemic's economic
wreckage, investors are left with little choice. Amid the stop-and-start nature
of some states' reopenings and signs that the economic recovery may be
plateauing, these companies have posted the most reliable business results.
----"The dependence on such a small number of megacap stocks is not a healthy sign for the markets or the economy at large," said Michael Farr, chief executive of the investment firm Farr, Miller and Washington. "It's hard to determine what will knock the halos off these companies' heads. My best guess is that it will take a more definitive improvement in the economic growth outlook or rising interest rates."
This new two-track market was highlighted on Wednesday when Apple
briefly became the first stock to be valued at $2 trillion, before closing just
below that mark as the market dipped. Since 2017, the Silicon Valley giant has
rolled out a succession of new iPhones, braved President Donald Trump's trade
wars, and navigated a global pandemic, all while more than tripling its market
value.
More
The Federal Reserve's actions since the late 1980's remind me of
the old story about the playboy son of an old robber baron. Seeking to impress
his father he studied the stock tables until he found a small company he
thought had merit. He ordered his broker to buy 5,000 shares. When he checked
again the next week, he saw that its price had risen and he knew he was correct
in his earlier judgement. He ordered his broker to buy 5,000 more. The next
week it was higher again. Determined to prove to his father he could make his
own fortune, he continued his buying for a year. The stock continued in its
impressive gains.
At length it came time to show his father his prowess. He called
his broker immediately and ordered him to sell. "To whom, sir ?" came
back the jaunty reply.
When the FED's game ends, for whatever reason, to whom do the
mutual funds unload ?
Unsound At Any Price, 1995.
But
what about selling to the Fed? It's only fiat money and there's plenty more where that comes from.
Covid-19 Corner
India reports record daily jump of 69,672 in coronavirus infections
August 20, 2020
/ 5:13 AM
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-india-cases/india-reports-record-daily-jump-of-69672-in-coronavirus-infections-idUKKCN25G0CG?il=0Endless first wave: how Indonesia failed to control coronavirus
August 20, 2020
/ 2:10 AM
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-indonesia-insight/endless-first-wave-how-indonesia-failed-to-control-coronavirus-idUKKCN25G02VAs U.S. schools reopen, concerns grow that kids spread coronavirus
August 20, 2020
/ 5:30 AM
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-children/as-u-s-schools-reopen-concerns-grow-that-kids-spread-coronavirus-idUKKCN25G0CYJohns Hopkins scientists examining weird side effects of COVID-19 suggest one way coronavirus ‘gains a foothold in the body’
Published: Aug. 19, 2020 at 11:22 a.m. ET
It’s an odd side effect. But could it provide clues as to how
coronavirus attacks the body?
Why do some people with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell? And what can
be learned from that?
Scientists studying tissue removed from patients’ noses
during surgery believe they may have discovered the reason why so many people
with COVID-19 lose their sense of smell, even when they have no other symptoms
and, as a result, one way the virus enters the body.
In a study published in the European Respiratory Journal on Wednesday,
the researchers found extremely high levels of “angiotensin converting enzyme
II,” or ACE-2, only in the area of the nose responsible for smelling. The ACE-2
enzyme is thought to be the gateway that allows coronavirus to enter the cells
of the body and cause an infection.
Researchers
at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore conducted the
study, led by Professor Andrew Lane, director of the division of rhinology and
skull base surgery, and Dr. Mengfei Chen, a research associate. They used
fluorescent dyes on the tissue samples to detect and visualize the presence of
ACE-2 in the nose cells.
----“This technique allowed us to see that the levels of ACE-2 — the COVID-19 ‘entry point’ protein were highest in the part of the nose that enables us to smell,” Chen said. “These results suggest that this area of the nose could be where the coronavirus is gaining entry to the body.” They found the most ACE-2 on the lining cells of the “olfactory epithelium” at the back of the nose where we detect smells.
In fact, the levels of ACE-2 in these cells was between 200 and 700
times higher than other tissue in the nose and trachea, Chen said, and they
found similarly high levels in all the samples of olfactory epithelium. The
ACE-2 enzyme was not detected on olfactory neurons, the nerve cells that pass
information about smells to the brain.
