“Socialism is an alternative to capitalism as potassium cyanide
is an alternative to water.”
Ludwig von Mises.
It’s Tuesday and more of the same. Wobbly stock casinos
pinning there hopes on SARS vaccines, in the real world, surging Covid-19 cases
closing cities and economies once again.
China booms, or so it says, and take aim at Australia’s
coal industry.
In media mainstream news, the US Electoral College tells
President Trump “you’re fired.”
Asian stocks dip to 1-week lows
as infection fears curb vaccine optimism
SINGAPORE
(Reuters) - Asian stocks retreated on Tuesday as worries about increasing
COVID-19 deaths and lockdowns overshadowed optimism about the roll-out of
coronavirus vaccinations, just days after indexes hit record highs.
EUROSTOXX 50 futures dipped 0.4% and FTSE futures fell 0.6%, indicating
a weaker open for European stock markets. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500
were up 0.05%.
Markets showed little reaction to China’s industrial output, which grew
in line with expectations in November, expanding for an eighth straight month
as an economic recovery gathered pace.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the United States crossed 300,000 on
Monday as the hardest hit nation started its first vaccine inoculations, while
tighter COVID-19 restrictions were imposed on London.
“While investors can approach 2021 with optimism that an effective
COVID-19 vaccine will be available, the path of the economic recovery remains
unclear,” Allianz Global Investors said in a report.
Most Asian markets retreated, with MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares
outside Japan falling 0.6% to 637.8, the lowest in more than a week after
having hit a string of record highs in recent weeks.
Chinese stocks eased 0.3% and Hong Kong lost 0.9%.
Markets in Japan and South Korea, both grappling with surging infection
numbers and growing public frustration, slipped 0.4% and 0.5%.
Australian stocks fell 0.4%, pulled down by heavyweight miners on fears
of higher regulatory scrutiny over surging iron ore prices in top consumer,
China.
News of vaccines has powered gains in the last few months, with the
Asian benchmark up nearly 16% so far this year, sitting just shy of a record
struck last week. The rally has been led by markets in South Korea, China and
Taiwan.
----On Monday, the S&P 500 closed down 0.4%, the Nasdaq
Composite gained 0.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record high
but fell back 0.6% for the day.
Oil slips on demand worries as
COVID-19 lockdowns tighten
December
15, 2020MELBOURNE/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday as
tighter lockdowns in Europe and a forecast for a slower recovery in demand next
year outweighed relief from vaccination rollouts and concerns about a flare-up
of tension in the Middle East.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 36 cents, or 0.8%,
to $46.63 a barrel at 0506 GMT, while Brent crude futures fell 40 cents, or
0.8%, to $49.89 a barrel, erasing Monday’s gains.
London stepped up restrictions requiring bars and restaurants to close,
as COVID-19 infection rates continued to rise sharply, which will dent fuel
demand in the near term.
Further marring the demand outlook, Italy said it was considering more
stringent restrictions over the Christmas holidays, while most stores in
Germany have been ordered to shut until Jan. 10, with little prospect of an
easing early in the new year.
“While the market has been buoyed by the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, a
path towards normalisation of demand remains a difficult one,” ANZ analysts
said in a note.
OPEC on Monday pared its forecast for a recovery in oil demand in 202l
by 350,000 barrels per day, due to the persistent impact of the pandemic, but
said a rapid rollout of vaccines in major economies “provides potential upside
for next year’s growth forecast.”
In a sign of weaker demand, analysts expect data from the American
Petroleum Institute on Tuesday and the Energy Information Administration on
Wednesday to show that U.S. gasoline inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels
last week, while distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil,
rose by 400,000 barrels.
Oil prices had found some support after a fuel transport ship at the
Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah was hit by an explosion on Monday, but the
kingdom’s ministry of energy noted the incident did not cause any effect on
supplies.
Finally, China.Despite unleashing SARS-CoV-2 on the world, China’s booming. Or is it?
China's factory recovery steps up
as export, consumer demand grows
December
15, 2020
WASHINGTON — American imports from China are surging as the year draws
to a close, fueled by stay-at-home shoppers who are snapping up Chinese-made
furniture and appliances, along with Barbie Dream Houses and bicycles for the
holidays.
The surge in imports is another byproduct of the coronavirus, with
Americans channeling money they might have spent on vacations, movies and
restaurant dining to household items like new lighting for home offices,
workout equipment for basement gyms, and toys to keep their children
entertained.
That has been a boon for China, the world’s largest manufacturer of many
of those goods. In November, China reported a record trade surplus of $75.43
billion, propelled by an unexpected 21.1 percent surge in exports compared with
the same month last year. Leading the jump were exports to the United States,
which climbed 46.1 percent to $51.98 billion, also a record.
That surge has defied the expectations of American politicians of both
parties, who earlier this year predicted that the pandemic, which began in
China, would be a moment for reducing trade with that country and finally
bringing factories back to the United States.