“The olfactory epithelium is quite an easy part of the body for a virus
to reach, it’s not buried away deep in our body, and the very high levels of
ACE-2 that we found there might explain why it’s so easy to catch COVID-19,”
Chen said. Lane added that this research may enable doctors to tackle the
infection with antiviral therapies delivered directly through the nose.
More
Hydroxychloroquine: An Open Letter to Our Community and Beyond
August 03, 2020
To our friends and colleagues around the country and
globe:We believe wholeheartedly that a mission statement is more than a plaque we hang on a wall, but rather an idea we embed in our hearts and minds that unifies, empowers and enables us to do what we do every day for the people of our communities.
Our mission is to improve people’s lives through excellence in the science and art of health care and healing. For more than 100 years, we have proudly pioneered clinical and scientific breakthroughs that have advanced health care here and abroad.
As an early hotspot for the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen and lived its devastating effects alongside our patients and families. Perhaps that’s what makes us even more determined to rally our researchers, frontline care team members and leaders together in boldness, participating in scientific research, including clinical trials, to find the safest care and most effective treatments. While feeling the same sense of urgency everyone else does to recognize a simple, single remedy for COVID-19, we need to be realistic in the time it takes to fully understand the optimal therapy or combination of therapies required of a new virus we are all trying to contain.
The most well-accepted and definitive method to determine the efficacy of a treatment is a double-blind, randomized clinical trial. However, this type of study takes a long time to design, execute and analyze. Therefore, a whole scientific field exists in which scientists examine how a drug is working in the real world to get as best an answer as they can as soon as possible. These types of studies can be done much more rapidly with data that is already available, usually from medical records.
More
Find the Letter to the Editor here: https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30604-4/fulltext
Find the Study here: https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30534-8/fulltext
Doctors Pen Open Letter To Fauci Regarding The Use Of Hydroxychloroquine for Treating COVID-19
August 12, 2020
Anthony Fauci, MD
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Washington, D.C.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Washington, D.C.
Dear Dr. Fauci:
---- You are largely unchallenged in terms of your
medical opinions. You are the de facto “COVID-19 Czar”.
This is unusual in the medical profession in which doctors’ opinions are
challenged by other physicians in the form of exchanges between doctors at
hospitals, medical conferences, as well as debate in medical journals. You
render your opinions unchallenged, without formal public opposition from
physicians who passionately disagree with you. It is incontestable that the
public is best served when opinions and policy are based on the prevailing
evidence and science, and able to withstand the scrutiny of medical
professionals.
As experience accrued in treating COVID-19 infections, physicians
worldwide discovered that high-risk patients can be treated successfully as an
outpatient, within the first 5 to 7 days of the onset of symptoms, with a
“cocktail” consisting of hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and azithromycin (or
doxycycline). Multiple scholarly contributions to the literature
detail the efficacy of the hydroxychloroquine-based combination treatment.
Questions regarding early outpatient treatment
- There are generally two stages of COVID-19 symptomatic infection; initial flu like symptoms with progression to cytokine storm and respiratory failure, correct?
- When people are admitted to a hospital, they generally are in worse condition, correct?
- There are no specific medications currently recommended for early outpatient treatment of symptomatic COVID-19 infection, correct?
- Remdesivir and Dexamethasone are used for hospitalized patients, correct?
- There is currently no recommended pharmacologic early outpatient treatment for individuals in the flu stage of the illness, correct?
- It is true that COVID-19 is much more lethal than the flu for high-risk individuals such as older patients and those with significant comorbidities, correct?
- Individuals with signs of early COVID-19 infection typically have a runny nose, fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of smell, etc., and physicians send them home to rest, eat chicken soup etc., but offer no specific, targeted medications, correct?
- These high-risk individuals are at high risk of death, on the order of 15% or higher, correct?
- So just so we are clear—the current standard of care now is to send clinically stable symptomatic patients home, “with a wait and see” approach?
- Are you aware that physicians are successfully using Hydroxychloroquine combined with Zinc and Azithromycin as a “cocktail” for early outpatient treatment of symptomatic, high-risk, individuals?
- Have you heard of the “Zelenko Protocol,” for treating high-risk patients with COVID 19 as an outpatient?
- Have you read Dr. Risch’s article in the American Journal of Epidemiology of the early outpatient treatment of COVID-19?