What was
touted as the world's biggest development project is unravelling into what
could become China's first overseas debt crisis
How the wheels came off Xi Jinping's Belt and Road 'project
of the century'
14 December 2020
Lending by the Chinese financial institutions that drive the Belt and
Road, along with bilateral support to governments, has fallen off a cliff, and
Beijing finds itself mired in debt renegotiations with a host of countries.
It has not taken long for the wheels to come off the Belt and Road
Initiative. As recently as May 2017, China’s leader Xi Jinping stood in Beijing
before a hall of nearly 30 heads of state and delegates from over 130 countries
and proclaimed “a project of the century”.
This was not hyperbole. China has promised to spend about US$1 trillion
on building infrastructure in mainly developing countries around the world —
and finance almost all of this through its own financial institutions. Adjusted
for inflation, this total was roughly seven times what the U.S. spent through
the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the second world war, according to Jonathan
Hillman, author of The Emperor’s New Road.
But according to data published this week, reality is deviating sharply
from Xi’s script. What was conceived as the world’s biggest development program
is unravelling into what could become China’s first overseas debt crisis.
Lending by the Chinese financial institutions that drive the Belt and Road,
along with bilateral support to governments, has fallen off a cliff, and
Beijing finds itself mired in debt renegotiations with a host of countries.
“This
is all part of China’s education as a rising power,” says Hillman, a senior
fellow at Washington-based think-tank CSIS. “It has taken a flawed model that
appeared to work at home, building large infrastructure projects, and
hubristically tried to apply that abroad.”
“Historically, most infrastructure booms have gone bust,” he adds.
“Whether China can avert that fate may depend on its ability to renegotiate
loans with countries now in urgent need of debt relief. If China is unable or
unwilling to provide sufficient relief to its borrowers, it could find itself at
the centre of a debt crisis in developing markets.”
The data that describes China’s predicament comes from researchers at
Boston University who maintain an independent database on China’s overseas
development finance. They found that lending by the China Development Bank and
the Export-Import Bank of China collapsed from a peak of US$75 billion in 2016
to just US$4 billion last year.
Birmingham says
risks of doing business with China have grown
·China’s actions not consistent with ‘spirit’ of
trade accord
·Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Tuesday that a Chinese ban on
Australian coal imports would breach World Trade Organization rules, as his
government urged Beijing to resume dialog to ease the worsening diplomatic dispute.
More than 50 vessels carrying Australian coal have been stranded off
China after ports were verbally told in October not to offload such shipments.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission on Saturday appeared to
formalize those curbs after giving power plants approval to import coal without
restrictions, except from Australia, under efforts to tame price gains, the
Global Times reported.
If that proved to be correct, such a ban would also breach the
free-trade agreement that China and Australia signed in 2015, Morrison told
reporters. “It would be a bad outcome for the trading relationship,” he said,
adding the conflation of political and trade issues could “create a lot of
uncertainty for many other trading partners.”
From around mid-October, the northern
hemisphere snow cover usually rapidly expands, while the Arctic ice gradually
expands back towards its winter maximum.
Over simplified, a rapid expansion of
both, especially if early, can be a sign of a harsher than normal arriving northern
hemisphere winter. Perhaps more so in 2020-2021 as we’re in the low of the
ending sunspot cycle, which possibly also influenced this year’s record
Atlantic hurricane season.
Update: we seem to have started new sunspot cycle 25 this month,
though it’s unlikely to affect 2020-2021s coming winter.
Northern Eur-Asia turned snowy fast in
mid-October.The Arctic sea ice
expansion was slow, and from a very low level at the end of September, but with
the vastly expanded snow cover, sea ice formation sped up.
The Laptev Sea ice was back to normal
at the end of November. The failure of
the Kara Sea ice to return to normal, leads me to bet on a warmer western
European winter ahead.
“Whenever someone starts talking about 'fair competition' or
indeed, about 'fairness' in general, it is time to keep a sharp eye on your
wallet, for it is about to be picked.”
Murray
N. Rothbard
Covid-19 Corner
This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
London Faces Curbs; New York on
Path for Shutdown: Virus Update
Bloomberg News
Updated on December 15, 2020, 6:01 AM GMT
London will be placed under England’s toughest coronavirus
restrictions from Wednesday.
Hong Kong plans to introduce new virus relief measures
before Christmas and Singapore is creating a new “bubble” facility near the
airport.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Dutch government is imposing stricter measures for five weeks to
reverse a jump in daily cases. Germany will start a hard lockdown Wednesday.
New York is heading toward a second full shutdown should the
number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue at the current pace.
The first Covid-19 vaccine shots were administered by U.S. hospitals Monday,
the initial step in a historic drive to immunize millions of people. Deaths in
the country passed the grim milestone of 300,000.
Key
Developments:
Global Tracker: Cases exceed 72.6 million; deaths
surpass 1.6 million
Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers
propose $908 billion relief package
Following the markets on both sides of the Atlantic since 1968. A dinosaur, who evolved with the financial system as it was perverted from capitalism to banksterism after the great Nixonian error of abandoning the dollar's link to gold instead of simply revaluing gold. Our money is too important to be left to probity challenged central banksters and crooked politicians.
No comments:
Post a Comment