- Are you aware that physicians using the medication combination or “cocktail” recommend use within the first 5 to 7 days of the onset of symptoms, before the illness impacts the lungs, or cytokine storm evolves?
- Again, to be clear, your recommendation is no pharmacologic treatment as an outpatient for the flu—like symptoms in patients that are stable, regardless of their risk factors, correct?
Questions
regarding safety
- The FDA writes the following: “in light of on-going serious cardiac adverse events and their serious side effects, the known and potential benefits of CQ and HCQ no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for authorized use.”So not only is the FDA saying that Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work, they are also saying that it is a very dangerous drug. Yet, is it not true the drug has been used as an anti-malarial drug for over 65 years?
- Isn’t true that the drug has been used for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for many years at similar doses?
- Do you know of even a single study prior to COVID -19 that has provided definitive evidence against the use of the drug based on safety concerns?
6
To put this in perspective, the drug is used for 65 years, without
warnings (aside for the need for periodic retinal checks), but the FDA somehow
feels the need to send out an alert on June 15, 2020 that the drug is
dangerous. Does that make any logical sense to you Dr. Fauci based on
“science”?
7
Moreover, consider that the protocols for usage in early treatment are
for 5 to 7 days at relatively low doses of hydroxychloroquine similar to what
is being given in other diseases (RA, SLE) over many years- does it make any
sense to you logically that a 5 to 7 day dose of hydroxychloroquine when not
given in high doses could be considered dangerous?
8
You are also aware that articles published in the New England Journal of
Medicine and Lancet, one out of Harvard University, regarding the dangers of
hydroxychloroquine had to be retracted based on the fact that the data was
fabricated. Are you aware of that?
9 If there was such good data on
the risks of hydroxychloroquine, one would not have to use fake data, correct?
10
After all, 65 years is a long-time to determine whether or not a drug is
safe, do you agree?
11
In the clinical trials that you have referenced (e.g., the Minnesota and
the Brazil studies), there was not a single death attributed directly to
hydroxychloroquine, correct?
12
According to Dr. Risch, there is no evidence based on the data to
conclude that hydroxychloroquine is a dangerous drug. Are you aware of any
published report that rebuts Dr. Risch’s findings?
More, much, much, 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.
Are virtual power plants the future of solar power?
By Hannah Sinclair Posted 18 August, 2020 at
9:13pm.
When maths teacher Katie Brooks
was searching for a new apartment, the solar panels on the rooftop of the
Fremantle complex she eventually settled on were a big drawcard.
Ms Brooks said
utilising solar energy had helped her save money on power bills.
"I budget
every single dollar that I have," she told 7.30.
"I know
exactly where all my money goes and being able to track my power bills, know
how much they are, and put money aside also means I can then save for my future
goals."
The 35-year-old
spends just $50 per month on her power bill, but she also makes money because
residents in the apartment complex can sell surplus energy to their neighbours
in the same building.
"We
probably make $5 to $10 a month," Ms Brooks said.
"Quite a
few of our residents are semi-retired, so if they're doing their washing,
running the dishwasher, running the air conditioning, if it's a hot day and I'm
at work and I'm not using any of my energy, then they can purchase my
allocation before we buy from the grid.
"So I get
a little bit of money back."
The building in
Fremantle's White Gum Valley, uses technology created by Australian start-up
Power Ledger.
The online
software allows residents to trade solar energy in real time and will be rolled
out across another 10 developments in Perth over the next three years.
According to
solar energy consultants, SunWiz, at least 28,000 home energy storage systems
are predicted to be installed across the nation this year.
Adam McHugh, a
Perth-based energy analyst at Murdoch University, said it was estimated more
than 45 per cent of all households in Western Australia would have rooftop
solar by 2025.
"The
challenges are already starting to emerge and really Western Australia is
ground zero for this energy transition," Mr McHugh told 7.30.
Mr McHugh said
solar power needed to "smarten up" so the energy grid was not
overloaded with power — leading to potential blackouts.
"So the
original solar systems that were put in place weren't designed for considering
anyone else other than the owner of that sole system.
"What we
want to do is be able to control them in a very precise way, so that they can
provide the ability to balance supply and demand in real time."
More
UK’s
Nato purpose: “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”
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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